Why You?

Chapter: 8

I slowly creep up to my house, making sure that there are no stragglers behind to announce my whereabouts. I open the door and my dad seems to have moved places, not being in the chair he was this morning. I run up the stairs and Melody rushes out of her room to meet me.

     "Serenity!" she yells, taking me in for a hug. "What have you got yourself into? People are looking for you. They want you to be hung."

     I look at her sympathetically, while she stares back at me worried. I grab a hold of her upper arms on either side of her body and she looks at me confused.

     "I don't really know how to explain it, but the king is punishing me for something I didn't do," I simply tell her.

     "So you're not associated with a pirate right?" her face lightens up as she concludes. "That means we can go there now and get this whole thing situated, and then we can carry on like nothing happened."

     I bite my lower lip and avoid eye contact as she try's searching my face, looking for some type of agreement just by my facial expressions. But I can't give her that. I wish I could tell her that what she said is true, and that it would be that simple. But it's not. At least I know it was not her who told everyone about the pirate.

     "Melody, I'm here to say goodbye. I don't know when I'll be coming back, or even if I will even be able to. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen. I am...sort of associated with a pirate," I hesitantly explain.

     "With a pirate! Are you serious Serenity?" Melody booms as tears slip down her face, dropping on her gown.  "How could you? You know what pirates do. How could you betray us like that? Especially after mom."

She takes a second to contain herself. She harshly wipes her tears, but that doesn't stop them from going out.

"Just go," she says in a cold tone.

      "But Mel-"

     "I said go!" She shouts, her face now a shade of red, with even more tears streaming down her cheeks, and holds her hands bald up. She won't look at my face.

     I nod my head and brush past her to my room. I can feel her stare at the back of my head, but I don't look back. In my room, I go my drawer to grab my book. Once I have it, I shove it in the back of my dress to where it's right up against my back. Not the most comfortable thing to do, but if I have to run it will make things much easier.

     I walk back to the hallway where I left Melody. She stays there not saying a word. I go to walk down the stairs until I hear my father coming up them. He looks at me in shock, and suddenly I feel anxious.

     "You have some nerve coming here girl! You filthy traitor," father affirms.

     He stomps up the stairs and harshly grabs my arm. I try to pull away from him, but the more I pull, the more tighter his grip gets. I let out a whimper, but he just drags me along with him down the stairs harshly as I try to push his hand off of my arm. I look over at Melody and she stares after us with a blank face. I try to call out for her but she makes no movement.

     "Please papa, let me go. I won't bother you I promise. I'm going to leave and you won't ever have to deal with me again," I beg.

     He doesn't seem to care about a word I say and drags me outside. We start walking down the road towards the town again. If only I had put on another pair of shoes. It would be easier to try and get away from him. The bottom of my feet are most definitely now torn. Every step I take feels likes one hundred knifes repeatedly cutting the bottom of my foot.

I still struggle against him but it's no use. My own father is giving me up. Tears threaten to spill and this time I can't just blink them away. They start to stream down my face. Each one feeling warm while I they taste like salt once they slide down to my lip.

     "Please papa!" I try once more.

     This time he looks down at me, and for a split second I can see he is uncertain, but looks away again. Instead of him talking to me, he shoves me to the ground. I put out my hands to break some of the fall and pain shot through my body. I grimace, but look forward to see hooves right in front of me. I follow the hooves all the way up to see Sergeant Timothy looking down at me, still sitting on his horse. A group of people circle around me yelling profanities throwing food, rocks, or just anything they can find at me.

     "Stop! Please stop," I cry out.

     However, nobody stops. And all through it all, I watch my father turn his back on me and start walking away. His body gets smaller and smaller in the distance and I know it would be no use in calling out to him. He's the one whom brought me here in the first place.

I'm left alone to defend myself and try my best to dodge whatever they throw, but there's no way I would be able to get through the crowd even if I try. I dodge a rock only to be hit right in the face with a tomato. It smears all over my face while the juices drip down.

After a couple more minutes of this torture, Sargent Timothy finally calls out, "Okay, that's enough."

     All at once, everyone stops their throwing. The Sargent glares at me while I wipe the tomato off of my face and arms. My body is now full of scrapes and bruises that would surely last a while. Not to mention the guts of each tomato that was thrown at me.

It's been quite longer than three minutes, so I'm sure William has left without me. I'm really all alone. I stand up and dust myself off the best I can.

Sergeant Timothy dismounts his horse. His feet makes a poof noise as they hit the ground. I do my best to stay standing tall. He walks slowly towards me with his sword in hand.

In one swift motion he brings the sword up and slashes a small cut on my arm. I wince in pain, and quickly cover my arm. Blood rushes out of my arm and drips off my finger.

"Pathetic bitch. Betrays her own people for a pirate. You're probably the one that was telling people the king was the one who is associated with a pirate too," he spat.

     Two of the other soldiers came to each of my sides. Within seconds, shackles are put on my wrist and ankles to keep me contained. The crimson color of blonde now freely runs down my arm. It still stings, but at this point my whole body is in pain.

     They mount their horses again while dragging me behind. If I fall behind Timothy will add another cut to my collection. We finally make it to the palace where I'm brought all the way down to the prison cells, locking me inside one.

     What is going on? Is this really it? I'm going to be hung here. There is no windows inside the cell, and the walls are medal bars so there's no way I could get through.

     I look around for a couple more minutes until I hear someone descending the stairs. The padder of their feet is really slow and it takes them a while to reach ground level.

     Excitement fills me once I realize it's Eleanor. She does not return the same excitement for me.

     "Eleanor! Thank goodness you're here. I'm sorry I could not return your dress, but I'm sure you could get it from my sister, Melody. Please Eleanor, could you please help me?" I question hopefully.

     She gives me a sad smile and answers in a weak voice, "I'm sorry sweetie, I'm just here to get you washed up and to give you this."

     She finishes what she was saying by handing me a little slip of paper. I take it through the bars and open it up.

     I told you to keep your mouth shut or else you would get hurt. And now look where you got yourself.
- King Ethelred

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