Conquering His Cold Heart

Chapter 5: A Prisoner

Anastasia threw her legs and lay flat on her back. She tugged her dark ginger hair in frustration.

And she screamed in her mind while streams of tears rolled down her temples, ‘Why couldn’t I ever have a normal life like others? And out of all the men in the world, why do I have to marry a vampire? Why do I have such rotten luck?’

She kept on complaining, crying, and rolling on the floor for quite some time.

After crying her heart out, Anastasia finally calmed down a little. Then she scolded herself because Tilla wasn’t there to do the honors, ‘Anna! Don’t sleep on this cold floor! You’ll get sick!’

She pulled herself together and wiped her tears. She got up from the cold floor while ranting to herself, ‘The King might refuse to get married to you if he finds out that you are sick. The letter clearly asked you not to let him find that out, remember?’

The Princess dusted her gown but she felt really dirty after rolling around on the floor, even though the floor was squeaky clean. So she wanted to clean up and change into a fresh set of clothes.

‘I think I should go and look for Tilla. I don’t want to catch infection again,’ she thought to herself and walked towards the main door.

.....

She tried opening the door. However, no matter how hard she pulled, the huge door didn’t budge. ‘What the... Did Zenon lock me inside? Or am I too weak to even open a door?’

She tried pulling the door for a while but she ended up hurting her shoulders. ‘Mmm...’ she winced in pain.

She glared at the tall and bulky-looking door. ‘Why did they have to make this door so heavy?’ Anastasia complained while gently massaging her shoulders.

“Hello! Is anyone there? Hello!” She lightly banged on the door and called for help, hoping that someone would hear her. “Hello! Will you open the door please?”

Anastasia waited for some time but there was no response from the other side of the door. She stick her ear on the door to hear if anyone walked past her door. She planned to shout for help if she heard some footsteps. However, she heard nothing but deafening silence.

She sighed in frustration and slammed her back on the door. ‘For the love of God! Did they have to lock me up like some prisoner? Can this night get any worse?’

Anastasia began pacing back and forth in the living room, waiting for Tilla to come to her room.

She tightly clasped her hands together and thought, ‘Why isn’t Tilla here yet? Is her room that far from here that she is taking hours to come back?’

Her feet abruptly came to a halt. She felt a pang in her heart because something didn’t feel right. ‘What if they... what if they did something to her?’

All of a sudden, her throat went dry. The images of the cold murder started to dance in front of her eyes. Only this time, instead of that man, she saw Tilla being murdered in the same way.

Her whole body was covered in cold sweats in no time. She wiped the sweat on her forehead and her upper lips with a shaking hand.

Out of the blue, the Princess started to chuckle. She began walking to and fro while trying to console herself, “What are you thinking, Anna? Tilla is fine! Maybe her room is way too far away from here. Or maybe she is stuck in some chores.”

She rapidly nodded her head and murmured, “Yes. She must be busy getting to know the things around the castle. Maybe somebody is making her go through the rules of this castle.”

But no matter what she said to herself, she couldn’t help but constantly fear that her maid had already been someone’s dinner. And she couldn’t help but think that she was going to be the next serving for those bloodthirsty monsters.

‘...Right now, you look very appetizing to me.’ Caspian’s words kept on ringing in her ears. She could feel his cold breath on her neck as if he was standing right beside her.

Anastasia shuddered from the very recollection of that terrifying encounter with Caspian.

“Aaargh!” she grabbed her head with both of her hands and began hitting her head as though she was trying to beat that memory out of her head.

“I need to sleep. It might help me forget everything.” She briskly walked towards her bedroom but then her fear took over again, “Wait! Maybe this is exactly what they want. Maybe they are just waiting for me to sleep. What if they attack me and kill me while I am deep in my sleep?”

She violently shook her head and spoke under her breath, “No, no, no... I should not be sleeping. I should stay vigilant. I am not going to be someone’s dinner, not tonight, never!”

To keep herself busy and sane, Anastasia explored all of the rooms that were assigned to her. She found an attached bathroom in her bedroom. She washed her face and arms with cold water. Then she went and sat down in her living room while directly facing the main door.

Once in a while, she would call for Tilla thinking that her handmaid could have forgotten which room she was staying in.

The other time, she would shout saying that she was hungry. Not that she really wanted to eat, she just wanted to know what was really going on with Tilla. But nobody heard her. Or they pretended not to hear her, she wouldn’t know.

Hours passed by but nobody came to her rescue.

Her eyes were already tired waiting for the door to open, and her body was already stiff sitting on the sofa. ‘Maybe I should straighten my back for a while,’ she thought to herself and lay down on her back.

Instantly, her drowsy eyes closed shut but right then, the first ray of the morning sun hit her face. And she was immediately woken up. The Princess had spent the whole night without getting a wink of sleep.

Anastasia sat up on the sofa and turned her tired eyes to face the window. All she could see was the creepy main gate of the castle in the distance and the forest that surrounded the castle.

She gently knocked her head on the windowpane and whispered, “I really am a prisoner from now on, aren’t I?”

Right then, the Princess heard the creaking sound of the main door that she was yearning to hear for the whole night.

She quickly turned her gaze towards the door hoping that it was Tilla. However, she was disheartened to see that it was the King instead.

Caspian elegantly stepped inside while Anastasia quickly got down from the sofa and straightened the creases on her gown.

“Your Majesty,” Anastasia greeted him in a feeble voice and curtsied.

Caspian didn’t respond to her. He just kept on staring at Anastasia with no expression on his face.

Anastasia felt really uneasy. She quickly broke eye contact with him because the more she stared back at his blood-red eyes, the more she felt as if he would pounce on her at any moment now.

Her heartbeat was escalating rapidly. She tightly clutched her hands together and prayed that he wouldn’t get too close to her like yesterday night.

Caspian darted his eyes at the Princess from head to toe. He noticed that her eyes were puffy; he had heard her crying so he thought nothing much of it.

However, when his dark red eyes trailed further down, he noticed a few claw-like marks on her forearms and wrists.

He instantly assumed that she was forcefully sent to Sorvando as his bride. And after witnessing yesterday’s incident, he thought that she wanted to take her own life rather than marry him. In reality, those were just scratch marks that would fade away soon.

Caspian narrowed his eyes at Anastasia and spoke in his chilling voice, “I will prepare a carriage for you and your maid. Both of you may return back to Orsenia today. If you need it then I can write a letter officially revoking you as my bride.”

Anastasia took a glimpse of Caspian’s face to see if he was just being sarcastic or he was really serious about sending her back to Orsenia.

He looked dead serious.