Hellish Obsession

Chapter 4

"Why can't I remember the guy?" Ave growled when her eyes opened like two flashlight beams. She couldn't even think of why she barely recalled that a man approached her and asked if she was free or not. But she could neither remember his face nor the conversation after that no matter how much she tries. Not that she was drunk, she was completely sober. "Then why the hell?"

Peter who was driving the car jumped up at the sudden explosion of her voice. But the words that came out of Ave's mouth did not fully register with him.

"Our great Princess has lost it finally?" Peter chortled, his shoulders trembled slightly. "Doom head, did you really do that in that forest? I mean with whom? A man or an animal?" He paused and took the time to mock his childhood friend for a while. "Woah!!! A one night stand with a wild animal of the Purple forest."

Aveline couldn't withstand her friend's cheap sense of humour anymore. "Shut up, Peter. You are so f*****g annoying." She yelped and tilted her head slightly at her friend with a murderous glare in his eyes. "Why did he call you? Where is my driver?"

Peter shrugged. "I guess, he doesn't want your driver to find out about your one night stand with an..." He restrained himself from uttering the next word when he felt the intensity of her glare.

"Just Kidding. He called me and asked me where you are. So I told him, you are with me and will be heading to the castle soon. From there, we will go to the art school for dance class and then Ethy's home together. But doomhead, did you really spend a night there?" He again teased his friend. But deep inside, he was concerned about what happened. When he called her in the morning, she was in the forest and her voice didn't seem natural at all.

Ave, on the other side, didn't bother his teases at all. She closed her eyes tightly and her thoughts started becoming tormentors. She was sure that waking up in that jungle, and the words written on the mirror has something to do with him. But the whispers and the blood?

The sleek car cruised to the Royal Gate, running over the black tarmac so fast that the passing greenery became a hazy blur.

"What's happening there?" Peter gaped at the front whilst he pressed his feet on the brake. His sudden voice brought Ave back to her senses from her deep thoughts.

Without making a single sound, Ave took a glance at her friend before turning her head at the front.

There were at least hundreds of people. The crowd flowed down the wide courtyard of the castle. Their gazes were fixed in the same direction with a shocked and pale surface of their faces. In a hundred strong people, there wasn't a single smile or expression of pleasure.

Ave swung the door open with ease before she got off from the car and rooted there at place, trying to discern what happened there. From here, the only thing she saw was the edge long wooden beam. But the wooden beam was enough for her. to understand that it's a ducking stool and the condemned people were getting punished.

She sighed deeply and through it, some people of the crowd got aware of the presence of their Princess. From one ear to ten ears, it spread to hundreds of ears. Shortly the crowd divided into two-part, forming a way for her.

Though she didn't want to go there and see the scene, but now that they have made the way, she couldn't just ignore.

"Give me just twenty minutes. I'll be back." Ave said and made her way forward through the expanse between the crowd. Now another crowd has created, it has occurred between the crowd itself to bow to the Princess.

Whilst Ave stepped forward to the castle, she couldn't notice anything except the ducking stool. The ducking stool was located alongside the pond of the courtyard and the repeated ducklings routinely proved fatal, the victim dying of shock or drowning.

The apparatus consisted of an iron armchair onto which the condemned people were strapped. One of them was a man around 30 and the other one was a woman. She almost looked up at the woman but stopped herself as the expressions of the women in this crowd reflected in front of her eyes. She must be stripped.

So instead, she looked at the guy. He was bruised, crying, begging for forgiveness. His face was a mess, his shirt was all torn by the sword attacks, blood was falling every time he was opening his mouth. "He just had his initial punishments." Ave murmured underneath her breath.

The troop and the hangman were whirling a rope around him with the chair that was attached to a long wooden beam. And it's the ultimate punishment. Death!