Queen of the Moon

Part 13: Threats and Nightmares

Trigger Warning: This part deals with female genital mutilation, if you are uncomfortable with that, i suggest you do not continue to read. 

All I wanted was to have a peaceful night's sleep without being bothered, tugged at, touched, attacked, raped whatever. Just wanted to be able to sleep, in whatever position I wanted, with a carefree thought that no one was going to touch me. Not only did I not get that, but this was the worst dream I ever had. Again, I woke up in my bed, everything was dark. Someone was at the foot of the bed, it looked like a demon, or some person with their face melted off. He had a blade in his hand. His voice came out in a creepy snarl, reptilian. Deep down inside I knew it had to be Cory, but for some reason, he was pretending to be a monster which was even more scary. His voice came out in shouts.

"IF YOU DON'T STOP THIS WAR AND ADMIT TO EVERYONE THE SLUT THAT YOU ARE, THERE ARE WORSE THINGS WE CAN DO TO YOU. WE WILL CHOP YOUR CLIT OFF YOU WILL NEVER ENJOY SEX AGAIN!"

He ran at me as if to stab me down there when I woke up, I felt the sharp pain in my crotch, and for a second thought he succeeded. I was screaming and scooting myself backwards into the headboard. A bunch of people ran into the room. It was still dark, no candle light, I couldn't even see who was in there. But Andrew crawled into the bed with me first and I was able to see him.

"What is it?" he asked. Someone rushed to light a candle and I saw, Jacob, Max, Peter, King Weirwood, Princess Samantha.

I was shaking all over but not screaming or anything.

"What happened? They came into your dream again?" Andrew was asking.

"Yeah, they uh they threatened...I guess they're afraid of the war..." I said embarrassed at how my voice was breaking.

"It's okay, don't be afraid, they can't do shit to you, they can't," Andrew promised, then looked down. So then I looked down, a splotch of blood forming on my upper thigh.

"What is it? Holy shit, they got me!" I said. He pulled my skirt up just a bit over the thigh to see, there was a cut there, very thin though, which was probably indecent for everyone in the room. But no one seemed to care.

"What did they threaten to do to you?" Max asked, rubbing his eyes.

"They...um..." I said, then realized how much more uncomfortable it would be to tell everyone in the room but at this point they were all staring and waiting, and the longer I waited, the more suspense would build, and the more shocking it would be if I prolonged it.

"Threatened to chop my clit off..." I said.

There was a moment of shock and appall.

"No the fuck they didn't," Andrew said slowly.

If I could be even more embarrassed. I thought it was impossible. The fucking king was there and I'd forgotten, he looked aghast. This was the little mud covered girl that used to let frogs loose in the kitchen and scare all of the maids. I put my head in my hands.

"I hate these people, I fucking hate these people," Andrew said, and stormed out of the room. Most everyone left then, just because it was awkward. It was just Max and Jacob then.

Jacob pulled an arm around me, "Can they even do that? All the way from Darksea?" he asked Max.

"I really don't think so. That would be very powerful magic that I highly doubt they're capable of," said Max.

"They're going to pay for everything they did to you. And they're not going to win. I promise you. All they have is threats. They can't hurt you anymore," Jacob said.

"When do you think Shaman will give us the protection spells? We have one more day left right?" I asked.

"Should be, he's normally pretty consistent. But to ease your worries, I know another witch that lives only a short ride away. We can inquire her, for some temporary spells," Max said.

I could hear Andrew outside, he was talking to Peter, about how he was going to find Cory Darksea and beat the living shit out of him. I didn't know what to do, all I knew, I wasn't going back to sleep.

"Want me to watch over you, while you sleep?" Jacob asked.

"I'm not going back to sleep," I said, shaking my head.

"I'll have the servants prepare you some tea, if you want," said Max. I nodded so he went to the task.

"Come on," Jacob said, cocking his head, "I'll stay up with you."

"No, you should sleep. You're safe," I said.

"I can't sleep knowing you're not safe," he said.

"I don't want anyone else to be bothered by this. This is my problem," I said.

"This is our problem. And if you can't sleep, neither will I," he said, "I won't sleep until I know you're safe."

"I don't want to be a problem. I don't want to be a burden," I said.

"You're not, stop it. You've always been this way. You're in trouble. You need help. Let yourself be helped. That's it," Jacob said.

Jacob came with me to the sitting room. The servants gave us tea and cookies. Eventually Andrew joined us and we all stayed up all night. No sleep. I felt terrible because everyone had already done so much for me. The fact they couldn't sleep either made me feel like such shit. Why did all of us have to be tortured by this problem? And why, couldn't they just leave me alone? Why did they have to hurt me so much? 

A person they didn't even know? Who had done nothing to them, just ask to be left alone, ask to go home, and when those requests were denied, only fought just so I could get away. Our only blows thrown at them were in self-defense. But from now on, we were going to be the aggressors and not the victims. Because now, we have no other choice.

If they don't leave us alone, we're going to have to force them to. I wasn't a violent person, I hated to hurt anyone. I cringed when Lord Andrew and Jacob discussed killing him. But I knew it had to be done. So that I could sleep at night and comfortably and feel safe again. But why did it even have to go this far, really perplexed me.

They could've tossed in the hat, they could've said, you know what, we're done, you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone, and my family would've just went about their business. However, they did not, they kept on, they made things worse. And I can't be responsible for what happens next.

The story about their threat of genital mutilation was all over the palace by noon. And by the end of the week, I'd heard, the number of men and dragon trainers had doubled. People who didn't even know me, were furious and signing up to fight.