Sweet Innocence and Gentle Sin || 𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐑

Chapter 16: Runaway

I can't let go when something's broken. It's all I know and it's all I want to know.

~)(~

It was honestly worse than I ever thought. Last night this dress was... a blob of white—but now that it sat on my figure, it looked like the worst attempt at fashion I'd ever seen.

It was just a big puffy cloud of lace and tulle with the most conservative square neckline ever imagined. The sleeves hooked over my middle fingers, the satin tightly bound to my arms, constricting my movements. The skirt consisted of hundreds of petticoats and underlinings, all covered by a bedazzled, pearl-decorated sheet of white.

Apparently, it was supposed to represent the sea salt of my home and the pale cliffs. Cliffs made me think of something straight and tight, not puffy and big. And sea salt was coarse and scratchy, not smooth as silk. Mother above, whoever designed this obviously didn't know what they were doing.

Then there was the veil of tulle. A monstrous pile of it, so long I found it hilariously absurd. It was all topped with a million pins holding my hair in the wildest of curl patterns. Braids held everything against my scalp so tight that it hurt to move my neck.

I stood in the mirror and brushed a stray hair out of my face while Nalia flattened the hem of the skirt. She looked up at me for the fiftieth time and stood. "Stop fidgeting."

"I look ridiculous," I said, huffing a sigh as I turned around and stepped off the stool. The skirts rustled like sandpaper and made me shiver at the sound.

Nalia laughed. "You do not. You look... different, that's all."

"I look like an overgrown sheep." I slammed my fists against the sides of the skirts and ended up losing my arms in the fabric. "This whole thing is one massive gathering of hot, itchy fabric that will make me want to scream."

Nalia took my hands and held them tight as she turned me to face her. She smiled slightly and said, "You will be alright, I promise. It's just a stupid dress that you only need to wear today."

I huffed a sigh. "When this is over, help me burn this thing."

She cackled at that and threw her head back as it rang from her like a bell, contagious enough for me to laugh with her. She sighed and said, "Of course, we'll dance around the fire in our nightgowns and drink wine as we watch it burn."

"Sounds fun to me. I could use a drink."

Nalia shook her head with a laugh and handed me the bouquet of even more explosive glamor. "I'm sure that, in the years after, you will look back on this time and laugh at its... stupidity."

"I will indeed."

There was a knock at the door, which drained every ounce of joy from the room in an instant. "I did as you told. I hid the dagger under the bed—left side," Nalia whispered to me as she looked at the door. Her eyes glistened over as she breathed in deeply.

I squeezed her hands tighter. "Thank you."

She nodded slowly and forced a smile, before gathering the trail of fabric and saying, "Now, let's get this over with."

The door opened, and I lifted the skirts so I could actually walk out of the room. As the dress brushed against the stone walls, it made rustling and scratching sounds while catching on the ground. The heels clanked on the ground and were already pinching my toes and making me walk with a slight limp.

The process of trying to turn in these tight halls was in itself a scientific venture. I would have to stop in the middle of the turn and spin slowly while Nalia followed behind with the rest of the skirts. Then everything would have to be adjusted, so it wasn't twisted around me before we could move onward.