Dictator [One Direction AU]

24

Date: 19.03.2063

The dank smell of mold woke Jane from her half hearted sleep and she was confronted with the depressing reality that lay in front of her. The darkness that surrounded her almost taunted her, it laughed at her failure. At her weakness.

Hugging her knees to her chest, she trembled slightly in the cold. The cell was small and unforgiving, and Jane could almost feel the sadness in the air. Everything she had fought so hard for -her independence and freedom- had been stripped from her in the snap of Louis' fingers.

Loneliness was a cruel master and every second Jane felt more and more like she was going insane- she was almost at the point of pacing around the room.

The gravelly sliding of a bolt alerted Jane and she crawled to the corner of her cell, scared of who was visiting her. She crossed her fingers and prayed to god that it wouldn't be Louis.

A small servant entered the dungeon holding a small candle that emitted a tiny amount of light, enough to outline his face that held a somber expression. His footsteps echoed round the small space, and Jane could already tell that he would be the deliverer of bad news. She could just tell.

"Ms Jane," the servant's voice was low and miserable, "I regret to inform you of a passing in your family."

In that very second, Jane froze where she sat as the information washed over her in tidal waves of pain, sorrow and agony. A death. In her family.

"Would you be so merciful as to tell me who has passed? Will you spare me the anxiety?" Jane's voice was quiet, and it was clear that she had been broken. She was no longer the headstrong, fiery woman she once had been.

"Your mother, I am terribly sorry for the loss," the servant bowed his head as tears began to fall down Jane's ruddy cheeks and as her wails erupted and bounced off the stone walls.

"How did she die?" Jane's voice was laced with venom as she spoke, vengeance coursed throughout her bloodstream and anger bubbled inside of her.

"Of natural causes, not of Louis' doing if that is what you are thinking," as the servant spoke, Jane felt her body fall loose and limp as if the life had been sucked out of her.

Louis had not killed her mother, which led Jane to believe that the cause of her mother's death was her. Jane sobbed louder, trying to rid herself of these thoughts but they only spun faster in her head. I should have been the one who died, Jane thought sadly to herself.

"Please leave me," Jane shouted between gasps as she tried to hold onto something that would steady her. The news was immobilizing, she couldn't comprehend what she had been told.

Her mother, the woman who had raised her, was gone. Jane's mother had been her confidant, her best friend, her comforter.

"If I had something to write with, I would pour my heart into a poem. A ballad. A song. Something to remember her by," Jane began to talk to herself , rambling on and on as she threw herself into hysterics.

But without paper, nor pen, all she was left with was the memories she had that were fading fast from colour to black and white.

*Flashback*

Jane sat beside her mother as the sun beat down upon them, glinting off her mother's hair like a halo. Jane looked up to admire her mother's sheer beauty, her poise and elegance. For a woman with no money, Jane's mother always knew how to present herself.

"Someday, you will grow up and be too old to sit and sunbathe with me. You will be too busy talking to boys and doing rebellious things," her mother sighed, biting her lip as she spoke. Jane was thirteen, and she was changing from a small naive girl into a young woman.

"I will always sit out here with you mama. Always. Even when I am a grown up," Jane reassured her mother, plaiting her mother's golden locks absentmindedly.

"I hope so," and as the sun set over the pair, Jane couldn't help feeling like her mother was right. She knew that she would grow up someday, but she hoped that she would always make time for her mother.

*End of Flashback*

Jane sobbed more as the memory faded, as did the image of her mother. She couldn't fight anymore. She was damaged beyond repair.