The Switch

Silence

I am going to respectfully ask that people stop adding this book to their BDSM libraries.

*Raina's P.O.V*

Apparently I was still expected to write an apology for almost biting the guard yesterday. It's not like I actually bit him so I don't know why I had to apologize for it. I wrote it, only because Mother sat in the room and refused to let me do anything else until it was written.

Mother had Catiline go deliver the letter to the guard since apparently I had to do some calligraphy practice. She wrote out examples in calligraphy before having me trace them a couple times. I managed to get through the practice pretty quickly, mainly because I was just good at copying other people's way of writing.

"Now we need to work on your arithmetic," Mother said, making me frown as I popped my fingers. "Do not do that, it is bad for your hands," she scolded absentmindedly as she looked at me over the edge of her reading glasses. I looked her in the eyes as I popped all the fingers on my other hand. She shook her head as she went back to writing arithmetic problems on the paper in front of her.

"Can't I go play with my dolls or something? I am really bored," I whined as I rested my head on my hands, frowning as I looked at her.

"You will not be bored once I give you your arithmetic problems to work out," Mother said simply.

"I will be bored after you give them to me. In fact I will be even more bored," I said as I fidgeted in my chair, leaning back in it. "This is torture," I muttered as I put my feet up on the desk in front of me, covering my eyes with my arm. If I could not go do anything remotely entertaining then I would just go to sleep.

"Feet off the desk now," Mother said as she physically pulled my chair back so that my feet fell off of the desk. I removed my arm from my face and looked at her with a frown. "Get to work on your arithmetic," she said as she set the paper on my desk. I sighed as I looked over the arithmetic, tapping my quill on the edge of the paper.

Theoretically I could do all of the problems but that would take forever, I didn't want to be here forever. I would much rather be doing anything other than this. I groaned as I sat my quill down, tapping my fingers on the desk.

"I'm not doing this," I announced as I got up out of my seat. Mother looked up from the book she had in her lap, arching an eyebrow slightly. "I'm going to go play outside," I informed her as I headed to the open bedroom door. I turned around slightly when she cleared her throat. She pulled her reading glasses down so that they were resting on the bridge of her nose and stared at me over the rims.

"I will give you the option of doing half of the problems now and half later on today but you will come sit down and work on your arithmetic," Mother said simply. I shook my head as I backed out the door, squeaking when I backed into someone. I spun around and smiled innocently at Catiline. "Catiline, please escort Anastasia back to her desk," Mother stated.

"Of course your majesty," Catiline said as she reached for my arm. I ducked down, dropping to the floor as I glared at her.

"You can't make me move," I said as Catiline moved to pull me up from the floor. I dodged away from her, crawling between her legs to get out the door before I took off down the hall. I ignored the sound of Catiline's footsteps behind me, losing her by ducking between the maids and guards in the hallways. Eventually I came to a stop on the far side of the castle, one close to the infirmary.

My eyes drifted to a hallway that had a long black curtain covering it and I parted it, carefully stepping through it. I let it fall into place as I looked around. It was much darker here, the candles were unlit and it was obvious no one had been down this hallway in years. I walked down it, feeling the air grow colder around me for some reason.

There were two sets of doors in the entire hall, the only other rooms had baby gates where the doors should have been and were obviously playrooms. I opened the door to one room and the entire room was a soft beige color. It was clearly a bedroom and laying beside the bed was two cradles, pink blankets in both of them. The room was untouched, it was almost ghost-like with how quiet it was. I shut the door, my hands shaking slightly as I moved to the other door to see what was behind it.

I closed my eyes for a second as I turned the knob, opening them once the door was open. A cool breeze flowed into the room, the shattered window making the curtains wave lightly. I carefully stepped into the room, noticing that there were two cribs in the room. One was perfectly upright, untouched by time. The other lay on it's side, signs of breakage around it from where it had hit the ground.

I found myself drawn to the opposite side of the room, to the dresser that had a framed photo laying face down on it. I picked it up, wincing when broken glass fell out of the frame and a piece dug into my thumb. I lifted the photo up to face me, my heart dropping when I saw Mother sitting in the middle of the photo. That wasn't what made me sad though, it was more sad to see the two babies in the photo both so tiny and small. Based on her looks it would have had to have been from when Anastasia was a baby.

It didn't make sense for it to be someone else's in the context I was viewing things. This was a room for two babies to be raised in, that's why there were two cribs. It explained the two cradles in the room next door, the reason there seemed to be double of every toy in the playrooms in this hallway. So who was the other baby she held? And why did it look identical to Anastasia?

I felt bile rise in my throat as I turned my head slightly to look at the broken crib. My heart constricted painfully as my breath caught in my throat. There was dried blood around the crib, soaked into the carpet over time. I dropped the picture, it hit the ground with a dull thud as I backed out of the room. It all made sense now, the pieces of the puzzle had fit themselves together. My ears rang from the silence that surrounded me. My head swam with raging thoughts but in the back of my head I heard a sobbing noise that seemed to get louder and louder.

'Not my baby, not my baby. Please don't take my baby,' the voice sobbed, sounding far too much like Mother for my liking. It suddenly became much harder to breathe as I tried to make my way back down the hallway, my legs giving it out from under me about halfway down the hallway. I dropped my head into my hands as I curled my knees up to my chest, rocking back and forth as the shadows danced in front of me. Tears slid silently down my face, hitting my hands before they dripped off my fingertips to the stone hallway. That was the only noise that was made as I felt the world collapse around me.