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"You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a princess." said a strange voice, coming from all around her. An eerie narration seems to be talking to her. Where has she been? She doesn't know. The strange voice coming from nowhere continues his introduction.
"You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world." The narrator gives her a few choices. Hermione is too stunned to say anything. She hesitates a few seconds before asking. What is this place? Has she gone mental? Is she the chosen one of a useless heroic fairytale? What is this Princess about if she's here to end the world? Some psycho drugs is getting to her and fucking with her braincells. Too many questions with no answers.
"Do I get some sort of reward for doing this?" she carefully asks, not sure of what she got into.
"Yes, but you'll have to slay her before you get it." I don't want to kill a princess! She tells herself. This world is fucked up and she needs to wake up really quickly if she doesn't want to go nuts. But she better go with the flow for now. I'm going to see what's really happening and I'll act then. She silently walks to the cabin.
Through the trees' branches, she sights a small glade. She gets out of the woods and watches the cabin, lonely waiting in the starry night, isolated from any human life. It's dull. And nostalgic at the same time.
"You make your way up the short path to the cabin. You'll find the princess within." said the narrator. For god's sake! She is starting to be annoyed by this man's voice literally voicing out every step she takes. This voice keeps pestering her.
"A warning, before you go any further... She will lie, she will cheat, and she will do everything in her power to stop you from slaying her. Don't believe a word she says."
Ok..... Hermione is so lost. She doesn't know who to trust. She didn't wake up this morning to go out there and slay a princess?!
"We're not going to go through with this, right? She's a princess. We're supposed to save princesses, not slay them." Another voice comes out of her head. She has gone crazy. That's it. This voice though, seems to come out of her own body and is more familiar to her. Let's call her the Voice of the Heroine.
"Ignore her. She doesn't know what she's talking about." said the narrator, tense.
Hermione decides to keep going and ignore everyone. Her only problem is how to get out of here. She proceeds to the cabin, entering a cracking mess of wooden walls.
The interior of the cabin is almost entirely bare. The air is stale and musty and the floor and walls are painted in a fine layer of dust. The only furniture of note is a plain wooden table. Perched on that table is a pristine blade. She stares at the blade.
"The blade is your implement. You'll need it if you want to do this right." the narrator hints to take it. But Hermione's instinct tells her not too. She's torn between her choices. Is she about to enter the basement ? With a princess resolved to end the world ? What does it mean anyway? No. She will discuss and resonate with her.
Hermione enters the basement without the blade, taking a risk, but what risk if to save the world, the princess and herself.
"The door to the basement creaks open, revealing a staircase faintly illuminated by an unseen light in the room below. This is an oppressive place. The air feels heavy and damp, a hint of rot filtering from the ancient wood. If the Princess really lives here, slaying her is probably doing her a favor." The narrator depicts as Hermione walks down.
"Her voice softly carries up the stairs." She stops her progress as the narrator introduces the Princess.
"H-hello? Is someone there?..." A small soft feminine voice echoed in the stairwell. It almost sounds like a lullaby.
"It's hypnotizing. It's the kind of voice you only have to hear once to remember it for the rest of your life." commented the Voice of the Heroine. Hermione can only agree with her. Hermione feels enchanted, like a spell she would have thrown at her.
"Don't let it fool you. It's all part of the manipulation. You're playing a dangerous game by coming here unarmed." warn the narrator, but Hermione and her heroine's voice are too intrigued not to continue down the stairs. She stays silent.
"Good. You're still listening to reason. It would be better if you had a weapon, but you may still be able to do what needs to be done." Hermione ignores the narrator's useless observation and reaches the basement.
The princess is right in front of her eyes. Black eyes locked with hers. She looks frightened but relieved to see another person in the room. Her black, curly, tangled hair reaches her waist. Through her muscular body she can see her prominent bones, giving away her lack of nutrition. The Princess smiles softly at her.
"You walk down the stairs and lock eyes with the Princess. There's a heavy chain around her wrist, binding her to the far wall of the basement." ruined the narrator. They had a moment and interrupted them.
"She's beautiful. How could someone like this be a threat to anyone?" said the heroic voice of her mind.
"I am begging you to stay focused. There's a lot riding on you here." asks the narrator.
"Hi! Do you think you can get me out of these chains?..." The Princess said shyly, so unsure. How can she end the world?
"I'll see what I can do." Hermione is so worried for her she takes the lead of the narrator and examines the chains.
"You're only making this more difficult..." the narrator once again opened up his mouth to state his idiotic comment.
"Thank you, thank you!" She said as Hermione approached her.
"You're making a huge mistake." warns the Narrator. His comments are definitely useless, nothing surprising coming from a man, and oddly mysterious. She's got to know what he is playing at, knowing for sure he must be part of the whole "killing plan".
"No you're doing the right thing." The Heroine reminds her, voice determined to take the lead of the story.
She walks up to the chains binding the Princess to the wall and gives them a tug. They're large and heavy, far too solid for Hermione to even imagine trying to break them apart.
"I'm guessing you don't have the key." Said the Princess as she breaks the silence with that sweet voice of hers. Her face doesn't match the character at all, thinks Hermione.
"Maybe it's somewhere upstairs." says Hermione, not sure about her half-lie, knowing far too well she didn't see any key up there.
"Doubtful. Whoever locked the Princess away down here intended for her to never see the light of day. They wouldn't have just left the key to her chains somewhere in the cabin." the Narrator says, nonchalant.
