It was cold and dark.
Naturally, it was always like that during the night, but with no lights beside the ones lighting the carriage's way, the world seemed darker and colder than ever. But more than dark and cold, it seemed endless. The only glimpse of actual surroundings was when the light at both ends of the carriage dimly lit up the area around us, showing only trees. But when the light passed and I looked farther, all there was was black. It looked like there was nothing for miles and miles. I felt that I was surrounded on all sides by endless darkness, that we would be forever traveling in empty space, never running into anything, never reaching our destination. It was as if the world had faded away and was replaced with nothingness.
I realized, in a panic, that it was what I imagined death to be like: an endless nothing.
I gripped my nightgown tightly, my chest tight, my breathing increased. I focused on the lantern that rested in the lap of Baron who sat across from me in the carriage, trying to remind myself that we were not trapped in infinite darkness. I needed to remember that there was a kingdom behind us and a destination ahead of us. No matter how hard I tried to keep my brain from falling into bad thoughts though, I couldn't shake the heavy feeling that we were trapped in a place just like death.
"Is something the matter?" an icy voice asked with a lack of concern and care.
My gaze trailed up to Baron's face, my eyes meeting his. Even underneath the makeup he wore, I could faintly see the injuries I inflicted upon him. The scars on his face from my nails and the black eye my fist gave him never failed to bring a raise my spirits. Those were my marks, and it was nice to know that they wouldn't heal quickly.
"No," I replied, putting on an emotionless face, trying to mask the fear deep down in my gut.
He didn't look away. Instead, he held my gaze, looking doubtful. He leaned his back against the carriage and tapped his fingers against the lantern.
"When you've grown up with someone and have examined them for as long as I have, you can find that you can read them like an open book. You lie, that's easy enough to tell. About what, even I don't know. But I do know that whatever it was, it gave you that distressed look in your eyes that appears whenever you're afraid. I have always thought you looked best when you were afraid. It makes you weak, easy to manipulate." his lips curled into a malicious grin.
"Fear suits you very well, Ev. It makes you truly breathtaking."
An image of me using the rope that kept my hands tied together to strangle him to death popped into my mind. I had already attacked him once, and the idea of doing so again was tempting, but going in to assault him would only cause more problems than solutions for myself. I was smushed in between two guards, and so was Baron. If I somehow managed to slip by my own, surely his would catch me before I could do anything at all.
So instead, I held my tongue and shoved away the urge to lunge at him, shooting him a glare and a snarl.
I broke our eye contact, letting my head tilt down to look down at the floor. I turned my thoughts away from the outside and from Baron and turned them to curiosity.
After I had been released from my cell, it had been merely a day of freedom until the guards rounded me up and declared that my punishment had been decided. As it turned out, Baron was the one who decided my fate, because he was the one who was personally victimized by me. He didn't take a long time to decide it either. When you've known someone your whole life and have messed with them for the majority of it, you get to know too many things about that person. He must've figured out some form of punishment that would fit me and my actions, but I had no idea what it was.
At first, I thought he was going to have multiple guards beat me to near death, to feel what it had been like to be him. But the guards left me alone, and instead dragged me off at dusk to a carriage where Baron had been waiting for me, giving me a cold look that would've sent shivers down any person's back. I, however, wasn't that afraid of him. I was much braver than the average person. But as the carriage ride continued on, I couldn't help but grow more uneasy in his presence.
I didn't know what he had planned for me, but I knew it would be something both equally terrifying and painful. If it was his sick and twisted mind calling the shots, that was the only thing it could be. Wherever we were headed, it could only resemble a place close to purgatory.
I closed my eyes, I was too tired to think or worry. I listened to the sound of the carriage shaking and bumping slightly as it rode over the dirt road, hitting sticks and rocks.
I had only been in a carriage and outside of the palace walls for a few occasions. I only left for festivals held by Lexque towns in the Sisters honor, to greet foreign countries and it's leaders, and once to visit the uncaring demons who birthed me-the monsters who had the audacity to call themselves my parents. And while all of those trips had been awful, I knew this one would be much, much worse.
***
The carriage pulled to a halt, causing my stomach to squeeze. I peered out the window in hopes to get an idea of where we were, but the carriage lights did not emit a bright enough light to give off any distinct surroundings.
The carriage conductor opened the door, allowing the cold wind to blow in and dance on my skin. Goosebumps rose on my arms, my hair sticking up.
Baron and his guards climbed out of the carriage. I stay put in my place, my body frozen in place. My body was heavy and stiff, unmoving.
Baron snapped his fingers at me as if I was a dog, his eyes turning me to ice.
"Come along, Ev."
I narrowed my eyes, clenching my fists. The guard next to me nudged me, and I jolted away from them. I stood up, holding my head high. I would not allow myself to show fear. I would not allow myself to be seen as weak. I would not be weak.
If he liked to see me afraid, then I would be braver than a Sphynx. If he wanted me to be weak, then I would be stronger than stone. I would be everything he didn't want me to be.
I pushed my way in front of the two guards and walked with elegance and pretended that I was not stepping out into a tortured fate, but rather stepping out into freedom. I walked my way over to Baron and stood across from him. I squared my shoulders and put on a stoic face, daring him, challenging him. He always liked a challenge.
The disappointed frown and creased eyebrows on his face was enough to keep my flimsy facade from falling apart.
Behind me stood a cave lit by torches, the interior veiled by darkness so nothing was visible. The wind whispered to me, almost as if it was trying to cover up the faint screams and wails coming from the inside. The torches fire murkily illuminated a sign that read 'BEWARE, DO NOT ENTER!" on the left and 'HOLLOW ABYSS.'
My blood ran cold. The world around me slowed down as my heart rate picked up. The facade I built up fell for a second, revealing my fear.
Hollow Abyss was a name whispered in the night behind closed doors. It was a ghost story parents would tell their children when they were bad in order to scare them into line.
In my case, it was the only ghost story that scared me as a kid, the only one that would keep me up at night, make me watch my back and run towards the light because it was the only story with some truth in it. Unlike all the other nightmares being told, the Hollow Abyss was real and just as horrific as it was told to be.
It was a prison and asylum of monsters, those who were condemned never saw the light of day, and never escaped. It was meant for the worst of the worst, the maddest of the mad. It was said that those who lived there shared cells with beasts that hid in the shadows, lurking, waiting to pounce.
And I was standing right in front of it.
My stomach knotted at the realization that the Hollow Abyss, my childhood nightmare, was my punishment.
❦ ❦ ❦
So somehow the very last part of this chapter was not here. Whether I forgot to add it or it somehow got deleted, I don't know. I don't know why it took me so long to notice this either. I just could've sworn I had published the full chapter.
But I added it so it's finally a finished chapter since I couldn't leave it unfinished.