Rise with the dawn| Editing

I remember

Mare's POV

My eyes flutter open. The cold, is what I noticed first. Slowly I sit up, and wince at the pain that shoots from my abdomen to my upper body. I look around the room. Even the cameras look turned off. I sit up. My hand slides through my hair, trying to ease the tension. I'm still wearing the dress from the speech. The puffy skirt being in the way. It's from blood but my wound is healed. But that still doesn't wash away how dirty I feel. How painful I feel. At least I said the truth, I can see how I'm gonna have to apologize to my family for this scene. My family, Cal, Kilorn, even Farley I miss them all. Now they probably think I'm dead. The memory gives me pain. I take a deep breath and move from the bed to stand up. My legs wobble and I stumble and fall on my knees. Before I hit the ground I put my hands on the bed. Taking a few deep breaths I stand up again and even though my head spins I help myself by moving by the wall.

I open the door to the bathroom. The cold tiles spread cold all over my body. I shiver before slipping out of my dress and turning on the hot water. With every drop, I feel how the memory flashes. Leaning onto the wall my hand slaps it. I lay my head on the cold wall. Silent tears stream down my sunken cheeks. Then I sit down and put my knees under my chin. Sob wrecks my body. A sudden knock brings me out of my silent pleas.

"My lady here is a new towel and outside you have a new dress," says the red servant with so much pain. Her voice wobbly and eyes glistening.

My answer is snappy, "I don't wanna a new dress!" A sob breaks out of my lips and I put a hand before my lips. Standing shakyly on my legs.

"It's just a shirt and some trousers, madam," she answers and puts the underwear on the sink. In my pity, I didn't even notice she stepped inside. I stop the water and stepping out I mumble over the cold. They should put the heat on. When I step out in my underwear no one is in the room. Only my clothes lie on my bed. I put them on and sit on my bed. My knee jumping up and down. Then the doors open with such a big bang. I immediately look up and see two men step in. The metal man steps in and opens the bars.

The Arven takes a step towards me, "The king sends them to punish you," the Arven says and one of the men pushes me off the bed. I slap on the floor. Groaning in pain. Why would Maven send them? The man takes my shoulder to turn me, he punches me straight on my lip. Then he does it again. I feel the blood in my mouth, tasting it makes me gag.

Then the other man kicks me in my chest and almost kicks my lungs out of me. I start to gasp for air. I struggle and with my hands, I hold my knees. They keep kicking. I can feel how my scars start to open. I feel the blood going from my mouth and from places on my body.

"That's enough!" Sais the metal man. The men stop and leave me lying on the cold ground. I wheeze trying to comprehend what happened.

After an hour someone walks in it's the red servant. She puts something on my table. I see food and juice. Then she walks out and lets me stay alone. She doesn't turn around even if she knows what happened right now. I lay on the ground for much longer. With my hand under my head, just staring into nothingness, blood seeping into the cold ground and the cold seeping into my skin. I crawl over to the table and push myself up. When I sit down I feel even bigger pain.

I put the porridge on my spoon and start to eat. Slowly because I can barely hold the spoon. But I need to eat, I haven't eaten in days. When I drink my juice I do my best to gulp them down. I wobble to my bed. When the doors open, I don't bother to pick my head, drowning in my state. I first see the black boots and then I look up. He looks like a little boy king and I wanna strangle him with all my left powers. The bars open and he steps in. He goes to the chair and sits down. Everything seemed to happen so quickly that her eyes could hardly comprehend.

"I'm sorry they did what they did, but you needed to be punished!" I stop looking at him and look at my hands. Just now I notice I don't seem to have any nails anymore.

When she doesn't answer he continues, "It's very cold here I will ask them to put the heat on!" He stands up and moves to sit on my bed. His hand lays close to my face, almost as if he's doing his best to not reach out with his fingers. I finally give him a desperate look. A look that tells him I not survive this. He takes a deep breath, those eyes of his plead with me, but I am not sure for what.

He gives me a sarcastic smile, "Thanks to you my people have proof that what they already thought is the truth. You just convinced my people to question me but they already did, so you didn't change anything." I look deeper into his eyes. He nods at the door and someone steps in. I look at the two women.

"Don't say they're here to punish me too?!" I look back at Maven. He puts his hand on mine and I have to convince myself not to tug it away. Every cell in my body wants to, wants to at least claw his face.

His voice is strained, "You could've been my queen and you threw it away. Instead, you chose my brother, and now you've let him think that you're dead." My eyes widen and my mouth falls nearly to the floor. He laughs at my look and squeezes my hand tightly.

"How... how long I was out?!" I close my eyes trying desperately not to blame myself. Maybe even not wanting to hear the answer.

He answers, "For a few days" -his voice sounding so cynical-" your family must be desperate!"

"Wh-what?!" I whisper weakly.

So Maven repeats it, "You were in a coma for a week." Repeating almost like I'm a little child. Then he goes on, "Don't worry soon they will know you're alive, you will come with me around my kingdom and say that I am the protector of the new-blooded, and maybe after that, you might not have to stay here."

"You want me to convince new-blooded by saying what you want me to say," I thought how stupid I must be if I had to repeat it. How stupid I must've sounded. But I naively hoped that he would all take it back. He looks at me.

"Tomorrow we will have breakfast and then we will go," he says instead. Not giving me a chance to disagree, he stood up. From his stance, he looked down on me. Maybe in his mind quite literally.

His voice was cold, "They are here to take care of you so you would look more like a queen." With that, he left and let the women in. I take a deep breath when they help me in my bathroom. They run me a hot bath and wash the blood and dirt off me. Then they wash my hair. When I get out I use the most white towel I've ever seen. I put on my new underwear and they put me on a chair. I bend my head back they cut my dead ends. The hair looks more healthy when they finish their work. After that, they do my nails on my feet and hands. Some other women stepped in. She looked at me and then walked to my back. When she touched me, I felt the beautiful cold, and then how my wounds and scars started to heal. When she left I go and lie down. I fall asleep immediately.