Deprivation- The Feast and the Famine

Chapter 29- A Door

Eudora dipped her hand into a fruit bowl in the center of the table and giggled as she looked at her empty hand. Claudia lifted a cracked teacup to her lips.  Eudora, with a delighted grin, tossed whatever fruit she pretended she held to the third occupied chair. The marginally decomposed corpse made no effort to catch the imaginary food.

Claudia looked down at her goblet, and another image imposed itself on her. Since the moment she arrived, the image had lurked at the back of her mind. Now, she found herself recalling the first and only fruit she’d tasted here. With it she saw the gray limb stuck in the floorboards in the corner.

She saw the fingers, as real as when they were there in the flesh. Her hands flew up to hold her head. She slapped her temples trying to drive it away, but it would go. That hand, his hand. That hand, a symbol of all she’d lost. It had broken her, of this she was keenly aware. They’d known it would break her because it belonged to him.

Bennett.

Claudia laughed, she threw her head back and let the sound fly up from her lips. What better way to hurt her than that? To leave her there with his hand as a reminder of what she lost, and what her sins were? His rough fingers. His glittering rings. All along, she’d known and locked it away, unable to cope.

It had been with her, gray and lifeless, its fingers choking her soul.

It took a while for Claudia to gain control of her mirth.

“I love you,” Claudia said.  Eudora stood, her fingers barely touching the top of the table. She was a miracle, and looking at her Claudia felt small and shamed. Claudia swept a knife from the table as she stood. “Dora, Dora, I’d do anything for you.”

Eudora did not move, if she understood she gave no sign. How like an angel she looked, how had Claudia ever taken her for a demon? Was it simply because it fit into her own musings? Because before she passed out from the pain in her speared hand she’d seen the shadow outline of a dagger in Dora’s hand?

How long had she waited for that blow? The blow that Eudora would use to kill her and thus show her contrition to the men above. Only Eudora wasn’t a devil. Couldn’t be, and it wouldn’t have mattered, maybe if on that first meeting Eudora had taken Claudia’s life. Perhaps then, she could have been forgiven. But in keeping Claudia alive she’d been actively working against his will.

The only way out was submission.

The knife in Claudia’s hand slid across Eudora’s throat. As the angel’s hands pressed to her gullet, Claudia leaned in and whispered in her ear. “They were never going to let you out. He knows you would kill him, don’t you see. You were never going to get out.”

Eudora sank to her knees, those sky blue eyes lifted to Claudia before she toppled. Red, wet lips moved soundlessly. Finally, innocence passed from the dungeon leaving something else behind. Some time passed before Claudia stepped over Eudora’s body, her feet sinking into her friend’s blood. She retrieved the bag from Eudora’s side and tied it to her own hip.

The contents were hard, and the sizes and shapes within were not uniform.

She pressed her lips to Eudora’s, and then with the tips of her fingers, she closed Eudora’s eyelids. Claudia didn’t know the prayer that Eudora always said for the dead. She mimicked it the best she could.

“They will open the door for me, Dora,” she whispered. “Your soul can fly free. There is a way out. Tell my Bennett, I love him. Keep each other company until I can join you.”

Claudia straightened and walked from the room leaving fading footprints in Eudora’s blood. She strode with purpose down the corridors until she came to the room the food always appeared in.

Here, she dropped her blade to the floor. It clattered the sound near deafening in the silence. Eudora’s blood marked the stones, a glaring accusation and Claudia looked away.

Claudia lifted her face to the stone ceiling. “You can set me free.  Isn’t this proof enough I will be the perfect wife. I understand now, my will and my desires are nothing. Only God and husband matter. Their will be done.”

Waiting was not necessary as a stone block lifted and slid almost instantly. They had watched Eudora die. Claudia wondered if they’d liked it, or if they would have preferred a more vile crafty means. Probably not, they didn’t want her to enjoy the murder.

It didn’t matter. A rope ladder descended from the light. Claudia giggled. “Up to heaven I go!”

Her arms were weak, and the ladder swayed as she ascended. She clambered onto the stone floor and looked up. Not him. No.

“Roderick?”

“I have sent word already, don’t worry,” Roderick said.

“Better get her to bed,” came another voice. Claudia looked up to see a twisted little dwarf. “Get her fed and strong. Can’t do nothing with her like this.”

“You take her, Clyde.”

Clyde cackled. “Afraid he doesn’t want you alone with her?”

“A bath?” Claudia asked, raising her blood covered hands. “Please.”

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