The Taboo Topics

The Walls Were Crying

The walls were crying, she was sure of it. Small tears running down the dark stone walls in the dungeon. It had taken her some time, but her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light eventually. Now she could see the outline of everything around her but for the dark corners of the room. 

Twice a day someone would come to her with food and water. It weren’t much for two people to live off, but somehow they made it work.

She was never afraid; she knew her friends would come to her rescue. They just had to find her first, and until they did she would be ok, she wouldn’t be afraid.

Sometimes, Big, uniformed men  would ask her questions. Questions about her friends, but she wouldn’t and couldn’t answer them. Then they would always get angry with her, some of them would hit her, others spit at her, and others yet again would to something else to her. 

She didn’t mind the punishments too bad, she would scream and cry and pretend it was horrible. It did hurt, but she would think of something else, usually her mother and father, sometimes her friends, and fairy tales – things far far away, then they couldn’t really hurt her. 

Her friends would come for her soon…

Once upon a time… she would often think, but lately she had started to run out of tales to tell herself, to keep her from losing hope.

Was she a princess in a far away land, waiting for prince charming to come get her? Or was she perhaps the beast, hiding in the dungeon, hoping someone would soon lift the curse, before her time run out?

Her companion in the dungeon certainly needed rescuing, or his time would soon be out. Both his energy and willpower were slowly seeping away from him. 

Her friends would be here anytime now…

Night after night she waited, while the walls were crying silently around her, dark tears running down cold walls. She wondered; perhaps the walls weren’t crying, perhaps they were bleeding. 

What if the dark corner she never could see clearly, no matter how much her eyes grew used to darkness, what if spiders and snakes and rats were hiding there? Because there she wouldn’t be able to see them. 

What if the dragons and witches and evil wizards form her fairy tales had made her prison impossible to break through? 

What if no one could save her?

No, that was silly, her friends would come and get her, they always did in the stories, just in the last minute when almost all hope was lost. 

They had stopped asking her questions now, and for that she was glad. They still came to her, but mostly if they were in a bad mood, or to train the younglings, or just to keep her spirit down. 

In the beginning they often sent him to practice on her, because he knew her, it would be fun, they said. He couldn’t do it, not to her, probably not to anyone. You have to really mean it, the mad man always told him before he showed him how to really do it. She guessed he didn’t mean it enough, for they stopped sending him. She hoped for a while that he would come save her, that he was prince charming, but he never came. 

It had been so long since she first got here; she knew now that she was the cursed beast, lost waiting in the dungeon for someone to save her. Her time would soon be out. Shontelle Rittle was the beast, not the princess, she couldn’t wait forever in a tower, and if they didn’t come soon, they would be too late. 

Her friends would come for her…

…wouldn’t they?