Shadows of Iraedes | NanoWrimo 2021

CHAPTER FOUR: TRAPPED

"If you are not going to eat breakfast with me and keep thinking this confused thought of leaving me, then I am just going to have to show you how you need me."

Gharet grabbed her arm and dragged her over to their food pantry. He opened the little door and pushed her inside. She fell against the wood floor, knocking her knees against the hard wood and turned to watch the light slam shut in her face.

She heard Gharet moving the table, the screeching of the legs over the floor and it banged against the pantry door. She leaped to the door hitting her fists against it but knew she wasn't strong enough when she had trouble trying to drag the table. Trying to push against it behind a closed door, it wasn't happening. She sat back letting herself hit the floor hard and cried.

Hours stretched, or minutes, or days. Aurora was trapped in the food pantry for what seemed like an endless amount of time. There were no windows that allowed her to see the change in daylight. She assumed it was still the same day, but she knew Gharet would have to go to work soon. He was an apprentice to a steel smith. It was one of the reasons Gharet was a bigger guy. It wasn't because he was tall, he was actually average size amongst men, but lifting hammers and anything else he did while he was at the shop built up his size. It made him very intimidating. If he had already left for work she hadn't heard the front door shut through the thick wood of the pantry.

All she could do was sit and wait for him to return and let her out. The dark she sat in swallowed everything allowing her not even to see her hand in front of her face. She was glad she had never been afraid of the dark, but if she was trapped for more than a day she would begin to fear it, she knew it.

She felt for the back of the small tight room. She wasn't even sure it was big enough to be considered a room. It was more like a closet that they stored root vegetables and things that wouldn't go bad for a while in. She scooted herself until she found the hard wood back and huddled up to it, drawing her knees to her chin and she wrapped her arms around her knees.

For a moment she thought back to what she had been dreaming about earlier. How she had imagined a bright and colorful, potential future, but as the minutes turned into hours her hope of leaving Deronne was dwindling quickly.

She let her head rest against the cool wall after awhile and jerked awake, at first not remembering where she was and finding she was locked in the dark made her heart pound against her chest. She soon remembered what had happened and she put her head to her knees again, feeling the hot salty tears run down her cheeks.

In the small dark space she jumped at another sound. She didn't realize it at first, but her stomach had growled and she hadn't had a thought about food for some time, but hearing the sound brought on a new feeling. One that she needed to eat, but also one she needed to relieve a certain lower pressure.

She climbed to her knees and crawled over to the door, feeling around till her fingers brushed the door.

She pounded on it and yelled for Gharet. "Gharet, let me out!"

She didn't want to beg and refused to do so, but she didn't even know if Gharet was home. She could be yelling to an empty room for all she knew. She hit the door until she felt something slippery and brought her hand to her nose. She smelled the rich metallic scent of blood and licked away the wound across her knuckles. She didn't have anything to wrap her hand in except her skirts, which after she believed she had cleaned it she did tuck her hand into her skirt but she didn't stop. She continued to pound on the door even with her wrapped hands. They stung, against the door, against the rough fabric of her skirt, but she kept on. She couldn't stay in the pantry forever... unless Gharet went out for drinks at the tavern and never came home.