XII
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Willow always thought of herself as a smart person. Intelligent, even.
She had always managed to get good grades in school with a little to no studying; always able to think of a solution when facing problems of any kind. Perhaps that was the reason why when Iris's had accident she had felt so... helpless. There was no solution to that, not one Willow could offer at least.
Willow was also very quick thinker; her practical intelligence surpassed a lot of people her age. At least that was what the tests declared.
However, at that very moment, Willow was sure that next to her record of ''The fastest dressing-up'' category, she should definitely add ''The most stupid person'' as well.
Willow's guess had proved right; for when Jack opposed Johnny's request for more money, two more men jumped out of the bushes and cornered them.
Obviously, Jack and his palls were caught and taken away.
Now, the part which made Willow question her intelligence was that she followed them. She tiptoed; crouched; ran and stumbled few times while chasing after Johnny, his friends and their tied up prisoners. Willow was this close to change her mind and leave them to fend for themselves (they weren't so innocent as well, after all) when they came across a ruin that resembled a half-burnt castle.
Johnny and his fellow criminals took Jack and his fellow criminals inside the ruin, and Willow hid behind a bush in order to think. Marching in there was out of question, tough she did ponder over it for more than she was willing to confess. Willow knew some of the self-defense (their mother had forced Iris and her to take self-defense classes), but she learned that she had developed an habit to freeze in danger.
Post effect from the accident, Willow assumed.
Other than Jack and his sidekicks (who, she assumed, were tied up somewhere in the castle) there were in total six more people inside. She could take out one, perhaps even two is Lady Luck decided to finally spare her a second glance, but facing six people would be a suicide mission.
Especially when one of them was Johnny.
So she waited behind the bushes that became some sort of safety blanket for her and plotted.
After several minutes - perhaps it was more; she was too busy straining her brain for every movies she watched hoping to find a plan - Willow heard voices and carefully peaked over.
''You two,'' Johnny said, pointing to two of his men, ''stay put and watch 'em. I don't care for the other two, but the boy must stay alive.'' The men whom he pointed at solemnly nodded, tough the slight frown on their faces showed their reluctance to ''keep the boy alive''. Willow wondered what had Jack done to them to spur their desire to kill him. ''The rest of yer, come with me. The boss wants a word with the boy.''
Willow's interest perked at his last sentence. Mounting their horses, Johnny and three men of his entourage took off, leaving only two of them to watch over Jack. Perhaps, the Lady Luck looked over Willow after all.
Forcing the wheels in her brain to turn, she almost smiled after the perfect plan began to develop in her mind. Well, as perfect as it could get.577Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaLe8eSD2BH
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The two men went inside the castle shortly after Johnny took off, and Willow slowly crept towards the entrance. The first task in her plan was one that every great plan possessed - distraction. She had took her time in scanning the perimeter and found out that the walls on the back if the castle were far more burned than those in the front, and could easily be jumped over. From there it wouldn't be hard to locate Jack, since their guards were making so much noise she was sure that they could be heard from Mars.
Willow was undoubtedly prone to exaggeration.
Her plan was to distract the guards by forcing them out of the castle and then sneak in through the back. That was why she crept like a ninja towards the entrance, the place when the horses were tied down. Careful not to make any noises, she quickly untied the horses and urged them to run away, desirably making as much racket as possible.
Unfortunately, she failed to notice that any plan that relied on horses' willingness to cooperate was a very flawed one. However, Willow was nothing if not persistent (and slightly delusional).
''Come on,'' she whisper-yelled, flickering her eyes towards the entrance. ''Shoo, you are free now! Gallop into sunset or something.''
It was possible a trick of light (or the lack of any), but Willow was almost certain that one horse snorted and the other rolled its eyes as a response at her command, while the other two didn't even graced her with a reaction. Seething, her hand acted on its own accord and, pulling back, it slapped a horse across its butt. Hard.
The horse neighed loudly, raising up on its hind legs, thus disturbing other horses and they quickly mimicked its behavior. Trapped in the middle of the raging animals eager to revenge for slapping one of their kind, Willow felt as if she volunteered as a tribute rather than completed the first task of her plan. Her heartbeat accelerated to a point it hammered against her rib-cage in an effort to break it, and it took a herculean strength to keep a shrill scream from escaping her mouth. Covering her head on instinct, Willow made a mad dash in order to escape being trampled to death and took off towards the back of the castle just as the guards showed up to see the commotion.
Luckily, the horses had already bolted towards the forest, and Willow had managed to catch a glimpse of one guard sprinting after them just before she went around the corner and towards the back entrance she discovered earlier.
Unaccustomed to any sort of exercise, Willow's body ached and begged for rest. Her lungs burned, the side of her stomach painfully pleaded with her but her resolve was much fiercer than ever. She was well aware that if she missed this chance to save them, the second would be taken away with Johnny's arrival.
With that in her mind, she pushed her body to her breaking point (which wasn't very high considering her idea of exercise was walking towards the fridge) and rushed past burnt, stone walls towards a window like hole. Jumping over it, Willow crouched in order to listen.
