The World Went Silent

Chapter 9

Meiko landed on the cold cement floor of the dungeon with a thud. The clang of metal sounded as the guards shut her cell. It took nearly all of her strength to get into a sitting position. Ever since the day that the yellow army had invaded her village, had slaughtered her village… she had decided to bring justice to the princess. But she had ended up here instead. What a life she was going to live, in the cellar of the yellow castle.

A hand went to the wound on her arm. It was still bleeding. If she wasn't careful, she could bleed to death in this dusty cell. Scowling, Meiko looked around. There was nothing, no bed or window. Truly horrible, making the prisoners sleep on the cement ground. But the brunette didn't think that fazed the princess at all. She sighed, and then ripped off the bottom part of her long skirt to wrap around her arm. Almost immediately it was soaked through with blood. It would do for right now.

She needed to get out of this place. Meiko leaned against the wall for what seemed like hours. Her throat was burning with thirst, and she couldn't even tell if it was night or day by the time the guards came down with her small ration of food. It was just about a quarter of a loaf of bread, which they threw at her through the iron bars like a dog. Meiko scoffed at it and left it sitting on the ground.

Her hand fell back to her side brushing the hilt of her sword as she thought of a plan… the sword! They hadn't taken it away from her, probably because they guessed she would kill herself with it. Meiko unsheathed it, running her finger along the edge of it. Akaito's sword. An almost insane grin spread across her face as she figured out how she was going to get out. Slowly, she reached over and grabbed the piece of bread, practically stuffing it into her mouth. It was stale and tasted like dust but she didn't care. She was going to need all the energy she could get.

Once she was finished (it hadn't taken long to eat such a small ration of bread), Meiko stood up. She clutched the rusty bars with one hand, testing their strength. There was no way she could chop through them. But no matter. She had a better plan, a foolproof one.

Slowly, Meiko brought the sword up over her head, then quickly swung it down. It collided with the bars with a deafening bang. She could hear rustling up above. Multiple times, the brunette swung, filling the air with harsh clangs and crashes of metal on metal. Any minute, one of the guards would surely come down to see what was making such a loud noise.

"What the-" the guard didn't even get to finish his sentence before Meiko drove the sword through his head. Just as quickly as she put it in, the maiden pulled it out. The blade was covered in blood. The blood of her enemy. And somehow, it felt satisfying. Meiko shook her head, irritated. She couldn't let herself think if she was going to get out of here.

Quickly, Meiko knelt down and took the keys from around the limp guard's waist. If she didn't hurry, the other guards would come as well. Once they were successfully in her grasp, she stood back up and fiddled with the lock until it came undone. As quietly as she could, she opened the barred door and at the last minute turned back to her cell. In messy kanji, she wrote in the dust, "Death to the daughter of evil!". Then she turned and out of the cell.

"You'll never sneak out," a harsh voice said from the other end of the dungeon. Meiko turned to the source of the voice. In the cell across from hers was a young man, probably about 18 to 20 was her guess, with gray hair tied back into a short ponytail and red eyes, accented with tired bags.

"I can try," Meiko replied. The man shook his head.

"They'll catch you too quickly," he explained. "There's a stiffened trap door in my cell, that I suspect can lead us out. We could probably open it with both our strength combined."

The maiden narrowed her dark brown eyes. "Show me."