To His Hell and Back-Chapter 25: Can We Trust Him?

Bella tugged her sister's hands gently, walking to the path that her sister had pointed. Surprisingly even though she had stepped through this halls before, she realized that she hadn't seen this new path before.

She turned to Ariel, showing a smile to ease her sister who seemed more frightened in seconds, "Don't worry, everything will be alright now. As long as we can escape- we can go back home. I promise— I'll make sure of it."

Ariel's round, gentle eyes locked onto her, but Bella, in her urgency, failed to see what lay beneath that gaze. It wasn't the warmth of a frightened sister but something colder, alien— a monstrous curiosity, like a predator studying unfamiliar prey.

"How can you be certain we'll leave the castle?" Ariel's voice, trembling yet sharp, cut through the thick, suffocating silence of the maze.

Arabella, sensing her sister's doubt, answered firmly, her tone steady despite the fear gnawing at her. "The Crown Prince promised. He said he would let us escape."

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A gasp escaped Ariel, her hand tightening slightly in Bella's. "The Crown Prince? Isn't he known to be mad, sister?"

Bella turned her face just enough to glance at Ariel, her expression unwavering. "He may be mad, but I don't believe he'd break his word. Madness doesn't make him a liar." Her words were measured as if convincing herself as much as her sister.

To be honest, how could she trust Cassius? He hadn't given her enough reason to trust him yet but he had promised to protect her and at least he had really made sure no vampires could sink their teeth deep into her neck and bleed her dry.

It wasn't that she had trusted him yet. It's that she hopes he could be trusted. 

She pressed forward, the looming hedges of the enchanted maze towering around them. The air felt heavier and thicker, and Bella couldn't ignore the creeping sense that the maze itself was alive, watching, and waiting. Glancing up briefly, she gauged the time, realizing hours had slipped by since she first entered. "We're closer now," she murmured, half to herself, half to Ariel.

But Ariel's voice persisted, a thread of doubt woven through its sweetness. "How could you trust him? A man like that? What if he's playing a game with you, Bella?"

Arabella hesitated mid-step, her grip tightening on Ariel's hand. "Because trust is all I have left, Lala," she said softly but firmly. "And if I don't hold onto that, we'll never make it out of here alive. Besides, he is a crazy man but despite being a vampire he never once drew my blood."

"Perhaps because your worth isn't from your blood. But who knows how long that would be before he gets bored of you?" Lala spoke with a worries mask with delight. "You must have seen him kill someone before- so you'd know how monstrous he could be when he found you useless."

"That's not... true," Is it not true?

Arabella faltered, her resolve wavering under the weight of Ariel's probing words. "But can you really trust him?" Ariel's voice was gentle, almost pitying, yet it dripped with a venom Bella couldn't place. "He's a vampire, Bella. Their kind thrives on deception. What makes you think you're any different from the others he's used and discarded? Just because he hasn't drawn your blood doesn't mean he won't."

Arabella's grip loosened slightly, and she hesitated, her mind flickering with memories of Cassius's sharp words, his mocking smirk, and the air of danger that surrounded him like a shroud. "He hasn't—" she began, but Ariel interrupted her, her tone sharpening like a knife like how Ariel would sound when chastising her for her mistakes.

"And what of Father? You trusted him despite everything- no, we trusted him." Ariel pressed, her voice cracking with feigned emotion. Bella's mind was far too deep in worries that she failed to realize how her sister Lala wouldn't have pressed her to the brink of hopelessness. "He made promises too, didn't he? Promises that we'd be safe, that he'd protect us— and look what happened! He left us, Bella. He betrayed us. Cassius is no different- Men are always the same sister. Do you really think he's going to let us go? Or is this just another one of his games?"

Bella stopped in her tracks, her head dropping as the words seeped into her, each one chipping away at the fragile hope she had been clinging to. Doubt crept in, whispering insidious thoughts that Cassius's promises were as hollow as the maze surrounding them. "What if you're right?" she whispered, more to herself than to Ariel.

Behind her, Ariel's lips curled into a triumphant smirk, her eyes gleaming with the eerie, otherworldly light of the maze but she managed to hide it with her peaceful and gentle gaze, "You see it now, don't you, sister?" her voice sickly sweet. "You've been fighting for nothing, isn't it all too tiring and scary? I know sister, I can hear your heartbeat. Everyone gets scared you can also get scared and stop. So let me take you somewhere better- Somewhere where we don't have to fight anymore."

Ariel extended her hand, her expression soft and inviting, but her outstretched fingers seemed unnaturally long, their edges curling slightly like tendrils. "Come with me, Bella," she cooed. "Let's leave this madness behind. I'll take you to a place where you'll never have to worry again. A place where you can finally rest."

Bella stared at the hand, her heart pounding. For a moment, the thought of surrendering, of letting go of the endless struggle, tempted her. But something about Ariel's voice— about the glint in her eyes— sent a shiver down Bella's spine.

This wasn't her sister. Her sister wasn't someone who would say these words. 

"No," Bella said, stepping back and shaking her head. "I can't. I won't."

Ariel's smile vanished in an instant, her soft features twisting into something monstrous. "You ungrateful little wretch," she hissed, her voice dropping to a guttural growl. The false Ariel's form cracked, her body unraveling into writhing black vines that lashed out viciously, their thorns glinting like shards of glass.

The entire scene was much too gruesome to watch, causing those who saw the humane Ariel suddenly burst into those thorny black vines to shudder in fear including Bella who was stunned as she watched everything happening.

The vines surged toward Bella, their movements unnaturally fast and predatory. She screamed, diving out of the way as one lashed across her arm, slicing through the fabric of her sleeve and drawing blood. She stumbled to her feet, her heart racing as she grabbed a nearby rock and swung it at the attacking tendrils.

"You're not her," a small gasp came out from Bella's lips. Though she had guessed right that this wasn't her sister, it still hurt her, causing her to feel a deeper sense of hopelessness. The sting of the realization was as deep as the cut on her hands.

She might have succeeded in attacking Minister Rueben, a vampire. But what about this enchanted being?

Fear mixed with uncertainty for her survival caused her tears to drop but she wasn't going to die here right after being reminded of her sister who still needed her.

The maze itself seemed to close in around her, the walls shifting and pulsating as if feeding on her fear. But Bella's resolve hardened. "You're nothing different from those blood sucking monsters," she shuddered, her voice trembling but fierce, "You want me to lose my hope, to turn to my despair and offer me death as your mercy. But no- that will never happen."

With a final burst of determination, Bella dodged the next strike and sprinted down the path, her breath ragged and her heart pounding, the sound of the vine-creature's enraged screeches echoing behind her. She didn't dare to look behind her, knowing fully well that if she did fear would enrapture her body and she would slow down out of fear, something she couldn't let to happen.

The maze may have tried to break her, but it had underestimated the strength born of desperation— and the faint, flickering hope that still refused to die.