Chapter 7

I walked through the forest to the castle. I wasn't exactly sure what my plan was. I didn't know what the normal for this castle was. How was I to carry myself? What did women there do. I would have to get a feel for behavior quickly, but I also hoped it would be a while before I ran into anyone to mimic their actions.

The castle gates were not far away from our hiding spot. Luckily, they were wide open, and it looked like people just came and left at will. There was a guard standing at both sides of the gates, but they just nodded to me like I was a normal visitor. I supposed with open doors, there must be too many people coming in and out for the guards to care.

Before I went in, I surveyed the outside of the castle. It looked like the tallest tower protruded from the center of the castle. It looked really, really tall. If I was noticed before getting Annie, there was no way I would be able get all the way up.

I walked into the castle, and noticed it was filled with people and monsters. It looked like the entire ground floor was just a huge market place. I kept walking, keeping my head up. Those dressed nicely like me carried themselves very pompously, so I would have to do the same. I just raised my shoulders and pretended like I belonged there.

"Miss!" a man hissed at me from behind, or at least I thought he was a man. I turned to look at him, trying not to be surprised. With a closer look, I noticed he didn't seem quite human. His skin looked like it was made of scales, but it was still covered in hair. He was hunched over and the proportions of his body weren't quite right. His torso was way to short and his hands were way too long. I walked over anyway, trying to keep blending in.

"Yes?" I addressed him, trying to sound like he was the dirt under my feet, but failing miserably. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice.

"Would you like to purchase some of my fine wares?" He gestured toward a collection of cages filled with small children. I tried not to look disturbed, guessing that this kind of business was encouraged here. I pretended to examine the children to avoid letting him see my face. The children appeared so miserable. They were terribly under fed and probably wearing the clothes they were abducted in, even though they were tattered and covered in dirt and blood. I wanted so badly to help them, but I could do nothing. If I failed and let Dominick use me to break the curse, this would only become more widespread. I caught my breath and turned back to the man.

"How much?" I asked. I had to seem normal, and I guess they looked like good quality for scared children, but I really had no idea what I was doing. If I had money, I could free them, but what would they do alone in a world full of monsters? Their parents were probably dead or forgot them, so even in better circumstances, there really was nothing I could do.

"What do you have?" he asked. I was really hoping for a price so that I could say it was ridiculously high and walk away. I had no idea how to answer this question, so I probably shouldn't.

"Oh!" I exclaimed dramatically, suddenly putting the back of my hand to my forehead. The merchant gave me an interesting look, and I knew this was going to end badly. "I suddenly feel faint. Perhaps I should rest my head for some time. It's probably nothing. I'll come back later with my, um, currency. Yes! I'll just be going now, but I'll be back." I panicked a bit, causing me to act somewhat unrealistically. During the whole speech, I flailed my arms flamboyantly, which might have been too much. The merchant just gaped at me, not buying anything I was saying. I just walked away, hoping he would just go back to selling.

Trying to cover my tracks, I circled around the market place, pretending to look at different stands. I had no idea what most of the goods were, so I tried to not touch anything. There were many dress stands, and I wondered if I should buy a new one. I might be waiting outside in the forest a while before Adam returned with Caleb, so I wouldn't have him to keep me warm. Also, I looked too rich. The last thing I wanted was to be approached by another merchant.

I walked over to the closest dress vendor and quickly picked out one. I didn't have any money, but they seemed to use the barter system, so I figured I could trade the dress I had on. I didn't have time to shop, so I picked out one that looked like it fit randomly. It was a black floor length dress made with a thicker fabric than the one I was wearing. It still had an open back, but it had long sleeves. It was a fairly plain dress, except for the small amount of beading and thread work around the bust.

I found the owner of the stand, who was a short red furry monster that almost looked like a pig. "I absolutely must have this dress!" I started. This time, I was more in control of my actions, and she seemed to react to me well. "You have to take this poor dress I have on and give me this one." The monster seemed very excited to make the deal. The dress I was wearing was obviously much better quality. She waved her hand, and I was suddenly wearing the black dress. She was holding my old dress, so I guessed the exchange was complete. I nodded at her and continued towards the tallest tower. I considered thanking her, but didn't think that was expected here.

As I walked, I realized immediately that I liked it much better. It wasn't as tight fitting as the old one and it had slit on the side, allowing me to move much freer. I thought I would be sure to appreciate this when climbing all those stairs in the tallest tower. It was a V-neck and had a little lower neckline than I would normally wear, but I didn't have time to be picky. I could now see my shoes, which were flats that I brought with me from earth. They didn't wear cloth shoes there, so I needed to get rid of them. Most people didn't wear shoes there at all, so I just ditched mine by a shoe stand and kept moving.

