I cowered back further into the corner of the horrid place I have been kept these past few days, as the man dressed in black advanced on me. He held a whip in his hands and his face showed a feral carelessness.
"Get up you worthless piece of scum!"
He shouted at me while dragging me by the hair to the centre of the room. Connected to the floor was a pair of manacles that the man strapped to my wrists and ankles. I was lying on my stomach and as he roughly pulled up my shirt tears began to leak from my eyes. As he raised the whip I could feel all the muscles in my back tensing.
The whip came down on my back and I could feel the flesh breaking open and blood pooling on my back. It came down once again onto the scabs that were already there from the last time he whipped me. I could feel my whole back opening up as he brought the whip down time and time again. I screamed out in pain but regretted it as the man dropped the whip and pulled a knife out of the black clothing he was wearing.
I had learnt from last few days down here in my personal hell, that when I scream my punishment gets worse. He squatted down beside me and dragged the knife across my uncovered legs. I withstood the pain until he left, with me still manacled to the ground.
When I heard the door that led down to the cells click closed the hysterics came. The salt water from my tears stinging the cuts on my face which had been caused from being dragged on the stone floor. I wriggled around on the cold floor trying to rid some of the pain. I could feel the skin around my wrists and ankles being rubbed raw from me trying to do so. As my hysterics slowly turned to sobs my body felt drained from trying to stay awake until the man in black left. I felt my eyelids grow heavy and closed my eyes trying to not think about the immense pain radiating from my broken body.
.... I climbed the stairs at the back of the castle after my hunt. I had a dead deer over in the shed where I dropped it before coming to the castle. If my mother and father knew about me going out at night to hunt, I wouldn't be aloud the throne. Despite not wanting to have to rule a country I couldn't let the position go to my younger brother. He was cruel and had no kindness to women in the villages or the noble ladies that lived in the area that surrounded our home.
I stepped through the door of the servant's quarters so no one would see me. As I rounded the corner I bumped into a hard chest, I looked up to see Harry one of my brother's servants.
"I am sorry my prince I did not see you."
He spoke to me while bowing his head in respect,
"Well that is alright Harry but do not speak of this encounter to my mother or father understood?" I said back to him
"Yes your highness" he quickly replied back to me as he scurried down the hall.
I looked down to the floor to see that there were drops of blood there. I followed to where they led to see that there was just wall. I turned to leave when I heard a scream and hysterical sobs coming from behind it. I searched the wall harder and discovered that there was a piece of stone that looked out of place so I pushed it.
A large portion of the wall slowly moved to the side and I gazed into the darkness that was ahead of me. I quickly grabbed a torch that was sitting in the hallway and prepared to go down into the dark. As the darkness was lit up by the flame of the torch I saw a small staircase that was covered in blood. I descended the stairs and took in my surroundings, there were cells built into the rock with dry blood on the floors of most.
I heard the crying turn to quiet soba so I headed in the direction that they were originating from. I stopped at the cell that I could her the sniffles of the person inside. As the torch lit up the cell the flame caused fresh blood on the floor to shine. I moved the light around to where I heard a clinking sound. On the floor lay a girl no more than the young age of sixteen, covered in cuts with blood pooling around her, connected to a pair of rusted manacles.
