Chapter 6 - -

Chapter 6 Night has already closed in upon us and the castle was surrounded by the dark trees of the forest, outside the stabile wall. Dark threatening shadows wrapped around the castle. Slowly I sneaked, the back pressed on the wall, in the corridors of the castle around with only one aim: the chamber of my little daughter. It was about time to leave this terrible place of torture this prison behind us; if I wanted to save something, at last the life of my beloved daughter. She didn´t deserve to live as a puppet. She should be free, free from her maniac fanatical mother who liked nothing more than to control and to torture others. A noise startled me out of my thoughts. Carefully I peaked around the corner. In the pale light of a torch a dark clothed man walked along the corridor to my left. At his waist hung a club and an epée which flashed threatening in the shine of the light. I pulled my head back. I felt my blood rushing up into my head, my heart started to race. What should I do now? I heard how the steps approached more a more my hideout, I hold out magnified, breath holed. The shine of the light fell warm on my face. I felt how the man passed me by and his robes danced behind him caused by his smooth silent moves. His glance was fixed to the front. I heard his breath, but my own was neither by him nor by me to be recognized. Still stressed in the whole body, scared to be discovered, I looked on the back of the man who departed more a more. Only when the shine of the light had vanished in apart from that complete darkness, I dared to move and to breathe out. I peaked another time into the corridor to my left where the guardian came from there upon I looked in the corridor to my right where he disappeared. Completely empty. I turned off to left. Her room laid just another corridor of this one way. I could only hope that her room was unguarded. I peaked carefully around the corner but nothing was visible. With silent steps I approached her door, at this time she must be asleep. Without a sound the door swung up to her room. The pale light of the moon fell through such a big window that her firm and fragile figure was hardly to sense like a bright shine. Carefully I walked upon her, kneeled down to her so that I could directly look into her face. "Scarlett? Scarlett do you hear me? Wake up!" She moved then raised her head stunned and drowsy and looked at me with her dreamy eyes. "Scarlett, listen well to me, we don´t have much time, we must sneak out very silently, and soon, do you hear?" "Yes...but why, because daddy", she gave back still stunned. "I cannot tell you this right now...you must have a little patience, but now put something on, then we make a move!" She looked at me for a moment still skeptic then nodded and huddled away from her blanket. Quick she put on her coat, then we were ready to go. In the corridors were still no light and the castle seemed empty despite of the new guardians. "Follow me as quite as you can, nobody might see us", I whispered to Scarlett as I picked her hand and sneaked forward. One dark corridor followed the next and while we sneaked around in the darkness of the walls, the only thought I could grasp was the one to get out of these walls safety. Because first I did not went to imagine what would happen I Christine would catch us. We had finally reached the back entrance. My heart was still in my mouth and even Scarlett seemingly felt my strain. When I was looking around us again, she looked into my eyes with a questioning glance, but stayed silent as I had told her. I nodded to her, let go of her hand and pressed down the door handle which was currently separating us from the world outside. Everything was dark, not even the moonlight was able to reach us; the tall walls of the silently reposing castle seemed to absorb all light. I asked her with a flick of my hand to follow me. Cautiously she joined me. The wood was laying before us in complete darkness. Her breath was laboured just like mine, but I knew that she wouldn´t be able to bear it much longer. How could I´ve been so stupid? Why had I given in to this foolish plan? Why did I think I´d get through with it? Hadn´t reality taught me better too often? Hadn´t I suffered a defeat with at least twice the amount after every seeming progress? But now it was too late. Too late to regret, too late to go back. The only way was leading straight ahead, containing the hope to somehow get through the whole affair in one piece. In the moon light, the wooden crossing gave off a mystic glow. I ran on without looking back. Suddenly I was knocked off my feet. I was dragged down and landed with my face in the dirt. Hard. Scarlett´s scream faded away. Before I could get up, I heard it. Closer and louder than before, the horrible barking made me leap to my feet with a start. Scarlett was lying next to me. She had tripped over a root again and had dragged me down with her. Again there was barking near us. I was sure that the dogs could practically smell our fear and probably were already striving for our flesh. I helped my daughter to get up, her and had only one goal left. The bridge. There were ropes on both sides of the wooden bridge to provide a possibility to hold on to. I took the first step on the creaking wooden planks. They were crunching under the combined weight of my daughter and me. Another step and the bridge was creaking again, but then the sound was drowned out by more barking. We walked on and with every step we took, my fear that the bridge might break down grew. We had nearly reached the end of the bridge as we heard the barking again and a voice shouted: "EMRO, GET THEM!!!" Completely shocked, I turned around. The Doberman came running out of the forest, followed by his mistress. But the dog was too fast to catch up with, let alone escape it. "Run Scarlett, I´ll stop him," I shouted to my daughter, who only gave in after another bark of the beast and baring of its teeth and dragged herself forward on the rope alone. I for my part was waiting for the bloodthirsty beast that seemed to have waited for burying his teeth in my flesh again. The dog seemed to fly over the ground as fast he was running first over the earth, then over the bridge. But I didn´t plan on getting caught. I was ready to show the beast who was the king of the castle. The bridge started to sway dangerously under the weight of the dog. The animal bared its teeth and jumped forward. I wanted to react, but then there was a crack, the floor was swaying for one more moment, then I saw the dog hitting the planks head first and heard him squeak. I thought