I got to the staircase that I thought went to the tallest tower and started the journey upward. I was surprised that I made it that far, considering that I wasn't being very careful or speedy. I hoped that Adam got in alright, and I had no reason to assume he didn't. Walking up the stairs was fairly easy. I wanted to run, but that might have looked suspicious, so I just leisurely walked. No one who passed me said anything to me, so I assumed everything was ok. It almost seemed too easy, and I wondered if I was just playing right into Dominick's plan again. I decided not to think about it. Even if I was, I had gotten too far into the castle to escape. All I could do was hope that I was just over thinking the situation.

My bare feet were getting tired continuously colliding with the stairs. The stairs were far from smooth. They were made of stone bricks cemented together. I could tell I was making progress by the doors appearing every few minutes, but it still seemed like I was staying still. The stairs ran along around the walls of the tower, but I could not see all the way down, preventing me from measuring my progress. The traffic on the staircase thinned, so I figured I was high enough up that no one else was determined enough to actually get there. I thought that if I did run into anyone, I would need a really good excuse. Luckily, there was no one, because I was too preoccupied wondering if Adam was a cannibal to come up with a good lie.

Eventually, there were no more doors, just a short hallway. There was only one door at the end of it, so I assumed I finally made it. There were no guards outside her room, which I thought was odd. Maybe Dominick was just too arrogant to believe that anyone could get this far without someone noticing. Or maybe I really was doing exactly what I wanted. I guessed I was about to find out.

I walked into the room, and was relieved to see Annie alone standing across the room, staring out a window. I thought I was just being paranoid before, and there really was nothing to worry about, except maybe getting back out. She was still wearing the clothes she wore to the party, which would stick out here. Maybe we could scale down the side of the building. I had always wanted to do that, and it seemed like a perfect time. All I needed to do was find a rope and somehow convince Annie that it was safe, which would have probably been harder than actually scaling the building. I walked into the room, and for a moment Annie didn't notice me.

I walked in farther, then she finally heard me and turned around. She looked different, but I couldn't quite figure out why. She seemed happy to see me, but not as happy as I was expecting. I thought she would be running out the door ready to leave the second I got there.

"We need to get out of here!" I ordered. I should have said hello or something else first, but we didn't have time to catch up. She started walking towards the door, and I followed her. She went slowly, and I thought we should have been moving a little faster, but I wasn't too eager for the trip back down, so I didn't say anything. When she got to the door, she closed it. "What are you doing?"

"We can't leave," she said solemnly. The voice was hers, but she didn't seem like herself. I was very caught off guard. She took a key out of her jean pockets and locked the door. There was something very wrong with her.

"Annie," I started, "we need to get out of here now. Adam and Caleb will be waiting for us." I just stood there, trying to process what was going on. She didn't seem to react to what I was saying. It was like I wasn't even there. It was like she wasn't even there. My words went by her like a gust of wind, swift and meaningless. I couldn't force her down the stairs, but I didn't want to leave her there without trying to convince her to come with me. It didn't seem like I had a choice, though.

"No they won't," she said, walking back over to the window. I felt like she wouldn't listen to me no matter what I said, so I decided to leave her. I would have to come back with Adam and Caleb. They might have been able to help her, or if they couldn't, the three of us would be able to carry her down the stairs. I walked over to her so I could get the key and leave. I didn't want to, but I needed help if I was going to get here out of there. While I was walking over to her, she dropped the key out of the window.

"Annie!" I yelled, running to the window. It was too late. The key had already dropped hundreds of feet down to the roof of the castle. "Why did you do that?" I would have slapped her, but she was my best friend, and she didn't know what she was doing.

"Don't worry," she said calmly. Her face was expressionless, and her eyes looked glassy. They were locked, focused on nothing but the air in front of her. "Now they know you're up here." I was trapped, and there was nothing I could do about it. She turned back to the window. She was hopeless. I looked around for a weapon or anything that could help me escape, but the room was completely empty.

I walked over to the door. I viciously tried to twist the door knob and pull the door open, but the lock held the door shut. I thought about trying to kick it down, but then I realized that my feet were already bleeding and the door swung into the room, so kicking it would have little effect. I examined the hinges and noticed they were pretty close to modern hinges from earth. I tried to pull out the one of the pins holding the hinge together, and it was much looser than I expected. It slipped right out, and I hoped the other two would do the same. I reached up to the top most hinge, and it was a little tighter. I couldn't really see it, but I kept trying to get a grip of it. My fingernails were really short, so I was having a hard time.

