The Rebel & The Throne

The Act

The black head sack was pulled off Ezra's head before she immediately took in her surroundings. Her eyes adjusted to the dark quickly, thanks to the sack, the details of the dim-lit and damp cell was clear enough to see. She was on her knees, her shackled hands lifted by chains that were embedded into the walls on either side of her. She could also feel the cold shackles that bounded her feet to the cell floor.

A torch was burning in the hallway outside the cell, allowing light to seep into the room through the small barred window in the metal door. She shivered as the cold air of the dungeon bit against her bare skin. She was stripped of her clothes, her hair forming a curtain around her face.

Ezra tried yanking on the shackles bounding her hands, but they didn't budge. She was about to drop her head in defeat when something shifted on its feet behind her. No, not something. Someone. Her head perked up as she carefully listened to the figure standing behind her.

"I am delighted that you have decided to wake up," said a feminine voice that Ezra recognized. The voice of nails being scraped against a rock. Ezra tried to suppress the shuddering that wanted to respond to her voice. "Or else, boredom would've gotten the best of me." Drawled the Queen of Gracemor.

Ezra felt her crouch behind her as the queen ran her long fingers through Ezra's hair. Again, Ezra tried to restrain her cringing as she remained silent.

"Not so mighty and untouchable now." She whispered into Ezra's ear, a raspy chuckle following it before her head got yanked back. Horror filled Ezra as she watched the queen's dark, soulless eyes train on her. Her high cheekbones and hollowed cheeks made her fit for the queen of corruption.

"Don't look at me like that," The queen pouted tilting her head to the side. Her long and thin black hair shifting with the movement. "I'm only in my fifties." She released her grip on the rebel leader's head and once again, Ezra could not see the queen.

"I would love to play captor and prisoner with you," Said the queen, almost sounding regretful that she couldn't. "But I do not have the whole day to spare."

Ezra's eyes went towards the cell door and realized there and then that she was at the mercy of the queen.

"So, are you going to make it easy for the both of us and provide me what I need," The queen finally asked, waiting a few moments for her answer. Ezra refused to let a single sound leave her lips. That was until she heard the queen unsheathe a dagger. "Or will you make this difficult for you?" Ezra could feel the queen's lips curling up into a sadistic smile. Her eyes remained on the door when she realized another thing. No one was coming to save her.

"Where are the rest of the rebels?" The queen asked. Ezra provided no answer. "The difficult and bloody path it is." She sighed and began carving the skin of Ezra's back.

Ezra doubted anyone in the dungeon hadn't heard her screams. She had resisted at first. But the torturing got more unbearable by the minute. How long has it been since the first of the torturing started? Minutes. Hours. Maybe even days. Ezra was unsure. The queen had carved her back first, revealing the muscles beneath. She had explained that the whipping would be more painful when it came in direct contact with the flesh beneath the skin. Especially when the whip was drenched in poison. The queen wasn't wrong, Ezra's screams reached the seventh heaven with each whip to the back. She had cried so much, blood now rolled down from her eyes. After a few good whippings, the queen 'washed' away the wounds with salt water, causing her to writhe in pain. Pain was an understatement to describe the suffering she went through.

They were both now panting, sweat beaded Ezra's forehead.

"This is futile," Ezra croaked, her voice hoarse from all the screaming. "I will not break." She managed to say. The truth was, she would. That's why she had asked the rebels to constantly shift their position. She only got daily updates of their current position which they changed the next morning.