Sweet belladona

Chapter 1

And darling I would drink your poison until I die if it meant that I could taste you one last time.

Suffocating. I was suffocating. I was trapped in a box and I couldn't escape. I was afraid, my bones shivered beneath my skin. My eyes entrapped in darkness and my body strapped down with what felt like metal chains. What was going on? Why was this happening to me?

I tried yelling but a weak squeak escaped my lips. I was tired, my limbs exhausted yet I had not a single inkling of what was occurring. Survival instincts kicked into me and I tried pushing my body and yelling as loud as I possibly could, but only mu voice echoed back to me. It was pointless, I was trapped somewhere I did not know and could not see.

I layed still. No thoughts ran through my head other than to survive. Who was I? Where did I come from? None of those I had answers to. I closed my eyes calmly and didn't attempt escaping. It didn't feel like I was alive nor dead. It appeared as though I was neither I was simply between.

If there was anything worst than death it was this. Not fathoming your existence, not knowing your soul and simply being no one. There was no greater torment than to live in nothingness.

My eyes must have been closed for what felt like an eternity when I felt like my surroundings were moving but I was still enclosed in darkness. I waited and waited while feeling like the world around me was moving. My arms and legs were still shackled and I was still plunged into eternal darkness however this time I felt something. Movement, breathing. I was not alone.

Without having much time for thought my entire surroundings brightened and my eyes shut instinctively. I heard whispers surround my body and a gust of wind that shuddered my bones into an ice cold frenzy. I was too confused, too out of place, I had no idea what was happening to me.

I forced my eyelids open with great trouble. It seemed I was not accustomed to light, to anything other than the darkness that was my abode.

Blurry figures came into view towering above me as they surrounded me. I attempted to move my body but it pained as I struggled against the shackles that still confined me.

"Unchain the traitor." A voice boomed and a group of men neared me as my vision began clearing piece by piece. My eyes burned against the chandelier lights that streamed directly into me from above my head.

The men were  clad in silver armour that formed one with their body from head to toe. I was frightened by their sight, who were these men and what did they want from me?

They ripped the chains from my hands and legs in one swift movement and immediately took one step back. The relief of the shackles being removed felt like taking my first breath as the door to my imprisonment opened.

My pale hands were red and bruised from the chains. My eyes travelled around my confinement. I was trapped in a coffin and now I wasn't. I placed my hands on either side of the coffin box as I struggled to lift myself up. My body was weak and my legs felt as if they had never moved once before.

I had to get up, I had to move. My legs wobbled beneath me as I forced myself up. I was in pain every inch of my body aching against me, but I did not seem to care. I was free, free from my trapped thoughts, free from what felt like a tormenting death in absolute aliveness.

Two of the guards grabbed my arms roughly as they dragged me forward. I barely had time to process my surroundings. The only thing visible was glittering black marble floors beneath me.

I lifted my head to see a court room lavishly decorated with multiple glittering chandeliers on every edge of the ceiling portraying a honey golden light contrasting the dark flooring. There were many men and women all dressed exquisitely in the finest silk with jewels dangling from their bodies. The women held feathered fans as they whispered behind it eyeing me with scrutiny.