The sweet chirpings of birds welcomed Annalise as she stepped into the backyard of the Castle.
Even though it already had been a week since she arrived at the Cursed Castle, this was her first time in the orchard that was taking up most of the space in the backyard.
Since that day when the incident between her and Kenric happened, none of the Dark Lords had made an appearance throughout the week, leaving her alone with her thoughts and the empty castle.
Her only company were Sera, Aunt Claire, Garron, and Mr. Warren, but even they were busy cleaning the castle and decorating it in the best way possible with the little resources that were present.
Since none of the Dark Lords came out of the basement for so many days, the servants couldn't ask for their permission to visit the market in order to buy the necessary items required for the renovation of the Castle. And Annalise wasn't sure if she was qualified enough to grant them the permission.
On the other hand, one thing that they all had finally come to realize in the past few days was that Lord Valerius' theory about her was pretty much right.
The castle indeed seemed to be accepting her presence, or probably liking too, because only those places remained cleaned and arranged properly which she personally helped in cleaning with the others. As for the other places where she didn't even set foot and the others took care of them, they ended up returning to their rundown state within the night.
After a long week, they had finally cleaned the entire ground floor and some portion of the front garden.
In short, it had been quite a tiring week for her and the others as they tried to settle in their new home which was far from being called home at the moment.
Annalise was pulled out of her thoughts when her eyes noticed the slight flicker of something glittery next to the huge willow tree that was standing at the entrance of the orchard.
As her curiosity was piqued, she found herself taking a step closer in the direction of the tree but the glittery thing disappeared behind the tree and went deeper into the orchard.
She too followed behind it, her legs moving on their own accord as they stepped deeper into the orchard.
The view that she found there was shocking even though she had been hearing about the state of the orchard from the others for the entire week.
Unlike the front and the side gardens which were overflowing with luscious green grasses, vines, and wildflowers, the backyard was devastating as all the trees had taken a darker shade with withering leaves, no flowers, no green grasses, or even wildflowers present anywhere in sight.
Stepping into the orchard, reminded her of the dark forests that she used to hear about from her granny. Those forests existed in tales and were rumored to be ruled by darkness and evil powers.
While the state of the backyard kind of matched the name and the current rundown state of the castle, the greenery of the front garden didn't make any sense at all.
And amid all these confusing findings, she once again noticed the glittery thing fluttering near another tree. Such a sparkling thing in the middle of a dark and almost dead place, it surely didn't fit in any way possible.
Annalise once again picked up her speed as she stepped towards that glittery thing but it again started flying away from her.
But instead of giving up, she decided to chase after it and rushed her steps. At one point, she was almost running but without any knowledge of the direction of the place in which she was heading.
She was too focused on keeping her attention on the glittery thing that she didn't even notice crossing the magical ward that was located at the very end of the orchard.
A magical ward that was supposed to stop anyone or anything from crossing it and stepping into the other side - did nothing to stop Annalise from crossing it.
- - - - -
Annalise finally stopped running and placed her back against a tree trunk as she tried to catch her breath.
Sweat trickled down from her temples and cheeks before landing on her dress which was clinging to her body because of all the sweat.
Her legs felt a little weak as she tried to pinpoint the location of that mysterious glittery thing in her surroundings only to realize that it was already long gone.
A frustrated sigh left her lips as the foolishness behind her act of chasing after that 'glittery thing' finally settled over her. She not only wasted her energy and time but she was also lost as she couldn't find any way back to the castle.
As far as her eyes went, she could only find huge trees with big and wide trunks and roots spread all across the place. It felt as if she was in the middle of a dense forest instead of the backyard of the castle.
Fear gripped her as the wrongness of the situation dawned over her. The only thing that she kept thinking was that she shouldn't be at that place. However, she was unable to make sense of her surroundings to find a way back.
The more time passed, the more anxious she became. She used her sleeve to wipe off the sweat from her forehead as she decided to move. She knew that waiting wouldn't help her at all because no one was coming to save her.
However, as she tried to move away from the tree trunk, her legs refused to move and she felt something tightening its hold around her ankles. Panic settled over her as she hurriedly pulled up her dress a little bit to look at her ankles only to find sharp black vines gripping her legs tightly. Their hold on her ankles had become so tight that it started hurting her.
A painful groan left her lips but it was overshadowed by the loud growl that suddenly rumbled through the surroundings...!