I dodged a bottle of wine being thrown that ended up smashed on the wall and leaving a very large stain. Avo, for some reason the guests that week were extra rowdy- that, or last week was just an off-week.

I was jittery with nerves. We had a plan, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was being watched, it freaked me out. Then I saw why- the odd couple from the time before were looking at me intensely. They looked miserable behind their masks, and they left before the party even came into full swing.

I looked at Reaver; once again he was dancing, drinking and enjoying a night of interesting company. Mr Hatch had been clever; he'd told me at lunch how he was going to lock himself away in the study with a bottle of wine and finish up some overdue paperwork, leaving me to tend to the guests.

Several hours went by, and before I knew it the clock struck for two. There were a couple of guests still awake, but they were so drunk they couldn't see anything beyond three feet. I heard unpleasant noises coming from one of the rooms where the party mostly took place, so I knew Reaver was too distracted to be paying any attention to me.

I headed to my room and grabbed my sword and pistol. I was once again in the black party dress, and there was not enough clothing to hide my weapons, so I had to be careful when getting the others rebels in that I was not seen. My gun strapped to my thigh and my sword on my back, I hurried out of my room, tying my hair up as I went along.

By the time I had gotten to the door, I had a neat bun on my head and more nerves than ever. Slowly, I drew back the curtain to see outside. All three of them were there; Ben, Page and Annabel. They were all dressed for a party, with Page and Annabel wearing stunning dresses and Ben wearing a handsome suit. Annabel looked like her old noble self, with a fiery red dress lined in gold to match her dyed hair. It was an elaborate dress, with dark lace all over and a revealing neckline. The skirt flared out, and showed off her tiny waist. Meanwhile Page opted for a more simple dress, in baby blue and three quarter-length sleeves which also flared out at the skirt. Hers was made of some sort of sparkly material which shined in the moonlight. Ben was in a red suit with a dark green tie, looking very uncomfortable in it. All were wearing masks.

I unlocked the door and let the cold air of the night come through, along with the three new guests. Annabel gave me a quick hug, whilst Ben gave me a pat on the back and a wink. Page was serious, walking in and scanning the environment. She tensed when a drunk walked past, but there was no worry. He walked in, vomited into a plant pot and then stumbled off. "Lovely," I muttered sarcastically.

"So where are our men?" Page asked.

"They're in a passage accessible through Reaver's room. Did you bring some health potion?"

Annabel took out a bottle and shook it at me before putting it back. "How badly injured are they?"

I shrugged. "Nothing one of those bottles can't fix."

Quietly we headed down to the secret passageway, where we could hear Tim's and Kidd's voices echoing off the wall. "No way, a balverine would definitely beat a troll…"

"But a troll would just squish the balverine…"

"Balverines are too fast to be squashed though!"

"Well it sounds like you two are having fun," joked Page through the solid wood door. She examined it, looking close at the lock before pulling out a set of lock picks.

She was then pulled back by Ben, who simply kicked the door down. He shrugged "It's faster."

Page looked infuriated. "It's also louder, do you want us to get killed?!"

The two stared angrily at each other for a while, before going into the room, where Annabel was already untying Tim. Tim was grinning at Annabel. "I've never been rescued by a princess before." Annabel laughed shyly, before continuing to untie him and give him help standing up.

I stood guard by the door, praying for them to get a move on. I gripped the gun by my thigh- it all seemed too easy. "I'll be right back," I mumbled quietly to Ben before setting off down the passageway to Reaver's room. It was empty, with nobody in sight. I took a sigh of relief, before a heard a click behind me and something hard was pressing on my head.

"D-don't move," stammered Barry, "Just do what I say and it'll be fine."

I turned to look at him. He was holding a small pistol to my temple, and wearing an odd expression which I hope was guilt. "You bastard," I spat at him, "Were you planning this with him the whole time?"

He stayed silent, keeping the gun in its position. Moments later, he whispered, "I'm so sorry Emily."

Noises were coming further down the passageway.

"Hey Emily… where are you?" Several footsteps were coming towards us.

"Emily… Hello?" They were getting closer. Barry pulled me in closer to him, pushing the gun more to my head and putting him arm around my neck to keep me from struggling.

The rest of the revolutionists appeared, and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Barry and I. "You just can't stay out of trouble Emily," laughed Ben nervously. I gave a small shrug.

"I don't shoot, If you all follow me," Said Barry, so we all slowly made our way out of the passageway into Reaver's room before continuing to the west wing and to the party room. Barry kicked open the door, where Reaver stood, looking very sober.

"Ah, it seems the entertainment for this evening has arrived," said Reaver, who then moved around the room, waking up every guest and saying "It's time."

