No Tears Left to Cry

In which the princess decides to save herself

There was a time when Paloma believed in fairy tales when she really thought that a prince in shining armour riding atop a brilliant steed would come to rescue her from her imprisonment, that they would then ride off into the sunset and she would never have to see the ugly, grey, stone walls of the tower again. But, as the years dragged on and the number of lines she would scratch out on the walls of the tower continued to grow, she realized that there would be no prince, no escape, no chance of ever seeing her parents again (not that she would ever want to) and no happily ever after.

Now, there are two things that one might do in a situation such as this: escape or throw oneself out of the window. For Paloma, she had already tried to throw herself out of the tower window, a couple of years back, but fortunately, the witch had caught her and enchanted the window so that she could not even stick her hand outside- let alone her whole body. So, she went with the other option- escaping which of course would not be easy but when you'd been locked up in a tower for four years with escape the only thing on your mind, coming up with a plan is simple enough. The difficult part is actually having the balls to actually carry the plan out and Paloma was nothing if not ballsy.

It was this particular trait as well as her stubborn and resilient nature that led to her standing in front of the door leading out of the tower with a splintered piece of wood in her hands- she had broken off one of the legs from her bed in order to use as a weapon against the witch in case she encountered her (although this would do nothing against the witch's magic, it was at least better than going out empty-handed).

Paloma glared at the ugly wooden door standing between her and her freedom- the door itself was locked but luckily for her, the hinges were so worn down that it wouldn't take too much effort to break down. For four years she had been trapped in this damned castle, being tormented every single day by that blasted witch and in all those years never once had she given up hope or let herself be broken but enough was enough. Today, the world was going to regret crushing her dreams.

With a cry, Paloma picked up her dress and sprinted towards the door. The hinges gave a promising groan as she threw her body against the wood but the door itself didn't break- the piece of wood remained standing causing Paloma to give an irritated growl. So, she tried again and even though on the second try she could start to feel bruises blossoming all up along her arm and shoulder and she was panting, her chest squeezing from exhaustion and her heart booming with adrenaline, she didn't stop- at least not until the seventh try when the dreaded piece of wood finally gave way and came crashing down with a loud thud.

Paloma gave a wicked grin before taking her first triumphant step outside of her prison.