Taken

Part 2

   After, I am given a skirt and shirt. They are not good clothes, as the skirt comes to my knees and the shirt to my navel with elbow-length sleeves, but they are better than nothing, so I hurriedly put them on.

"For now, I have put a spell on you so you cannot become with child," he informs me. "Also you will be confined to this room until further notice."

I merely nod and he leaves the room. I stare at the floor as tears come to my eyes. Is this what my life is going to be like now?

  ∾∾∾∾∾∾∾∾  

Over the following weeks, a routine is established. Throughout each day I am locked in his and 'my' room and only let out for meals which are at eight in the morning, twelve noon and half-past five in the evening.

Sometime after dinner, he comes to me. Every other day, he has me, with the in-between days for 'play.' For the most part, I go through it with a silent dignity. At one however, when he came to have me, I snap, doing everything and anything to get out of it. Needless to say, it did not end well.

At the end of the first month, he tells me I am now free to wander the house and grounds. I can barely contain my excitement at being allowed out of the room. The first thing I do is go outside to bask in the sunlight and breathe fresh air, for I had not been out in a month. There are no words to describe how wonderful it is.

I then begin to explore, outside first, then inside. As I explore, I look for ways out. Scaling the wall free hand is out of the question due to how smooth it is. Entrance to the place is through the gate. There is a small servants door to the left of the gate, inside, but it is always kept locked.

As for the house, it is three stories, technically four if you include the attic. There are several bedrooms, a large library, a receiving room, a study which I am not allowed in, and a multitude of other rooms.

Mid-month of the second month, I discover a way out. I had noticed a strangely shaped mound of dirt, grass and leaves earlier this month, but never bothered with it. But now I decide to clear it. After making sure no one is around or watching me, I finally do so. Clearing it reveals a wooden door. I pull the handle and it easily comes up. It reveals a ladder going down into darkness. I am not sure how far down it goes nor if it is a single room or something more, like a tunnel.

I know that it is nearly noon, which means that he could come for me at any minute now. I also cannot risk him or anyone else finding it. So I decide I need to investigate now.

Taking a deep breath, I climb down about six and a half feet, closing the door above me, which leaves me in complete darkness. Once down, I feel the walls. Across, it feels no more than a yard wide. Excited, I place one hand on the wall to steady me and the other I hold out in front of me, as a guide. I start walking and it soon becomes apparent that it is a tunnel. I walk for about five minutes before my outstretched hand makes contact with another ladder. I carefully ascend the ladder, keeping a hand above me which quickly touch a wooden surface. Balancing carefully, I use both hands to push the door up. Thankfully it easily pushes up. I clamber out, closing the door and stand blinking in the bright light.

  I am in the forest. I see the wall so far behind and a glimmer of the road to my left. I start to run, using the road as a guide mark. Whenever I grew tired, I slowed down into a fast walk.  

At sunset, quite thoroughly amazed that I have not yet been caught, I stumble tiredly into a clearing with a little cottage in it. I am sure a good person lives there, despite it being in the middle of the Dark Forest, so I go up to the door and knock. It is opened by a younger man who is frankly quite surprised to see me.

"Can I please stay the night?" I ask.

After a moment's hesitation, he says, " Yes. That is all right."

He steps aside so I can enter.He gives me food that I gratefully accept. As I am eating, he fixes for me a place to sleep. When I am done, I go straight to sleep.

Over breakfast the next morning, I tell the guy my name, where I had come from and a little of my story. I notice a touch of fear in his eyes when I tell him.

"My name is Manthe," he says to me, "and you are very lucky to have made it this far."

 I nod my head, finish my breakfast and stand to go.

"Wait a minute," he says, getting up. He goes to a cupboard, looking for something.

At that moment, the door flies open and a furious King strides in. My face is frozen in a mask of terror and I try to go for the door, but I am slammed against the wall near the door and held there without him touching me.

Manthe turns around with a look of sheer terror on his face. He goes up to him and says, "My land, my rules," and slits his throat with a dagger produced from his belt. With wide eyes, I stare first at Manthe's lifeless body then at him as he comes over to me. The look in his eyes tells me I am going to pay dearly.

"Sleep," he says, passing a hand in front of my face.

I feel myself slip into unwanted darkness.

 I awake to find myself in a small, dimly lit room.I look up to see him standing there watching me.

 "Get up," he orders.

I quickly get to my feet. He comes over to me and I try to reach the door, to no avail. He shoves me against the wall, holding me there by my throat.

"You really should follow the rules," he says, before punching my middle once, twice, thrice.

He releases me and I bend over to regain my breath. Once I do, I straighten up to see him still watching me with that unreadable expression.

"Did you really think that you could escape?" he asks.

"I liked to think I could," I reply.

His face tightens, and the back of his hand connects with my cheek, knocking me to the ground. I hold a hand to my throbbing cheek, a few tears escaping. He crouches down in front of me, removing my hand from my cheek, and holding my chin with one hand. I try to jerk away, but he only tightens his hold, causing me to whimper.

"Your place is here now," he tells me. "And the sooner you accept that, the better off you will be."

Releasing my chin, he takes my left arm, and, placing his other hand over the lower part of my arm, he says, "Break."

I hear a cracking sound, and I cry out at the pain that emanates from it.

"You are not to heal that," he says. "Let it serve as a lesson."

A scrap of cloth appears in his hand, and with it, he creates a sling for my arm. He then takes my right arm and the next moment we are in 'our' room.

Releasing his hold, he says, "You are to be confined to this room for the next week. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," I mumble.

With that, he leaves the room, locking the door behind him.

And so it is for the next week.

Finally, the long week ends, but something is different this evening. Usually, when he is done with me, he leaves right away. But this evening, he stays, standing at the foot of the bed. He has that smile on his face, which means anything he says, I am not going to like it.

"Earlier this week, I lifted the childbearing spell on you," he says.

I stare at him in shock. This cannot be happening. This must be punishment for earlier.

"And you are with child."

And with that the ground beneath me disappeared.