hey guys, thanks for the review and to teamBLAZE, thanks for pointing the typos out. I have corrected them, I hope I didn't miss out any! ^^

Reine sat across Monsieur D'Arque who personally conducted her interrogation, together with two other interrogators. Her wrists were shackled together, so were her heels, but she stood with a straight back, proudly, and glared at her interrogator with intense eyes that was undeniably impressive, considering the weight of the crime she was accused of committing.

"We have a strong proof that you killed your own mother."

"For what purpose?"

"That's the point of this interrogation, mademoiselle, to ask you why."

"I didn't kill her." Reine stated flatly. "But if you do have the proof, let me see it."

"It's a confidential material."

"Really?" Reine asked sceptically, "You have to present them in the court, anyway, so sooner or later I will get to see it—why can't it be now?"

Monsieur D'Arque, still thoroughly convinced that Reine was a completely 'brawn' girl, leaned forward. "But of course, mademoiselle, if there is a reliable account of your alibi, I will release you promptly."

Reine caught the words for what they actually meant and immediately asked back. "How much did Zach pay you?" she quipped, "I know Justice should be blindfolded, but it's rather sad she was too blind to see the kind of rotten extension of hand she has."

Her words struck the three men like lightning in a broad daylight. Consumer with rage, Monsieur D'Arque slammed the wooden table with his hands, in vain hope of scaring the young woman. Had he known her better, he wouldn't have done that because it only caused her to smile, convinced that she had arrived at the truth.

"Bring her to the dungeon!" Monsieur D'Arque yelled impatiently.

The two men rose and dragged Reine to a deeper dungeon, where there was a wooden board with shackles at its four corners. They pushed her down and restrained her using the four shackles, so now Reine was facing up the dark ceiling.

Reine's greatest fear would be that they would rape her, but she guessed it would be unlikely if this was indeed Zach's machination. The man was a jerk, but she was sure as hell he wanted a virgin as a bride.

Her deductions were proven to be true when, instead of stripping her, they put a cloth over her mouth. For a moment, Reine wondered what was going on. However, she quickly got the answer when suddenly a bucket of ice water was poured over her mouth, while the cloth being tightened around her.

It felt like being choked, and being in winter, the coldness of the water gave rise to stabbing pain onto her skin. Reine coughed violently when it was over, and since her neck wasn't restrained she could turn her head to face the old man, who was now grinning widely. "How does that feel, mademoiselle? I hope it clears up your mind."

"Sure it does." Reine replied, "Makes me even surer that you were paid."

"You know the gravity of your crime, mademoiselle." Monsieur D'Arque said, ignoring her remark. "It is punishable by death."

"Marrying someone like Zach is death-in-life. If I died, I wanted it to be real." Reine retorted. "You can totally tell him that."

Upon hearing her words, Monsieur D'Arque gave signs to the torturer who forced her neck to turn so that she faced the ceiling again, and they repeated the water torture upon her. The feeling worsened as more and more water was poured onto her, and it was getting colder and colder as well. She could even feel the chill attacking her bones now—and the fact that she hadn't eaten at all didn't really help.

However, Reine refused to budge, so obstinately that even Monsieur D'Arque was left speechless. He knew he couldn't impose a more severe torture than this, for it could backfire at him if words were to get out, but at this rate, they wouldn't achieve their goals.

After the tenth round, and with Reine not seemingly to give up despite her much paled face, Monsieur D'Arque gave signs to the torturers to release her and put her back into her cell, for he knew he couldn't push his boundaries any further.

They left her alone in her cell and Reine immediately wrapped herself up with her equally cold arms. She didn't even get to change her black dress, but that was the least of her concerns for now. Reine coughed violently several times, each coughing up the excess cold water in her throat. She shivered under the cold torture in this harsh winter, and Reine tried her best to breathe out warm air to her skin.

It was then she saw a shadow standing in front of her cell. Reine raised her head and found, to her surprise, Gwen standing before her. The door was opened and Gwen walked in. "What are you doing here?!" Reine immediately asked.

"They allowed me to see you only just now." Gwen replied, "I presume they wanted me to… talk to you to 'confess'," she made the quotation mark in the air.

"They didn't do anything to you, right?"

Gwen shook her head, but then her eyes were unable to move away from her sister. Despite the minimal light, Reine could see Gwen's watery green eyes. "Don't cry." She warned, "Just keep your peace… I… I'll figure something out."

"But… but…"

"I'm fine, Gwen." Reine assured her in vain. "Just… don't get into danger whatsoever for now. And ignore Zach and his bullshits."

It was a busy day in the market when slowly the word being passed around that Reine's disappearance was due to her visiting a certain cursed castle in the forest, and whoever told the tale was sure that she had gone to the castle to procure the poison needed to kill her poor mother in exchange for her own body and purity—and that the master of the castle, to whom Reine had surrendered herself, was not even human. A wolf-like beast, the source had said. By sunset, it was so widely spread that no one knew who had started the story. It seemed to be unbelievable, but anything regarding Reine was hardly believable for the provincials, anyway.

