The Rebel (#Wattys2016)

47. Innocence

Sorry this update came late, I went to build some houses for poor people during the weekend and came back full of bruises, blisters and exhaustion.

It was totally worth it, though. The family I build the house for cried when they saw it, and it was so moving.

Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

Lady Regina and the rest of the girls had no energy left. She barely recalled the last full meal she'd had, more than a week before. Ever since the rebellion, all she'd eaten was burnt and stiff bread and water. All she could do was sit with her back to the metal bars, stare at the ceiling and pray, to whoever was up in the sky that her suffering would end soon. If that's how lower caste people felt everyday, Regina could almost understand why they'd rebelled. Almost.

The Lady forced herself to survey the girls, and found no surprise in their state. Like her, most had taken off their high heels, replaced the elaborate Selection hairdos with ponytails and buns, and cut their dresses until they were knee-length. Their dresses, once vibrant and seductive and elegant, were now nothing but drags filled with mud and bloodstains that served more as reminders of what they could have been. The Ladies smelled with the unmistakable stench of unwashed bodies, but they didn't care anymore. Sosie cried quietly, slumped in the farthest corner from Regina, her hands covering her face. Regina looked to her left, where Stephanie, another girl, coughed. All the girls shone in the torchlight, covered in sweat and oil and the overall dirtiness that was all over the royal dungeons. The King had long been gone, taken to a separate room to "prepare him for his execution." Ever since Adeen and that boy had come to get the princes and June, none had come back, not even the rebel girl, who now was the subject to the girls' gossip. No one watched over them anymore, it was as if the rebels had decided six girls were no threat to the People's Cause.

Sosie stood up, and Regina stared at her as she made her way to the metal bars. She took them in her hands and shook them. No one came. She shook them again, harder.

"We're alive here!" She screamed. "Get us out! This is inhumane!"

"Sosie." Regina said, already resenting the girl for making her loose energy. "No one will come."

"They'll at least hear. And when they hear us, they'll come and look at us, and then they'll get us out." Sosie shook the bars again and screamed.

"If they were to take us out, they'd already done that by now."

Sosie continued shaking the bars. Regina shrugged and returned to her misery. If the girl wanted to lose her energy, then Regina would do nothing to keep her from doing just that. Regina closed her eyes, trying to get some sleep. But Sosie kept shaking the bars and screaming. And soon she had picked up the metal bucket the rebels had given them for water and was clanking it against the bars. Regina clenched her jaw and dug her nails into her palms, but nothing could keep Sosie's noise out of her head. Finally, Regina, feeling very much like murdering someone, stood up and walked to Sosie.

Regina took the metal bucket from Sosie's hands and threw it to the other side of the room. In the silence, the bucket clanked against the stone floor so loudly it could have been a firework. Sosie stared at it, then at Regina, her mouth open in surprise.

"Shut up! Just shut up! Nobody's coming, nobody will save us. We're screwed, Sosie." As soon as the words left her mouth, Regina felt like a dam inside of her had broken, because she'd never swore before, and now she couldn't stop. "We're fucked, Sosie. Adeen betrayed us and like idiots we fell into her trap and so did Skander and Jasper and everyone in this fucking country." Regina stood, wide eyed, at the words leaving her mouth. She brought a hand to her mouth and pressed it against her lips, as if she couldn't believe cuss words had escaped them. "We're fucked."