I heard a bone breaking and then saw that the dog´s right foreleg was stuck in one of the planks, therefore it had fallen down and obviously had broken its leg which was twisted now. "EMRO, YOU BLOODY ANIMAL," the woman, who was approaching the bridge as well now, shouted. Quick-wittedly, I turned around and started running again. "FREEZE!!! YOU WILL BE SORRY FO...," the rest of the sentence was drowned by a crash and the following crack. While running I turned around and saw it. There was a big gaping hole in the bridge. Where Christine and her mutt had been just a moment ago, only a gaping hole was to be seen. She had disappeared. I stopped. The barking was still audible but it didn´t come from the bridge. It came over from the wood. Slowly at first but then my steps became faster and faster as I ran back to the destroyed bridge. Was it possible...was it really possible? I reached the abyss. Then, I slowly bent forward. The moonlight cast such an unusual and unnatural light on the scene I was seeing that I could hardly believe it. It had to be a dream! Christine´s lifeless body was lying back up on the stones drenched with red blood. All of her members were sprawled widely and noticeably twisted. Her hair was covered with blood and was spread to all sides. Her dead beast was lying next to her. Its jaws open so the red river could pour forth and mix with the red puddle of human blood. With eyes wide open and its foot still stuck in the splintered wooden plank. Just as I stepped forward, something touched my hand I turned around panicked the fist already raised. Scarlett looked confused and intimidated at me. However it was a load off my mind, I clasped her hand again and walked into the dark undergrowth. Although we tried to be quiet, many branches broke as we walked into the thick undergrowth. I looked back frightened; the sweat still ran down my forehand and even my hand, which hold Scarlett´s hand tight was wet from sweat. The tress around us seemed to be silent witnesses, who observe us from above in strict manner. The gnarled arms seem to be to get us, but the darkness seems to stop all their movements. “Dad, look” Scarlett breathed in my ear, which brought me back from my muddled thoughts. I looked back and saw how a light burned in one room; it was the abandoned room of my daughter. “Run!” I shouted at her, when I saw the outline of a person at the window, and started moving myself. The trees and bushes flowing like fast pictures, I felt how the branches of the plants scratch my skin and Scarlett´s. “Dad, what are you doing, where are we going?” reached sometimes my ear, while I still protected my face of the branches by putting my hand in front. “I already told you ... just run!” My legs felt heavy, my breath was an excited rattling and my heart seems to nearly break, however I still run even though the begging of my daughter reached my ears. We started with it and couldn´t go back it is too late to turn back, I sealed our destiny as I went out of my room, no, already there it was too late…it was already too late as I thought about the escape, this thought, which was an act now, crossed my mind. The barking of dogs which echoed through the woods fetched me back into the reality. They were on the search for us! Nearly I could feel the dogs following us like our own shadows through the undergrowth without refrain and in any case catch up to us. "Daddy? I´m afraid, daddy!" shouted Scarlett anxiously but I was too panic-stricken on myself to calm her down. I called while I was looking for a possibility escaping from the dogs: "You don´t need this treasure you don´t need to be afraid, I am here!" "What shall this all, where we run to?" I stumbled, swayed for a moment, but caught me before I felt down on the uneven and gooey ground. But Scarlett ran into my back, I lost the hold, I felt like I bumped onto the ground hardly, Scarlett fell over me and while myself still was rolling over the ground I heard how my daughter was falling down over a near embankment loudly screaming. Another hard impact and I came to stand still. Although my stomach was sore off the impact I still jumped on the legs, the sound of the barking still in the ear. "Scarlett? Where are you, Scarlett? Answer me!!!" When my call had sounded off I stand still motionlessly waiting on an answer but the renewed barking made it completely impossible to hear anything. Blindly I walked for a couple of steps forward and repeated my shouting. "Scarlett? Scarlett, answers me!" There, a silent whimper, I turned around glanced round in the darkness, saw the embankment which had to have brought her down and ran afterwards. The slope wasn´t deep but the gooey ground and the many branches and roots made the way down difficult and I lost the hold once more. While I still was falling I found hold on a tree, which I clasped immediately, my daughter lay not far from me on the ground and whimpered anxiously. "Don´t be frightened, Scarlett, I´ll come!" I slipped down, knelt to her and she sobbed bitterly: "Daddy, my leg ... my leg is hurting so much, daddy! “All other things were lost in her sobs. The barking echoed through the woods again what made me even more restless. "Come on, I help you up, it´ll go, that´s nothing bad! Come!" I grabbed her under the arms and heaved her up, but just the moment, she was up, she sank down again and falls into tears once more. "No, Daddy, that´s aching so much ... my leg, is hurting so much!" I asked "which leg is aching, then" while my look was wandering by the darkness surrounding us. "The ... the left one!" I helped her to turn up her trousers. Her ankle was thick and already had swollen up a little. "Listen, Scarlett, it will ache a little, but, if I support you we can make it, we have to go further, we get it!" She nodded anxiously and I helped her on the feet again. She trembled at the whole body and the tears seemed to do dry up any more. "Okay, we are making only one step now and then you will see it is quite easy. “ I said cheering up to her although I myself wasn´t convinced. The barking resounded again, this time more nearly than ever. At the same time we took a step forwards, abruptly, she stopped again. "Daddy, it doesn´t work ... I can´t do this ... Can´t we simply go back? ... I am afraid and these dogs..." "Scarlett, we can´t go back, neither now nor sometime, we have no choice, we have to go further, you don´t need to be afraid I am at you and I will protect you, I will that always trust me!" Finally she made another step and by my encouragements we made it in the fast step to stride by the undergrowth again, side by side.