The Rebel (#Wattys2016)

19. Blue

Adeen spent the next days in a silent hell. The other girls glanced at her, but never so much as opened their mouths when she was around. The guards were —as always- silent men, but when Adeen was around, she didn't miss their hands especially close to their guns. The only persons unaffected by the events were June and Jasper. They talked to Adeen and got her through the tears. They waited patiently for her words.

And for three days, they waited in vain.

In the castle, Adeen was the one who was messed up the hardest. Not even the King, who didn't bother pretending to like the girls, was so affected. Not even Skander, although with his red eyes and messy hair he was close to Adeen. She never spoke. Adeen observed, and grieved, and cried, but she didn't speak for three days. The conversations June started faded away when Adeen looked at her and simply stared, and sometimes nodded. Jasper joked and tried not to talk about their loss, but even when he ran out of jokes and they fell silent, he mourned.

Silence, it seemed, was as dangerous as a loaded gun.

It left people alone with their thoughts, until they became white noise impossible to ignore. And then that noise ate up the real world until it threatened to break everything in pieces. Adeen thought.

Until on the fourth day, a knock came. Adeen was sitting on her bed, staring as her maids sewed a new dress. They, too, ignored Adeen's silence and did the talking for her. But when Maggie opened the door, almost greeting Jasper and inviting him in for his daily time with Adeen, she gasped at Prince Skander. And he wasn't alone.

He politely greeted them and went in. A woman, middle aged, with brown hair and eyes and olive toned skin followed him. She held a notebook, and examined her. Adeen covered her bare arms under her scrutinizing eyes. She nodded at her maids and they left.

"Adeen, how are you doing?" His first words to her were so impersonal, Adeen's mind couldn't recall his lips on hers or his voice next to her ears. She didn't answer and he nodded. "Look, Adeen. I know it's been hard since— you know." He talked so impersonally, so... slowly, like she was a third year old. Something inside of her screamed at him. "It hasn't been good for me either, but I've survived. Dr Bartler here has helped me survived." The woman smiled and nodded at him. Her brown eyes went soft. "And I want her to help you." He smiled sadly. "Dr Bartler, this is Adeen. Treat her well, she's a special one." The smile he gave Adeen at that moment was closer to his usual self, but not quite there. He nodded. "Adeen, Dr Bartler will talk to you. So why don't I leave you girls alone, eh?"

He turned to leave. But Adeen was silent, and inside her mind voices screamed and she wanted to cry and scream until her lungs burst because of what had happened. And she didn't want to be alone with a stranger and have to tell her about her secrets.

So Adeen moved as fast as she did in the stage and grabbed his hand. Skander turned, slightly impressed.

"Stay." Adeen's throat was horse from crying. "Please."

Skander's eyes widened at her voice, and then they turned to Dr Bartler, as if he was asking for permission. She nodded and Skander nodded back. He grabbed Adeen's chair from her desk and gave it to Dr Bartler. He sat besides Adeen on her bed, hand in hand.

"Adeen, it's good to meet you." Dr Bartler finally spoke, revealing a honey-soft voice. Adeen went quiet again. "Skander has asked me to help you the way I helped him. So why don't we start? Adeen, is there any specific thing you want to talk about before we begin?"

Adeen glanced at her lap, and Skander squeezed her hand tighter.

"It's alright, Adeen." She looked at him and he smiled. "Just pretend you're talking to me."