Moment of Peace

Daniella lay there a long time, unspeaking, unmoving, staring at the horrifying sight before her. The man had five large nails sticking deep into the side of his head. He was lying face-down, a pool of blood forming around his head. She had no idea if he was still alive or not, but she didn't make any move to help him. If he was still alive, he would probably be dead soon. Poppy whimpered and licked the side of her face, not understanding what was wrong. The man had stopped chasing her... that was what she wanted, right? But she just laid there and stared. She couldn't take her eyes off it.

She had done this. Daniella had done it on purpose, she had murdered this man. He had been after her to take her, to capture her... but she had killed him. She had never killed anybody before, never even dreamt of it. She hated herself, hated the situation she found herself in. Absently, she reached out and pet Poppy, telling him it was all right. But she knew it wasn't. The pain in her leg throbbed, but she had forgotten all about it for some time. Suddenly, Poppy lifted his head, ears pricked up, and looked at the doorway.

That's when she heard them... footsteps. Somebody was coming. Somebody had heard them. She shook her head. What could she possibly tell them? What would it look like to them? She had no idea what was going to happen, but knew it wouldn't be good. A shadow appeared at the bottom of the stairs, and the sound of the footsteps increased. How could she ever explain what she had done... She put her arms around the dog, gripping him for comfort. She felt him rumbling as he growled at the oncoming figure.

He reached the bottom of the stairs, and appeared in the doorway. Daniella could see him clearly now... it was the man with the white mask. Fendari. In the low light down here, he appeared to glow with some inner light, and looked almost like some sort of ghost. He looked in her direction, silent. She took a shivering breath.

"Miss... you're wounded," was all he said.

He approached her with surprising speed, walking normally, but appearing to move very fast. She drew back, still not trusting this man completely. He apparently took no notice of the body lying before her. Recognizing the man, Poppy had calmed down. She had almost forgotten to warn him about the brick, and was about to scream for him to stop, but he just stepped lightly over it before she could say anything. He approached her side, examining the hole the bullet had put in her left leg, and lifted his hand.

"I'm afraid this is going to hurt."

Fendari suddenly stuck his fingers into the wound, causing her excruciating pain. Daniella cried out as his fingers worked the bullet back out. He finally yanked it out in one last stab of pain, and examined the bullet, then proceeded to grab her shoulder. She looked at him, afraid and confused, as he ripped off a strap of her nightgown. He took a long look at her as she frantically attempted to hold the right side of her gown up, which scared her even more. What was he going to do to her? Finally, he turned his emotionless mask back to the wound, and wrapped the cloth strap twice around her leg, tying it.

"The wound is bleeding fresh, keep that on it," he said in that deep voice. "You're lucky. He missed the bone."

She still just stared at him, not responding. None of this made sense. With these words, and another overly long look at her, he got up and began to walk away. What... how could he... she forced herself to call after him.

"Wait! ...Don't you see the person here? He's going to die! He needs help!"

Fendari stopped, then turned around. Who was he? How did he glow like that? Why didn't he care about this?

"I do not see why you should be concerned, miss. He meant you harm, did he not?"

This appalled her. He knew? He saw him coming after her... but...

"Why didn't you help me?" She yelled, fury seeping in to all the fear she was feeling. Poppy flattened his ears against his head, not understanding why such yelling was necessary.

He simply responded, "I just did, milady," and began walking away again, toward the stairs. This left her speechless. He was supposedly a servant... but he didn't care that there was a man's body lying in his own house? He hadn't even bothered to look at him. And had he really known she was being chased around the house? Why was there a torture chamber here in the first place? She was beginning to feel like she didn't really want to meet this master after all. Before he was out of sight, though, he stopped and called back to her.

"You may want to remember... Mercury is a red planet."

Leaving her with this cryptic message, his footsteps died away once more, and slowly, Daniella tried to stand. It was hard and painful, but she managed it putting her weight into the right leg. The wound in her foot from earlier had not yet completely healed, either, so she tried to stay off that leg as much as she could. Poppy, obviously quite distressed, circled around her, whining. She reached down, trying to comfort him, although she was still badly shaken herself. She looked down, the nightgown strap already stained red. She had to hold the right side of the front of her gown up as she started walking or it would expose her.

He'd seemed to be looking at her too intently then. She wondered what he was thinking of, what kind of sick thoughts might have been going through his head. And what had he meant by telling her Mercury was red? What was that supposed to mean to her? She hated this place, hated the people...

Daniella made sure Poppy went ahead first, stepping over the tile and activating the nail trap once more. They clanged harmlessly to the floor beside the ones from the first time. She tried not to look down at the body, tried not to think about it... but no matter how hard she tried, she felt like a terrible person, just leaving him there. But there was nothing she could do... and nowhere she could go.