The Curse of Adelaide

TWELVE

I looked at the man surprised. "Lorie? That's an unusual name."

"My friends used to call me that," he admitted with a sad smile. I could tell that something was bothering him.

"Why are you chained up like this?"

"You mean these?" he asked as he looked down to his feet. "I did something bad and therefor the king punished me."

"Oh." I looked at him in silence, not sure what to say. He must have done something really bad, if Father thought that it was necessary to put on this giant chains. "How long have you been here?"

The man stared at me for a while before letting out a sigh. "I don't know, it's been too long since I last saw the sun." He let out another sigh and sat down again.

"I am sorry."

I didn't know why I apologized, I wasn't the one who took away his freedom. But still I felt sadness overcome me. I couldn't imagine a life without being able to feel the warmth of the sunrays touching my skin.

"Do you have a family?" I looked around the room for a while before walking to the wall and sitting down.

"No," he mumbled.

"But everyone has a family," I exclaimed. I wished I hadn't said those words as I saw a flicker of sadness crossing his features.

"I am sorry," I said.

Lorie looked at me, his eyes filled with surprised. "You don't have to apologize."

"Of course, I shouldn't have said that, that was thoughtless of me."

"You are different, I can tell," Lorie said after a while.

I looked at him with a frown. "What do you mean?"

"I have lived a long life, Adelaide. I know how the others think, they don't care about anyone but themselves." He stopped for a moment and pointed a finger at me. "But you, you are different. You have a heart."

"But everybody has a heart," I replied with a laugh.

"But most people forget about theirs."

"And what about you?" I asked.

He looked at me confused. "What about me?"

"Did you forget about yours?"

"No, I didn't forget about it," he said. "I destroyed it."

I stared at Lorie confused and sad. He looked so broken, as if he had lost all hope. I could only wander what had happened to him. But whatever it was, it must have been horrible. I looked around, trying to come up with something to distract him from his misery.

"I am cursed," I suddenly blurted out. It probably wasn't the best thing to say, but I couldn't figure out anything else to say.

Lorie looked at me confused, a frown forming on his forehead. "What?" he asked in disbelief.

"I am cursed," I mumbled and let out a sigh.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, apparently I am going to fall asleep on my eighteenth birthday and never wake up again, or at least for a long period of time," I explained with a shrug.

Lorie stared at me with an opened mouth, apparently my plan to distract him worked. "How did it happen? The curse, I mean" he asked with a small voice.

"It happened during my christening, apparently a Magie called Malloreigh cursed me. I was supposed to die on my eighteenth birthday, but my aunts, who aren't really my aunts, managed to change the curse, therefore I won't die but instead fall asleep. And since Malloreigh was able to flee, I had to leave the castle and move to the forest where I have stayed ever since I can remember. But apparently they caught him, and my father asked for me to come back to live with him."