by RJ Gonzales
“Just sit down and stop trying to act like you’re the king!” she spat. “You aren’t any more special than the rest of us. Ooh! you’re a tiger, just like dad. Well, guess what, who gives a shit! I doubt she even killed the mundahlian. You probably did it and framed the poor girl.”
“Shut up, you bitch!” Willa shrieked, flinging a piece of meat at Evelyn.
“Look you little serpent, you better settle down before I beat the crap out of you myself!”
“I can kick your ass!” Willa shot back. “I can take down a stupid little fox anytime!” She snapped her fingers that were lined with long and sharp black nails. “Like that.”
“Why don’t you slither back to hell!”
“Make me!”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
Evelyn raised her hand. Willa’s did too, almost as if being controlled.
“Don’t you dare!” Willa warned.
Evelyn swatted her hand. Willa’s did too—across her cheek.
“Ow!”
Evelyn laughed. “Quit hitting yourself, quit hitting yourself!”
“Bane!” Willa yelled. “Tell her to piss off!”
A girl with flowing bright vivid red hair burst through the doors. “Stop this madness, this instance!” She was wearing black leather that hugged her body almost like a glove. The other guys at the table turned to her. She looked about as old as Bane, if not a few years younger.
“Yes, Viv.” The two fighting girls said.
She looked to Bane—standing behind me. “Sit!”
“Fine!” He cast me onto the floor. I landed with a thud by the woman in bondage’s feet. She bent over to try to pick me up, but a voice arose from behind me. “Don’t you dare pick her up!” Bane scolded. “Or else you will be the next thing we eat!”
“Sorry, doll.” The woman said to me and then followed the man who tugged on her chain out of the room.
Before returning to his seat, he leant down in front of me and stuck the meat he had into his mouth. “Delicious,” he said, sloppily chewing. I shivered, but didn’t say a thing. Beautiful innocent creatures had just been murdered in front of me. Treated like nothing more than sashimi—raw pieces of meat people in my world usually eat with soy sauce. Never in my life have things been so morbid. So out of sync and utterly farfetched that I don’t even know what to think.
The rest of the meal was quiet, with only the sounds of chewing and the tearing of the meat that sounded like someone stretching a piece of material until it snapped off. The woman with stark crimson hair, paused in the doorway to give me a glance—almost hopeful and friendly, but most of all sympathetic. She hadn’t eaten any of the meat, only stayed to make sure things were calmed. Then, shutting the door behind her—she left. I didn’t get to process her face long enough, but I knew I’d probably see it again, someday. I’d just have to remember the only feature that stuck out like a sore thumb and I’d know it was her. Her bright red hair, almost the color of a strawberry.
“Awesome!” A guy next to me exclaimed, digging into the little boy’s lifeless body. “I found it!” He pulled a small pearl from the body. It was blue and striped in red. Without taking any extra seconds to study it or guess its power, he swallowed it.
“All right Tony!” Bane congratulated. “That one looked a hell of a lot like mine!”
“This one’s a dud,” Willa said disappointed, searching around the insides of Angela. “That’s not fair! It was my turn to find one!”
“What do you mean?” Bane questioned. He stood and walked to the carcass. He stuck his hands in and searched. “Nothing,” he said, pulling out his hand to examine it. “That’s impossible. Father fought to have them keep their pearls for us to have!”
“Guess he didn’t fight hard enough,” Evelyn sassed.
I glanced into the pocket and saw the pearl tightly tucked in it. Did she know that she was going to die? Is that why she gave it to me?
I was returned to the dungeon with the Enthiduans after dinner. I didn’t do much but curl up in the corner me and Angela had shared.
They all turned to face me. “Where have you been?” one asked. I didn’t say a thing. I couldn’t. “Are they—”
I nodded.
“Well, don’t be sad,” the male Enthiduan said. “They are finally freed from this place.”
I turned my face away and began to sob.
“She is in Enthidua now, my dear,” he continued. “Reunited with her family. Why are you crying?”
“Because she’s dead!”
“Do not cry, my dear” he whispered. “This will not be the last you see of her. I’m sure she will find you someday soon.” He lowered his head. “Soon,” he repeated.
...
Everything was different. It had all changed so much from what I once knew. I didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one bit. My family and friends would soon all die horrific deaths. My relationship—the first one that had felt so real—lasted only a few days before crashing down. The emotions, and the intensity in those few days with Jett were immense and true, and I missed it dearly.
