Alexandria: The Rebel Princess

Chapter 2 - Part 1

The door rattles loudly in the frame and I squeeze my knees tightly to my chest, hoping to still my trembles. This position is far from effective, but that small child inside me screams out that I should curl up and quiver. A ferocious fist slams the door, and I squeal in fright.

"Open up," a seething hiss rang through the door.

Slowly, my eyes widen in realization. He is here, he came for me.

"Don't you want to come out yet? You have been in there for a long time." Nicholas's venomous voice darkly teases me. I shake my head in rebellion as if a voice can see me. "Let's face it, no one is coming for you. He was a pawn, nothing more and now that his usefulness is over, he left you behind." The thought twisted my stomach, he left me here to die. Kalen never cared, why had he promised me anything! Hunger seeps into my limbs, leaving me vulnerable and defenseless. Another bang has me bouncing out of my thoughts. "Sign the paper," he roared before his voice drifted into a mocking coo, "and all your suffering will be over. No one has to die, Claire."

That god awful name leaves his lips with such a sickening sweet taunt. I am not her! I refuse to be Claire again. I never should have been. My body rocks anxiously on the floor, my heart hammering against my rib cage. It's just a nightmare. I'm safe, but that name brought so much death in its wake. It will bring about my own death, and he is here now to take me.

The door rattles wildly and another voice threatens me from behind it, "I know you're in there! Open this door right now! I am your father!" My scream pierces the silence that follows and I cry out into the night with a wicked sob ripping through my lungs.

My arms fall limp at my side, starvation overcoming me. A horrific crack mixes with my desperate cries. Wood splinters and parts under their force, and an axe rips through the barrier. With a jerk, it flings away revealing darkness through the exposed holes. A shadow moves across the door, they are here. Pressing my hands over my ears, I try to drown out their laughing.

With a swift kick the door flies open and a gust of wind blasts into my face, my brown curls swirl up into disarray, and I scream.

~

Launching myself upright, I awake in the same screaming breath. My voice mixes with its surroundings, drowned out from the moans above. Choking back my screams, I cough painfully. Prying my hands off the floor, I roughly wipe away my fallen tears. My mattress rests above me, unused. Many of the beds around me aren't slept in. Curling myself back into the corner, I lean against the wall with a huff.

Everything was just as I last saw it, the door still intact and unmoving. A warm glow lites the bottom crack of the door. Another night up plotting? They had done this endlessly since I arrived. More reports must have come in while I slept.

Looking to the upper window, a black abyss indicates the nightly hour, my reflection bouncing off the darkness. A shiver runs down my spine at my beaten but healing state. My bruises have turned a gruesome yellow and my swollen cuts have finally scabbed over. A deep thick black and purple colouring overcame my eye, still too deep to have stained yellow. Dried blood turned my soft waves into a coarse, and chalky, knotted mess, that no one could detangle. I hadn't bathed since arriving here, let alone left this room. They couldn't risk me going upstairs and being spotted, so I remain here as the mess that I am. Repulsed by myself, I look away.

Crawling across the cold stone tiles, the frigid basement floor seeps up through my bare knees. Tristan's shirt hangs off me, sliding along the floor, providing no warmth with it's shortness. Pressing my cheek against the rough splintered wood, I can just barely make out their meeting. Their voices vibrate into my ear, muffled and distorted. After all this time, Tristan never seemed to learn. If there is a door, I will be behind it listening, at any hour, and the fool left the door slightly ajar.