"And if there isn't a key... Do you have any other ideas?" Hermione asks the Princess. She doesn't want to make her life even more difficult by forcing the chains but they'll have to get there eventually.
"Maybe there's some way to break the chains?... Or if that doesn't work I guess we can always cut me out of them." the Princess suggests. Ok.... she's a creep. But she's facing the truth. Unlike this tiny whore describing and commenting each second with his boring ass.
"If I could just get you out of these chains I know we could force our way out of here together." she says to the Princess, noticing that blush on her cheeks.
She barely hesitates before raising her arm to her mouth, her teeth tearing through her limb with the determination of a trapped wolf. As she rips her flesh from her bone, a sound comes from behind Hermione. The clang of bouncing metal. It's the blade from upstairs.
"You're not sure how it made its way down here, but if there's a time to strike, it's now." Hermione stairs at the blade, not convinced this is the decision she needs to make.
"Or we could use it to free her." Heroine suggests. Hermione likes her inner brave self, careless of consequences.
"You won't like what happens if you do that." warns the Narrator. Who cares?
She is saving that girl. That's it. She might be a bit weird, have a strange habit to bite her own flesh whenever she's hopeless, but she touched Hermione's heart. She's innocent. Wicked people did something wrong to her and she's going to save her from her prison.
"Ugh. Fine. Against your better judgment, you place the blade against the ragged, self-infected wound on the Princess's arm, just above the unyielding chain binding her to this place. You cut into her flesh. The blade is sharp, and it takes little effort to crack through the bone of her arm. Her limb falls on the ground, and the heavy chains follow suit." describes the narrator's hollow voice.
"She didn't so much as utter a sound through the whole ordeal." notices the voice of the Heroine.
She smiles softly as her gaze meets yours, blood from her wounded arm dripping rhythmically to the ground.
"How is she still smiling after everything? It's like she isn't even bothered by what just happened." laughs the Heroine, overwhelmed by all this madness.
"Thank you. Now let's get out of here." says the Princess, with a serious tone. A shiver runs down her spine as she smiles at her, smitten.
Hermione takes her hand. They approach the door side by side when a deep voice stops her.
"No. We won't have any of that. The stakes are too high. You can't just let her escape into the world. ... No. I can't just let her escape into the world." orders the Narrator.
"Yes, you can. I'll not let you kill this Princess. She has every right to live, even if you don't have any hope in her. I sure know if there's one asshole in this room it's you. Nobody here is agreeing with your "plan". You never shared why we were involved in this killing bullshit. I'm staying here with the Princess until we can escape this dusty basement."
"Wh-what? Stop that. You realize you're messing with the wrong person?"
"Exactly. The only person in this world needing me to kill a potential innocent. I barely know both of you, but I certainly don't want to trust a pointless voice leading my actions and choices to murder."
"Fine, whatever you want. I warned you. You won. Congratulations, I'm leaving. But you'll soon regret throwing me out of the story." finishes the Narrator, slowly fading into the silence. God bless.
Meanwhile, the Princess stood there, a little worried about her savior having a conversation with the wind. As Hermione keeps her heated dialogue with... nothing apparently, she smiles softly at the funny scene. She's relieved her shiny knight is as psycho as she is. Honestly, this Princess never had anyone caring for her. At all. People used to name her little cute pet names like the beast, a nightmare or fury. Sweet isn't it? A moment later, Hermione stops talking and stares at her. Looks like she realised she cannot hear whatever unholy spirit she's having a deep conversation with.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise you couldn't hear the other voice. Something evil tried to control my body."
"Should I be worried we're both losers then?" she says as she waves her chopped arm.
"What's this loser name then?" Hermione tries to know the name of the girl she's about to save.
"Oh. Well, to be honest... I don't know. I don't remember. I must have had a name but all I know is that I'm a princess. Doesn't mean you can call me by this unattractive title." the "princess don't call me princess" says as she tangles a strand of hair around her finger, hand on her hip, confident.
"I'm Hermione. What about Black?"
"Sorry?"
"Your hair is black. I-I just thought I could call you like that since you give no shit- forget my proposal that was stupid."
"I like it."
They talked for days, getting closer as it gets. Both lost, they forgot anything they knew about their life. They built a new one together. Eventually they realised several days had passed. They slowly get to the top of the cabin. The basement started to feel like home, cosy and warm by their lively "discussion", but they knew they couldn't stay forever in here.
The black Princess pushes the door. Winter welcomed snow outside the wooden house. The air is freezing but their intertwined fingers keep them in a warm hug, aware they'll be there for one another whatever happens.
"I want to go outside. Have you ever seen snow before? I want to dance there." says Hermione excited by the weather.
Black nods, smiling at her savior. They head towards the front door. She feels that strange aura drawing her into the cold world. White landscape fills her eyes with joy. Gently, Hermione takes the Princess by the waist moving slowly, letting their body make one. Their harmonious dance hypnotizes any careless heart daring passing by. That's when they felt an unknown force separate them, grabbing the Princess from nowhere. They soon understood she had to go. In the end, Hermione accomplished her mission without slaying her. Was that the only alternative? She didn't want to think about what could've happened.
"Thank you, savior of the damsel. You saved me. We'll meet again my dear." whispers the Princess to Hermione.
"Everything goes dark, and you die.”