The wooden bar latched with a resounding thud. Something heavy rattled the door. The young knight's screams rose in panic, muffled tenfold from the locked door and his gear. I imagined the sweat under his helmet, that it was too big for his face. I imagined his tears. "No! No! Help! Please! Somebody help!" He had heard the door shut. His armored knuckles pounded at the dining hall's door as his voice cut off into choked garbles, as if he were drowning.
Sir James' knuckles were white as he turned to us, I could feel that he was holding himself back from going out there. His voice was grave as he said, "Gather materials for the door. Quickly." When no one moved and the other noble children instead murmured among themselves, Sir James lost his patience. "Now!" he bellowed. His voice traveled throughout the dining hall, loud and commanding and the boys moved quickly after that.
The tallest of the boys, Discipline, moved swifter than all others, as if ready to prove himself. He hung on Sir James' every word, pulling tables that screeched against wood and uneven bumps to bar the door.
Miss Lidia approached me, herding me together with all the other girls, and in my shock I was too out of it to react. There was a kitchen attached to the larger dining hall, small but it meant safety behind an extra door. But I didn't believe that.
I gathered myself quickly, feeling uncomfortable in such close proximity to others and found a space that was my own behind a barrel of rice. It didn't shield me for long as Sir James hoisted it up and away into his gloved grip.
He truly did look apologetic when he said, "Excuse my impertinence. I'll accept for full responsibility at a later time. For now, my orders pertain to the ladies as well. Miss Lidia," he turned to the middle aged woman, "Please arm the girls."
The traditionalist Miss Lidia went white. Her hands shook. In fear perhaps? Or maybe in disbelief at the notion. She didn't argue. Instead she took a moment and gripped tightly on to Virtue, the youngest of us. Miss Lidia looked at the girl in her arms, heard her sobs bleeding in to the chaos of the boys' movement. She looked like she might disagree. It wasn't a woman's place to fight. But the dining hall entrance shook. It rattled, the wood moving as if bodies slammed into it over and over.
She held her tongue, "Alright." That came easier to her perhaps. A woman listening to a man. The wooden floors creaked under the weight of Sir James as he made to go back into the open room with the barrel at his hip.
Reason appeared as if out of thin air, as he had the habit of doing. His eyes kept searching the sea of us and then stopped, as if finding someone. His hair was disheveled and there was a manic glint in his eyes. He had never been rash before. "Don't tell me you expect them to fight!" His voice came out rushed and airless.
I wondered what his intention was. Was he clinging to the past. Or did he just care that much about the right order of things? It was vexing. I rather leave everyone to die before I risked myself, but it was demeaning none the less. Calm, of course, stood by his side in quiet support, his eyebrows set in deep worry.
Sir James barreled past the boys, ignoring them both, shoving them roughly to the side. He thought we had no other choice.
As Miss Lidia rustled through the kitchen, her long dark dress following behind her in a rush.
Then my eyes trailed to the heavy glass window near the kitchen door.
Someone was looking in at us. A pallid, purple veined face peered right into me. His eyes were open as if perpetually in disbelief. I walked as if in a trance to Miss Lidia, shoving Charm away, and took the knife that was meant to be hers. My hands were steady, but I felt my breathing grow shallow.
That was the man I had seen as I came into Greel. The dead man. He was there.
Reason was hissing something at me as he helped Charm up from the floor, but I paid no attention. I would not, could not… look away. Finally, the noises started. That thing's mouth opened and a breathless noise screeched past its mouth. It was as if there were no air for the noise to travel and all it could manage was a strained high pitched wheeze. Reason pulled me away from the window. Only then did I realize I had been shuffling closer to it, my hands tight around the knife.
"Are you crazy, Regal?" He yelled as he shoved me behind him. At any other point in time, I might have snapped at him, told him to piss off. But the situation was too unreal.
Virtue only sobbed harder as the noise dragged on. "I want my mama."
Charm held no grudge against me and instead huddled around me as all the other ladies pressed in against us. Even the calm, put together, Jewel was beginning to sweat.
"Everyone, into the dining hall," came Tact's gentle voice. He looked to the dead man for just a moment, his eyebrows furrowing minutely before turning back to us, "Sir James' order." I wondered if it had really been Sir James order. Regardless, putting Sir James behind it made the process of getting us away from there and barring the door easier.
Right as I crossed the doorway back, the glass window broke. The crowd of ladies pushed into Charm and I. "Are you alright, Rose?" Tact asked me as he helped Charm up from the floor. When he extended a hand out to me I hoisted myself up.
I didn't answer him, too preoccupied with planning how to get away from the crowd of walking liabilities. I didn't like answering to my fake name either. I didn't like answering to anyone period.
The shards of glass hadn't deterred it, if his vicious throws against the door were anything to go by. I watched as Jewel worked with Miss Lidia to turn another table on to its side before Charm and Virtue went to help push it along. Then Tact and Reason braced themselves against it. "Rose, come sit against it. We don't have anything else." It was Jewel. I noted her light brown tresses were still immaculately pretty. I felt disdain at the unfairness.
It was then I looked into Jewel's light eyes and laughed. I wasn't like them. I wasn't ready to jump into the fray with everyone else. Then I replied, "As if."
It was only a matter of time before we were exposed to those things. The front door's wood was splitting under the force of the collision. Two men were having trouble, despite the tables and chairs helping them.
My laugh died out as I found a corner away from them all and hugged my knees to my chest. They couldn't get us all. I just had to make sure I wasn't first. It sure was a hell of way to finally get out of this hell hole of a camp. Fleetingly, I wondered if death might be a possible escape for me too. But I dismissed it just as easily. I'm sure my death would be of use to some people. Therefore, I could not afford to give them what they wanted. I wouldn't let anybody control me. Dead or alive.