The Pain that Made Her Beautiful

The Pain that Made Her Beautiful Ch6 (Pic of Thanos) Edited!

Next thing that Nayeli saw was the ceiling of a wooden wagon. What? How did I get here? Nothing more. There were the sounds of donkeys braying and unhappy oxen straining. Nayeli’s head hurt horribly and her every joint, bone, and muscle ached.

Blackness.

Nayeli woke again in a canvas tent on a temporary cot. There was a lone man sitting on a stump near the entrance flap. He was leaned forward his elbows propped up on his knees. His fingers were intertwined, his chin sitting on top of them. He was just…. watching her. Nothing more.

The look on the man’s face was from a far off, distant memory that called to her. The look on his face gave her an uneasy feeling. Why is he looking at me like I am a piece of meat? Eventually, Nayeli began to watch the man with an even more intense stare to ward off his.

Once she had regained more of her strength, she sat up and saw a young man, no older than seventeen, sitting in a chair not even ten feet from her. He had a very different look to him. There was gentleness. It unnerved her even more than the other man’s look. I can handle gruffness, but this, I cannot. Isis, keep him from me! When Nayeli woke the next day and had eaten the food left on the side table by her cot she looked signs of anyone who could be watching. She saw none and slowly drifted back to sleep.

From that point on, Nayeli began to notice a pattern of when the young man would come back; it was always after the doctor gave her a completely revealing, crude check up of her body, seeing the status of her recovery. The older man would quietly stand in the corner of the tent, waiting for results. The next day, the young man would come and sit next to her cot, and just give her the same look.

A few weeks of this pattern and the doctor gave a more thorough check-up. She didn’t really mind. That was until he lifted the bottom of her gown. Nayeli hit him and pulled the gown back down, “Don’t you ever do that to me again! There will be serious consequences the next time you assume to be so bold.”

How dare he! Doesn’t he know who I am?

The man in the corner stalked forward hastily, ”If you talk that way again, slave, you will be whipped or your impudence. I suggest you let the good doctor do his job.”

Nayeli could not believe her ears. No! No, this can’t be happening. I cannot, and will not, believe it!

“I am not a slave! I will have you whipped if you continue to presume that I am your property and that I am to follow—“ Nayeli’s words were cut short by a hand slapping her face.

“Either you stop your foolishness now, or I will be forced to enforce my rules in…other ways. I don’t think that you want to know what that is.” The man had a bite to his voice. He looked at the doctor and gave him the signal to continue.

As the doctor moved in, Nayeli’s eyes grew and she held tighter to the blankets around her knees. When the doctor could not get her to budge, the man held her arms while the doctor did a rudimentary check-up.

When the doctor finished, the man whispered in Nayeli’s ear huskily, “I’m not finished with you yet.” Then he turned to the doctor, “Well?”

“She’s the finest jewel that you’ve ever found. She is of very noble birth and is clean and untouched. She’s perfect.” The doctor smirked and looked at the man holding her still, “Well, for now.”

“Noble blood, you say? Just how noble do you think?” The man had a greedy eye.

“If I’m right about this, and I always am, I’m guessing that she has the direct bloodline of Julius Caesar himself.”

“…Caesar…. I made myself a very rich man when I decided to nurse her back to health, in other words?”

“Exceedingly, Th—sir.” The man corrected himself. “You could live off of the money from her sale alone for many lifetimes were you to be a hero and return her to Vespasian.”

“No, I don’t think I will. I think that I will let the empire worry and search for her everywhere possible before I, the good citizen, reveal her true location.” The man looked at her and said, “What is your name, madam?”

Nayeli remained silent.

“Come on, spit it out, child.” His voice was cold.

Nothing.

The man’s eyes showed a dangerous flicker of frustration and anger, but then, “ I will call you Rose. For you are as beautiful, perfect, and untouched as a rose in full bloom.”

It was flattery, but it was dangerous flattery. I don’t like this. He shouldn’t be saying these things to me. There was something so inherently wrong with the way the man was talking to her.

Nayeli was afraid and so home sick. All she wanted was to go and curl up in her mother’s loving, tender arms to be comforted. Nayeli just wanted everyone to just go away. She wanted to see nothing and to hear nothing except for the cool, refreshing waters of the spring that ran in the courtyard of her now charred house; she just wanted to curl up in a ball, away from the world, and cry for the family and home that she would never see again.

Chapter 3

Several weeks had passed since her brush with the rough doctor and her new rudimentary “owner”, who she had come to know as Thanos. Lord Thanos to her. I will not be broken! Let me call him what he wants me to, let me do as he wishes, but my soul, will, and heart are mine!

When Nayeli found out his name, she shuddered. His name literally meant “death”.

Nayeli was able to stand up about a week after the “check-up”, and began walking again about two or three weeks later, always in the privacy of her tent with no one around to see her progress. I’ll run away from this prison before they can blink!

Nayeli saw the young man sitting right next to her cot. The look in his eyes was empathetic. He seemed as though he knew something she did not. There is a storm coming. How hard and how fierce, I do not know.

He was concerned for her wellbeing. Nayeli had no idea why, but he had good reason to be.