Things I Almost Remember: A Selection Story

Confrontation

Kate glared at Marid from across the clearing, her navy eyes dark and focused. When she did not respond to him he laughed again.

"Or is it Kate now? I hear that is what you are going by these days," Marid sneered. "I heard that you can't seem to remember who you are, very unfortunate, but alas, these things happen. It probably is better you don't remember your poor sweet mother lying de.."

"Shut up!" Kate shouted. She moved to push past Johnny, but he had already taken a startled step back at her exclamation. She marched across the clearing as Marid's guards began to draw their weapons. Marid put his hand out gesturing them to put them away.

"What did you just say to me?" Marid asked, laughing again, though a bit more uneasily this time. 

"I told you to shut up!" Kate spat. "Or are you the one who can't remember anything?"

"Kate..." Johnny hissed. All he could think about were the cruel beatings and treatment that he had endured at the hands of Marid when he and Connor had been kidnapped. He could not bear the thought of her in Marid's clutches, but when he stepped forward, she looked back at him and shook her head.

"Well, well, you are Eadlyn Schreave's daughter aren't you? If I had doubted it, I know it now. Quite a sassy thing she was, she didn't know when to hold her tongue either," Marid said, sighing as though he was fondly remembering an old friend. "I think really it must be that lower caste blood you both have from your dear grandmother. They say she had a lot of bite too, she even got into a physical fight with another girl in your grandfather's Selection. Your line really was doomed to start with, it was such a kindness that I finally decided to step in."

"You're nothing but a cruel tyrant. The people of Illéa are suffering because of you. I know, I had to live out there alone and on the streets. I had to survive through what this country looks like under your selfishness, and that," Kate paused to gather her breath, surprised by her own courage and conviction at the moment. "That will make me a better leader and monarch than you will ever be."

"Oh, Kerttu...Kate...really what do you go by, I think what you don't understand is that, in order to be the monarch, you would have to take me down, and well, only a complete fool would try that," he sneered walking a bit closer to her. "I am sure your time playing commoner made you a bit rougher around the edges than your mother, but there can't be any way that you think you could take me on."

Instead of backing down, Kate took a step closer.

"I think you're afraid," Kate said cooly, using every bit of strength she had to confront him. "You're afraid I will overtake you, or you at least are enough afraid of me that you haven't killed me yet. You want to weigh your options, don't you? Illéa knows that I am alive, and you know that now there is someone who is a legitimate threat to you as ruler. The people are tired. There has been rioting and opposition to your government. I saw it when I was getting by on my own, no one likes you, the people were just afraid of you, but now, they're not. Things are going to change, Marid."

Marid's sneer finally faded from his face as he stared hard at Kate.

"You shouldn't have said those things," Marid nonchalantly. "Get him!"

Suddenly two guards marched out from Marid's retinue. Kate froze thinking they were coming for her, but then her brain registered that Marid had said "him." 

"Johnny," Kate whispered, just as the guards marched by her and went straight for Johnny. They grabbed him and threw him to the ground and began to bind his hands.

"NO!" Kate shrieked. "You can't do this! This has nothing to do with him you...you monster!"

And then before she could realize what she was doing, her hand slapped Marid hard across the face. It felt to her as though her hand was not responding to her thoughts and she pulled it back immediately, fear coming to her eyes for the first time.

"Oh princess, this has everything to do with him," Marid said, a truly sinister expression forming now on his face. "I saw your touching little moment just now in the clearing, Mr. Abernathy seems to be very, very important to you. The princess and the son of the help, a true Cinderella story..."

"What do you want?" Kate snapped, tears forming in her eyes.

"Just a bit of an exchange," Marid said, folding his hands behind his back. "I will give you 2 days, and during that time we will keep your dear Jonathan alive. If you come to the palace in those days and relinquish your claim to the throne and hand yourself over, we will spare him and let him go."

"And if I don't?" Kate asked.

"Well, I am afraid we will have to kill him," Marid said, darkness flaring in his eyes despite the casual tone he was using. "It really is up to you. Your choice, either you free your beloved Jonathan or you run free. It is your choice."

"You can't do this," she hissed, her fists clenching.

"I already am," Marid said, leering and then looking to his guards.

"Let's go, men! We need to give the dear princess some time to think!"

Kate looked back at Johnny and saw that now his hands were tightly bound and there was a gag tied across his mouth.

"Johnny!" she cried as the guards led him away. "No please don't! Johnny!"

She ran toward Johnny and the guards as they moved away out of the clearing. She had almost reached them when her boot caught on some brush and she tumbled down to the ground. 

Kate landed hard on a nearby boulder, the pain barely registering as everything went black.