I dropped onto my knees, laying my head against the cold stone flooring with pleading eyes.
Bryan the guard scoffed, leaning against one of the stone pillars behind me.
I paid him no mind, and only focused my rare prayer on this singular chance.
I could not keep protecting the boys as I am, something needed change. I needed to get stronger, get smarter, anything in order to pay for our stay at the orphanage. Knowing what would happen if we had one day run out of money or weakened to the point of not being able to complete chores.
The priest before me wore a sinister smile on his face, as the golden carvings that wrapped around his face like the coiling of a snake-shimmered in the darkness of the basement.
Behind the priest, was a black door with a large padlock chained to its knob.
I could only hope that what was beyond that door, was not some horrible room filled with nightmares beyond my imagination.
But it was the hope that my brother gave me, that gave me the determination to abandon my pride, and ask God for a chance to accept this ancient Oath.
My blonde hair was muddied and tangled as is hung lazily over my head. Tension ripping apart my body, as I pleaded with the priest.
"Please sir... Let me take the Oath, I will do anything you ask of... Just keep my brother and the Max boy out of harms way... I beg of you!"
The priest snickered, reaching his hand towards the padlock slowly.
"Are you sure you are able to entertain the idea of such an Oath? Without basking in the revelation that is the truth? Without knowing what lies beyond this door... Are you prepared to make that sacrifice, and forever blind yourself from the concept of good versus evil?" The priest laughed aloud as he spoke a sickening curse from his lips.
"I am... I- I Diana DeArmado will take the Oath of The Maiden..."
He sneered.
"Then stand child... Come bear witness to the fruits of my labor..."
He unlocked the door, and it swung open violently.
The terrible smell of death leaked from the completely dark room.
The Priest led me in by the hand, causing everything to feel like some sort of eerie dream.
Upon entering the horrid smelling room...
The first discovery that I found myself gazing upon in horror... Was a pile of bones and flesh...
Corpses piled up to the ceiling at the back of the long room...
I could hardly tell what was left of the remains... I could hardly even tell the genders of the dead... The children...
She gasped in horror... Realizing everything about the halls she and her brother had grown up in.
"You-"
"No no... You have taken the Oath remember... Come look at my wonderful resource... I have farmed for near two hundred years for this much Essence..."
"Oh my God..." I couldn't believe the monstrosity that I had walked into of my own accord.
A singular glass tank... Filled to the brim with a slime-like crimson liquid... With purple and blue veins pulsating from behind the glass...
"The higher ups like to call it Living Essence... It is the stuff of specters and phantoms... The energy that makes up the very Behemoths that walk our world..."
He continued to praise the horror like some sort of monster... Pressing his ancient hand against the sizzling tank before him.
"We humans use the essence for what is normally called... Carving... A ritual passed down for the last six hundred years."
He chuckled before pointing at the center of my forehead.
"The living essence that resides in a maiden... Can be forged into a weapon... Or a blade that can carve the skin... Marking great power bestowed from God in the body of those who are carved... So do not think your sacrifice will be meaningless... As with the essence of your own body... I am sure that great soldiers will be born from your own fluids..."
I stared in horror, taking in the sight that was once nothing more than a simple supply basement used for tools and storing pointless items... At least I had once thought of it like this... Now everything had changed... And the nights she had stayed awake alongside Max, plotting some sort of escape or way out... Seemed... Pointless.
It had all began to feel so pointless.
Like the devil himself had built this very orphanage...
"Do not worry... I have no interest in the boys... We merely kill them off when they grow useless. But I have found that the Max boy is quite the skilled worker... And your brother Abe... Will make a fine priest, just as myself has..."
After that... Everything seemed like a blur. I remembered walking up the stairs in deafening silence... Being greeted by all of the friends I had made at this orphanage. Remembering all of the times I had wondered what was outside of the walls...
The ivory robes on my body swayed with an almost imaginative breeze.
And I found myself pushing open the old door that Bryan had slammed into the outer wall of the orphanage every single day since the time I had first walked into the this hell.
"Abe!" I called out, reaching out my hand as if he had grown far too out of reach.
The black haired brat met my eyes before my brother could finish his prayer and turn around.
A terrible understanding was met between the two of us. His indigo eyes darkening at the sight of the ivory garments...
'Please... I beg of you... Leave this place...' I tried to mentally plead with Max. Trying to ignite that endless fire that burned within his heart.
I pleaded... and begged... But no matter what look I gave him...
Blind hatred was once again... The only response that rested in Max's aching heart.