Fuck the Elders.
They had no rules for this Trial. There was only one goal.
Free the belle.
Well, I planned to.
Running to the side of the room where a chair sat, I picked it up and ran back to the box.
“Cover your face!” I shouted as I slammed the chair into the glass, expecting to see the glass shatter all around.
Abilene shielded her face with her arms, and as the chair made contact with the glass, the only thing that happened was the leg of the chair broke off.
The glass box remained intact.
I tried again with more force, roaring in frustration.
The glass box mocked me with its reinforced strength.
This wasn’t normal glass. It was shatterproof.
The Elders had expected my reaction and planned accordingly.
The canes began to beat against the floor again, as if they were laughing at my actions.
The glass marbles were up to her collarbone by now and a horrific terror nearly took me down at the knees. The knots were still there, and I had only wasted time with my barbaric act of thinking I could just bulldoze my way through.
I ran back to the knots and began frantically pulling at them. I looked at Abilene who had tilted her head back in preparation to keep her face uncovered as long as possible.
“Can you climb up at all?” I asked.
“No, I can’t move. Just hurry,” she said, her voice coming out weak and ragged.
I looked at Montgomery and Rafe. “Help me! Get her out of there. Nothing in the rules say you can’t help. Fucking help me!”
What surprised me was that the first one to move toward me was my father. He ran toward the box and began working at one of the knots. Montgomery and Rafe quickly followed. I waited to hear the Elders call out foul or announce the Trial was over due to disqualification, but I didn’t care. I wanted Abilene free at whatever costs.
And as the diamonds circled around Abilene's face, the four of us worked frantically at the knots, and I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. We were so close.
So close.
But in another couple of minutes, she wouldn’t be able to breathe at all.
Fuck me. Fuck me.
The woman I loved was about to die right before my eyes. She would be one of the belles victim to a Trial. Not a rumor. Not a ghost story. A true story, a tragedy I’d let happen.
She would walk these halls in forever damnation because once the Oleander had you, it never let go. Abilene and baby Radcliffe howling for release for eternity.
“Get her out of there!” I screamed.
“Only a couple more knots,” my father said. He looked up from his knot to Abilene who was taking shallow breaths as diamonds trickled down upon her. She spit them out of her mouth and sucked in air. “Hold on a couple more minutes, beautiful. We’ll get you out. I give you my word.”
The one thing about my father was he was a man of his word. He never broke a contract, never promised and under delivered. So with his words to Abilene, I attacked my final knot with renewed vengeance. I was so focused on my task that I ignored that the fingernail of my index finger popped off.
The burning pain told me one thing… We were close. So close.
And just as she took one last deep breath, the marbles and diamonds covered her face completely.
Please don’t let it be her last dying breath.
“Faster,” I screamed. “She’s completely covered! She can’t breathe. Get her out!”
Finally, we unfastened the only remaining rope. I yanked it off and opened the box.
The marbles and diamonds rushed out of the box like a tidal wave of sin. They covered the floor of the ballroom as I reached for Abilene’s body and pulled her to me. She gasped for air as she clung to me for strength.
“It’s okay,” I soothed as I ran my hand over the back of her head, holding her against my chest. “I got you. I got you and I’m never letting you go again.”
Tears of relief fell from my eyes and my heart beat so hard it physically hurt. I didn’t care what anyone thought, or what the consequences were going to be for me asking and taking help from others.
“I knew you could do it,” she said, shaking as she still held tight to me. “I never doubted you. I knew you wouldn’t let us down.”
“Never again,” I said as I kissed the top of her head. “Never will I ever fear losing you again. Never.”
The pounding of the canes began again. Not stopping, not turning, I ignored the sinister sound.
“Beau Radcliffe,” an Elder said from behind me. “You have completed the Trial and saved the belle. You relied on the power of the brotherhood of The Order of the Silver Ghost as a member will be expected to do. The evening is complete.”