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What the hell did you bring us?” It’s a woman's voice, tight and impatient by the tone. The voice doesn’t sound pleasant yet I cling to whatever sound I can comprehend behind a blindfold. With my arms bound behind my back, I conclude every feeling, even the dusty floor.
It’s Annabelle Merridith.” the deep voice I’m familiar with responds. “We captured the Queen.” The same man who kidnapped me is here, his voice is burned in my mind.
There are footsteps and it must be dark judging by the faint sound of crickets.Were in a place with wooden floors, probably some place with candlelight, hearing the flames flicker in the distance. There are more than just two people, probably seven or eight from the extra breaths I can hear, but the tone of their voices must mean we are far away from my home. Very far away.
We were supposed to take the Queen, not the stupid little princess!” The voice roars, cold and splintering.
Hey Zoe. Calm down for a second, this isn’t making the situation any better.” a voice more tremulous enters and I can’t make out whether it’s a boy or a girl.
Don’t get friendly with me boy!” A loud smack is heard, a hand hitting another. “We were supposed to take Iridessa! What do you think I burned down half the castle for!?”
An object is knocked over next to me. Someone is standing on by my side, making sure I don’t move. Where am I?
We were supposed to kill the King and Queen and hold Iridessa for ransom! Now how the hell are we supposed to negotiate with Nefarious if the red rose still live?!Zoe exhales sharply and the sound of flames cackling to life makes me jump.
What was that?
Well Iridessa isn’t exactly dead, neither is her atrocious sister Sveta. They live with their injured King, the plan didn’t go as we expected because you decided to burn the entire second floor. I didn’t even know they had a third sister..
They’re alive. The memories spear me all at once. The castle, Connor, Adele, mother. I was betrayed, deceived by my own servants. The last I recall was watching my mother bleed to death, falling through the second floor’s bonfire, and stabbing a man with my hairpin shortly after.
Anger and sadness fought each other in my recollection. I’m in the web of the people who killed my mother. That same bizzare feeling I developed when I stabbed the man rages over. I can barely keep calm and think rationally with all of the hate welling inside me. I could kill them for what they’ve done.
-But the Queen. She’s definitely dead.” another voice reawakens her memory.
The reminder is still fresh like the blood. I can still smell the metallic liquid, her death was all in vain as I was still kidnapped and couldn’t do anything to save her. I was weak.
Dead? Good.” Zoe bites. “That only accomplishes a few things, now we won't have to worry about her singing the rest our men to the grave, the sultry bitch.”
In the silence, my heart strings shred apart. To speak ill of my mother after killing her so gruesomely. They deserve to burn a thousand times.
I can feel my heart wrenching out of it’s chest. I must stay calm, I coach myself. I am smart like moth- father, I will get out of this just as they trained me. I must listen to their motives and escape this place to fight them with the rest of my family as they remain. Surely they are looking for me as the white serpent converse. I still have something to live for, even if it’s as little as hope.
The head of the Queen is one thing, but it's Iridessa whose head we needed. So long as that mind controlling tyrant isn’t under our grasp, we’ll all have to work under even tighter ropes. Damn you idiots who can’t complete a simple task!” she barked.
I listen to ever mumble that comes after her comment. Everyone is distressed, whispering and sighing about Queen Nefarious, whom I still have yet to know how she fits into the equation.  
But that isn’t the point.” my kidnapper sighs relentingly. “The point of the matter is that the three countries are on the brink of war. We only have to disrupt one kingdom for it to start, and we’ve already done that the moment we cut the red rose’s trading routes.
Again with that name. The only trading routes cut off were fathers. Red rose has to be a code name for him or something.
-Surely taking their Queen will only weaken them as they scramble to balance out the economy and calm the royals with a missing heir.
I can’t piece together much. Father is the red rose, they are trying to overthrow us. But Iridessa and Queen Nefarious don’t make sense. There are too many factors with missing definitions. I understand they want our crowns as father always said, but kidnapping me seems to have never been on the agenda for them. They want Iridessa because she somehow affiliates with Nefarious. They would’ve killed me if there weren’t a bigger factor, so why am I not dead?
Zoe’s voice continues to raise. “But we are supposed to remove one of their heads so that way if they were to work together, we wouldn’t have to fight three countries, at once. Iridessa was our leverage to get Nefarious to comply with our demands after we killed the King. But now they will be alerted about the attack and will be closer to banning together. These are much worse cases than-
The woman’s voice is interrupted by the vicious coughing of another individual. Their coughs sound like more than dust is stuck in their lungs. I swear I smell blood. “Well we have their future Queen now, what are we supposed to do… with her?” the voice sounds raspy, like a dying old man.
