White Knight

Part 3

Chapter Three:

She faltered as small, definitely feminine hands touched her. First on her wrists, measuring her heart beats. Then her forehead, smothering the hair and patting her dry carefully as though she were fragile enough to break. Her eyes snapped open, watching the brown haired mouse-like girl with intense interest. She had a small face, with an even smaller nose. Until she knew better, the girl would be called Mouse.

"Are you alright?" Mouse whispered horsely, her voice was lost somewhere in her throat wincing when she spoke. The girl thought it was from lack of use, though she couldn't prove it. Looking at the way the girl stood, the way her clothes hung off of her body...She had been here for months,if not years. Pitty flooded the girls veins. How could something like this happen? Mouse would have been barely fourteen if not younger. How could a parent not report their fourteen year old girl missing....unless they had been the ones to send her here.

She opened her mouth to reply but gagged instead. Jagged pieces of ice making their way up her throat and onto the floor in front of her. Quicker than she would have thought possible Mouse was there, holding her hair out of her face and soothing her back carefully, muttering words so quiet she couldn't hear. Once the water had been expelled from her body she sat up, glaring at the mouse-like girl before her as though it was her fault entirely. The guard had succeeded it seemed. Her spirit was broken. All she wanted was to get out of the cell alive. Back to her Prince, hell, she would even settle for the Queen. She would do anything. Be anyone as long as she could survive this torture.

"I'm Ava." She answered the unspoken question, and the girl on the floor nodded hastily, rubbing her throat. The yellow-purple bruises there reminded Ava of her first few weeks here. This girl was lucky she had someone to take care of her. She had been treated a lot worse, been used in a lot more terrifying ways than the girl before her would ever know.

Ava helped the girl to stand. She was struggling with even that. Slowly the two moved over to the bed.Ava watched the girl hug her knees to her chest, a look of total helplessness and longing filled the girl's features for a moment, before there was nothing. Just bleakness, the empty shell of a human. Ava almost felt like she could relate, she remembered the first time she found the nothingness inside her mind, the brief quietness it brought her. After a few days even that sanctuary was corrupted. There was no place either of them could hide from the torture. The girl opened her mouth again, choking out a single word.

"Why?" She robbed her throat wincing. The tub had obviously done some serious damage to her vocal cords. But they would heal within the hour. Honestly, Ava was more interested by the fact the girl wasn't covered in the royal seal. That was the first thing all the girls had done to them. It was almost a tradition now. Marking them as the Queens property until the day they died. But Ava couldn't explain why she was sent to take care of the girl. Perhaps it was because she had been there the longest, knew the guards methods the best. Had been his 'number one girl' for years on end. Unconsciously she touched her stomach before reverting her eyes back to the girl in front of her.

"I don't know. They took me out of my cell this morning and shoved me in here instead." A part truth. The guard had told her who the unconscious girl was. He had told her what to do. The Prince would be a matter of hours. She had to break the little Princess.

Ava forced a smile on her lips dangling the bronze key in front of the girls face. Her eyes widened in response and hope flashed deep in her eyes. The prospect of escape was so enchanting. Stupid girl. Even after only a few hours she should know; there is no escape from this place. She would know by the end of the day though. When the Prince returned to collect his soon-to-be bride, she would be broken, and ready to rule.