It had been an awkward night for both of them.
Albel had given up his bed, not by choice but rather obligation, to Nel after she had laid herself down upon it for the night. He had grumbled about it for a little while but sat himself down in a rather filthy looking chair near the window never the less.
The storm outside seemed to be growing increasingly worse. Albel watched the lightning entwine itself with the clouds from his chair while he listened to Nel's soft breathing coming from the opposite side of the room.
Something was still peculiar about the room, as if a strange air was circulating around him. Although his body wanted to force him into slumber, he couldn't sleep anymore that night and devoted his time to keeping a vigil for anything out of the ordinary.
Earlier he had pointed out to Nel that she was bleeding all over his floor and she had healed herself with her runology. He remembered the distinct look of shock on her face when she had gingerly touched her cheek and felt just how bad that the gash on her face actually was. She hadn't said too much after that, and her usual haughty attitude was nowhere to be found; Albel had been surprised that a fight had not once developed over the most trivial of things.
She had gone to bed shortly later, mumbling something about leaving first thing in the morning, storm or not.
Albel's head jerked up suddenly, he hadn't meant to nod off, but had managed to somehow.
A loud crash had sounded from somewhere in the hallway outside of his door startling him awake once more that night. He looked at the bed and saw Nel sitting up straight, staring at the door also.
What had that sound been?
Albel stood up and retrieved his shirt from where he had left it on the floor earlier when he had gone to bed the first time. He then unsheathed his katana and headed toward the door.
"Wait for me," Nel said, suddenly at his side. She sounded more like her self now; stronger and more confident. Albel wasn't so sure if this was a good thing or not; she had been less irking when she had been nerved.
Albel opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He saw nothing that could have been the potential source of the crash as he peered around the darkened corridor.
He turned his attention to Nel as she opened the door to her room and disappeared inside.
"Come here," she called urgently from inside and then pointed out that the bed that she had once been sleeping in a few hours ago was now shattered and splintered into countless different pieces. It looked as if a bomb had been set in the center of it, sending the debris sailing to all corners of the room.
"Hmm…" Albel said as he kicked aside a chunk of bed nearest to his boot.
Nel had managed to find her boots and daggers among the debris of bed after a small amount of searching and felt more comfortable as soon she had placed them on her body once again.
She turned to examine the mess on the floor and ducked under a bed post, presently impaled in the wall, to get to the other side of the room. She had wanted to leave to room but something made her feel the need to stay a little bit longer.
"What the hell could have happened?" she heard Albel mutter aloud as he stood in the supposed epicenter of the explosion.
Nel turned to look at him and was momentarily blinded by a white flash of lightning. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness once more her heart momentarily stopped as she swore she saw the purple banshee standing against the wall a mere few inches away from Albel, who was still examining the area around himself, apparently unaware of the figure behind him.
Nel let a small gasp escape her throat and drew her daggers. "Get away from there!" she shouted to Albel, who was looking at her as if she was crazy.
Albel turned to look at the wall behind him, hoping that it would give him some explanation as to what the Aquarian was talking about. He saw nothing but a wall.
"The purple woman was standing right behind you, I swear it!" Nel explained frantically to him after he hadn't budged an inch.
Albel shook his head; he was trying to find logic in the whole situation, "You're seeing things, fool."
"I am not seeing things," she hissed at him, "she was really there!"
"How come I got stuck with the loony?" Albel muttered under his breath as he amused her by moving from his position in the room, only to be reprimanded by a sharp tug on one of his bound braids. "Ow!" he howled, rubbing the back of his head and glaring at his 'companion', "What did you do that for!"
"I'm a trained spy, Albel Nox. I'm not deaf," she said, her arms crossing and a stony glare manifesting itself in her eyes. "I know what I saw. If you chose not to believe me, then fine; see if I care."
She turned her back to him and looked at the room. The amethyst woman was probably still in here with them… but where?
There was a sudden draft throughout the room causing the window fly open and collide against the wall, sending shards of glass spraying across the room.
Nel lowered her arm that she had raised to shield her eyes from the onslaught of glass and eyed the window suspiciously as the rain began to drench the floor.
The silence in the room was soon shattered by a loud and demanding rumble of thunder. Nel could have sworn that she had heard something else amongst the booming however. She knew she had heard a scream.
Nel let out a soft cry after she had quickly made her way to the window and had peered downward at the ground. There were countless amounts of bodies falling from the sky!
Albel, who had also moved to the window, made a strange sound deep within his throat when he viewed the sight in front of him. The bodies, somewhat transparent, seemed to simply fade into existence from absolutely nowhere at all. They quickly plummeted to the ground, screaming and wailing as they went, as if in horror. As the pale bodies landed on the ground far below, they faded away as easily as they had appeared out of thin air.
"What the hell is this!" Albel said as he moved his head back to avoid being struck by a hysteric individual. There was no more denying that there was something extremely wrong with this castle; no logic could explain this.
"Let's leave," Nel suggested quietly, once again pleading with her emerald eyes.
Although she seemed to have returned to her normal state again, she was still very apprehensive about the castle that they were lodging in, and wanted to leave immediately.
Albel looked back at the falling transparent people outside in the storm; the thought of leaving didn't sound like too bad of an idea at the moment. They were both wide awake and dawn wasn't too far away. Further more, staying here may continue to subject them to things that they couldn't quite explain... and possible unforeseen dangers.
"Alright," he said, giving a final frown to the bodies that kept dropping past the window.
"The door is still stuck," Nel said as she pulled harder on the handle.
"Get out of my way, worm," Albel growled at her. He pushed past the scowling woman and gave the handle a hard yank. Nothing. He pulled harder; too hard. He stared down and the rusted handle that was now in his hand and cursed loudly.
"Now look what you've done," Nel said in a merciless voice.
"Oh, shut up. It was bound to happen; just look at the damn thing," he said, forcing the handle into the woman's hand and sulked away to the center of the room. Nel Zelpher was truly her old, and annoying, self again.
There was a bright flash behind him, followed by a curse from the Aquarian.
He turned to see smoke drifting lazily about the wood of the archaic door. "What did you just do?" he demanded.
"I thought we could burn it down," she said, pondering why her fire spell hadn't set the door ablaze.
"That's a little drastic, don't you think?" he sneered.
"Well, if you hadn't have broken the handle off," she said, letting her voice trail off at the end.
Albel snorted at her, "Oh please!" he shouted, "You know that that wasn't my fault."
"You shouldn't have pulled so hard if you knew that they handle was that fragile!" she yelled back at him, all uneasiness that she had had about the castle replaced with anger for the Glyphian swordsman.
Albel turned away from her and paced a few steps away and sighed, "There has to be more than one exit out of a castle," he said, his back still to her.
There was silence as a response. He craned his neck and looked over his shoulder at the spot where Nel had been standing. He didn't see her.
He turned his body and explored the room with his eyes, an ominous feeling making its presence known in the pit of his stomach.
Nel was gone.
