I Did Nothing Wrong, Prince

For the Last Time

In a cold and dark cell sat a young female curled up as tightly as she could to minimize the discomfort around her wrist and ankles. With tight metal cuffs restraining her movements and cutting into her skin with each breath she took, the young lady could only wait to be put out of her misery.

Her beautiful red hair that was once long and smooth was chopped off, with a rusty knife making access to her neck easier when the time came for her execution. Her soft skin was now rough and sensitive, bruising easily and tearing with the slightest pressure. The pain and discomfort she experienced were new for her, the hunger and insane thirst being the most unbearable feeling she had ever encountered. But she did not complain. She did not speak a syllable since she had been under arrest, and many thought it due to her pride in being an aristocrat. And the second prince's fiance at that. That was not the case.

The young female had just grown tired of fighting. It was as the royal knights arrested her did she realize how worthless her attempts at gaining the prince's affections were. As they cross the halls to the royal dungeon, she recalled memories of when they were growing up. Mostly her following the prince around and following his orders, and paying heed to his likes and dislikes. But not once did he ever try to reciprocate her feelings.

It was the night before their wedding, and she had just turned eighteen, making her a legal adult, and instead of practicing her vows of eternal love with her future husband, she was being escorted to the dungeons.

It has been several days since she had been confined in the darkroom with nothing but her sleeping shirt on, but the knights didn't seem to care.

No one came to visit her, not her maid, not her friends, not even her family. No one came to tell her her crime or what her punishment would be until the next day. Her crime was of committing treason, disrespecting the royal family, which is a crime punishable only by death. And the one to accuse her was the new emperor, once second prince, Damien Astor. An ache in her heart shook her body, and she collapsed in shock.

It seemed during the night of her arrest, her ex-fiance had started a coup d'état and taken over the entire empire by killing his father, his older half-brother, and all of the concubines that might have been pregnant with a royal child. It was after the decree that all inner feelings ceased.

She stopped crying, and she stopped caring entirely. With dull eyes, she stared at the dark brick walls of her cell absently. Having no windows to shed light, the young girl was always in the dark, and with no form of entertainment, all she could do was think and remember what the life outside her cell was. Although her body scarcely moved, her thoughts were running through her mind quickly.

Nothing in life is guaranteed, she thought dejectedly.

It was a harsh truth that she had come to terms with since her life was soon to end.

At the jingling of metal and the creaking of old wood, her ears perked slightly. Lifting her head and casting a glance to the door, she saw two royal knights standing beside a wizard, with spears in their firm grip. With a simple wave of the cloaked wizards his hand, her body was instantly lifted from the ground by her shackles. She hissed at the sharp pain in her wrists and ankles as she dangled in midair.

"It is time," the deep voice of one of the knights said.

Floating through the door, it took everything in her body not to move and add more pressure onto her wounds as they made their exit. As they climbed the dark stairway that led to the execution yard, the young girl could only pray to the gods above that her death is swift and painless.

When they finally made it outside, the light burned her eyes, but they adjusted quickly. She quickly looked around the yard, where she was supposed to be hanged but was surprised to see no audience or witnesses. And then she noticed that they were still moving.