Slow wind carried faint voices of the guards to her, and she was able to discern some of their conversation, tough that was not the reason she was straining so hard to hear them. Their voiced served to guide her towards the place where they kept Jack and his partners, for she assumed they would keep them nearby in order to watch over them. Hopefully, the next part of her plan (locate Jack and sidekicks) would go smoothly as the first one. Just without raging horses (tough there was a certain horse tied up somewhere in the castle).
The floor was overgrown with grass and weeds, forcing Willow to take extra caution while creeping towards the voices. Weaved spider's web decorated the dilapidated walls of what once surely was a glorious castle, but now merely a home of numerous insects and small animals. If she was in any other position, Willow would've surely paused to think about the people that used to walk down the same halls she now wormed her way through; invented stories about their lives and pictured their feast. Perhaps even flirted with the idea of Merlin saving Arthur; fighting Morgana or simply polishing boots in one of the chambers However, her mind was solely focused on her quest.
She forced herself to believe that her actions originate solely out of her desire to retrieve her beg, but something sizzled in her heart at the thought of seeing Jack hurt. If she had stopped to consider it, she would've understood it was not only worry - but fear - that something grave happened to him; but she decided to ignore it and push forward.
Creeping through the maze of a castle, she decided to brush of the feeling that numerous bugs were walking on her skin and followed the voices.
''The boss will be furious!''
''Tis not our fault, damn animals escaped on their own!''
''But we tied 'em...''
''Y'know, I heard them stories 'bout ghosts haunting castles like this..''
Willow smirked, pleased with herself. The plan was going better than she thought it would, and their belief in paranormal happenings surely went in her favor. For a moment, a thought of banging around and howling like ghosts did in movies passed through her mind, but she quickly shook it away. The benefit of staying silent was far more better, perhaps that way she could perform the infamous in-and-out. The echo of guards' voices wasn't very strong, therefore she concluded they still haven't reentered the castle.
Randomly making lefts and rights, another noise piqued her intention. It sounded like mumbling; stifled mumbling that is and she almost dashed it its direction. Surely she must be close.
The inside walls of a castle were half demolished as well, giving her a proper view on her surroundings. Finally spotting silhouettes in the corner or what was once a chamber, she stopped to observe. Pale moonlight didn't allow much of a light, tough she could spot outlines of three bodies sat on the ground. Their hands and feet were tied, and judging from the noise they made they mouths were muzzled as well.
Casting a glance towards her left, Willow noticed a wide corridor; its walls somewhat preserved. It probably lead towards the guards, therefore she must be really careful not to make any noise that would made them come in again.
However, she couldn't help herself.
Skipping towards the tied figures; a widespread smile appeared in her face.
"Look alive damsels in distress," she whispered, glancing from the corridor to them. "The knight in-no -armor is here to rescue you."
Perhaps it was adrenaline that made her body burn; perhaps it was the thought of rescuing three grown men but it was as if no fear could penetrate her armor of fierceness. Tough, in retrospective, it was probably the fact that she still failed to grasp the reality of her situation.
However, in that moment she needed all her power and self-control just to bite back the laugh that wanted to burst out of her mouth. The two men Willow didn't know stared at her with narrowed eyes, but judging from his shocked expression Jack immediately recognized her. His surprise quickly turned into anger, probably due to Willow flexing her nonexistent muscles and gloating in front of them.
After her show ended, Willow carefully crept over to where Jack was sat and, crouching down she leaned towards him.
"I will untie you under one condition," she whispered, eyes dead set on the wall she was facing. Jack was calm, his eyes narrowed but set straight ahead waiting for her to continue. "You will retrieve my bag."
After what seemed eons of their synchronized breathing and avoiding eye contact, Jack finally managed a small nod in affirmation. This time, Willow didn't fight the grin that occupied her mouth. Without wasting any more time, her hands quickly flew to struggle with the ties on his feet.
She left the muzzle for the last.
Jack's feet were tied with thick rope, and the ends were so entangled together she would need hours to undo the knot. Sighing, Willow looked around the room they were in hoping to find something she could cut it with. While scanning the area, her eyes zoomed in on the corridor. Willow was just about to stand up when she felt a light kick in her knee.
''Oh, don't be so clingy,'' she whispered to wide-eyed Jack, who was vigorously shaking his head left and right. ''I'll be back in a sec.''
Feeling very confident and slightly bad-ass, she slowly tiptoed down the corridor. Her heart, however, was threatening to burst out of her chest and she kept wincing at any sound she heard - real or imagined by her half frightened heart. She was grateful for that fragment of fear though, for, no matter how small it was, it urged her to take precaution in her steps.
The corridor acquired an eerie atmosphere as she slowly threaded the bricked path that lead her closer to danger. The guards' voices were loud, though the vigorous beats of her heart that pulsed in her ears reduced them to nothing but muffled whispers. With back pressed to the wall, Willow soundlessly crept forwards and finally came across what looked as a pile of someone's belongings.
Silhouettes of the arguing guards were painted by the different shades of dark just few meters away from Willow, and as she slowly crouched to search for a knife her eyes kept flickering back and forth. Finally she found what she was looking for, but her eyes zoomed on a different thing that laid among the pile.
