The Faery King

Chapter 2 - The Cell

My eyes flutter as my body regains consciousness. I felt the cold ground beneath my small frame. I open my eyes as confusion fills me. Gone was the lush, forest canopy. A cold, concrete ceiling in its place, damp and mossy from years of collected moisture. I sat up quickly and darted my eyes around the cell, heart filled with dread and panic. There was little light, the small window, if you can call it that being only a small square with bars, hardly letting anything in. I keep looking around the room and spot a door on the other side of the small cell from me.

I rush over to try jiggling the doorknob, it's locked of course. I try banging my small fist against the door, "Help! Someone please help me I'm stuck! Please someone, I'm in here." My small voice echoes around the cell. I keep screaming for help until my throat is raw and my voice scratchy.

I move across the cell and slide down the wall as sobs begin to rack my small frame. I bury my face in my knees and continue to cry losing hope as each minute turns into hours. I hear a scraping sound and my head pops up. A slot in the door appears and food is slid through the bottom of the door. I scramble over to the tray, hunger pains knotting my tummy.

The tray has a bun and a bowl of some slimy substance. I take the bun and start nibbling softly. I poke the substance in the bowl and almost gag in disgust at the texture. I leave it on the tray as I push it away and continue eating the bun.

I don't know how long I have been sitting the corner, my small form shaking from the damp draft circulating the room. I hear a key in the lock and the jiggle of the doorknob. I see the door creak open and my heart fills with hope. A long shadow enters the room before a man enters afterwards.

"Please sir, please help me." I plead.

"Hush petulant child." He says with disdain. "I'm not here to help you." I recognize that voice, but it is filled with far more malice than when he saved me in the forest.

"It's you! It's Aspen, remember me? You saved me! What are you doing here?" I fire off questions as dawning strikes me. "Did they capture you too?"

He begins laughing, a harsh forced laugh, "Me? Captured? I'm the one that brought you here. You should really learn not to take food from strangers." He says mockingly.

I start sobbing again "Why me? Why would you do this?"

"Don't feel so special, I kidnapped many children to put through the trials of becoming the next Faery King." He snarled.

"Please let me go home. I want my mommy." I sob, tears streaming down my face.

"Your mommy doesn't want you. If your mommy wanted you she would be here." He remarked snidely.

"You're lying! My mommy loves me!" I screamed.

He grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me up, pulling me towards the door. "Where are you taking me?" I screamed in pain.

"Shut up you petulant child!" He growled while continuing forward dragging me behind. I continued to whimper softly as he walked out of the cell and started down the hallway. I tried to keep track of the hallways we went down and the turns we took. Left, left, right, left, right. What was the first turn we took? Finally, after what felt like eternity, we stopped in front of a wooden door.

I wanted to ask where we were, but with fear for the repercussions I kept silent. He opened the door and threw me forward onto the floor in front of him. I sat there rubbing at the sore spot on my head, tears steadily streaming down my face.

"What have you brought me?" I hear a voice coo. "A treat?" I look up, panic stricken. The most beautiful woman stands before me. She has glitter strewn hair, a willowy figure, shiny scales along high cheek bones. I stare awestruck until her lips reveal pin sharp teeth in what I think was supposed to be a smile.

"Make him presentable." My captor said sternly.

"Oh Jasper, is that anyway to speak to me? I have served you so well. I deserve more respect than that." She says, with a sultry tone.

"You said yourself you serve me. Do your job and don't question me." He says, scowling at the strange woman.

"Fine." She says with an eye roll. She looks down her nose at me, disgust utterly evident on her pointed face. "Well then? What are you waiting for? Get up of the floor and show me what I'm working with."

I do as the lady says and stand on shaky legs. "Who are you?" I ask in a timid voice.

"Did you just speak to me? Shut up and let me do my job. I don't want to hear another word from your disgusting, human mouth." She says snidely. "What am I doing with him?" She points the question to who I now know as Jasper.

"Just make him presentable for the ceremony." Jasper says in a bored tone.

She starts laughing, a light, tinkling sound. "This human child is even an option for Faery king? He's so... weak." She says human as though it pains her to even vocalize the atrocious word.

"What are you?" Its out of my mouth before I even realize I said something. All heads turn toward me, and I feel the sting of a slap send me sprawling across the wooden floor.

"You do not speak unless spoken to child." Jasper snarls. I have tears streaming down my face again. "Oh, stop crying." He says going from anger to bored in less than a second. "I'll be back in a few hours. He better be ready." This time speaking to the woman.

"Fine. I'll see what I can do." She says picking at her nails as though she would love to be anywhere else right now. With that Jasper opens the door and leaves. Three women enter the door before it has a chance to close.

"Ahhh ladies, we have our work cut out for us today. We must make a human presentable for the ceremony taking place in a few hours." She says in a bored tone.

She turns toward a wardrobe I didn't notice before and opens it to reveal dozens of outfits. She hums and haws before plucking a small grass green tux from it. "This'll have to do." She states reclosing the wardrobe. "Now let us get you ready for the ceremony."

She grabs my arm and pulls me into a side room. The room seems to be a bathroom. There is a large, clawfoot tub on one side and a mirror with dozens of jars and supplies lining a table in front of it. "Undress." She demands.

"What?" I squeak. My mom doesn't even bathe me anymore, why would I let this lady? "Absolutely not."

"If you do not willingly undress, I will undress you myself." She states in a tone laced with boredom. For some reason I knew she wasn't lying. So with that and feelings of sheer embarrassment I began getting undressed. "Good. I'm glad we could come to an agreement." She says snarkily.

With that final comment, her and the three other women I saw earlier began to get to work. They scrubbed until my skin was raw and pulled on my hair with a bristled brush until I'm sure there was more hair attached to the brush than to my head. They plucked and jabbed and poked until my skin hurt, and I was ready to scream. Finally, they take me back into the original room to redress.

The tux looks stuffy and uncomfortable with its tight pants and button up shirt and let's not forget the coat I would have to wear on top of all that. The jacket, though, had a cape-like attachment that made it slightly less boring.

"Finally!" The original woman claps her hands together. "Finished." The door opens to reveal Jasper back to retrieve me just as he had promised before. "And not a moment too soon."

"I'm glad to see you can still follow instructions." Jasper remarked to the woman.

She huffed. "Of course, I can."

"Let's go boy. There is not a moment to spare." With that he grabbed my arm and dragged me from the room.