The Girl Beneath

Chapter Fourteen, "The Other Side"

I woke up. My heart was beating fast and my back was coated with sweat. I wiped my face with my sleeve to get all the tears and drool off. I stood up on my one foot and gently tested my hurt ankle. It was sore, but better.

I hobbled over to see what was in the closet: two leather sets of practicing gear that looked to be my size and a plain gray pair of scratchy wool pajamas.

Carefully, I slipped off my tattered outfit. It was my favorite, I think, but there were so many rips and tears in it, it could barely be counted as rags at that point. I would have been upset, but what did it matter anymore?

Bang, bang, bang!

I nearly fell over, when someone banged on the door.

"Hurry up!" Their voice was slightly muffled.

I slid on a pair of clogs I found and opened the door in a hurry. The man on the other side was huge, maybe double the size of me. He had to bend down slightly just so I could hear him when he said:

"You," his chubby finger was pointed straight at me, "You are Mai'leafe, daughter of my Queen?" He asked this rhetorically, but I nodded anyway. It startled me when a hideous sound erupted from his mouth.

Was he laughing? At me? I realized how awful I must have looked. Dirt was caked under my nails. I couldn't tell if my hair was wet from grease or something worse. There was still dried blood on my neck, and I was basically covered head to toe in nastiness.

All the man saw was a frail, dirty girl, when he had probably been told about my legacy. How I had singlehandedly stopped Ferice multiple times. Here I was defeated and looking worse than death. He must have been expecting someone muscular, tall, and beautiful, but I was merely a girl, incapable of taking care of even my own injuries. Let alone helping anyone else.

He stopped laughing and sized me up for a second, probably looking for my so-called strength and power. Looking for why I had been such a threat to Ferice for so long, then, he gave up. "Let's go." I followed him down the hallway without a second thought, but it broke me in an instant when he opened the large gate. I was met with the same desert plain that led to those terrible mines. I could see a small faint dot of darkness past all the sand and sunlight.

"You can't take me back to the mines," I cried. "I won't go back! You can make me!" I was about to run back inside, but the gate had already closed with a whoosh.

I leaned against the golden bars, which made the prison look more like a castle, and slowly slid down to the ground. My face was in my hands, as I cried. My shoulders shook. I was utterly and completely broken. I couldn't help it.

He stopped and looked back at me, confused. I already felt the darkness surrounding me. The darkness that makes everything worse.

"It's okay, Mai'leafe, or, uh, Mai," he stuttered, at the very least trying to comfort me. "I'm not taking you to the mines." His voice softened, like a father's would so rarely. I looked into his dark brown eyes and saw a little bit of understanding for a change. He wasn't empty. Ferice hadn't broken him yet. He was full of emotion.

I took a shaky breath and asked, "where else would you take me? It's not like I have use to Ferice any longer."

He let out a quiet gasp. Then, he sat down next to me. His form cast a cold shadow over me. "You are very useful. In fact, the Queen would rather have you work alongside her to rule. The Queen ordered me to teach you how to be strong. And how to use your powers for good. The Queen would also prefer it if you only refer to her as the Queen."