The Raven Girl

Chapter 2

I'm just gonna apologise now for anything that doesn't make sense in this chapter  because this was largely fuelled by tea and a will to get to the end by half one... 

Why was it girls were sold like cattle to the highest bidder? That was all her father saw her as, she supposed, and he had just been waiting for his opportunity to hand her off to somebody who could give him what he wanted more desperately than anything else in their damnable, corrupted world. Arne was useful – he was a man, he could fight battles, he was needed by their father's side. She, on the other hand, had not been. Until now.

Suddenly the air around them became stifling and far, far too close. The truth had sunken in and with it sunk a horror she had never known. Not only was she to be carted off, but she was to be carted off for the sake of pleasing some man she knew was not easily pleased. Reidar was something of a psychopath, according to her brother, and as such, there was nothing that pleased him more than suffering. She didn't even want to think about what kind of things he'd do to his wife, his personal property.

"You've been sitting there a while now. Is there even anything in that little head of yours, or is it completely void of thought like usual?" Arne smirked.

As if pulling her head out a basin of particularly icy water, she surfaced, ignoring any lingering thoughts of dread, and looked to her brother who was staring at her with an impatient glint to his eyes. She tried repeating his words in her head. He might as well have been speaking a different language, for despite her knowing the meaning of each individual word, she could not for the life of her piece them together.

Sighing, Arne pulled a strand of her hair. "Asta? Gods, it's like talking to a dog! Even then, the dog would probably understand more than you."

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I just – I'm just shocked is all. I never thought I'd have to marry."

"Well of course you'd have to marry at some point. Do you mean you never thought your marriage would be so influential? Because if that's the case, neither did I. When father told me, I laughed at him, but he pulled it off. Now your life can actually mean something, so you better look a little more thankful when you next see him."

Thankful? Thankful wasn't how she'd put it. Perhaps other girls might've seen the situation differently, for they had been raised with thoughts of marriage practically running in their bloodstream, circulating their every limb and every action. It was all they were taught to think about and it was their only purpose: marry someone rich and titled and you'd pretty much fulfilled your whole life before your hair even turned grey. Asta, however, knew for a fact she did not want to be tied to another for a lifetime, maybe an eternity, especially not one as psychotic as Reidar.

Shuddering, she dared to ask the question whose answer she dreaded so much, the answer that determined her fate.

"When?" she stuttered. "When do I have to?"

"Sooner than you'd hope, little sister," Arne grinned and for a moment she could've sworn he was the very image she held in her head of her husband-to-be, a cruel, sleek smile spread across his face, eyes gleaming darkly. "I'd say a month, maybe less. Father wants to move things on quickly."

A month. The words hung loosely in her mind and again she was struck by that same numbness, that same horror. A month until she no longer belonged to herself but to another who would have more control over her life than even Arne did now.

"Shall I leave you to think over that?" he asked, giving her a quick pat on her head as if she really were the dog he had compared her to. She nodded, a feeling of premature death creeping over her heart, its claws squeezing it until it burst and blood spurted from its arteries and the thing came away from her chest as a lifeless piece of muscle.