The contemplating in her mind couldn't have been more than a second - perhaps even less - and the decision to pick up the infamous book took even less, but by the time she stood up in order to go back to Jack, a voice froze her.
"Who are ye?"
On instinct, her eyes snapped to its source and hands flew behind her back to hide what they have took. They trembled so fiercely, the blade sunk into her finger sending pain to mix with the panic her body was gradually falling into. Willow needed herculean strength to keep back the tears and her face solemn as she gazed into the person in front of you.
The man, one if the guards that decided to come back right in that moment, inspected Willow with narrowed eyes full of suspicion. His built was massive, his muscles barely hidden under his dirty cloths and height overtopped Willow's so much she needed to raise her head in order to maintain the eye contact.
As she took his appearance in, a realization began to dawn on Willow, slowly erasing her delusion and forcing her to finally accept the awful truth. Everything that happened in the past days was, in fact, truth. She was in nineteenth century, trapped in the dilapidated castle and staring at what could possibly be her doom.
The guard blinked few times; his facial expression slowly loosing the suspicion and acquiring one of fear. Taking a hesitating step back, he raised one meaty, trembling finger and pointed it to Willow accusingly.
"T-tis true. G-ghost."
One simple word, spoken in stutter by frightened guard was what took for the walls inside Willow to stop their self-demolition and urged her to grasp at that straw he gave her.
"Y-yes," she cleared her throat carefully and tried to make her voice as haunting as it could possibly get. "I'm Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men,Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons."
Willow berated the first notion that stroke her as effective, and the different expression the guard exchanged during her introduction proved her idea somewhat fruitful. Never loosing the frightened look, the guard also passed through several other emotions; from panic, surprise to full out confusion.
"You have disgraced my shrine, therefore the punishment will be commensurate with you mistake," Willow continued in eerie and haunting voice, and slowly raised one hand in the his direction. "Be gone, human!"
She finished her impromptu monologue in hushed whisper, widening her eyes and glaring at the guard with entire force she was able to muster. Small frown etched in between her eyebrows when the guards failed to run for the hills as expected and closely inspected her hand with puzzlement.
"Wait," he muttered, new emotion erasing all traces of fear as his eyes widened with realization. "Ghosts don't bleed."
The leg that was brought back in fear just moments earlier stepped towards Willow, snapping her out of her daze. Panicking, she shouted a new distraction to the guard, and as quickly as she could ran towards Jack. The corridor now echoed with loud footsteps, yelling and cursing as Willow counted pushed her body forward. What seemed just like few steps earlier now stretched into agonizing kilometers, never ending bricks and weed of doom.
Praying not to fall down, Willow finally entered the chamber in which Jack and his friends were held hostage. Throwing her self on the ground, she frantically pushed the knife up and down, trying to cut the rope around his feet as fast as she could.
Everything transpired with amazing speed, one minute she was kneeling in front of Jack furiously cutting the ropes, and the very next she was pulled by her hair and thrown on the side. Loud grunt escaped her throat as she hit the bricked wall, but she wasted no time in scrambling back to her legs.
"Lying whore," the guard yelled at her. "Tryin' to get me in trouble with boss, eh?"
His meaty hand flew to grab Willow again, only this time she managed to duck in time. Furious, the guard made a growling noise of anger. Before she could think of her next move, the guard lifted his hand and Willow's head whipped towards her left. Panic-stricken, frightened and with stinging cheek, Willow found herself enveloped in the disgusting odor of sweat and alcohol. Trapped in a cage of human arms, her mind flew back in time and everything around her got drowned in memories.
Pounding of the downpour...Blinding lights... Loud music mixed with giggles and laughs...Shrieking; yelling...Name being cried out, and at last...silence...
Stuck in an agonizing movie that replayed before her eyes, Willow's body stopped moving. Overwhelmed by memories she became resigned and couldn't fight off the arms that squeezed her to a point she couldn't breathe. Curses that were shouted in her ear were muted by the mixture of music, laughs and cries in her mind.
Deathly silence...Blinking light...Inviting sleep...A cry of help...
"Willow!"
Willow blinked. She was not sure to whom the voice belonged, or whether it came from her mind or from someone else, but it was more than she needed to come back. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, finding herself being dragged through the corridor and away from Jack and his friends, her only chance of escape. Gaining control over her body, she caught a glimpse of now free Jack emerging on the beginning of the corridor. Taking a deep breath, Willow brought her head forward only to slam it back into the face of the man that was trying to drag her god-knows-where. As soon as the back of Willow's head came in contact with the guard's face, he yelled in pain, his hands flying to grab his bloody nose.
Willow wasted no more time in that castle, and propelled her feet forward. She brushed past Jack and his friends, and ran away as fast as her legs could take her. Ran away from the guard whose hands she could still feel on her body, ran away from Jack who was indirectly guilty for what happened, and ran away from memories that still burned inside her scull.
However, deep inside her heart she was aware that she could only successfully escape only one of those things.577Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Opg1aFPZ9
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