Chapter nine-

Elizabeth awoke feeling groggy. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with a small yawn; It was still dark, the air stiff and cold. She must have only been asleep for a little while. It was completely silent, no wind, no background noises, just dead silence. Elizabeth turns her head toward where Ornstein would usually sit all night, only to be met with pitch black darkness. Panic caused her to stand up quickly, looking around everywhere for some sign of light, but only darkness. She quickly walked over to where the bonfire should be, igniting her pyromancer flame for a source of light. The bonfire was no longer burning, not even an orange ember remained, this explains why it was so silent. It could only mean one thing.

"The fire keepers dead?" Elizabeth whispers to herself in a shocked tone.

She did not know much about the fire keeper, or who she was, but she did know that once she dies, the bonfires go out. Elizabeth had thought it was just an old tale. She had never seen or heard of the bonfires going out before. She quickly walks back to her spot and picks up her axe. Ornstein was not in his spot, he would usually stay the whole night. Unsure of what to do, she begins to walk to the courtyard; maybe someone could tell her what's going on?

The courtyard was dark as well, and completely deserted, not a soul in sight. Usually it had groups of knights scattered around it, training or resting, but there was no one. Elizabeth glanced up at the giant blacksmiths tower. No light shun through the small windows and arch way. She worried for her friend, had the giant left too? She walked to the tower then climbed the stone steps to the archway. Walking inside the room, she found it also completely empty, her heart sank. With a sigh she walked back down to the courtyard. Everyone's...gone?

Looking off into the distance Elizabeth spotted a small fading light. It dimly glimmered and appeared to be a torch. It looked like its coming from the church. She instantly began to head towards it, walking as quickly as she could in the darkness. As she got closer to the church, she found it odd that she had not ran into any sentinels or silver knights. Samuel had warned her about them at the spring celebration. The thought of her friends made her worry, what could have happened to them? Could they have just left without her?

Elizabeth reached the big wooden doors to the church. The source of the light she had seen lay on the floor, it was indeed a torch. The torch had gone out, leaving small orange embers scattered around it, as though it had been dropped. Someone must have been here. Her attention drew back to the large wooden doors. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she stepped in front of them. She placed both her hands on one of them and began to push it open. It was heavy and she had only managed to open it enough for her to just squeeze through.

The inside of the church was dimly lit. Massive pillars held the celling up. Elizabeth gasped as she looked around, it was beautiful. She began to take a step forward when suddenly two sets of echoing footsteps began to sound. They were coming from the other side of the large room. Elizabeth held onto her axe tightly as the footsteps got closer. But her grip loosened when the source of the footsteps came into view. A small smile came across her face and her heart warmed as she began to walk towards them.

"Ornstein, what's going on? Where is everyone?" Elizabeth says a look of relief on her face.

The source of the second set of footsteps comes into view revealing Smough behind Ornstein and Elizabeth stops walking and freezes. Her heart instantly goes cold, it felt like it had completely stopped, tears began to form in the corners of her blue eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. Although he had not noticed her yet, Ornstein had and he had stopped walking. She looked back to Ornstein in confusion by his stance. It was a battle stance; he held his spear in his hand, ready to attack. Elizabeth takes a quick look behind her, hoping there was an enemy behind her, but there was no one. She looks back to Ornstein and slowly takes a step back.

"W-what are you doing? I'm not an enemy" she stutters. She was confused, had she done something to offend him?

Ornstein charges towards her. She knew she was no match for him and she knew there was no chance she could run away, he was too fast. Elizabeth attempts to raise her axe to defend herself, but it was pointless. Ornstein runs his spear straight through her stomach. Pain erupted through her body; it had easily ripped through the white cotton shirt she was wearing. The sickly smell of burning flesh entered her nostrils. The sound of her blood dripping on the church floor echoed off the walls.

Elizabeth tried to speak, but nothing came out and soon everything went black.

Elizabeth woke up...