The Twisted Chain || A Disney Fanfic [discontinued]

21. the morning

"Yeah?" I mumbled, doubting that she could hear me.

"Time for breakfast, darling."

Breakfast? Breakfast? Did I seriously have to go to breakfast and make myself presentable in front of a group of queens and princesses after such a long night?

"I'm tired," I called, rolling over and settling myself right onto a thick lump under the fabric. It jabbed at my ribs, and I let out a yelp, rolling the other way.

Mrs. Potts raised her eyebrows, pupils diminishing in size. “Tired?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” I was slurring as though I were drunk, and I was, in a sense- drunk off of exhaustion, drunk off of the blinding light radiating from the sun, drunk off of the strips of gold and pale yellow crashing against the floors. Too much. Exhaustion consumed me from the inside.

“Oh… Oh!” Mrs. Potts’ voice grew surprisingly cheerier, blowing up like a balloon. “Well, I'll make sure that you tell her majesty, then!”

“Why would she want to know?” Yawn. “She doesn’t care.”

“Oh, no, Ivory, this is far too important. I hate being the one to drag you out of bed, sweetheart, but you must come down. Chop, chop! There’s a new day ahead.”

A new day. The words made me want to throw my head over the side of the mattresses and vomit all over the ballroom floor.

The walk to the dining hall was the definition of pain- my back ached as though someone had crammed knives into it and my legs trembled to the point where they were uncontrollable. The pounding at the back of my head made it a challenge just to stay awake, an overly intense throbbing that banged against my skull and rattled my brain around in its place. "You don't have to change, sweetheart," Mrs. Potts said, taking me by the wrist. I let out an overly dramatic sigh of relief, sparing no thought as to what Leah’s reaction might be if she saw me with ratty hair and a grass-stained nightgown. I was in no mood to be strung into a velvet dress and have my arms constricted by sleeves.

I might have dozed off once or twice, leaning against Mrs. Potts for support. My eyelids were heavy, eyelashes turning to rock- mixed with ponderous steps and vibrating limbs, I looked like a pale zombie.

“Come on, Ivy,” Mrs. Potts encouraged- I felt horrible, having to watch this woman drag me across the hallway like I was a baby. “Almost there.” But we weren’t “almost there”- we were as far away from “there” as we could get, taking the smallest of steps. It was agonizing.

The Dining Hall was lit by a wide array of candles that had been scattered across the middle of the table- it was raining outside. The windows weren’t letting in much light. Leah was there, as well as Aurora, Belle, The Blue Fairy, and another man who I hadn’t seen in the palace before. Hair as dark as the night, almond-shaped eyes, prominent muscles. I couldn’t remember if I’d seen him before.

“Ivory!” Leah greeted us with a cheery smile- she had obviously gotten a good night’s rest. Her cheeks were lit with a glow that came from the inside, and her eyes were illuminated. I was jealous of her- being wide awake was a memory that I couldn’t bring myself to think of. “Good morning, dear.” She didn’t spit out any snarky comments about my dress or my mangled blonde waves or my lack of makeup.

My eyelids dropped again, falling like rocks off a cliff. “Mornings are never good.” Yawn.

“Erm…” She lowered a pointed tooth and dug into her lower lip, chewing for a moment before responding.  “How did you sleep?”

“I didn’t.”

There was silence for a moment- the pounding in my head grew more obnoxious. Aurora’s eyebrows were the first to lift, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Belle’s lips pin back into a subtle grin.