Mansion in the Forest

You killed the Queen

In the dark room, even the ticking had a relaxed feeling, as if it was a heart-beat at rest. Lexi felt as if the air moved like cool water and the aroma of Jisu's scented candles infused her far more deeply than it did in the light of day. In the twilight the fabrics were muted hues, as if they too awaited dawn to ignite their colours for all to see. She groans softly, blinking her eyes to adjust her light in the dark. Her hands went up to her head and gives it a massage, trying to remember what happen before she lost her conscious.

There was a defeaning silence before the loud banging, running heavy footsteps and voice screaming in entire mansion. Lexi sprung up and run to the door without having second thought. The first thing she sees is two monsters running across the hallway, as if they are looking for something.

"f**k, where are they?" She asked as she slowly retreating back inside the room, but unfortunately, the back of her shoe hit the door, creating a sound and caught the monster's attention. The monster turned their head at the back and they happen to see no one since they are blind, but Lexi's scent, gives them information that there is someone behind them. They growl and turned their body, bend over a bit just like how athletes in hundred kilometers will prepare as they wait for the signal to go. "Goddamn it!" Lexi hissed and she didn't wait for the monster to attack as she quickly closed the door and lock it before she step away from it.

The monster started to run towards Lexi's spot but they didn't see her but they still could smell her. As if they are too familiar with her scent. They tried to break the door using their body, pushing with their shoulders, banging, scratching using their sharps nails, luckily the door is not just an ordinary door. It was made back in 60s and yet the wood was still hard as if it's new. Thick and sturdy.

Lexi looked around, trying to find a way out or a place she could hide, but all she has with her in the room is a bed and a window.

"Lexi! Here!" A boy called her, grabbing her hand and they sat in the corner, crouching. The boy wrapped his arms around Lexi's body but it wasn't enough to cover her and yet she feels safe nonetheless. Amidst of the dark and the monster trying to break in, she feels like she has this nostalgic moment. "Don't be afraid, I'll protect you." The boy whispered, and even if she couldn't see his face, she feels like she knew the boy.

"I'm not scared." Lexi mumbled.

"Yeah, you're a tough girl because I taught you to be one." The boy chuckled as he stood up. "Let's get out of here." He said as he walked towards the window, he pushed it open but there are grills and there's no way in hell they could get out of the room, beneath the moon wan, giving them a bit of light, she finally saw the boy's face and her eyes widened. It was Trevor, but an 8 year old Trevor.

"Trev." She whispered.

"Let's go, Lexi." The boy extend his arm with a reassuring smile plastered on his lips.

"But father Sitrus said that we should stay here." Lexi said, exactly the same she said before.

"If we stay here, we're both gonna die."

"But—."

"Come on, Lexi. We have to go." Little Trevor said and unexpectedly, the boy managed to jumped out of the window after sliding his tiny body between bars.

"Trevor, no!" Lexi yelled but the boy seems couldn't hear her, when Lexi heaved up from the floor to look outside the window, it was shocking as it is when she saw the little Lexi between Trevor's hands, then they both run, from her spot, she saw everything, from the monster tried to attack them until there's a man saved them but unfortunately, he got caught by other monsters, then the scene started to become blurry from her eyes. The only thing she could see is the two kids running away while every Nun and the father tried to save them from the monsters, then gradually, the scene started to vanished till Lexi engulfed with darkness once again.

"You have to wake up." There's a voice and a light tap in her face that woke her up from that nightmare. When Lexi shot her eyes open, Sakura's face greeted her. "There you go." She smiled.

"What—."

"You've been asleep for sometime now and you have to wake up to help your friend." Sakura said to cut her off as she pushed Lexi's head and helped her to stand up. Lexi roamed her eyes around and they are in a room that she hasn't been before, which made her wonder if she's still in the mansion.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"You're still in the mansion, but in a room where everyone is forbidden to get in except you." Sakura said, she walked to the chair on the corner and sat with class and crossed her legs, her hands rested in her lap. "You have to go back down there, you still have a mission, remember?"

Lexi clenched her fist tightly as she turned around to face Sakura. "Everyone is in danger, and yet you are here sitting on that chair while watching us dying one by one?!"

"They're here for the money, Lexi. I didn't forced them to join."

