Don't Forgive Your Abusers: Fairytale Edition

Chapter 1

Princess Avalyn smiled at her concoction of maple seed hairs before sneaking into Sir Nicholas' living quarters. If her personal knight thought cruelty and violence were the way to shut her up, he had another thing coming.

These sorts of exchanges had been going back and forth for nearly a year since Sir Nicholas was appointed to be Avalyn's personal knight. Sir Nicholas found her constant talking to be rather annoying, which he returned with demeaning insults and beratement. This challenged Princess Ava's stubbornness, leading to more chatter and mischief, which Sir Nicholas, in turn, matched with physical violence.

"This will show him," one of Ava's spirits, Isabel, said satisfactorily.

At least, as far as Ava was concerned they were spirits. She didn't exactly know how to refer to the group of other children who were always with her. She would have called them friends, if it weren't for the fact that no one else could see them.

There were six spirits in total. Isabel, a headstrong teenage girl. Gwendolyn, a girl around eleven who enjoyed science and dancing. Esteban, a twelve year old boy who looked as if he was from outside the kingdom of Glenfield. Rowan, a teenage boy who would have been mistaken for Ava's brother due to their matching red hair, if anyone could see him. Zephyr, a young boy around the age of Gwendolyn and Ava, who loved to watch the animals outside and play with Ava's West Highland Terrier, Remington. Lastly, was Silas, a nervous teenage boy who reluctantly felt the burden of being the voice of reason for the group.

The latter was the only one to disapprove of Ava's plan.

"This will not teach him anything, it will only make him angry," Silas fretted. "And when he's angry, he hits you."

Ava didn't need the reminder. Her head still stung from this morning. She couldn't tell if Sir Nicholas' latest punch had left a bruise or not under her thick, red hair. Not that a bruise or a mark would have made any difference. When she had tried to show evidence of Sir Nicholas' abuse to her parents, she was met with "a princess shouldn't advertise her clumsiness" and "a proper young lady has no reason to reveal her shoulders."

"It doesn't matter," Ava whispered. "I'm not backing down. I need him to know that being mean and violent is not how to get what he wants."

Smirking, Ava dumped the maple seed hairs into Sir Nicholas' clothing drawer, before quickly shutting it and motioning for her spirits to follow her back to her room.

In the castle corridors, Ava began chatting with her spirits.

"Remington managed to steal a chicken leg off of my father's plate the other day. He was so mad, but it was so cute to see four different knights trying to chase after the little pup. They still couldn't catch him before he managed to eat half of it-"

"Ava-"

No sooner than Silas gave his warning, Ava felt her arm being grabbed. Sir Nicholas pulled her back towards him.

"You just love the sound of your own voice so much that you need to talk to yourself to keep hearing it," he observed.

"I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to my spirits," Ava shot back.

"Oh right," Sir Nicholas feigned concern. "The friends you had to make up because there's no way you could ever find real ones. God, even the fact that you're royal doesn't make up for your horrible personality."

Ava huffed. "You're one to talk about horrible personalities."

Sir Nicholas hit her head. "Your old personal knight probably offed himself so he wouldn't have to spend another second around you."

"That's not true," Ava interjected.

"You don't know that for sure." Sir Nicholas reminded her.

Ava folded her arms before retreating to her room. Just wait until tomorrow, she thought.