I considered asking Annie for help because she had longer fingernails, but I didn't think she would respond. I didn't know how much time I had before someone would come for me. I kept twisting, and eventually I could slide out the top pin. That seemed like the hardest one, so I started to regain hope that I could escape. I went down to the lowest hinge. The door was leaning, tightening the hold the hinge had on the pin. I had to hold the door straight, but it was really heavy and I only had one hand to hold it with. Luckily, the hinge was slightly distorted, allowing the pin to easily slide out, even with the door pushing onto it.

The door was free from the wall, and I wiggled it a little to get it out of my way. The door fell into the hallway outside the room, making a loud crash. The sound echoed through the staircase, and I knew I lost myself valuable time by drawing attention to myself. I couldn't have let this stop me. I just ran down the stairs, hoping that I wouldn't run into anyone until I got near enough to the bottom. Still, no one knew what I looked like. I could still evade most people, if I was lucky enough.

I kept running down and got pretty far before I heard footsteps. There were several people moving fast. I was pretty close to a door, but I didn't know where it led and didn't really want to find out. Even if I did hide in there, they would have heard me open the door. I was sure they knew the castle much better than I did, so I decided to take my chances with whoever was coming. I turned around and pretended like I was going in the opposite direction to make me seem less like someone trying to escape. They got closer, and I turned around, preparing myself to do whatever was necessary to evade capture.

There were five of them, all wearing dark armor with swords drawn. They were young, the oldest only maybe a year older than me. There was no way I could win a fight.

"Oh! Thank goodness!" I exclaimed, walking over to the oldest looking guard. "There was a loud crash, then a mad woman wearing, oh, I'm not sure, an abomination! She was running down the stairs, almost knocking me right over! I think she ran in there." I pointed at the door closest to me. I was overdoing it a little, but the guard luckily didn't seem to care. For all he knew, I was just a foolish, scared girl.

"This way, men!" he ordered the other guards, pointing at the door. "Thank you for your cooperation, Miss. You might want to head back down, just in case she's still running around."

"Is she dangerous?" I asked, acting scared.

"She's nothing we can't handle."

"You're so brave," I said, holding his shoulder and blinking really quickly to make myself seem like less of a threat.

"I know." He and the other boys headed into the room I told them I ran into, leaving me alone in the staircase. I was shocked that worked, but didn't question it. I kept moving down the stairs, now going slower just in case I met someone on the way down. However, the staircase was empty. The guards must have told everyone to leave.

I went back to the marketplace so that I could simply walk out of the gates back to the rendezvous point in the forest. With so many people around, I was sure I could blend in. The only people that had seen me were the guards, who may have never realized that I was me. I took a very indirect path through the marketplace to the gates. I didn't want to be seen walking straight out. When I finally got to the gates, thinking that I was as good as gone, they were closed. The castle must have been locked down, and I was hoping it wasn't because of me.

I had to come up with a new escape plan. Maybe I didn't even need to get out. I just needed to find Adam and Caleb before they left or come up with a better plan to get Annie out. All that I really needed to do was avoid getting caught, and I felt like that was possible in the main part of the castle. Even before I came to that world, my castle escape plan always involved dressing like a servant. I didn't know why I had a castle escape plan, but that time presented a perfect opportunity to finally use it.

Maybe I didn't need to be a servant, but I needed a purpose to be in the castle. I needed to get a job. I figured I could help one of the merchants in the marketplace. All I had to do was find a merchant who needed an assistant. I didn't think they had help wanted signs there, and I didn't want to draw attention to myself by asking around, so the task might have been more difficult than it seemed. I wandered around a bit without a plan, then remembered the monsterish man I met when I first came in. He already thought I was odd, so I had nothing to lose. Also, he was close to the gates, so the second they opened I could get out if I decided I needed to. Plus, no one would expect that I would volunteer to sell children. It was a prefect cover.

I walked over to his stand, instantly realizing that my plan was a terrible idea. "Feeling better?" he asked. I didn't know if it was a good thing that he remembered me.

"Much," I replied not very confidently.

"You looked better in the other dress," he told me. I was't sure if that was a compliment or not, but I guessed it was an insult. I didn't know how to respond to that.

"You too," I responded quickly, having no idea what was coming out of my mouth. He looked at me like I was an idiot for a moment, then laughed like we were old friends. It was more like a shrill cackle, but it surprisingly had a warmth to it.

"So what can I do for you?" I was very glad when he changed the subject, getting to business.

"I figured I could take one of your fine wares in exchange for my wonderful sales skills." He paused for a moment, considering my offer.

"I have been looking for an assistant," he hissed cheerfully. "These things sell too fast for a one man operation. Maybe if this arrangement works well, it could become more permanent." This was good. This was my way into castle life.

"Sounds good! When do I start?"

"Right away!" he exclaimed jollily, handing me a bucket. "The wares need feeding." I had a feeling I would not enjoy my job very much.