Spoiled | Falsettos AU

Prologue

tw: violence

Whizzer

A kick to my stomach wakes me up.
"Hey, you can't sleep here." A man's rough voice tells me, nudging me with his boot again. I groan and sit up, looking around me.

I had one wish. One. Is it really too much for me to ask to die in my sleep, fate? Huh?

Well, I guess there's always tomorrow. I mumble an apology to the man who must own the shop I slept in the doorway of, then shuffle onwards, glad he only kicked me once. Most people here would kick me more than that, just because they can.

Nobody would stop them, since my place in society is evident from my overgrown, unkempt hair and torn clothing. I'm just a homeless kid, though that wasn't always the case...

No. I push the memories of my past life to the back of my mind and stagger on towards the marketplace, hoping for a stroke of good luck. Sure enough, her stall is set up in the corner of the market, and as I approach I can smell the soup she is selling. Mrs Brown, the closest thing I've ever had to a mother.

I stop a few steps away from the pair of customers she is serving, watching as she hands out soup. Up until a few weeks ago, she cooked at the palace, but now she has resorted to this. I plan to stay back until the other customers are gone, but she sees me and beckons me over.

"Hi." I mumble shyly.
"Jack! How are you, dear?" She hands me a bowl of soup and starts to tell me about how her week has been, detailing her days taking care of her grandchildren. I smile and listen, glad for the distraction, as the other customers disperse and I am all that is left, standing by her stall in the cold, grateful for the hot, free food.

"Of course, it isn't the same as working in the palace..." She sighs, after telling me about the good business she is getting at the moment.
"I really am sorry, Mrs Brown." I tell her, tears welling up in my eyes. All my fault...

"Now, now, don't go blaming yourself." She tells me sternly. "It was my own decision to stand up for you, and the right decision, too! I wasn't going to just stand there and let you be treated that way!"
"But you los-"
"No, Jack. I won't hear of it. I did what I should have, and I don't regret it." She insists. "Now eat your soup."

I do as she tells me, grateful that she still tolerates me after the disaster I got her into. Regardless of what she says, she didn't have to stick up for me, yet she did anyway...
"You look so thin, and so cold..." She frets. "You know I would take you in myself, but my house is already so full..."

"It's really no problem." I assure her. "You help me so much already, I wouldn't want to be a burden."
"Oh, bless you, Jack." She coos. "I don't understand how somebody as sweet as you could come from that place, but I guess miracles can happen."

"It wasn't all bad." I recall my earlier years, racing around the palace, careless and free, rushing into the kitchen despite the rules being that I shouldn't mingle with the servants, and Mrs Brown, at the time, the head cook, smiling at me as fondly as she is now, telling me "slow down, whizzer, or you might run into a knife!", and me laughing, mostly ignoring her and just trying to steal food.

"Nonsense." She tuts. "From the age of five, those blasted parents of yours tried to model you to fit their perfect image of what a prince should be, and the moment you tried to defy them, they kicked you out!" I really should have stayed quiet, back at home. I'm sure, now, that it would have been batter to live a lie than to endure this suffering.

"If you ask me, the king and queen themselves should be cast out of their palace and made to suffer like you are, for being such horrible parents!" She announces loudly. It seems that the moment she finishes, a guard appears.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, may I have a word?" He asks hostilely. Mrs Brown looks taken aback as she realises they she just committed treason in front of a royal guard, who I have realised by now, are always lurking.

Dropping the soup, I stagger back, terrified that I'll be recognised, as another guard appears and begins to berate her. I stumble back into a fruit stall, knocking over the display. For a moment, I try to pick up the dropped apples, then I hear one of the guards shouting
"you, boy!", and I just turn and run blindly.

"Hey!" The stall's owner shouts after me. "He's stealing my produce!" I suppose I am, I realise, as I look down and see the apple in my hand.

I push my way through a small crowd of people, but before I can get out of the way, a guard appears in front of me and picks me up by my collar, lifting me up, fighting weakly, to look him in the eye.

He doesn't seem to recognise me due to my griminess, as he growls "Were you, too, plotting treason against the king and queen?"
"N-no!" I say feebly.
"But you were stealing apples, huh?"
"I didn't mean to!"
"Ha!" He dismisses me. "A likely story... How old are you?"
"Th-thirteen."

"What's your name?" I fear I may be arrested for lying if I try to say "Prince Jack of Exire", so instead I stay silent. The man scoffs like I'm simple, but doesn't press for an answer. "Do you know what the penalty is for stealing here?"
"N-no."

"Well, how about we show you?" He drags me along to an ominous stone block in the middle of the marketplace, then forces me onto my knees, facing it. "Hold out that apple." He instructs. I do so, shaking slightly, and he takes it from me and gives it back to the stall-owner, who grins at me wickedly.

"Now lay your hand down flat on the stone, with the palm facing downwards." He speaks slowly, like I'm a child, which I suppose I am. Confused, I do as he says. The other guard approaches, carrying an axe, and the first guard takes it from him.

I barely pay attention to the second guard as he ties my hand to a wooden pole attached to the block, more focused on listening to the first guard's words.
"Exire is a merciful kingdom." He begins. "Here, criminals are treated well. You are given three chances at redemption."

He holds the axe out in front of him, and the other market-goers cheer. "Every time you steal, you shall lose a hand, starting with your dominant one." The other guard steps back, and I finally realise that I am bound in place.
"Wait, I-"
"When both are gone, we instead take your head. I trust this will be enough to stop it from ever coming to that."

I pull against my bonds, as the friend begins to chant something unintelligible, begging, then shouting, then screaming for help, before he brings the axe down.