Prices to Pay//Michael Langdon

Queen

All eyes are on me as I walk down the long spiraled stairs, I've managed to clean myself up and now it was dinner time. Walking towards the dining table I look at everyone in front of me, they all stare back with a piercing look. Their food is plated in front of them, yet nobody seems to be eating. "What are we waiting for, aren't you hungry?" I ask and a young, irritable woman speaks up.

"We are starving, Mrs. Langdon. Please sit down so we can eat!" She says in a tone only a voodoo queen could pull off. I don't even know how that is even possible, but she has the tone.

"Why are you waiting for me?" I ask and everyone does a sigh and rolls their eyes.

"The cooperative sent instructions today that we have to wait until you start eating, they were very happy to hear of you being awake," Ms. Venable says from one of the side chairs, she sounds a little bittersweet as she says her statement.

"She's just in a bad mood because she is no longer in charge," One of the men with a darker skin color says and smirks at her.

"Well then who is supposed to be the leader Ms. Mead?" I ask and they look at me as if I were as dumb as a rock.

"That would be you Mrs. Langdon," Mallory says as she pulls my chair out for me to sit in. I thank her and take a seat.

"Yeah we are basically a fucking monarchy now, thanks to you!" One man says, he has white hair but is too young for it to be natural.

"Well, I hope that's not how you treat your queen, Gallant," I say instantly knowing his name, he looks at me kind of shocked. Mallory pushes my chair in a little bit and I look at the dish in front of me, it's covered by a warm plate. Pulling the plate off, I look down at the two cubes in front of me. They look disgusting, but I'm too hungry to care.

"Woah, woah, woah! Just because you're the fucking queen you get two portions? I call bullshit!" One woman says, her resemblance to Madison uncanny.

"Don't be so insensitive, she's feeding for two," Mallory says defending me while rubbing my shoulder.

"Oh shut up Mallory! Just remember that you were my assistant before you were hers," The woman, Coco, says and Mallory looks intimidated.

Everybody in the room starts to chatter, "New rules!" I say loudly and the room turns silent. They all look toward me and I begin my speech, "Each and everyone of you will be re-evaluated, I don't care how much money you paid to get here, you do not deserve your ranks," I say and the room turns deathly silent. "Some of you will have the chance to redeem yourself, but Coco," I say looking towards her, and she looks at me, frightened. "You will not have the glory. You are now to be used at Mallory's disposal, the new Purple," I threaten and everybody else at the table looks at me. Looking intensely at everyone around me, a certain pair of eyes are begging me for something, "Ms. Venable," I loudly say. Letting the suspense linger in the air for a minute, I tell her my plan. "Welcome to team Purple!" I say and she gives me a friendly smile, I can feel how long she has wanted it, and I was happy to grant her the satisfaction. Everyone gives me a frightful stare, unsure of what was going to happen to them. I'm smirking greatly as I say my next statement, "Send the food to my room, Mallory. These peasants do not deserve my company while they eat their dinner," she nods her head and begins to pack my food up. Turning around, before I walk away, "Remember, No one is safe," I say walking up the stairs, taking it slow because of the large bump that is my stomach. Making my dramatic exit, I spend the rest of my night with Mallory and catch up on everything that I missed in my coma-like sleep. It's kind of fun to be queen.

Three Weeks Later...

"Oh my god, I'm going to throw up!" Gallant says as he gags over dramatically, he holds his stomach as he bends over.

"Nobody asked you to fucking look!" Mallory says in an annoyed tone. She's not taking anyone's bullshit, and for good reason. She's in emergency mode because I'm officially in labor. "Keep pushing, Mrs. Langdon. You're doing amazing!" She says and I start to scream at her.

"My name is Natalie!" I snap at her and she corrects herself, I'm going through an immense amount of pain right now and the littlest thing is going to piss me off greatly. Especially any mention of Michael. We've been going at this whole 'pushing' think for what seems like hours, in reality it's been about ten minutes. I'm not even sure why Gallant is here but he's about to blow my top off, he's being so arrogant.

Holding one hand onto Ms. Venable's hand and one onto Coco's they send me words of encouragement as I squeeze hardly and cut their circulation off,

"This is so gross, but yet so satisfying!"

"Just breathe in and out, in and out, in and out,"

I've become much closer with each of my fellow residents, in fact, they've all insisted on being in the 'Delivery Room'. Even Gallant chose to be here, despite having a weak stomach, as for his grandmother, Evie, she has much better things to do apparently. Coco was just as bad as I thought, but since I'm royalty she is nice to me. Things didn't go exactly as planned- apparently I can't just change who is a Purple and who is not- everything is exactly the same as when I woke up.

As another contraction begins to form, I tell Mallory that it's time for me to push again. I've been in labor for three hours, and I'm one of the few lucky ones because by the looks of it I will be finished very soon. Sweat covers my forehead as I hold onto the bottom of my thighs, I wish Michael was here. Breathing heavily, I begin to try to push this child out of my birth canal. I really wish I had researched this before I became pregnant, but Michael didn't really give me a choice.

I only got to experience a few weeks of pregnancy, but let me tell you, I loved every single minute of it. There were a lot of perks, everyone was generally nice to me, I got extra dinner portions, and I got daily foot rubs from Mallory- what's not to love? She has been the one person who has truly cared about me from the beginning. I'm so grateful to have her by my side, too bad Coco was too much of a bitch to really appreciate her.

Not having an epidural has got to be the hardest task thus far in labor, I need something, anything, to soothe the pain. "I'm literally going to throw up, what the fuck is that?" Gallant asks as he looks sickly.

"That's the head!" Mallory says, which motivates me to push harder than I was pushing harder than before. "Keep going, Natalie, it's working!" She says and I hold my push for as long as my breath will allow.

"Oh my god, it's beautiful!" Coco says, not knowing the gender quite yet.

"She's got beautiful blue eyes, just like you, Mrs. Langdon!" Ms. Venable says, more like her father's eyes. Ms. Venable was the only one who didn't have a doubt that it was a girl, at least I wasn't alone. I continue pushing as hard as I can, screaming inaudibly from the pain. It's a weird sensation, but somehow I know that she is officially out. "Oh my god, it's a girl!" Ms. Venable exclaims and gives me a small smile. Starting to cry, I see my little girl. She kind of looks like an alien, yet she is still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my entire existence. Mallory wipes her down with wet cloth and places her on my chest for skin to skin contact. The tears are flowing as I look down at the infant on my breasts, Layna Marie Langdon. She's not upset or crying, she's just staring up at me with big beautiful eyes, "Are you alive mama? You're not crying," I say to her, touching the top of her head. She has a small amount of dark black hair, she's precious.

"She's alive and well!" Mallory says to me as she smiles. I'm still crying because of how emotionally moved I am, she's even more amazing that I could have ever dreamt of.

"She's so beautiful, her dad must be smoking," Coco says and I roll my eyes, yeah he is. Unfortunately, he is the last thing I need to worry about, I've got a newborn now.

"What's it's name?" Gallant says and I almost pick a fight with him.

"It is a she, and her name is Layna Marie Langdon. She's named after her beautiful godmother, Marie Laveau, one of my favorite Voodoo Queens. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here," I say giving them a little bit of a backstory. Looking down at the little girl, I smile. Motherhood is going to be a journey that I am more than willing to embark on.