The Crowned Princess

Chapter Seven - Cold Cells

Chapter Seven -
Cold Cells
•••

My whole body ached in pain as I began to wake up, and slowly but surely the pain intensified sending fire-like shooting pains around my body.

Even the cold hard floor I woke up on wasn't helping cool down the scolding pain that was torturing me from the inside-out.

A small tear escaped my eyes, rolling down hitting the concrete that held my barely alive body.

I slowly open my eyes, stinging as I do, to look around at my surrounding to be greeted with darkness.

All that I could manage to make out was the silver bars that kept me prisoner in someone's dungeon.

Soon I heard the squeak of a metal door opening, followed by the bright light of the outside world seap into the cold cells, casting light of the true horror I was locked inside of.

Dried blood covered the stone walls and floors, while rats ran around feasting on what they could find.

Without warning the walls around me began to echo with the chilling sounds of people screaming in pain to be let out, letting me know there were others around me who were also locked behind the silver bars.

I sat up-straight, locking my arms around my legs as my mind raced upon what was going to happen to me.

I heard the sound of something hard rattle against the floor, over and over until the sound got closer to where I lay.

"So you're finally awake." I heard a man's voice say above me, before the sound of a metal dish hit the ground. "Eat up." He said in a somewhat demanding voice before he began to walk off.

"I'm not hungry." I say stubbornly, pushing the bowl away with the tip of my foot before moving back into my circled position ignoring the shooting pain that travelled throughout my body.

"I'm sure the rats will eat it if you won't." He stated from further away.

"Where am I?" I questioned, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness.

I heard his mocking laugh echo around the walls causing a chill to go up my spine "Where do you think darling?" He said before I heard the same sound of the metal bowl hitting the floor in the next cell over.

The sound of the bowls repeated for a few minutes before it came to a sudden stop.

I tried to fixate on any noises of the mysterious man but the sounds of people crying in agony drowned out any noise he made until I saw the same outside light flow back into the room.

"Wait." I call out in panic, getting on my unsteady feet and walking towards the bars, afraid to be left alone in this dungeon. "Please." I cry out hoping it will stop him.

I could see his shadow halt in the light, waiting for me to continue.

"You need to listen to me, please, I'm the underworlds princess. You can't keep me in here." I cry out to the man, hoping he will listen to me, and set me free.

"HA! That's the first time I've heard that one." He laughed, shaking his head.

"You need to believe me." I pleaded, not afraid to sound desperate. "I demand you to bring me your Alpha." I try to use my royal voice, gripping onto the silver bars that burnt away at my flesh.

"I only answer demands of my Alpha, and as for when he'll be down, that's up to him. Now I have better things to be doing than making bargains with trespassing rogues." He said, closing the door behind him as he left.

I let out a yell, hitting the ceil bars causing them to let out a rattle.

Frustrated I walked to the back of my cell where I saw the silver chains hung up high on the walls, with what looked like decaying flesh still wrapped inside the chains.

I slide my back down the walls while my hands cover my face in disbelief, until I'm finally sitting on the ground.

I need to get out of here.

Tears began to stream from my eyes as I fought to keep the violent sobs inside.

"You really don't know where you are?" I heard an amused man say from besides my cell, but I didn't reply back thinking he was trying to annoy me. "Don't worry, I believe you. I was sent to deliver the news that the Princess was missing to other surrounding packs, and well, that's how I ended up here." He carried on.

"I'm sorry." I managed to say in between sobs, and it went silent for a few minutes.

"Blood Red Moonlight. That's the Pack who have us trapped down here. The members mostly consist of former Rogues, which is why your royal command didn't work on him." He tells me, which causes an overwhelming sense of dread to come over me.

Rogues don't conform to the rules of the royals, instead they travel alone or they choose their packs and who they obey.

"How long have you been down here?" I ask, wiping my tears away and looking at my food bowl that had rats surround it.

"Four days." He says exhausted. "It don't seem long but when you have a family back home, it feels like years." He confessed.

"I'm so sorry." I tell him again, putting my head on my knees in shame.

When I ran I didn't stop to think about the others that would of been affected by my actions.

"It's not your fault. I agreed to travel to the surround packs knowing what could happen, I was just ignorant to believe it wouldn't happen to me."

As I picked my head from my knees to respond, I was struck by the hot pain that flashed around my skin that caused my head to spin.

"Do you think we'll get out of here?" I asked, knowing he didn't know himself, but just wanting to get my mind off the turning feeling inside my stomach.

"We will-" was all I heard until I began to violently throw up, over and over until my body shook uncontrollably, and my vision started to blur.

"Are you okay?" I heard the stranger ask, concerned on what he had heard.

"I think I'm going to die down here." I confessed, crawling into a ball on the floor, cradling myself as it felt like I faded in and out of consciousness.

"Don't say that." He tells me, when the same metal door from early creeps open slightly like whoever it was wasn't meant to be here and the quiet but speedy taps of their feet came closer to where I lay.

"Serena?" I heard a feminine voice gasp.

I struggle to pick my head up as it felt like the muscles in my body have given up, but when our eyes meet I held a glimpse of hope.

"It really is you!" She said with the same amount of shock I was in.

"Jasmine?"