Barry led us to another room, and this one was much different to the others. The walls were drenched in blood, and a giant cage hung above us. There was a balcony, where Reaver and his guests stood, watching us. The guests said nothing and didn't move they just… looked at us. It was creepy.

"Now then my little pets, shall we begin the show? Barry… you know what you do."

~Third Person~

'I want you to kill Miss Emily.' Reaver's cruel words echoed through Barry's mind as he held the gun to Emily's head. She was shaking, and he could only tell from the vibrating from her, to the gun, to his hand. She was scared, and that made him feel worse about what he was doing. The safety of his gun was off, just one shot, and it would be over.

A drop of sweat trickled down his face, and his breath quickened. He could see Reaver talking up on the balcony, but there was so much blood pumping through his head that the voice was muffled and incomprehensible.

"Honestly Hatch, can you not take a simple order?" tittered Reaver, waving his gun about. Barry snapped out of his daze to look at Reaver, miming pulling the trigger. Emily tensed. She'd seen Reaver miming his orders.

The other revolutionists stood quietly, as Reaver's gun was pointed directly at them, and Barry Hatch's was pointed at Emily. Any sudden movements and somebody's brains would be splattered on the wall.

Barry had to make a decision. Emily was the closest thing he had to a friend in years, and he didn't want to kill her, but if he didn't Reaver would almost definitely kill him. His mind wandered back to when he was sleeping on the streets in Bowerstone Industrial.

He was laying on the street, begging for coin for tonight's dinner, when a group of drunks came up to him. "Hey, hey yoou…" stumbled one of the men. The other men were standing, laughing at him, and egging him on. "Get off the streets, dirty creep!"

Barry shuffled away to find a different spot to beg, but the men followed him to his next spot. "Thought you could get away from us, eh?" the drunk said.

"It's not easy beggar boy," another one said.

One began to kick him, and the others joined in. Nobody came to Barry's rescue as the drunks beat him to a bloody pulp. People walked by, and hurried away pretending they hadn't seen anything. "Help," croaked Barry, but all that came of it was more laughs from the drunken men.

Eventually, they stumbled back to the tavern, leaving Barry laying on the street bleeding. He stayed like that until morning, when he felt like he could stand. He wandered around for a while, starving, until a poster caught his attention. It was advertising for staff at Reaver's manor in Millfields.

'Reaver is looking for new staff after an unfortunate incident with a monkey and several tankers of wine. He requires a personal assistant with no family ties or friends, preferably with an odd accent. Please enquire at his manor in Millfields if you are interested.'

Barry thought 'Nothing could be worse than this, dying on the streets.' He grabbed the poster and walked to Millfields. He'd never been there before, and it took a long time due to all the injuries he sustained from the beatings. The manor was very beautiful, overlooking the lake. He talked to the guard about the job, and he was let into the grand entrance. It was obvious that the place hadn't been cleaned in a while from the overwhelming layer of dust piled on the floor.

"Thank goodness," said a voice, "I thought I'd never get somebody to work here." Out stepped Reaver, twirling his dragonstomper pistol in his hand. And so began Barry's six months living a life much more comfortable than the last, only with a much shorter expiration date.

In a way, this job saved his life. But at what cost? He may be alive on the outside, but he was dead on the inside. He rarely went out, didn't have many friends and had no love interests. He didn't have much of a life at all.

"Barry… Well what are you waiting for? KILL THE GIRL."

"No!" cried Ben.

A shot rang out, and Ben grabbed his shoulder in agony. "Do please be quiet," moaned Reaver.

Barry's breath quickened. In a split second, he made his decision. He released his grip on Emily, pushed her towards the other revolutionists, and aimed his gun at Reaver. "Reaver- I quit." And he pulled the trigger.

~Barry Hatch POV~

It was like everything went into slow motion as the bullet whizzed towards Reaver's head. This HAD to work. If not, he would be dead, and then the others would be too. As the bullet made its journey I looked over at Emily, who was kneeling besides the man that was shot. I smiled. 'That must be the man that she loves.'

Emily was the closest thing I had to a family, almost like a little sister. Of course I had considered her romantically, but I shook it off pretty quickly. I needed her to stay alive for me. She was the one that had friends and family, not me. More people would miss her than me. I just hoped that the man she was in love with would figure out her feelings. I wanted her to live.

I always wondered if I would leave this place eventually, find a loving wife and have a family. We could live in Brightwall, I could find work and she could stay at home with the children. It was a dream I had many nights, but that's all it was. Just a dream.

Reaver with lightning fast reflexes used his cane and deflected the bullet, making it fall back down to my feet. I felt a heavy weight press on my chest. It was over.

"So it's like that then, eh?" Reaver said, lowering his cane. He sighed. "So be it."

I saw him aim his gun. I didn't hear the bullet that killed me.

