Ensnaring His Dark Moon

''Ask Keith to play games with you. I can't.''

''He… He is sleeping,'' Liz lowered her head, ''I put him into a deep sleep before I came to meet you. I can't let him know afterall… I left the blood handprint on that door, I made the sound of the footsteps because I know you are a curious one and you will surely come.'' she tilted her head, a flicker of red flashed across her pupils before they started turning red gradually.

Esme's lips parted in disbelief, ''Wh-What are you?" she stepped back from her.

Liz scratched her hair, ''Play a game with me and then I will tell you,'' she grabbed Esme's elbow and pulled her closer, ''Tell me, what do you fear the most?"

Esme shook off the woman's hand, her racing heartbeats gradually calmed down, ''I must have a fear of crazy people like you,'' she turned around to leave. 

''Lies,'' Liz shouted from behind, ''I know what you fear. I discovered it when I held your hand. You have a lot of fears.''

Esme's footsteps came to a halt. Even when it made no sense, she did not know why she believed the woman's words.

Her fears? What did she fear?

Liz lowered her head, a small creepy smile hanging on her lips as she glanced at the pentagon-shaped structure on the floor where Esme was standing, ''You fear your past and your…''

Esme turned around to look at her.

''Shhh,'' Liz pressed a finger on her lips, ''I won't tell you. How about you find it yourself?"

And before Esme could contemplate over her words, her surroundings changed.

Her footsteps staggered when she recognized the place where she was standing.

This was the place where she grew up in. The Royal Castle of Nevesray.

Esme was standing in front of a half ajar door.

She looked around the place again, ''It is a dream… It is a dream,'' she mumbled under her breath, ''Once I wake up, everything will be fine,'' but for some reason, her mind was subconsciously believing that this was real. 

This was her Uncle's room.

A gust of wind blew across the hallway and the door was pushed open.

That heart-wrenching scene from years ago was in front of her once again.

There was a small cage in the middle of the huge chamber. And that familiar figure was locked inside the cage.

Her brother, Adrian. He was put inside the cage with his hands cuffed to bars.

The cage was very small for his body and it was a way to torture criminals in their kingdom, by putting them in a cage much smaller than their bodies so that their limbs would be twisted and their bodies will scream in agony and pain. 

Head-hung low, blood-soaked tattered clothes, Adrian was motionless after the rounds of tortures he went through.

Esme watched as a man approached the cage with a metal rod in his hand, the tip of the metal road was red after being placed in the fireplace for a long time.

The man inserted the metal rod inside the cage.

''No,'' Esme shouted, ''Stop it,'' she dashed inside the room without a second thought.

''Capture her,'' the King ordered his guards.

And soon, two bulky men held both her arms to stop her from moving.

Esme struggled against their strong grip, ''No… No… Why? Why must you do it?" she glanced at the King with her eyes filled with grievances, ''You said you had no children and you loved us like your own. You said that you want us to be the strongest and rule the world one day. You said that seeing us happy made you happy. Then how can you bear to let us go through this? Why did you betray us, Uncle?!"

These are not the emotions that she felt only at this moment. These words were the emotions that she had kept in her heart for 7 years and at this very moment, every word came out of her mouth without restraint.

''Because of you. Everyone's suffering is related to you,'' The King laughed maniacally.

Esme's eyes widened in disbelief. Why? Why was it her? Was he telling the truth? 

''AHHHHH!''

The gut-wrenching scream made her turn to look in the direction of the cage and the sight that she witnessed made her face go pale.

Three people were standing around the cage with rods in their hands. Two of the rods were pierced straight into Adrian's eyes while the other rod was stabbed into his chest, blood oozing out of the wounds. His body slumped inside the cage lifelessly.

A wave of overwhelming grief took over her heart as Esme freed herself from the grip of the men. She ran towards the cage and knelt in front of it, ''Brother, wake up. I am here. Don't die…'' the pain in her heart was becoming unbearable with each passing second, ''I will save you…'' the gruesome sight in front of her made her feel like a knife went through her heart.

''Yes, it's because of you. If it was not because of you, he would not have died,'' the King said.

Esme stopped speaking when she heard that.

She dazedly picked up the rod from the floor and pointed the bloodied tip towards her body, ''Yes, I caused his death,'' she mumbled in a daze.

''You killed him,'' all the people in the room spoke up in unison, ''You should die.''

''I killed him,'' Esme pointed the sharp tip of the rod towards her neck, still in a daze, ''I should die too,'' she thrust the rod straight towards her neck only to stop when the rod was an inch away from her.

Esme glanced at the dried blood on her wrist and suddenly a pair of ice-blue eyes flashed in her mind, followed by the sight of an injured body.

The rod dropped from her hand and she pressed a palm on her forehead.