There’s a silence in the room, quickly filled with footsteps pacing back and forth. “I say we hold her hostage and demand Iridessa for trade.” a rough voice answers from the left.
Take me home? Father would rot them where they stood.
Don’t be stupid.” Zoe clucks her tongue, “If we held a gun to the girl’s head and brought her back to the castle we’d only be killing ourselves. Iridessa is powerful, and so is Sveta. There’s no way we would have a proper transaction, let alone make it out of there alive.” Zoe’s smart, and it doesn’t play to my advantage.
The guard to the right of me moves, and his foot hits something that a couple of centimeters away from the wall behind me. The sound forces the object to hit the wall wall after tiny impact. Followed by that sound is spit, and it splats on something that crunches. Leaves. Outside. My guard is leaning on a table next to me, and a window right behind me that leads to the outdoors.
I had an exit, but it was no use if I couldn’t see it. Only then did I realize I was still in my dress, caked in my mother’s blood. I would have to tear it. Touch it. I could vomit.
I remember being taught about the secret tunnels that lead to a safe castle of a noble if the current castle was overthrown, yet I have no idea where I am, or how I’ll find the a Plum tree with a latch opening in the middle of the night. All the training I underwent to make up for not being gifted, it’s shameful that it must pay off this way. I won’t have enough time to undo my bondages and fight for the window without being seen in this room full of people. I’m being watched closely. I need to see my surroundings.
The conversation continues as I quietly loosen my knots. They are thicker than a tree stump, but I need a start before I can plan. If I have a start, I can think clearer.  “She’s the country’s Queen. Having her as a hostage, if she means anything to the family, would surely make them comply.” a voice says.
The woods have poisonous shrubs and cruel animals that lurk at night, but I can’t think of that now. I’ll deal with that after I get out. I have to think without a doubt. It’s the only way my plan will work. Untie my hands. Kick out the table. Jump from the window. I chant in my head softly, thinking of more steps.
We aren’t here for compliances.” Zoe answers sharply. “We’re here to kill the King and his bloodline. Keeping her alive is doing nothing to aid our agenda.
Untie my hands. Push the guard. Jump the window. The knot gets looser.
How about we torture information out of her? Surely she knows about the King’s army and battle tactics. She should know them as well as the both of her sisters-
“-Sounds more effective.”
They settle on an solution faster than I would’ve thought. No time to think. Hands. Kick. Jump. I begin moving faster.
“Then it’s decided.”
Untie my hands.
“But we can’t do that-”
Kill the window light.
“-Says who? We’ll bleed her out.”
Hit the ground.
“And if she doesn’t speak?”
Take off the blindfold.
“Then we slit her throat.”
Run.
*Snap*
The sound could have stopped time with the way my instincts stilled into an uncomfortable chill. The ropes snapped off my wrists with a loud, dream shattering sound. I was delayed a second, and in that small amount of time, I knew that my plan would never work as every eye in this room was burned in me.
They heard me, they know I’m awake.
Fight.
I ripped the blindfold from my eyes and looked straight into the eyes of my warden, already anticipating me. I kicked the table- the chest, from under his legs and he double over, hitting nothing but the cold wood. I had to move faster. With my legs still bound, I made a break for the window, attempting to jump on the seal, retrieving the candle light that I predicted was there.
“Stop!!” My dress was torn back and I fell straight on my spine that welcomed the throbbing bruises I acquired from collapsing through the ceiling. The wind knocked right out of me but I already had one goal in mind, and that was to reach the window. Someone towered over me, a dirt skinned woman with throbbing muscles took me by my hair in attempts to ring me to my feet.
Use your nails. I look down at the broken pink mess on my fingers, happy some of them were chipped in angles that sharpen them to talons. I reached and dragged them deep into her skin. Blood and meat caked under my fingers as she tore her hand back, tossing my head and body with it.
“Someone restrain her damnit!” I realized I had rolled farther from my escape exit with my head ringing a bird’s song. Somehow the huge knot on my ankles loosen enough for me to escape out of them in the throw.
Get up. There were more people in this room, they were closing in on me to restrain my limbs once more. They approached closer, my vision was darkening, I needed the light. The bottle grew hot in my hands. The candle lamp seemed to be the only thing I clinged too. The flames threatened to wicker out as oil swirled irritably in the bottle. I need the light to keep me awake.
