Five Years Ago
Kazimiera had never been up this late before.
It was so dark outside she couldn't see the clocktower outside her window like she usually does. It took her a few minutes but her eyes adjusted to the dark and she was able to sneak out of her bedroom without stepping on any of her toys. The bright stars and moon shone through the tall windows as she slowly made her way through the long hallways.
Even at nine years old, she knew that she was being controlled, that she had barely any say over her own life. She knew she would be trapped here for the rest of her life. But she found that the one thing her parents couldn't control, was if she went to sleep or not. It had been part of her routine to sneak out at night and wander the castle, trying to find more hidden rooms or eavesdrop on anything her parents might be talking about. But, it is so late that her parents are still sleeping, so she felt a sense of power, being awake longer than them.
Her intentions set on going to the kitchen, she went down two lengthy staircases and turned down multiple hallways before making it to the kitchen.
The smells that wafted into Kazimiera's nose delighted her. Some of the food they ate took hours to make, so the chefs were already at it, cooking away.
It was easy to sneak around the kitchen. It was big, with giant crates that she could hide behind if she needed to, and her small frame made it easy to do that.
Quick as a mouse, she slipped past the chefs, careful not to get in their peripheral vision and snagged a loaf of bread, some cheese and jam, and some savory pancakes.
She was about to leave when the most mouth-watering smell tugged at her nostrils and caused her to turn her head towards where it was coming from. There it was, her favorite. Roasted Mamlayarian duck.
She should've left, because now that the duck was in the picture, she was not in control of her own body. She must get a taste of it.
A chef moved it from the inside of the oven to the table in the middle of the room, with all the chefs surrounding it. Kazimiera knew deep down it was stupid, but her eyes never left the duck.
She took a step towards it but hesitated, an idea popping into her head. She finally broke contact from the duck and looked around where she was crouched behind. She grabbed a sack of potatoes and ripped open the bag, when she grabbed a potato she nibbled at one end of it, spit out the piece she chewed on with a sour look on her face, and then threw it across the room.
A loud clang was heard from all around the room as the potato hit a large metal pot. But the pot had fallen and caused more pots and pans to fall over, erupting in a chorus of metal scraping and bashing against each other.
Her plan had worked out better than she thought. Every chef abandoned their workplace and went to go stop the madness that was ensuing in her favor, while she slipped past them and ripped off a duck leg with a towel in her hand, since it was too hot to be handled with her bare hands. The meat was so tender and juicy that it was easy to accomplish this feat.
"Okay, which one of you dunces did this?" yelled one of the chefs clearly irritated.
The whole room erupted in arguments while Kazimiera slipped away, through a fake painting in the wall that led to a secret room.
"Look at this potato! It's rats I tell you! There's rats in the kitchen!" she could hear a chef with a nasally voice yell through the walls. She giggled to herself as she scooted away from the painting that led her to this room.
The room itself was very small and awkwardly shaped, not a square but more like a polygon with none of the sides having the same length. And most of the walls had a hidden door on each wall that had a painting covering it on the other side, so she could go anywhere from here. One takes her to the dining room, another to a hallway, the third takes her to the library, the fourth to the dungeons, the fifth to kitchen, the sixth is unique because the door doesn't have a painting behind it because it goes straight outside, while the ivy on the side of the castle hides the door and is grown in a way where the door can still open without the ivy being in the way.
Kazimiera had wanted to try to climb out of the door, that might as well be called a window, but it was too high and was too scared to try it.
But the seventh door was the one that bugged her the most. Because it clearly led to the ballroom, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the door to open.
Kazimiera sat in the middle of this strange room and began munching on her food. She buttered and jamed her bread and pancakes and swooned over her delicious duck leg. She was a couple bites in when she realized how thirsty she was. Of course she would have forgotten to get water!
She went to stand up but slipped and as a reflex stuck her hand out to steady herself on the wall, when her hand missed and hit the painting causing it to open slightly. Frozen in fear that someone might've heard her, she realized in horror that she opened the dungeon room, and on the other side there were people.
She waited for a few more seconds until she thought it was safe to move. From where she could see, the dungeon had low ceilings, made of large pieces of stone, as did the walls and floor. It was normally filled with rotting prisoners but, also smelled like feces and mildew, which is why she never snuck around in there. She slowly went to close the door when she realized who was on the other side. Her father, her mother, a cluster of guards, a man dressed in all black carrying a long stick, and three other people sitting on the floor. A woman, a man and a boy.
Curious, Kazimiera got closer and peeked through the crack with one eye. The three other people she didn't recognize, seemed to be inside a cell. They had dirty clothes and faces and seemed to display emotion. They all had thin faces and bodies, but it was most likely because they were all malnourished. The woman had puffy blonde hair and a face you could tell was once sculpted and tight, but now her skin sagged with age and hunger. The man was big, very tall and had light brown hair and rough features, but he wore a blank expression on his face, like he had no fight left in him. The boy seemed to be the same age as her, and looked like a mix of both people, clearly their son. He had fluffy light brown hair, and if Kazimiera was scared, the boy was terrified out of his mind. He clutched onto both of his parents like they were going to be ripped away from him at any second, and they probably were.
Suddenly her father spoke. "Sackarias, son of Algoth, Thyrvi, daughter of Botild, on behalf of the Royal Court of Shovonya and the Muerte Act, you shall be punished to death for treason."
Kazimiera gasped, but was covered up by the screams of the two adults, who were screaming louder, begging mercy for their lives, while the boy, most likely their son, just wept into his parents arms.
