Once Upon A Time

Chapter 4

Cress looked down at the doll in her arms. It was old, almost as old as her. Sixteen years ago, mother died, her last moments spent on making this doll for her.

She had loved this doll up until now.

It was a constant reminder of what she was--an outcast, a shell, they called it.

Cress looked outside through the cracks of her windows. She didn't dare to look up at the sun, or even see the sky that was blue. She imagined it a light blue, maybe like the doll's dress.

She was trapped in this room like a hostage. This circle house, with nothing but a bed, a drawer full of the same white dress, underwears, socks, and a pair of black gloves. Cress wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck at the cold of the weather. Her fingers began to stroke the doll's coarse hair, fingering with the loose string that was there for years but she never jerked it out, in fears that it would come undone. She imagined what it would look like, and it was sort of like a massacre.

She studied the walls and waited. And waited. For what, she didn't care anymore. Any sort of distraction, anything to ease the loneliness inside of her.

Father said he'd come for her. Ten years later, and he still was not here. But of course, Little Cress never gave up. She always reminded Cress that Father would come, take her away from this horrid place, show her the world. 

Dreams like that happened. Beautiful dreams where Cress was carried away and she saw the outside world. However, she could never remember what she saw. And now reality was like a cold slap on her shivering body, he wasn't coming back.

She tried to escape many times. Through the windows with anything that she could grasp but beyond the wood were iron bars to trap her in. She tried to break the wood floor but only found concrete. She tried the door but found another layer of iron bars. She tried the chimney, but found that it was blocked by an iron sheet with a mesh net that was steeled for the smoke to escape.

Father had trapped her in here.

There was no denying it.

Cress stared at the doll in her arms. Ire burned in the back of her throat, but she couldn't release that anger. Hot anger, that built up inside of her.

Instead of screaming or raging, she cried. Silently, quietly, where even the winds couldn't hear, she cried. She dropped the doll on the floor, crawled to her bed, wrapped the dirty, dusty, coarse blankets over her head and cried. She cried until her stomach ached and her throat was so dry. She cried until phlegm was emerging from her throat, until her body was shaking and couldn't draw in a normal breath.

Every night, she had prayed, "Someone save me. Please someone save me."

But this night, she prayed, "Let me die from starvation or dehydration."

She could never be starved or dehydrated. Somehow, food was always restocked. She didn't know how but she soon realized that once a month, she slept too long and food was restocked and the firewood was, too, the water clean and not dusty. She eventually discovered that she always had a drugged cloth over her mouth once a month. 

Whoever was coming in, she knew it was Father. And she hated him. Despised him. She tried to stay up every night and sleep during the night, but Father never came to restock. She figured that he was watching whenever she was sleeping and eventually picked up the signs that he was there, except for the restocked supplies.

Cress got depressed. She wanted to die. But she just couldn't seem to be strong enough to commit suicide.

She wanted someone to save her.

Maybe one day, a prince will come and save. Or a hero, or a brave knight.

So Cress held on, hoping that day would come.

Just then, she heard the door creak open. She saw the shadow in the moonlight, through the blankets that she had wrapped over her head. She sniffled her tears, croaking, "Who's there?" Her own words felt foreign to her, seeing that she had no one to talk to.

In response, the shadow of the hand produced a sharp looking object.