"But you could've at least tell us about those monsters!"

"That doesn't matter now, y'all found them already." Sakura said coolly as she sip on her wine but her eyes fixed at Lexi. "You seem pretty know about this place, Lexi. Do you happen to lived here before?"

"No." Lexi quickly replied, she avoids Sakura's gaze which gives the latter a doubt feelings towards Lexi's replied. "Everyone wants to go out."

"There's no chance, my dear. I'm sorry but once you get in, there's no way out until you haven't killed every monster in this cursed mansion."

"You're insane, why don't you just hire someone who has ability to do that?" Lexi asked, releasing a mocking scoff. "They are teenagers! What do you think they will do with the monster?"

"They are not just simple teenagers as you think, Lexi. Just like you, they have their own ability to kill a monster. A bunch of fighters."

Sakura is right, before she sends them the message of inviting them over the mansion, she already investigated each every teenagers. She go through their backgrounds, their family, their childhood, everything, except Lexi and Trevor, who doesn't have any records from where they came from, from their family or what, but one thing is for sure, Sakura knows that the two teenagers are the ones she's been looking for.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Just like what I've told you, I want to take this mansion back because this is from my ancestors." Sakura lied, her eyes never leave Lexi, examining the girl intently, her moves, her reactions and everything.

"Let us all out, it's just a house, you can have any house you like just please, let us go."

"Na-uh my dear, you have only two choices. One is go back there to help the others..." She trailed off and to sip on her wine, she gulped it thickly and let out a sigh."..or die here." She finished.

Lexi held her gaze, unblinking. She knows that there's no other choice than going back and finish what she started, but she's still unsure if her friends could manage it till the end. So rather than asking for their freedom, she decided to retreat. She's the first to break the intense staring contest between them and turn around. She hadn't reach the door when Sakura spoke again which caused her to froze but didn't dare to look back.

"I'm so amazed on how you found the secret room and how you killed one monster easily, so let me give you a piece of advice my dear, later or sooner, they will know your capabilities and you won't gonna lie to them again, so you better hurry up or they will take you down to get the money for themselves because they don't want people who's stronger than them."

"I didn't kill that monster easily." Lexi said without giving her a single glance.

"I am watching you, I saw how you pick up that sword and how you pierced it behind the monster without even sweating."

"That was just a luck."

"You can fool everyone, but not me, Lexi." Sakura scoffed before Lexi finally left the room, she was led by two men downstairs, one of them opened the door, at first, Lexi thought that they are at the end of the hallway, but turns out that the door was the wall itself.

After the doorwall closes, Lexi kicked it hardly but it seems that she's fighting with a sturdy wall. She noticed that it's still dark outside through the mini holes that only birds can get in. There are lot of them across the hallway, giving Lexi a good view of the wan moon, peeking behind the dark clouds and stars are nowhere to be found. She glanced at her watch and it says 15 before 12 AM, so she have to find a place to hide before the monsters attack.

She strut her way down till she reached a long hallway, the sound of her footsteps hitting the ground was the only sound she could hear while she's crossing the hall. It's defeaning, yet serene at the moment. But just like what the old idiom.

The calm before the storm.

Lexi heard shuffling sound, as if there's a person inside a room on her left but she wasn't sure so she decided to ignore it and continue her way to the stairs, but the shuffling sounds became louder, as if whoever making that sounds following her behind. She looked over her shoulder but sees nothing but her shadows caused by the torches attached on both sides of the walls.

"Who's there?" She asked just to make sure but she didn't get any response so she continue her way.

While she's almost at the bottom of the stairs, Lexi noticed a shadow of a person standing behind her, she leaped off and unsheathed the sword hanging on her body, but again, there's no one in there.

"Trevor?" She called, hoping that it was her best friend, but no one replied. She continue again until she reached next floor, the shuffling sounds still continues as well and it seems that it's already behind her. "Whoever following me, you better come out or you'll regret it later." She threatened.

"Grrr." The last response that Lexi wanted to hear behind her is a growl, because she knew that she'll be in trouble.

"Damn it." She whispered hardly as she grip the sword tightly and leaped off away from the monster behind her.

"You..." There's nothing more shocking as of the moment than hearing monster speak like human. "..killed the Q-queen."

