Chapter 3 3. Impossible

'Okay. I don't care about this crazy guy. The most important thing now is that I have to get out of this place. I'm afraid he will do something bad to me. His brain must be damaged!' Grace thought.

"O-okay." She nodded. Then she pointed to the door that the crazy man had used to enter. "This really is the way out, isn't it?"

The man nodded. "Yes. That's the door leading to the forest."

Grace smiled wryly. What forest? This mansion was located in the coastal area of the city, where there was no forest at all.

Then Grace took a glance at the man before stepping fast and pulling the door open.

"Hey! Are you insane!?" The man snapped. However, he stopped, and his body froze, just like the impudent girl, who was also stunned as if she had just seen Medusa's eyes.

Grace turned her head to look at the man who kept talking nonsense. Her feeble hand pointed at what was behind the open door, trying to confirm to him that he also witnessed the same thing.

They couldn't believe what they saw. Behind the door was only a brick wall. Yes, it was the wall that the door was attached to. There was no room, let alone a forest. It looked like a joke door.

"H-how is that possible?" Grace muttered, touching the brick wall.

"What happened? Why is there suddenly a wall here?!" The man did the same.

The two of them pushed against the wall and even tried to knock on it just to confirm that it was a real wall – A strong one.

Grace didn't understand. She saw with her naked eyes that the man came out of that door. Even though her vision was blurry, she was sane enough to see him come in through it. It was the door that was knocked on from the outside!

"You!" The strange man pointed at Grace, glaring into her eyes. "You are a witch, aren't you?!"

"What?! Excuse me, sir, but how could I be a witch?!" Grace replied. Then she placed her hands on her head. "Gosh, am I the one who's gone crazy? Did I hit my head and break some of my brain cells?" she muttered.

"You are so undignified. I will impose punishment on you and your family. There will be no mercy for you!" The man hissed.

Grace just stared at him in disbelief. However, she chose to ignore him instead and turned around to look for a way out.

"Hey! Where are you going?" The man followed her.

"Of course, get out of ... here," Grace answered. However, the pain of her injured ankle and leg made it impossible for her to walk.

The man looked at Grace from behind. He saw the girl's leg, which was covered with wounds that kept bleeding. 'If it's true that she is a witch, she should be able to heal her leg herself. But why didn't she do that? ... Should I help her?'

Grace couldn't take it anymore. Whenever she took a step, she felt as if her bones were shifting more and more, until she staggered out of balance. "Aa!"

Blinking her eyes several times, Grace found out that she didn't fall because someone was holding her body. It was that man. The weird man was holding her arm and waist.

Grace looked up just to collide her eyes with a pair of shining crystal blue beads in a shady and firm frame, as if that gaze bewitched her into a puppet.

"Your legs are badly injured. I will help you get out of here," The man's deep, baritone voice shook Grace's heart. She could only nod subconsciously.

The man scanned the room until his eyes found a rickety wooden door that was blocked by an old tea table. He let go of Grace slowly before approaching the door and pushing open the tea table. Then he smiled when he managed to open the door. "We have stairs here,"

Grace's eyebrows rose. "We do? That must be the way out!"

"All right. Let's go upstairs quickly," With a wide smile, the man approached Grace back. Then he realized that he shouldn't act this casually towards a stranger. He even still suspected her of being a witch.

The man looked at the soft face under his neck. Her pair of hazel brown eyes somehow seemed to hypnotize him for two seconds, even though they were in a room with minimal light. He blinked to regain consciousness.

"May I?" He asked for permission to carry the girl because he had to respect women and not carelessly touch them, whoever it was.

"It's okay," Grace murmured.

Even though the narrow stairs looked gloomy and dirty, they were the real way out of the basement. The stairs lead upstairs, through the kitchen, then into the mansion's grand entrance, where the main door was located.

"Oh... thank goodness! We're safe! That's the door to outside!" Grace pointed to a pair of large, closed doors that had intricate carvings. Sunlight penetrated through the cracks in the door.

"I'm not sure we can get out now. The wolves may have reached higher ground already. I lost my sword while fighting them, so it will be risky to protect both of us unarmored."

Grace cleared her throat. "The track up here is too difficult. There's no way they're already up." She gave a wry smile.

'How to deal with a crazy person is to pretend to be crazy.' She said to herself.

Then they stepped toward the door and opened it. The cold sea breeze blew hard, blowing Grace's long hair. Meanwhile, the man, who was still holding her, was now stunned into silence.

"That's my car. Boy, I just remembered I left my phone in it," Grace pointed to the car parked on the side of the street.

"W-wait a second!" The man refused to move.

Exhaled tiredly, Grace rolled her eyes and shook her head quietly. This was bad luck.

"This isn't right ... Where... is this place?" The man asked, half-mumbling while looking around. Slowly, he let go of Grace's arm.

"Sir, please wait. You have to calm down," Grace said slowly.

The man turned to Grace with a frown. "Where are we now? Where did you take me?"

"I didn't take you anywhere. We're in Torbern City. You have to calm down. I'll call for help, okay? Please trust me,"

The man looked deeply at Grace, into her hazel-brown eyes. For some reason, that made his anxiety slowly disappear.

"Very well," The man nodded while squeezing his nose bridge. "Please seek the fastest help. I have to return to the palace as soon as possible."

"S-sure. Don't worry," Grace answered. "Now, I ask you to help me walk to the car; can you? It's over there," she said, pointing at the car again.

"Car? That thing's called a car?"

Grace nodded with a thin, forced smile. "That's right. Please take me there. OK?"

With a frowning brow and eyes still screening around, the man led Grace towards a big, strange carriage called a car.

Arriving in front of the car door, Grace opened it and grabbed her cell phone, which had been left in the passenger seat. Immediately, she called an ambulance. She said that her ankle was broken and also informed them of her current location.

After hanging up the call, Grace glanced at the man who was still standing in front of her. He kept looking around him, as if he were a foreigner abandoned in a country he didn't know without a penny. However, one thing that Grace found obvious was that the man's beauty was beyond imagination.

"What are you doing? When will we get help? Why is this place so strange?" The man gave her a sharp look.