The Demon Inside
Chapter 3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------

Chapter 3! Chapter 3! Oh, yeah!

I'm on a roll, a short one, but it's a roll! Read it, love it, want more of it!

Warning; You've read this enough times. If it isn't stuck in your head yet, you're an idiot in the truest sense of the word.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------

Thatz meandered through the dimly lit marble hallways of the Dragon Castle in search of Rath. Since the young fire Knight had gone down that particular hallway, Thatz gathered that he really was going to his room.

"Makes sense," Thatz mumbled incoherently under his breath, "what with it being night and all. He's probably tired from being so crabby all day and hiding away from everyone."

"What are you doing out of the dinning hall?" A deep silky voice asked from behind him.

Thatz's heart practically leapt up out of his throat and ran screaming down the hallway. He whipped around and saw Tetheus staring at him with cold obsidian eyes.

"Tetheus! You bastard! Next time make some noise, or are you trying to kill me?!" Thatz gasped. He leaned a hand on one of his knees too catch the breath the Security Officer had ' oh, so lovingly' scared out of him.

"Didn't know you scare so easily . . ." Right then he could have sworn that a ghost of a grin had touched the Black Officers lips.

"Pphhhttt. Right, " The Knight stood again, but his heart was still going sixty at least, "As for what I'm doing out of the dinning hall, I could ask the same to you . . ."

"Tightening security. Lykouleon's orders. And you . . .?"

"Following Rath. He went down this way, right?"

Tetheus pointed down the hallway Thatz had been heading down, "Went into his room about ten minutes ago . . . Is he alright?"

Thatz's green eyes widened and shot up to meet Tetheus's. The Black Dragon Officer just showed, well, sounded genuinely concerned about someone. Something was definitely out of place . . . "Why do you ask?"

"He looked paler than normal." Tetheus shrugged slightly.

The ex-thief shook his head, "Nah, he's fine. Just worn out from training. I'm just making sure he doesn't need anything before he goes to sleep."

Tetheus nodded in understanding and strode past the Dragon Knight.

The earth Knight turned around and walked away calmly until he turned the corner.

He stopped to think. 'Okay, so maybe Rath has a fever . . . That does make sense. Kai-stern told me that Rath used to get fevers all the time when he was younger . . . ' Thatz thought back on the fire Knight's actions the past couple of days. Avoidance, crabby behavior, not eating . . . everything seemed like a fever.

He resumed walking down the remainder of the hallway to Rath's room. Since it was the only door on the right, it wasn't that hard to find. The fact that it was across from his own, only made matters easier.

The ex-thief walked up to the wooden door and knocked twice. After waiting a few moments with no response he tried again, "Rath?"

No response. There was no way he could have fallen asleep in five minutes.

The hair on the back of the Dragon Knight's neck stood on end when he could hear no movement behind the wooden door. "Something really isn't right . . ." One more knock with no response and he opened the door, only to be greeted by pitch-black darkness.

"Rath?"

No one was there.

The bed was empty the bathroom light wasn't on. "Rath?" stupid question but, "Rath, are you in here?"

Nothing.

Thatz walking into the room, shutting the door behind him when he saw that the large windows were open, the blood-red curtains billowing out of them into the moon misted darkness.

'Great.' The sociopath Knight had known that someone was going to follow him so he had gone to his room, and out the window. Thatz sighed inwardly at Rath's determination to be alone, "This is starting to piss me off."

The feeling of fear on the back of his neck, however, would not go away.

"That brat is hiding something, and doing a very bad job of it." Thatz walked over to the open window and looked out at the garden just beyond it, "Well at least now I know which way he's going."

The green-haired Knight set his hand on the windowsill and leapt out of it. He landed with a muffled thud on the soft grass a few feet below and took off swiftly in the direction Rath had gone.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------

AND THE PLOT THICKENS . . . What is Rath hiding? Why does Thatz care so much? Who is the one armed man in the shadows?
All shall be revealed!

Warning; The RathxThatz fun promised in the next chapter (yes, the next!) has gone sadistic/DS. So if your against sadism of any form . . . don't read . . . simple as that!