"I didn't know that monster like you can speak." Lexi said toughly, trying to hide the fear she has inside her chest.

"I've b-been waiting for you to come out of that p-place." His voice are groggy and hoarse, proves that he has difficulty to speak but he still tries to communicate in people's language so that they can understand each other.

"I didn't killed no one, stop—."

"You did!" The monster yelled with full of wrath in his voice while his eyes pierced at the sword Lexi was holding. "You killed our Queen!"

That's when Lexi realized the monster she killed inside the secret room. To be honest, it was easy for her to kill that monster as it looked so weak and fragile. Maybe she has been inside that secret room for a long time and they've haven't seen her, but when they did, she's already dead and Lexi was the one who killed her, the monster's Queen.

"Look, I didn't mean to kill her, it's just that, I thought she's gonna eat me."

"You killed the Queen." The monster repeated, as if he couldn't understand Lexi at all, even if he's speaking the same language.

"I had to!" Lexi groaned loudly. "And I have to kill you too so I can get out of here." She said before trying to make a move, but she stopped abruptly when there are two monsters suddenly appeared. "Great, now I don't have to find all of you one by one."

"Kill." The monster growl and they all positioned themselves, ready to attack her. Lexi prepared herself, she smirked before charging towards the monster.

Lexi swing her sword, trying to s***h the monster but they leaped off to avoid her attack, one monster jumped towards her but she ducked and swing her sword, successfully severing the monster's arm, the blood at her blade sizzle, as if there's something magical about the sword that won't let the monsters to regenerate. The monster scream in agony as its body fell on the floor with heavy thud, Lexi took that as an opportunity, she jumped onto it and she swing the sword, cutting off its head.

The other monsters growled loudly, they became more wild seeing their friend was headless and its body writhing on the floor before it stopped. Lexi looked over her shoulder with smile plastered on her lips.

"One down, two more." She said before she did a back flip in the air and finally standing in front of the two monsters. "I never knew that this day will finally arrived." She said, her smile grew wider. She hold the sword with one hand, while her other hand wiped the blood in her face. "I hope Trevor is here so he can have the same excitement I can feel as of this moment."

"Kill!" The monster growl much louder that it vibrates across the hallway.

"I will." Lexi said smugly before leaping towards them, she swing the sword but the monsters avoided it, she kept swinging another after another while the monsters kept running to avoid her attack, but Lexi was too fast, she never let the monster to have a chance to attack her. "C'mon, don't run." She hissed before charging forward again, but this time, the monster didn't run away, they attack Lexi simultaneously. Lexi slid under one monster as she cut the back of its feet, the monster fell and Lexi moved quickly to attack the other one but unfortunately, she got caught between its hand. "Oops." She said but didn't feel any fear.

"Kill." The monster mumbled and he's about to bite Lexi's head, but the latter managed to free her other arm, she let the sword fell but used her feet to kick it up and grabbed it immediately then she pierced it in the monster's muzzled. The monster loosened the hold and Lexi used her strength to escape without letting go the sword, when the monster throw her on the wall, she took the sword with her.

"Fuck." Lexi cough when she hit the wall and she rolled on the ground three times.

The blood flowing from the monster's wound but it didn't give him a reason to stop, he attacked again, but Lexi rolled again to avoid getting caught this time, she quickly heaved up from the floor and stood straight.

"Ah you almost got me there." She said while shrugging the dirt off of her shirt. She gave herself a stretch, she twisted her neck a bit and let her bone creates a cracking sound. "Let's try it one more time." She said before charging forward. She leaped off, swing the sword, then roll again. She repeated it over and over again, and with every swing of her sword, she's leaving a cut at the monster's body, until it knock down and barely breathing. "You're still alive?" Lexi asked in disbelief but she's already panting and catching her breath.

"You..." The monster could barely talk, as if he's already at the verge of dying but chose to say what he wants. "People like you are the real monsters." He said before its body started to set on fire because of too much sizzling in his body caused of the sword.

"You first attacked this place, how come that we are the monster?" Lexi scoffed before kicking the body. "Unless, you went here to find your Queen." She mumbled those words as she remember the words she heard from the first monster she killed in that secret room.

"Home, please." Those are the last words she heard from the Queen of monsters before she killed it.

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