~Normal~

Barry fell limp to the ground. My mouth was dry from the shock; I couldn't speak. He didn't kill me. He sacrificed himself, so I'd live. I moved over to him. He was shot right in the middle of his forehead. I closed his eyes, said a silent prayer to Avo, and stood up, grabbing my sword from my back.

"Oh dear, it is hard to find good staff these days. Never mind, you are all prepared for battle, and my guests are growing restless." Reaver looked to his guests, who all looked just as menacing and unmerciful as he did. "Shall we, my pets?"

The guests began to growl, and I moved away from Barry to get closer to the others. They began to shift and move, they became more disfigured.

"What's happening?" Annabel asked.

"Oh shit," Ben said. "Balverines."

As soon as Ben said it, one of the guests jumped into the air and fell back down, completely morphed into a balverine. It was hideous. It bared its teeth and clawed at the ground, ready for a fight. I gripped my sword tighter. "How do we kill this thing?" I asked Ben.

"With a lot of luck," He replied, and charged at the balverine, his sword in his uninjured arm. We all followed suit, charging at the creature.

Ben was right about luck. Every time I tried to swing my sword at the balverine, it jumped behind me and clawed at my back. I had scratches everywhere, and I had barely hit the monster. A few more had jumped down, and so we were on one balverine to fight each. I resorted to running and using my gun every so often. After several minutes, I was exhausted, and the balverine was dead.

I scanned my environment. There were a couple of balverines lying on the floor, and the others were still fighting. I went to help Page, as she was fighting two of them. As she fought upfront with her sword, I stayed back with my pistol, and slowly all the balverines were down.

"This is- the last party- I – take you to," panted Annabel, who had just finished up her last balverine. I put away my gun and sword. Suddenly, one of the balverines stood up behind Annabel. It was just about to attack, until a gun popped, and it fell down dead. Page put away her gun. "Thank you," Annabel said, still a little tired-sounding.

"Well aren't you a disobedient fiancée princess, yes, I do love it when they struggle… Oh? Did you honestly think I wouldn't recognise you all with those masks on?" Reaver laughed to himself.

"I am not your fiancée," growled Annabel.

"And I'm sure Logan will be very disappointed with you saying that after I tell him you were here…" Annabel's face went white. It was clear that the events of the last time she saw Logan were still burnt into her mind. "Come my darling, let us not fight."

"NO!" She screamed. "I will fight, and I will keep fighting until I see your cold, bloody corpse buried in the ground!"

There was a short silence. Reaver sighed, and began to walk off. "Well, I'll let you off- tonight. I'm sure we'll see each other soon… Tatty bye!" The door slammed, and we were on our own.

I spent some time examining myself. Apart from a pretty painful gash in my leg I was okay, but Ben wasn't doing too great. His wound was still bleeding and showed no sign of stopping. I only knew a tiny amount of first aid, but with what I knew, I ripped off a bit of my dress and used it on Ben to put pressure on the wound. He chuckled. "You dress is getting much shorter, you mustn't tempt me so much."

I laughed, but I was also blushing. I looked over at Barry's body. "I'd like to give him some dignity in death," I said softy. Ben silently agreed.

Ben and I held Barry, Annabel held Tim and Page held Kidd. We quickly carried Barry out of the building. "Where should we bury him?" I asked. After a little discussion, we agreed on by the lake.

We all had dirty fingertips, but it was worth it. We piled stones on top. "Goodbye Barry," I said, "Thank you, for saving my life."

I felt a hand hold mine. "Are you ready to go?" asked Annabel. I nodded, and me made our way slowly back to Bowerstone. We were passing the houses when a voice stopped me.

"Emmeline? Is that you?"

My blood ran cold, and I stopped in my tracks. The others looked at me oddly. I turned around to see the one person I knew it could be, the one person I so desperately didn't want it to be. It was the man from the party, one half of the odd couple that left the party early that night. At least I knew he wasn't a balverine.

He took off his mask, and Annabel gasped. "Lord Edelot, It's been a while." The man bowed at the princess, before looking at me. "It is you, Emmeline."

Annabel looked at me confused. "Emily, do you know this man? Why is he calling you Emmeline?"

I sighed shakily and tried to calm my nerves. It was all over. I turned to look at Annabel, Tim, Page, Kidd and Ben. "My real name is Emmeline Victoire Edelot… and that is my Father, the noble Lord Edelot."

~Authors Note~

CLIFFHANGER… 1000 VIEWS!

Hello! Sorry it's been a while, again I got ill quite a bit and then I couldn't think about how to write the rest of the chapter. Thank you for all the views, I really didn't think I'd get that many, I'm so happy!

School is making my chapter uploads less frequent, and I apologise for that! I do have a sort-of plan for the next chapter, and it's gonna be a little different to the others.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

MM.