“Anabelle?” A weak voice echoed from the stairs.
“Daddy?” I felt a rush of emotions and I immediately started to run towards the large stone steps.
My legs were sore from walking and still cold, despite the heat, but all of that faded into a solitary purpose—my father was there. I took the steps two at a time until my legs forced me to slow down. The staircase spiraled up into the castle which got colder as I ventured from the heat below. I walked past painted pictures on the wall of a man and a woman, but both faces were torn from the frames.
I didn’t take any time to try and figure out what I was seeing because my father’s voice was the only mission I had. I kept calling his name until I got to the top of the stairs. I ran through the hallway in front of me, getting closer to his voice with every step I took. My mind was alert and searching for danger, but all I found were empty rooms.
When I got to the end of the hall, I could hear breathing on the other side of the door in front of me. I pushed it open and saw my father in a large cage. He looked weak and he had a stubble that made him look ten years older than he was when I saw him last. I ran over to him and dropped to my feet, grabbing the door of the cage in my hand.
“Daddy! I’m here!” I pulled against the cage and a lock creaked, but the door didn’t budge.
“Anabelle...” His eyes opened slowly. “No, you have to go!”
“I’m not leaving here without you!” I wrapped both hands around the door and started to pull on it.
“You won’t be leaving here at all...” A voice behind me echoed against the stone and I spun around.
“Run, Anabelle!” My father’s words were weak, but they had a certain purpose to them. “Run!”
The voice belonged to a gigantic, hulking beast of a man. He filled the doorway with his body pressed against the frame. He looked like a creature out of a nightmare, standing nearly seven feet tall with green eyes that practically glimmered in the faint light. I stood up and felt my knees get weak as he approached. I took a step forward, but his large hand wrapped around my arm. I pulled against his grip, but found it was far too powerful for me to escape.
He pulled me away from my father and as my eyes adjusted to darkness, I realized there was more than one cage in the room. The beast pulled me forward and then used my momentum to send me crashing into the back of the cage I was facing. He slammed the door and I heard a clicking sound, followed by a growl. I pushed myself away from the back of the cage and gripped the door, shaking it as hard as I could. The beast took a step back and then I saw two more forms step into the room. They looked similar to him with long beards tangled around their face and eyes that glimmered in the light.
“Let me go!” I shook the cage door again.
“Never...” The beast who had put me in the cage shook his head and growled. “You belong to us now, just like he does.”
“What do you want?” I pushed my face against the iron bars. “Why are you doing this to us?”
“This is what we do to thieves.” The beast to the right of the one who imprisoned me stepped forward. “We keep them here and let them rot.”
“I didn’t steal from you!” My words got louder and were accompanied by another attempt to wrestle the door of my cell from the hinges.
“I did...” My father’s words were weak, but they were recognizable.
“What?” I turned towards my father. “You’re not a thief...”
“I wasn’t trying to be.” He leaned forward and I heard a rattled sigh rise up in his throat. “I just wanted to bring you a rose.”
“We showed him hospitality.” The beast who imprisoned me snarled. “We took him in when he was starving. We fed him, took care of him, and when we sent him on his way—he just couldn’t leave without showing us what kind of man he really was.”
“A rose? Really?” I shook my head in disbelief. “You put him in a cage because he tried to take one of your roses?”
“Those roses are our life!” The beast roared and I saw his teeth beneath his tangled beard.
“Alexander...” The beast to his right spoke in a softer tone. “It wouldn’t be right to keep them both when only one of them stole from us.”
“Yeah.” The one to his right nodded and spoke in the same soft tone.
“Fine.” The beast identified as Alexander looked at my father and then to me. “We’ll let her go.”
“No!” I shook my head. “Let my father go. He was only trying to get a rose for me. He’s not in good health. He needs his medication. I brought it for him and it’s in my backpack downstairs.”
“Anabelle, you need to go.” My father leaned against the bars. “I’ll be okay. If one us gets to leave th
is place, it should be you.”
“Daddy, you can’t stay here.” I looked at him with tears forming in my eyes. “Cassandra and Bethany need you. They can’t run the company—they’re planning to sell it. I would rather stay here so you can go take care of them.”