Set it to flame. Not an inch closer and I slammed the bottle directly in front of me. Scorching heat roared in the wooden ground and ripped to ignite the rest of the liquid that traveled. The space I needed clears and the panic rises. My exit is open among the flames of hell. I look at the window that was only a few burns away.
Run through the fire. Jump out the window. Role in the grass. Escape. The plan rose and I didn’t wait a second. I ran through the flames as my dress caught fire before my skin and undergarments. Sprinting, the heat burned off the remnants of my dress, inviting fried chiffon and dried blood to coat the air. Darkness was the only thing beyond the window a that point, at least that's what I hoped to believe. I would escape, I would get out unscaved. I would go home.
My feet lifted in the air, my dress pieced in flames to the roof and suddenly they fire disappeared. It silenced too suddenly and my burning ensemble became a half charred mess. Before I could even make it to the window, a waft of air exploded and sent me flying back into the building.
I was slammed into the wooden wall, knocking my brain against my skull. My voices scrambled for a new plan. Run. Move. Scream. Cry… . My vision was dying time. I wasn’t going to make it. Anything. Annabelle, do something. Mother said the same thing once in a dream. Now her words will always be a simple reminder that no matter how hard I try, I’m useless.

In the midst of waking up in the dark, a new blindfold is yanked off my head with no hesitation. My head jerked a migraine that’s still too familiar. I try to open my eyes as they squint horridly. In the far corner I spot a window with no lamps in the ciel. It’s pitch black outside, and the only light in here is the the lamp wickering on the table. It smells like a fireplace. It roars louder once I awake, casting an orange tint over the dozens of faces in the room.
The room is full of unmasked individuals, all ripped to the bone with battle wounds of all colors. I count 20 faces and thirty shadows, all crammed in the wooden walls with two open windows that I can’t reach to escape, dead center with a door.
I look up to the woman next to me with tawny brown hair. She glares at me in disgust with an arm bandaged from the shoulder down. I scratched her. No- I tore her. She turned her attention to the fire. The lamp rest on the brown splintered table accompanying a map and three people who stand out around it.
A swarthy dark-skinned woman glared back at me. Her blue eyes pierced and kept me silent. I would’ve guessed her hair red if the flames hadn’t turned blue, revealing her silver locks and the lines in her face twisted her expressions into a deeper scowl.
Another boy with creme skin stood beside her, face spotted with freckles, white in the light, and eyes a sweet nightcore harboring in the shape of almonds. They hid behind his shaggy hair, that almost has a darkish blond color to it. He was no older than thirteen it would appear.
Then I met eyes with a face that was familiar. If I remembered correctly from the last time I met him in the castle, his name was Farris. Tan skinned and green eyed dragon. Those spikes in his hair stood out in his taper cut. They remained the same since I last saw him as did his muscular figure, but this time he had bandages wrapped on his left shoulder. They stuck out from his dark tank. I remember I had stabbed him with my hairpin. It couldn't've hurt worse than the bullet in my mother’s throat. He’s lucky that’s all he got, especially after my failed attempt to escape a little less than an hour ago.
The more I stare at their angered faces, the more I begin to lose it. These are the people responsible for attacking my home, burning it to the ground like it was nothing and then murdering my mother as a failed assassination attempt to kill me. And now they’re harboring me as if they know exactly what they’re going to do.
They looked at me like I was some type of animal, praying on my last move. I couldn’t move. No more plans, no more surprise attacks, they would surely torture and kill me.
I suddenly noticed few of the members here wore the rose symbol of the King, branded into their skins. They were the awol soldiers that father was talking about. Each and every one of those people were the drafted citizens with gifts of royals. They defended my father, not attacked.
“You!” the a cut-throat voice barked. It was coming from the silver-haired woman standing at the table. “Just what the hell are your abilities? You don’t control minds or move objects so it has to be something done with your limbs after your attack earlier. Tell us what they are!” she crossed her arms.
No one made a single protest and let her order me around. I clear my throat as best as I could, mind still a little foggy after the incident.
“I have no special abilities. You all were attack by human.” Binds are on my wrist, and fingers. Connected to my ankles with no room for escape.
“Liar.” Farris answers. “You knocked the wind out of one of our members. Just what the hell are you, a warrious?”
The thought of me having abilities could make myself laugh at this rate. If I had them I would’ve done more than let my mother die so easily, and I certainly wouldn’t be here. “Warrious?” I spit. “The white serpent actually give names to their abilities? If I were whatever you called me, you wouldn’t be standing now would you?” I look around the room, “Any of you.”
