Here is an extra chapter which is Part 1 of a preview to a story I am planning on writing call "Puppets".

Part 2 will be at the end of my story "Always".

Hope you read and enjoy.

House of Cards

Part 1

A tall-cloaked figure slipped through a large metal door as silently as he could. Before enouncing his presence to the hunched figure tucked in the corner, he looked around the room. He had been in here many times but still it left him in awe. The entire room was carved out of obsidian. The shiny stone reflected the contents of the room, which wasn't much.

He saw himself there distorted on the wall. He was pretty ugly to begin with but even he had to admit the reflection he saw looking back at him was monstrous. His hood was down so his cleanly shaven head could be seen. His face was covered in burns and scars.

His face had once been handsome but over time it had been marred by war and sacrifice. Not even he remembered the face he was born with and the time before a sword was thrust into his hands.

He shook his head, tearing his eyes away from the hideous face on the wall. He turned his attention back to the hunched figure on the other side of the room. The person didn't flinch when the metal door closed tightly behind the man.

"Milady?" He cleared his throat.

Slowly she turned around. She was covered in furs and bones of dead animals hung around her neck and from her ears. He furs weighed her frail old body down, causing her to move at a snail's pace. The bones clinked together as she moved like the beads of a necklace.

The scarred man had grown used to her unsettling appearance, even her long yellow nails that jutted out like claws from the ends of her fingers didn't send a shiver up his spine anymore.

The old woman said nothing, waiting for him to relay his message. Her lips were pursed in a way that suggested she hadn't smiled in a very long time, and her beady eyes stared out at him. He noted that she had traded the wolf's head for a dragon's head that she now wore as a headdress.

"Well?" She finally croaked out.

"We have located the children." He spoke quickly.

"So you found them." She rasped, straightening a little. "But did you catch found?"

He smiled then. "No one escapes me, especially not in death. I put them where you commanded. They won't be able to get away now."

The room was silent for a moment as she processed the information. Then, very slowly, her pursed lips widened and parted into a toothy grin. Her mouth was filled with hundreds of pointy teeth, making the smile even more menacing.

She flicked her right hand towards the scarred man, rattling the bones that were wrapped around her wrist. Understanding the signal, he bowed and silently left the room, leaving his Lady alone.

As soon as the large metal door closed behind him she turned back to the obsidian wall. But it wasn't her image reflected there. Instead she saw the face of a young boy, clutching a sword wrapped in a brown cloth tightly to his chest. She reached out her bony and, stroking the image. Then she wavered her hand over the surface and the scene changed and she was now looking at a young girl, older then the boy, with curly golden hair that fell to her shoulders.

The old woman cackled to herself. She had been looking for these two for a very long time, now they finally in her grasp and she had no intention of letting them go. She planned to make them run through the scenes of that fateful day a hundred years ago. They would run and keep running until she told them to stop, but she would never tell them to stop. Nowhere inside her was there a single speck of mercy to be found.

"Welcome to my house of cards." Her voice was crackly. One of her long bony fingers traced the girl's young face, her nail scratching across the surface of the wall.

"Are you ready to play the game?"

Thanks for reading and please REVIEW!

Hope you read "Puppets" when it comes out.