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Part 5
DG held the lantern up as high as she could but she could see through the thick darkness. She was starting to feel claustrophobic. It was like she was back in the coffin. They couldn't go forward Raw was disturbed by whatever was up there and now they couldn't go back.
There was something out there just like glitch had said DG could see it now moving towards them. Glitch and Raw were close behind her trying to be brave. "What is it?" Glitch asked quizzically about the unknown. "Can't we keep going."
"We should go back the way we came." Raw said forcefully leaving them with no options. DG was scared. Her heart started to race the darkness was closing in. She was sure this was it the witch was coming to get them and she didn't know how to fight it. Just as Glitch sucked in a breath and held it in anticipation of the horrors that were about to happen the lights came on. The three of them flinched back, surprised by the brightness that had come so abruptly. The menace stood in front of them his hand on the massive switch that turned on the lights.
They all let out a sign of relief. "Kalm." Raw stepped forward. "What are you doing? I told you to stay upstairs. "I wanted to help…" Kalm started but couldn't finish. His eyes got big as he looked past Raw and saw what the witch had been keeping in the basement.
Cain escorted the Queen back up to the dining hall with the ten guards including Jeb. "You'll need to watch out for the mobats. I think they're waiting for the witch. We've got people looking through the castle for signs of her."
In the hall Jeb was astonished to she the princess Azkadelia high up in a chandelier surrounded by gargoyle like creatures.
"Shouldn't we be trying to get her down?" Jeb asked his father.
"Yes, but there's no safe way to get her away from the mobats. I think the most productive think to do until we learn if the witch is gone is to leave the princess where she is." Cain said curtly. It had been a very long day, hell it had been a very long eight years and Cain was starting to feel it.
"Alright if you think that's best." Jeb conceded. Cain patted his son on the back and watched as the younger man went and set his men up.
"How long do you think DG and the others will be?" The Queen looked up at Az who was clinging tight to the chandelier with her eyes squeezed shut. Cain pulled a chair out from the table and offered it to the queen.
"I don't know your Majesty, but I think I'll go have a look around myself." Cain said as he nodded to Ahamo who'd come to stand by the queen. Cain took one last look around the huge dining room and then went to look around.
Ahamo stood next to the Queen. "The Suns will be setting soon. We should find you some food and a place to sleep my dear."
"There is no time. I will not sleep until my children and my kingdom are safe." The Queen stated royally.
"Yes I thought you'd say that." Ahamo's look turned sad. He hope some day soon they could all return to the normal lives they'd once shared.
The young viewer wasn't strong enough to fight the surge of emotions that flooded him. He started to fall and Raw caught the boy.
"What's wrong?" DG asked. Raw started to look back at her but quickly averted his eyes from her direction. DG now had to look behind her.
Glitch who'd been concerned with Kalm who seemed to have fainted became interested in what DG was looking at. "What everyone so interested in?" He said feeling left out. What was behind him was terrifying on more levels then he would care to think about.
DG was repulsed and confounded. Chained on both sides of the hallway were pale, drooling, thin, ragged, dead eyed zipper heads for as far as they could see in front of them. "OH my goodness." DG stepped back and covered her mouth. Glitch stood there frozen; unable to form thoughts in his head so profound was the sight.
The prisoners stood up straight bound by chains around their chests to the stone walls but they seemed lifeless and slack in their chains. Glitch's eyes went from one face to the next, he seemed almost to remember some of them. Their dead eyes and stillness were haunting. He felt someone grab his arm but he couldn't seem to pull himself away. He started to walk forward and the hand holding his arm dug nails into his arm sharp through his thread bare clothes trying to stop him. He could hear someone yelling but it sounded distant and he couldn't make out the words so he ignored it.
He was walking threw the zipper heads like he was looking for something, like he had to make it to the end of them. They were all so still like statues, like stuffed men, dummies. The hands were around his arm again suddenly stopping him from going further. He looked into the face of the nearest zipper head looking for answers. It was when the zipper head looked back at him that he jumped and came back to his senses.
DG dragged Glitch back down the hallway, through what had been next to dead men. No as they ran they fought back flailing limbs of one Zipper Head after another. They came to life one at a time down the line, their eyes moved to look at DG and Glitch and them they started grabbing at the two fleeing until they had pasted and then the next one animated.
When they made it to the end of the hallway Glitch practically collapsed, DG held the scrawny man up and pulled him a long. "Let's get out of here now." DG called to Raw who was up ahead of them with Kalm in his arms.
Cain was walking down the stairs to the basement level when Raw came tearing up the stairs. "Whoa, what's happened?" Cain looked at the boy in Raw's arms and feared the worst. Then DG came behind Raw. "Kid, what's going on? Is it the witch?" DG shook her head and followed Cain back up the stairs.
"No it wasn't her or well I don't think it was, I don't know." DG tried to understand what went on down there, but she was too worked up to think about it rationally. When they got up to the first floor they stopped and caught their breath.
"What's do there?" Cain asked again, concerned for everyone's safty.
"Them, Them, Them, They, they, I, I, I" Glitch babbled bewildered.
"Ok who's them?" Cain demanded. Glitch shook his head unable to form coherent thoughts. DG looked to Raw and Cain followed. Raw had laid Kalm down.
"They were the brainless, like Glitch. Only worse, more brainless. The witch must have been keeping them…storing them for something." Raw explained. "All that was left of them was their residual agony."
Glitch found himself staring at the floor. "was that the witch down there, DG? I know we didn't see her, but was she there…in them? In them?"
DG Thought back to what they'd seen. "It might have been. It seemed like something was controlling them."
"Great an Army of bodies at her disposal." Cain cursed under his breath, today just wasn't getting any easier.
"What do we do now?" DG asked allowed.
Glitch looked at her with pleading eyes. "I'm not going back down there."
Az seemed to be staying calm. In fact everyone in the dining hall seemed to be a bit too calm. Even the mobats seemed to be at ease. The Queen felt her thoughts seem to slow. She wondered what was going on, She thought perhaps it was just because she was tired. But she couldn't seem to come out of her fog. The guards all around the room seemed to be relaxing. Jeb stood the straightest with the most alert eyes. But even he was starting to fade, he wanted to say something, wanted to call his men to attention but he didn't have the energy. It was when the queen herself slumped in her chair and no one did anything about it that Jeb knew something wasn't right. He didn't have long to think about it his men dropped to the floor one by one. Then the mobats started to drop out of the air. There wasn't time to figure out away to get Az down before Jeb hit the floor with a thud.