King Cassian continued speaking over their screams, "Seeing as your son was involved, I see it as fit that Dion, son of Sackarias, shall remain in prison for the rest of his miserable life."
"No please! He had no part in this! He is just a boy! Let him live!" screeched the woman, hugging her son so tight her dirty nails dug into his skin.
King Cassian paid no attention to her and continued to speak. "There will be no need for that. We won't be taking your son anywhere, he's fine right here."
Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth dropped in horror. While Kazimiera was confused on what her father had meant by that, the answer was revealed when one of the guards pulled out a jingling set of keys and unlocked the cell doors, and in walked the man dressed in black. He roughly pulled at the man and dragged his body out away from Kazimiera's view. He gave no fight at all. There were more shuffling and movement and loud shing sound, and then the thump of something heavy. The woman and the boy screamed out in pure fear and the woman turned the boy's head away from wherever the sound had come from. She almost backed away but froze when she saw it. The man's head.
She immediately dropped all of the food she forgot she was holding onto the floor covered in dust, but she didn't care. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the bloody head of Sackarias that had rolled into view. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, his chapped lips hung open, his jaw lopsided. That's when she realized the man dressed in black was an executioner and he wasn't carrying a stick, it was an axe. Kazimiera finally regained control of her body and shuffled back, breathing quickly, her chest rising up and down.
Through the crack, she thought she saw the boy watching her. She stopped moving for a second and really focused on it and she was right. He was staring directly into her soul. But when she blinked there was loud commotion and movement along with a lot of people coughing. Then he was gone.
"He has förlu powder! Don't let it touch you!" She heard her father call out in frustration.
Kazimiera slowly moved closer to the crack to inspect it, careful not to look at the head again. The side of her face was pressed so deep into the wall, she could feel it embedding into her skin. She could see the woman being dragged away, and a few guards on the floor, unconscious. And a bright blue shimmer, floating in the air.
Suddenly, the boy's body flew through the portrait and closed it behind him. Without missing a beat he slapped his hand over Kazimiera's mouth to stop her from screaming.
From through the walls you could hear the woman continuing to scream, though her words were muffled so she couldn't be made out. Although the sounds of King Cassian shouting orders to find the boy weren't hard to decipher.
She wanted to move the boy's hand from her mouth and peek to see what was happening through the wall. But she couldn't because suddenly the sound of a man grunting and the woman's screams coming to an abrupt halt, froze Kazimiera in her tracks. Then came the inevitable thunk sound of the woman's head hitting the floor.
The boy's brown eyes welled with even more tears, and traveled down the clean path his previous ones made through his dirt covered face, and his mouth dropped open as if to start sobbing. Kazimiera, petrified in fear, could only stare at him and she watched the boy bring his knees up to his chest and and wrap his free arm around his legs. They sat there, Kazimiera still as a statue, the boy rocking himself back and forth and sobbed quietly into his torn up shirt.
He was the one that needed a hand over his mouth. Kamila thought abhorrently. His hand tastes like dirt.
Yet, she watched him break down for what felt like hours, without being able to move or cry herself. Finally, he stopped and slowly looked up. His bloodshot eyes met hers, as he sniffled and hiccupped.
Their prolonged eye contact broke when he turned his gaze to the wall and hesitantly pushed it open slightly, clearly hoping not to see his dead parents. Kazimiera followed his eyes to see the dungeon empty of people, including the unconscious guards and his parents' bodies.
They both slowly turned their heads to look at each other, Kazimiera's head swarmed with questions, but he spoke first.
"How do I get out of here?" He questioned. He tried to make his voice sound stern but with the trauma he had just witnessed it came out cracked and fearful.
She just continued to stare. His words felt hollow, it was almost as if they echoed around the room but never quite reached her ears.
"How do I get out of here? Please!" He questioned again, but was laced with pure melancholy.
"We're going to get our heads cut off if we don't leave now!" The boy yelled in her face.
Why was he being so mean to me? Kazimiera thought.
"My head" She whispered eerily.
"God! Where is the nearest train station?"
"Clock tower." and she pointed to the sixth door that led outside.
He looked at the door and quickly picked up the food Kazimiera dropped and wrapped it in the towel she used to hold the duck leg. She could sense his new distaste for her.
He walked over to the door and kicked it open, and peered down below them. He turned to Kazimiera who had turned her head to watch him.
"Let's go! We have to leave!" He voiced harshly.
She just sat there, wanting to move, but the mental thought of moving was impossible.
"Fine. But I can't have you running off to somebody and have people look for me. I'm sorry whatever your name is."
If Kazimiera would've responded she would've been cut off because the boy had pulled out whatever blue powder her father had yelled about from his pocket and blew it into her face.
Whatever it was, it evaporated instantly in her face. Kazimiera coughed and rubbed at her eyes as she heard the sound of his feet scraping off the stone floor, and the rustling of ivy as he fell down to the ground.
She felt her body drifting from consciousness as she wondered where the boy might be going, and if she'd see him again. But it didn't matter because she was so tired, and eventually sleep took her.
~
It was the early morning breeze that drafted through the open window that awoke Kazimiera from her deep sleep. Her head spun and her eyes blurred, from them not being in focus. Her whole body hurt from sleeping in an awkward position and on a hard surface. Dirt stuck to her sticky hands, that smelled like meat and butter.
But what confused her the most was, she does not remember falling asleep here last night.
Author's Note:
About fucking time I posted something. Also I won't be posting frequently at all and if I make any changes to the story I'll tell ya'll in an author's note or something and you can go read it if you want.