"Why is it not night, Lina? We have been sitting and talking for hours. But I did not see the sun setting."
Lina blinked at the sudden mention. "What?"
"You are tired, Elias. It is still noon." she smiled, but he could not act anymore.
"Is that so? Then how about we wait? I want to marry under the stars. Would it not be more romantic?" He asked in an affectionate tone but Lina only turned to look at Caldera with a strange and wicked look.
Caldrea smiled but shook her head. This was the first refusal he had received after coming here.
"That is not how marriages work, we must marry in the grand hall. That is where the guests would be." she held his hand. "You have had enough food, Elias. We could not delay the ceremony any further." It was surprising how a young and petite girl like her was able to pull him easily from his seat.
"I want to see the manor first. I want to see where we will stay after the marriage." Elias said quickly, slipping his hand free from Caldria's grasp. "And change my clothes, yes. I can't walk to my own wedding in these dusty ones, can I?"
"You look perfect, Elias. There is no dust on your clothes." She smiled and he looked at his own clothes. There was no dust in this whole place. Damn it!
"I haven't even brushed my hair," he chuckled, backing away a step. "And I thought nobles always made a spectacle of preparing. I want to enjoy that luxury once in my life too."
Lina tilted her head. "You never cared about that before," she said slowly, watching him with dark and eerie eyes.
"Well, I do not get married every day. Do i?" he lightly brushed and took a step back again.
Caldria's smile didn't reach her eyes anymore.
"You want to delay," she said softly.
"Of course not," Elias said. "But what's the harm in a little time? I just want to enjoy it."
"You think we don't know what you are doing?" Lina's voice cut in sharp. She sounded no longer the playful chirp of a younger sister. "You are stalling."
"No." Elias stepped toward the hall. "I just need a moment to breathe."
The door slammed shut suddenly without a servant moving from their place.
Caldria stepped forward slowly. Her voice was no longer pretending to be human.
"You have tasted our kindness," she hissed. "But you are still trying to reject it. How rude!"
Lina was at his side before he could react. Her hands seized his arm, fingers tightening like vices. "You said yes, Elias. There is no back out now."
"I said..." he growled through clenched teeth, "...I want to marry under the stars."
Caldria's hands contorted into claws, her nails stretching larger and larger until they reached his hand and held it tightly, Her voice no longer matched her mouth.
"You are making a mistake, Elias. Out there, you are nothing. Here, we love you. You have everything. Then why are you making it difficult for both of us?"
The windows shattered outward, and from the corners of the room, the guards twisted into creatures he had never seen before. Their joints were cracking and skin rippling. Their uniforms peeled away as if never real to begin with.
Shadows poured in. Black and formless things that hissed as they reached for him.
Caldrea reached for him, but the smile was gone from her face, "You don't understand. You can't leave!"
Elias didn't hesitate. As the shadows lunged, he grabbed the nearest silver candelabra from the dining table and swung. The flame burst against the darkness and sizzled on contact.
The first shadow recoiled, hissing like burning paper. Elias stepped back into the center of the room, swinging wildly as he realized they were afraid of fire.
"I am not yours!" he shouted, bringing the candelabra down onto one of the creatures. It screeched and burst into smoke.
But for every one he struck, three more took its place. One shadow wrapped around his ankle, another around his throat. His limbs grew cold and heavy like stone. Another pulled at his chest, and something inside him pulled back. Not just his body but his soul.
"No," he gasped. "Let go." but they didn't. They all lunged at him at once.
"I have told you, Elias. But you never listened." they all held him down as the chanderbella fell from his hands. But before they could attack him and devour him, the fire caught on the curtain and the place started to burn.
"You did it intentionally." Lina hissed. she did not look like a human anymore. Elias ignored her and ran. He picked up another candle from the dining table and went to burn other curtains. The room was soon caught in the fire.
The shadows trying to follow him hissed in pain but did not stop. More taking their places. Someone caught Elias's feet and pulled it with force. He fell on the ground with a hiss.
"You can not run away from me." Caldria shrieked in an eerie voice as she walked closer to him on all fours.
Elias kicked hard to whatever was holding him down. A scream tore through the air as Lina went sprawling, her body halfway shifted into something grotesque. Her eyes had turned dark with no light in them and his face looked withered like a dead person.
"We were kind to you!" Lina howled, crawling toward him on all fours. "We gave you everything, and you still look at me like a monster?!"
"You are monsters!" Elias bellowed as he scrambled to his feet, grabbing the silver serving tray from the side table and swinging it like a shield.
Caldria's claws raked across the metal, sparks flying.
"We loved you!" Caldria's voice was no longer hers, it was like a banshee was screaming in his ears, "We saved you from your pathetic little world. Why do you resist what you were meant for?"
"I would rather burn with my world than stay in yours!" he shouted, then turned and hurled the tray into the fire. He grabbed a broken chair leg, lit it from a burning drape, and spun around just in time to keep a shadow from pouncing. The flame struck it mid-air, and it disintegrated with a shriek.
The air was thick with smoke and screams choking his lungs and ears. The manor groaned around him, wood splitting and glass popping as the fire consumed everything.
"You can't escape," Lina rasped as she crawled toward him, half her body melting in the heat, the other half clinging to her human mask. "You said yes, Elias. The vow was made."