Mr Night

𝟏| 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐭

𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐭𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 >

-𝐇𝐄𝐑-

Some months later, as I sat in a carriage with my captor and looked out of its window to find my Uncle's house, I was to remember that night when we first met.

I remembered it vividly as if it was just last night.

I was the most simple girl, living with my uncle and aunt and their daughter in their property right across Baker's Street in London. My life was simple... way too simple for my own liking but that night it changed for good but I wouldn't know it until the next day.

I wouldn't have guessed it that evening as I got ready to go to the third ball that week. My auntie had been getting more and more aggressive with her plans to marry me off to a rich suitor as soon as possible. This was the reason she exposed me to as many social events as she possibly could.

She wanted to get rid of me and to be honest, I wanted to get away from that sadist woman as soon as possible but not by marrying. I simply wished to run away. I even dreamed about it and little did I know that my not-so-ambitious dream would be coming true that night.

"Is she ready yet?" I heard Aunt Wilhelmina's voice outside my room before she barged in to find the maid squeezing the life out of me in the most legal way. She was making my corset tighter and tighter. I was sure that my stomach was in my chest now but it didn't matter. The pursuit to make my waist appear smaller kept ongoing.

"We're almost done," The maid tried her best to sound positive even though the situation looked very dire. Aunt Wilhelmina's eyes scanned me from head to toe with the most judgemental look she could muster. Anyone in my place would have cringed at the face she had made at me but not me because, well... I was me. I'd been living with this woman for almost seven years now.

"Maybe, if you start skipping breakfast from tomorrow, you'd be able to fit in that corset," She commented.

"Maybe if you don't force me to wear Liz's smaller clothes, I wouldn't have to be squeezed to death," I spoke back shamelessly.

Even though I was the one being squeezed into the corset, I heard the maid suck in a breath behind me.

"You don't talk back to me, Ophelia!" My aunt shot back instantly, pinning me with her burning eyes, "You don't realize how generous we are to take you in after your mother's death! Not only that, but we also take the trouble to feed and clothe you even though you have a father alive somewhere. The least you could do is be grateful to us for our generosity! Just like my own daughter, I want the best for you too that's why you should consider me kind enough to find you a suitor before I could do that for my very beautiful and more eligible daughter..." she kept on going about her generosity and kindness towards me and by the time she was finished speaking, I was done getting dressed.

"Wait in the carriage," Aunt Wilhelmina ordered me, making me wonder where her beautiful and eligible daughter really was.

"Where's Elizabeth?" I asked.

"She'd be down in a couple of minutes. To the cab, now!" She ordered me.

We already hadn't reached the ball and I was very much tempted to rip out the corset. I was now even more sure that corsets weren't originally designed to make the women's waists smaller. The reason behind the genesis of such a vile thing was to hold women back from achieving their full potential because I possibly couldn't think how one could function in this.

I had to wait for more than a couple of minutes after Aunt Wilhelmina and her very beautiful and most eligible daughter, Elizabeth finally showed up. Just like her mother, she threw me a very judgmental look as she sat in the cab beside me with her mother.