The room shifts back, as if they are scared I actually do have abilities of my own. They’re scared of me even while I am powerless. It probably has something to do with me running through fire like a maniac.
The silver haired woman stomps toward me with boiling anger and digs her nails into my cheeks. “You dare tread on thin ice and spit out a threat?! We don’t have the patience or use for you, so how about you think of your sins while you burn.” Her eyes glow a fierce red as my insides begin to boil. My body feels like it’s being set on fire. Suddenly I feel like I’m burning. I can’t look away from her as my skin sizzles and chars in the most agonizing way possible. Every nerve in my body pops from my feet to the head until blood blurs my vision, only for the sensation to double over.
“Zora! Stop, she’s-”
Suddenly her eyes flash back to the blue, looking at me with utmost surprise as she drops my face to leave me fidgeting back to normal. What was that? I check my skin for burns and find nothing but my blood reddening away on my half exposed legs. I’m even sweating.
She leans down to look at me and I crawl away until my back is pressed against the wall. This was it, this what how I die. Her hand reaches to my stomach and squeeze my eyes shut, waiting to be burned alive. But there’s no pain, nor coldness. Only her hand feeling around my bloody corset.
“You..” she furrows her white eyebrows and suddenly looks apologetic. It's the most human expression I’d seen from these people apart from glares.
“Now you see why we can’t just kill her.” Farris mumbles under his breath.
“I noticed it the moment she walked in.” the younger boy said.
I become even more uncomfortable her hand remained on my stomach. It felt like death was only inches away if I angered her again. “What? What is it!?”
She looks at me, unpleasantly with an inch of hate and sadness. “You’re pregnant.” she says, drawing her hand away from me and tangling it in her own. “The stupid girl is pregnant… ” She talks to herself as if the fact is harder to accept than it would be for me.
I’m pregnant?
“But how?” I answer out loud. Connor and I haven’t slept together since three months ago, and by then I would’ve already known, so why am I pregnant now? “This isn’t correct.. I only had.. It was three months ago..”
“It’s the abundant’s. The one who’s hand was shot off today.” Farris scratches his head.
Abundants?
“Her betrothed?” the cold-eyed woman scoffed like we were a ridiculous love story. “No wonder they were in such a rush to get married. So he did deflower you.”
The room of awol soldiers let out a laughter that boils me. It wasn’t that long ago that they ransacked my house and killed my mother, and were ready to torture and kill me. Now I am supposed to believe them when they say I’m pregnant?
“I’m not pregnant.” I shake my head as if to convince myself it’s the truth. “There is no way possible-”
“If it weren’t true you wouldn’t be alive right now.” she glared like she could kill me, but she won't.
“You don’t scare me.” I say straight in her cold eyes. I don’t think anything will after tonight’s events. I’m willing to do anything to get home at this point. Home before my Mother’s funeral.
“Princess is a savage. Metaphorically and literally, Zora.” Farris smirks and the woman known as Zora, who sears like fire, but as I predicted she won't budge.
I stare down at my bloody gown. Majority of it is burned away if not splashed with Mother’s red. Somewhere beyond this cloth is my stomach, carrying a life that the white serpent aren’t willing to kill. I get it. As long as I’m pregnant, they won't lay a finger on me.
A door opens and the steps followed by it are heavy and jingle like chains.
I don’t know where it comes from until everyone looks straight ahead, in-between the two windows just as the white haired girl struts to the table and the freckle-faced boy moves for a person to enter.
He was a rough looking gentleman with chapped lips and horridly trimmed beard, the oldest of the trio of standouts. A gun rested on the hip of his blue tailcoat, and his boots were brown and muddy at the bottom as if he was used to running in muck. Grey eyes peeked through slanted bagged lids that made him look as if he never slept. The man looks straight into me, midnight locks pulled into a bun away from his strong and unlined face.
“Valentine. This is who we… they brought back from this morning mission.” Zora pointed.

Comments

  1. Sakai Jones I like that it say what the hell did you bring us. The way you got it like Octavia Butler. This story was really good to me thankyou.

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  2. Sakai Jones I like that it say what the hell did you bring us. The way you got it like Octavia Butler. This story was really good to me thankyou. Great work liked your story seem like you try hard so I can say thankyou because I read your work and gave a comment now you have someone that like your work good job on getting this assignment done liked your reading Sakai Jones next time I'll read yours again I like when people try hard on doing a good job with their work.

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