My new friend Angela had suffered a torturing death. And I had witnessed it right in front of me while a vile man held me back, tormenting me after trying to force himself on me just moments before. My life—as I knew it, was over. I mean, exactly how does one recoup from this? How can I smile after seeing my friend get torn to pieces and devoured by these-these monstrous creatures? Being treated like nothing more than a turkey during Thanksgiving, or other scrap of food. No one at that table cared that she once owned a bakery. That she had a loving husband and daughter, waiting for her at home. In hopes of one day giving birth to a son, which her husband so desired to carry on the family name. Or that in her spare time, she spent her hours of the day feeding the needy and fixing up her land to the best that it could be. Or even that the only reason she was here, was because she was sick and tired of the gods in her kingdom treating the rest of the Enthiduans like pieces of chopped liver. No one at that table gave a shit! But me. The girl chained and bound, forced to watch her utter painful words over the gurgles of blood oozing from a slit throat. The woman who had let me vent without saying a word until I finished. And only after then, would speak warm words of wisdom. The woman who was so kindhearted and optimistic, that she truly embodied the qualities of an Angel. The woman—who had saved me from what was going to happen, and sacrificed herself for me—even though she’d only known me for a few days. I should have just ran out after her. Why the hell did I have to stop and take a breath? She paid the ultimate price for me. And I just sat there, watching her die. Unable to do a damn thing about it. How can I ever smile after that?
Half an hour had to pass until I had the decency to make sure the other Enthiduans knew I was all right. They’d spent the minutes after I’d arrived, chatting amongst each other. Unaware of how to comfort me. “Perhaps we should just smile. Show her there is nothing to worry about,” One said. “No, no,” A matured woman, sitting beside him answered. “Let her get it all out. It’s for the best if she runs dry of tears. She’s suffered enough.” These were all faces I sorta knew, but didn’t know how to address them as. The only Enthiduan I had named was Angela. My dungeon buddy, who just last night sat chained to the other side of my now vacant chain. The others went on calling to each other with words like “you” or “sir” or even “madam” or “lady” if they happened to be a female.
Suddenly, the doors ahead burst open. Letting in the orange glow—a tsunami of light that spilled across the floor to fill the room dimly. The Enthiduans became invisible, like they had when I’d first arrived. A woman yielding a lit torch came in. She flashed it in all the directions before stopping on me. She stood for a moment as I looked into the light, my eyes red and swollen. Then, she ran. Making her way over to me, and holding up a side of her long ember dress so she wouldn’t stumble. “Hurry, get up! You don’t have much time!” She rushed, letting her dress flow back to the floor, and reaching fo
r a key from her bust. I saw the curly hair and glasses—The Queen.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Helping you.” She stuck the key into the chains and they fell limp to the floor with a slight clink.
“Why?”
“Because, I know you’re innocent. I couldn’t do anything while my husband was still here in the castle. But, he left a while ago with a few of his children. I sent the rest to town just now. It took a while but they finally left.” She pulled me up and brushed some grime away. “The guards are distracted at the front gate—I think someone is trying to break into the castle, so we must go out the back! Now come before it is too late and we both get killed!”
She rushed me out of the jail and nearly flew me up the stairs.
“Wait!” I called, stopping on the steps of the dark stonewalled stairwell.
“What is it? Please.” She tugged on my hand, “We don’t have much time.”
“I can’t leave knowing that the Enthiduans are still locked in here.”
“We don’t have time. Someone will be back!” The Queen urged. “I’ve already lost people who’ve meant so much to my family and friends and I. And I vowed to myself never to let it happen again.”
“Please?”
She refrained from pulling my arm and stared at me for a few seconds before agreeing, “I’ll wait by the back door for you. It’s just around the corner, passed the golden doors and across the ballroom.” She pointed with her eyes to a sharp weapon hanging on display on the wall by the door. “Use the axe on the wall to cut them free.” I hopped my way back down the steps before hearing her clear her throat. “I’ve never eaten any of them, just so you know. Just the others. The cooks always prepare me my own food. Normal villager food. Food I enjoy.”
“I believe you,” I said, flashing a quick smile to show that I meant it. “You don’t belong here, either.” And then off she went after flashing me a returning smile—hurrying up the stairs with her dress lifted in her hands.