The news was so disturbing that the townspeople gathered themselves in the tavern with Zach as their self-appointed, but quickly accepted leader. Of course Zach knew the poison part was most probably a fabrication, but the stories of a castle inhabited by a beast was indeed well-known among hunters; he even knew the location of the castle, and saw the talles tower of that building from the distance. He was sure that Reine would have known the story as well, for as much as he didn't want to admit it, Reine was one of the seasoned hunters in the town. What if she really did, for whatever unthinkable reasons, yield herself to that sub-human being? The thought disgusted and humiliated the vain man. He stood at one of the wooden table and punched into the empty air, "We have to exterminate this beast!" he called out, rousing the spirit of the angered mob who shouted back a loud, "YES!"

"For our town! For our people!" Zach rallied.

"For our town! For our people!"

Another visitor came to Reine's cell, but this time, the visitor was a stranger to Reine's eyes—at least in this form. This woman was dressed in an all-black dress, her hair silver but her eyes were sharp golden.

Her silver hair glistened eerily under the fire that lit the hallway. "Who are you?" Reine asked.

The woman let out a sharp laugh, "Oh, stupid huntress, do you recognize my voice?"

Reine paused for a moment before she gasped, "Vivi? Does this mean the curse is—"

"Broken? Of course not, you foolish girl!" The Witch Princess laughed again, "I was the one placing the curse on that castle and that wretched prince because he was so stubborn—refusing to give me that damned rose! Now, that very same rose is ticking his time off!"

Reine sprung to her feet and marched towards the Witch Princess, "You meant you caused all that?!"

"Oh, no, you caused that!"

Reine was thrown back by surprise, but the witch immediately followed with an explanation.

"You know why that night he refused adamantly to let the only blooming red rose in the garden? Because he wanted to give it to a girl he was lovestruck at… and guess who's that lucky girl—you! Congrats!"

Hearing that, Reine shoved her arms through the gap between the bars and gripped Witch Princess' dress collar. "It was just a damn bloody rose, you bitch!"

"You don't understand the meaning of a rose, do you, unrefined archeress?" she snorted, "Of course, your level of refinement is far below that."

"You—!"

"If I were you, I wouldn't do this." Witch Princess threatened, "but, this sight of you shivering and cold and accused of a crime you never committed—no matter how disgustingly lovely—is not why I came."

If only there weren't any bars between them, Reine knew for sure that she would really sent this witch in front of her flying without a broom.

"I managed to spread some words here and there, adding a little bit of salt, of course… and now they're heading to the castle you have left with torches and swords,"

"WHAT?!"

"He was born as a prince, sure, but he will die like a filthy dog. A beast that had ravished an untamed woman." Witch Princess laughed in a shrilly voice, "I can't imagine the look on his face when he finally died. Maybe they will burn him on the forest—maybe you can smell his ashes later!"

Witch Princess left in a snap, leaving nothing but the echo of her shrill laugh that haunted Reine even long after that. The much-weakened huntress dropped to her knees.

Neil… dead? Burned…?

Before she could register anything else, she already broke into a hysteric cry and tears. Those thoughts suffocated her even more than the icy cold water earlier.

Reine's cry was heard to the guards standing at the front door of the jail.

"She is definitely going crazy," one of them remarked.

"Mother-killer." The other rejoined. "Never a sane one at that."

"Good evening, gentlemen," a soft voice suddenly greeted them.

The two guards looked up and they saw the second daughter of the Rousseau family stood before them with a basket in her hand. "Oh, mademoiselle, visiting hour is—"

"Oh, no," Gwen quickly interjected as she pulled the cloth away from the basket, revealing several loaves of freshly baked bread. "I thought you might be hungry, so…"

The two guards felt their mouth watering at the inviting smell of the bread. They hadn't had their dinner, indeed, and without further ado they helped themselves to the bread, and enjoying it with the beautiful sight of Gwen's smile.

They hadn't even finished half of their bread when they felt a sudden attack of drowsiness. Unable to hold themselves back, the two guards excused themselves unsuspectingly to Gwen and retreated inward to catch some sleep after hurryingly finishing their bread in front of the maiden.

Unknowingly for them, Gwen had followed them in, and once they were deep in their sleep (mixing some thoroughly grinded valerian roots to the dough really helped), Gwen snatched the keys from them and ran to Reine's cell.

Reine looked up in shock and horror when Gwen appeared again in front of her, this time with keys in her hand. Gwen pushed the door open and burst in, pulling her sister, "Get a grip on yourself!" she said, "They are marching to the castle as we speak!"

"I… I…"

"Thor is waiting near the forest, with your bow and quiver. The guards are asleep." Gwen assured her, "We have to go now, Reine!"

Gwen's words have a renewed sense of hope in Reine. Reine took a deep breath and composed herself, "You're right," she said. "Let's go."

Gwen manages to break Reine free from the prison!

With a renewed hope, the sisters dashed to the castle's rescue!

What will happen next?

Stay tuned to find out!

Thanks for reading! Please rate and review!