Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 501: To ash

"Behold, wench and rinse your eyes well because you won’t be back down here for a long while after this!"

Zarah’s voice came from behind Arabella but even then, the grin on her face was somehow audible.

"Arthur...," Arabella mouthed again.

"Yes," the older woman spoke again, "Cry all the tears in your body if you must for you have caused the suffering of your family,"

Waiting not a second longer, Arabella launched forward, reaching for the metal bars, but right as the tips of her fingers curled around them, the soul was nearly wrenched out of her from the back of her head.

Zarah had gripped her by the hair so tightly to keep her in place that the shards of pain that shot through her neck almost knocked her out cold.

"Keep those filthy hands of yours away from the bars!" the old hag practically growled.

Her fist only wrapped around her raven hair harder. So much so that Arabella’s scalp tingled with invisible electrical sparks.

The young woman yelped out a cry with her bound hands attempting to go over her own head in order to free the soft hair that threatened to pop from its roots.

But in response, Zarah only twisted her fingers around the hair further, strengthening the tension coursing Arabella’s skull.

As her limits stretched thinner and thinner, her teary eyes remained on her unresponsive brother who looked as good as dead in that cell while crying out his name over and over, again and again to no avail.

It was as though he’d been reprogrammed, brainwashed into mimicking a vegetable to the best of his ability.

"No, no, no, no!" from a corner that was completely shrouded in darkness came another, familiar voice.

The old man barely managed to crawl out of the shadows, the weight of the chains around his wrists dragging him downwards.

"Grandfather!" Arabella wept.

"Isn’t this family reunion just beautiful!" Zarah took the deepest of breaths as if inhaling the nectar of jasmines and roses before pushing a long sigh, "Well, the family isn’t complete just yet since one of you still roams free but give it some time and that will be done, word of the prince!"

"Why?" Rubius’ lips bled as he spoke, "Why did you come here?"

"Don’t you ask why, you old fool!" Zarah’s growl rumbled the walls, "This is what happens when you do not keep the cattle in line!"

For all the crying and yelling that was done in proximity, Arthur did not move a muscle. The only proof of life his body exhibited being the rising and falling of his chest.

"What have you done to him?" Arabella crumbled to her knees, finally escaping Zarah’s grip.

"Nothing that he did not have coming his way," the hag snarled, "In fact, I believe the prince has been way too clement with him. You took the cake with your stunt, but he too deviated from the path he was born to walk and disobeyed his father,"

"Please...," Arabella pleaded, face covered in salty tears and snot, "Please spare him. You have me now. Please let him walk,"

"You are in position to make neither demands nor wishes, wench. You lost that right three months ago. Not that you were owed any in the first place," Zarah bent forward to hiss those words against Arabella’s ears who barely reacted.

"But why my grandfather? he never disobeyed the king or the prince!" by then her voice was subjected to distortion and strain due to the crying.

"Oh but he did! He thought he could spin the prince like a fiddle between his fingers, didn’t you, Rubius?" she howled.

"Please, please...," that word looped over and over in Arabella’s mouth.

"Stand up!" nearly dislocating the young woman’s shoulder from how roughly she yanked her arm upwards, Zarah returned to her stern and cold demeanor, "You’ve exhausted your two minutes here. There is someone else you must see before receiving the honor of meeting the prince,"

As she was being dragged away from the cell, the last thing Arabella had been able to see was the blank face of Arthur who continued to stare at a specific spot on one of the walls without rhyme or reason. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Such a pathetic cry baby!" Zarah spat, "Stop whining, whore!" she gave her a good, sudden jolt, ragdolling Arabella and her already rattled brain.

It wasn’t until a few minutes had gone by that it struck the young woman; they weren’t walking back towards the exit of the dungeons, but on the contrary, they marched even deeper down the ever-darkening corridors where the flames of those torches lining their path grew weaker the further they went.

The dead end sealing that tract was no mere door. It was a grand, thick metal gate that had a narrow rectangular gap carved an inch or so higher than Arabella’s eye level.

Upon approaching the mysterious door, Zarah tossed Arabella’s figure at it which ended in a harsh collision between her and the cold metal.

Even though her hands had been tied in front of her, she had very little energy and might left to cushion the impact for the rest of her body.

"Take a good look inside," the hag’s voice reverberated against the narrow walls.

After a few seconds of sniveling, Arabella did as told and pushed herself up onto the tip of her toes to glimpse the inside of whatever that place was.

And once again, the wind was syphoned out of her lungs as dread filled every cell in her body in lieu of good air.

"Do you like what you see?" Zarah who had walked closer to her, pressed her body against Arabella’s back to murmur in her ears, "He too would have remained safe had it not been for your cursed existence," her hot, reeking breath hit Arabella in the face, forcing her to shut her eyes tight as tears flowed with no sign of stopping, "Do you believe me now? Do you believe that everything and anything a filthy whore such as you touches turns to ash?"