Fooled You

1

Every time I close my eyes, I can see it.

A sword raised high into the air, the blade aimed downwards...

...at my heart.

The cold eyes of my father's murderer would stare at me, devoid of the warmth I recognized.

Why?

Blood slid down the metal, dripping a cold red.

My hands would tremble at my side, my head lolled against the bed frame.

He would grip my hair in one hand, not yanking nor pulling. It was as if he were admiring its lambent glow, stainless, so unlike the scene laid before me.

"Anouk," He will always say, slowly and easily digestible. His soft voice would resonate with my growing misery, the slow hatred that would have only just begun to show in my eyes. "Today you will be stripped of your position, and become a prisoner unworthy of your former title."

His eyes came closer as he always would, to breathe the next words into my ear.

"You'll stay here until I decide you're no longer needed."

The door creaked open, and my eyelids lifted slightly. A low, thrumming headache was beginning to settle in my head, and I took a shallow breath.

"Who's there?" I spoke, my quiet voice echoing in the vast room.

There was no answer, and my eyes narrowed as the footsteps came closer.

Servants didn't dare to enter this room. Only he would, but they didn't sound like his.

They stopped at the rim of my bed.

"Oi." A male's domineering tone. "Get up."

My gaze trailed to the figure looming over me. A soldier emblem was embedded into the torso of his uniform, one of top rank. His face was twisted into an expression of pure disgust as he glared down at me.

"Get up." He repeated gruffly, and when I didn't move and turned my head away, he tsked and yanked me up roughly. "Don't make me do anything unnecessary." He hissed, and I pulled back my lips.

"His Majesty would be angry if you hurt me in any manner, don't you think?" I jerked my arm from his grip and returned a look of disdain. My voice deepened with menace. "Behave properly, so you don't upset his graces." 

The blow came numb at first. The pain slowly washed over me, but I didn't move to touch the burning red that was appearing on my cheek.

"You damn wrench, still acting like the spoiled thing you are." He spat at me. "I don't understand why His Majesty wastes his time on you, you who is now a mere girl and can no longer hold any significance in his reign." His eyes met mine in a mutual glare and I could see the resentment in his eyes. It struck me as odd that I had never noticed such animosity back then, back when the Emperor was my father and I was still respected as the first princess of the Kouka Kingdom.

My jaw clenched.

Otou-sama.

Yona.

"Bastard." I snarled, the word tumbling harshly from my tongue. As if to match his lively hate, a tide of dark anger rose from inside of me. "Bark when you can, bear your fangs at me if you want. Shallow actions achieve nothing."

An enraged expression passed over his face as he raised his fist once more. 

"Stop, Eric."

The hard voice spoke from the door, and the officer immediately froze in his movement. I turned my head to see a familiar face, a man I used to speak to quite often when this kingdom was still ruled by that gentle and kind person everyone called a coward.

"Bal." Absorbing his new but expected appearance, I asked: "Are you my escort too?"

His sharp eyes locked with mine for a long moment before he nodded. "Please follow me, Anouk-hime."

I involuntarily twitched at that name, feeling undeniably surprised. It soaked my presence with its resonant sound, and I realized how powerful it was, the title that no longer belonged to me.

Eric, an irritated light appearing in his dark eyes, pulled back and straightened, looking away from me as I slipped on my shoes and stood up. He seemed displeased at the way Bal called me hime, at the way Bal disregarded the fact that I was no longer a princess but a prisoner.

I started off unevenly but strode quickly across the room to Bal's side. I held up my wrists--an offering. Bal paused at this blatant notion but continued, shackling my limbs. He didn't give me another look before turning and walking, tugging on his end of the chain. Urging me forward. The cold metal bit into my skin and I followed.

The chains felt heavy against my body, weighing silently on this reality. My reality.

For the first time in days, I breathed fresh air. The fragrance of flowers was abnormally sweet as I inhaled the crisp breeze and sank into the sound of trickling water. I tilted my head back, watching the little things in the sky soar freely. Their wings cut through the sky with ease, their small eyes reflecting a larger world than my own.

In that brief second, something drained out of me. Something that would usually give people hope, wishful thinking, and perhaps a nostalgic memory only gave me emptiness. 

My world was dimming.

Everything was crumbling--falling away--to reveal a girl upon an edge of a cliff, watching the gaping chasm beneath her with nothing to give, only herself.

And as for the sky that she so very much wanted to touch, but couldn't reach from where she was, began to churn and darken.  The clouds were gathering, and the birds scattered in its shadows.

Rain.

I lowered my head and gazed at the ground through a cage of eyelashes.

I didn't look up as more guards joined us--me--in this sphere of solitude, where I stood alone as they bordered but avoided me like I was the plague. 

Not one of them spoke a word--why would they? It was easy enough to understand. 

Something would end today, and I had been chosen.