A Tale of Shadows - THE OUTDATED VERSION

Chapter 20 - Punishment

Hours had passed for Melinda in solitude and only a little bit of talking with her friends. It took her a while to say everything to them, but as soon as she did and they gave their shocked remarks, she resorted to staring out the window again for a long time, leaving them worried. Leaves blew in the wind again and again, the rain had started to fall, it stopped and then began once more, but a response still did not come. This led her to close the window, turn around, sit on the floor and sigh to truly show her loss of hope.

Wendy looked her in the face, frowning. "You have been behaving strangely, Melinda dearest. Please do tell me what is going on."

"Haven't I told you that hours ago?" Melinda responded, her hands crossed.

"Yes, you have, but I suppose Maria is very busy and that it will take quite some time for her to respond to the letter," Wendy explained.

"I only hope that Maria answers the letter soon enough."

Wendy pulled her into a hug. "Halt your concerns for as long as you can, for if you overwhelm your head too much, you will be incapable of thinking straight. And remember, no matter what burdens are placed in front of us, we will always find a way to overcome them."

Melinda smiled while on the verge of crying, her heart filled with warmth she knew would never not appear whenever she got pulled into Wendy's embrace. "I am lucky to have a friend such as you. Maybe this night, I will finally be able to sleep well."

Wendy mustered a weak laugh. "I desire that as much as you do. I have no right to complain about the noise you make, nor do I have a reason to. I merely want you to be the happiest you can be."

"Don't overly concern yourself either, Wendy dearest. I would never wish that upon you," Melinda spoke, her smile now wider than before.

They separated their bodies from each other as they heard a knock on the door. Melinda yearned to express the waves of boiling negative emotions in her veins, which appeared due to the thousandth appearance of a thought that always taunted her, which was that the value of the bravery she always displayed on the battlefield seeming to become weaker and weaker with each knock on the door of her prison cell, but she knew she had to be better than that, at least a little.

A man whose face she had never seen before entered the room without waiting. His facial expression was eerily stern, as was Amanda's when she caught her searching for the dictionary. That memory sent a shiver down her spine, revealing to her the possibility that she might have gotten caught for something again. If her theory was true, then the punishment she would receive would most certainly be something she would never forget.

"Madam Grey, Mrs Collins has reported to me that you sent a letter containing information on the plans of our master. Come with me," he spoke, his eyes piercing through hers.

She was right indeed, and now was the time for her to surrender. Without a word, she followed behind him, accepting her fate. As they walked down the hallway, she pondered the snide remarks she gave Amanda while she was threatened by her, having no clue as to how she believed that she could come out of that situation unscathed. Her hope, her faith in Amanda's kindness had poisoned her success, making her pay a price she knew was not fair enough for her to pay even one-twentieth of it. 

But another part of her brain was telling her that perhaps she was the one who was not fair enough to her, for from what she knew of Amanda, she must have been forced to serve Hemmingway under the threat of her life or to feed her family. When she observed her behaviour more closely in her head, she saw that there were signs that could indeed confirm that possibility. However, even if that were true, rage was still boiling within her veins, and if no eyes witnessed it, she could safely express it.

She woke up from her thoughts when the man opened a door. The first thing she concluded was that the room they have reached was rarely used by the former owner, if at all. All of the furniture included merely two sofas, two armchairs and coffee tables, covered with white sheets. The walls were engulfed with cobwebs and dust, the same as the drawn black curtains on the windows and the chandelier. There was no carpet on the floor, and insects were crawling between the planks the parquetry consisted of with the assistance of the humongous gaps between them. Her eyes were wide open because of that sight.

"Why are we here?" she asked quietly as the man kicked the door, thus closing it.

He refused to respond to her, only glaring at her and snorting as if she weren't worthy of even a cuss word. It wasn't that important of a question, but she looked for the answer herself. Soon, she concluded that the room must have been chosen thanks to its convenience and privacy, wondering how she had not made that conclusion before.

Behind her, he drew a shape in the air, and she knew that due to seeing a glowing purple that overwhelmed the room. She stood still, waiting for the outcome with shivers crawling down her spine. After a few seconds, his spell threw her on the floor, which made her let out a scream.

"What could follow?" she whispered to herself.

This time, he did not even pause to glare at her. The spell was unfamiliar to Melinda, and she was too distressed to succeed in remembering it well, but the room being swallowed by green light as he twisted every bone in her body was something that she would remember forever. She screamed harder than she would have if he had brought her to the gallows. It hurt her that much, as at that moment, within her skin, nothing could be felt by the cold harshness of his anger and disappointment in the place of her bones, which then simply existed to hold her body together. It resembled all the dreams she had about her former predicaments and the destruction of everything she loved in one, sealed by reality. From her instincts, she assumed that it had been around five minutes when the spell was over, but her heart was telling her that it was five hours. He closed the door behind her without hesitation, leaving her to wail in pain before she could stand up.