Light Shadows

Chapter 18~Negotiations of Death

The cell door grinds open and i blink up at the two guards that enter. I brace myself and they lift me up from my spot at the ground. There was nothing that i would be able to do about it. I could not move at all. A few tears fall from my eyes as pain radiates through my body as the guards pick me up. I do not resist and they know that i can not. They are not gentle at all. They each take up one side of me and drag me down the hallway lined with cells on either side. Where were we going? The torture room was in the very back of the dungeon. We were going to wrong way...

Wait. Was i going to finally die? Was the queen of the Forelands going to execute me in public today? These thoughts fill my mind as the guards drag my painful body through the hallway. I whimper at every step the guards take that pull me arm a certain way in which my wounds stretch. By the time we reach the bottom of a set of stairs, blood flows freely down both of my arms and legs, which drag behind me on the dirty stone floor. I black out from all of the pain.

I become conscious again when i feel the guards shaking me. We are in a lighter hallway now. My face is towards the ground because i do not even have the energy to lift it up to where i am going. I do not care. All i want to do is go back to my cell and sleep. I can already feel my eyes dropping down, trying to save me from the reality in which there is only pain and pain alone... But even the darkness sometimes can not save me and i am awoken by my dreams of pain and thrust back into the reality of pain. Was i still dreaming now? Was this all a dream?

We are in the normal hallways of the Castle of Skye now and i watch the blood trail that i am leaving on the light stone floors. At first, i feel slightly bad about ruining it but then realize that this the the Castle of Skye which belongs to the Queen of the Forelands. I faintly smile but the movement causes my face to hurt so my smile looks more like a cringe or a grimace. Now let us see if the queen of the Forelands can get those blood stains out of her floors...

The guards drag me down a few more hallways with me still dripping blood down my tattered ball gown and onto the floor of the Castle of Skye. I try to lift my head when we stop but i have no strength left to make any movement with. I feel so weak. I hear two doors being opened, huge ones by the sound of it and then the guards tug me forward into a room that i can not see. I squeeze my eyes shut for a second, trying to breath through the pain and not cry out.

"Scarlet?", a voice asks.

Wait a second. I know that voice. That is a voice that i have longed to hear. Father. I find the strength to lift my head suddenly and when i see his face, is it full of concern. Father and emotions? What? I had never seen Father with an expression on his face much less one of concern. Father approaches me and glares at the guard with a look that has killed people before. The guards release me and back up. I fall to the floor and Father crouches down to my level.

"Scarlet?" Father says again.

"I did not... tell them... anything..." i manage to gasp out in whispers. Father nods and smiles.

"That is my Scarlet", he sounds proud.

Father then stands and i contemplate standing but then realize that i do not want to scream in front of Father. Or the Queen of the Forelands i realize when i see her. But wait. Father and the Queen of the Forelands were in the same room... This could not be good. I try to smile again but the pain forces me to keep my face in a neutral expression. The less i moved my face, the less pain that i felt.

"Here she is. Now, if you will--"

"Wait", Father interrupts the queen of the Forelands, using a tone of voice that suggests that he is on the brink of becoming extremely angry, "just wait a second. You think that i will listen to you after you hurt my daughter?"