I headed to the axe, hanging between a pair of torches lit ablaze that I blew out so it wouldn’t bother the Enthiduans. As I freed it from the hook, I nearly fell from the sudden change in weight. It was heavy. About the weight of a cement block. The sound of the metal scraping against the floor sounded as I hauled the heavy object back into the tiny room where the putrid smell I had already gotten used to seemed like the norm. “I’m gonna need help, guys!” I said once in the room. The metal head still scraped across the dirty, wet tiles.
Crack, crack, crack! The Enthiduans appeared, looking to each other for a moment, then smiling wide smiles of hope on their faces. A pair of male Enthiduans hopped over to me, still bound in their chains.
“Let me see it,” one of them said, motioning for me to give it to him. I handed the axe to him and watched as he freed himself first, and then went on to each and every Enthiduan, liberating them from their chains.
“Thank you!” They said in a cheerful chorus.
“If we hurry, we can all take a ferry out of this vile land! It is nearly sundown. The light shouldn’t affect us as much!” The man dropped the axe to the floor.
“Come on!” I waved. “The Queen’s waiting by the castle’s back door.” I let all the Enthiduans pass me and followed behind. We bolted up the stairs and down the hall. The leader of the group—the liberator, halted. “Where to now?” The castle was like a maze, with halls leading to doors or more halls. We didn’t have time to go door to door.
“She said it was across the ballroom,” I announced from the back.
“There!” One Enthiduan from the front pointed to a set of grand golden doors at the end of the hall with the words Ballare Cuartara written above them in a faded black ink. We came into a wide open room. Black and white tiles lined the floor, and the room was decorated in fabrics of white, gold, and sliver. A silky transparent golden set of curtains shielded what looked like a massive stage where another pair of intricately designed thrones sat. A soft spotlight shining down on each one like they were being displayed. A gorgeous chandelier hung a few feet above, and tall vine-decorated pillars were placed around the room. It looked glorious. Like it belonged to Greek or Roman mythological Gods. A room where they would conduct their business and sit each day while guards and peasants came up to them to ask questions or perform. “There’s the exit,” the same Enthiduan upfront pointed to the other set of doors at the far end of the room. We all scurried our way over. But once we made it midway across the glossy floor, the room fell dark. Pitch-black. Lit only with the soft lights of the Enthiduans, which only emitted a small barrier of white light about ten feet in each direction.
A wicked female laugh arose from the darkness above us. It was almost a hiss. “And where do you think you’re going?” An eerie rattle sounded.
“Wh-wh-who’s there?” An Enthiduan, who I couldn’t quite see from being surrounded by much taller ones spoke.
A large mass crawled across the ceiling. The light from the Enthiduans was too faint, but I could still see the shapes and some details. It was large—and long, with scales the colors of a light tan nearly covered by wide dark-brown diamonds. We all looked up, watching it slither across the top and rustle past the chandelier, making the clear beads on it chime. I’d seen this mass before, wrapped around my torso. Willa.
“What are you doing here? You were supposed to be out in the town!” I said, angered.
“Yesss. I wasss. But I never really liked the Queen and found it odd that she wanted all of us to leave our own cassstle. I knew ssshe was up to sssomething. And I wasss right. Jussst wait until I tell my daddy. Ssshe’ll be dead, just like the others. I’m sssure of it!” She shrieked with laughter.
“What do you want Willa?” I asked.
“Tsssk, tsssk, tsssk,” I heard. “You sssshould know by now, Rini—” The slithering stopped and I felt a sharp claw-like nail tap my shoulder. I turned and found Willa’s grotesque, skin-crawling, and nightmarish face, suspended upside down, flashing me a wide grin. “—I like playing with my food.” Lightning quick, her mouth opened up wide showing me the pink lining for her mouth, and those oh-so painful looking porcelain fangs. I jumped out of the way before she could dig them into my throat, which I’m sure she was aiming for. Her long tall fell from the ceiling and dropped to the floor—bringing the chandelier crashing down, as she stumbled down.
The Enthiduans and I ran as fast as we could to the door, but Willa regained her posture and slithered her way past me and the remaining Enthiduans who hadn’t made it out yet—about two of them. A mature man, and a younger boy. Willa’s claws dug into the wall, trapping us inside. “Gotcha!” she hissed. “Where are you to go now?”
“Shield your eyes,” The mature man said to me in a hurry.
“What?” I asked.
“Shield your eyes!”
The little boy in front of me reached up to my face without warning and covered my eyes with his tiny hands. From behind my eyelids, I saw a bright flash of a white light—like the flash of a camera—and then heard a high-pitched shriek. The little boy’s hands moved away and I saw the serpent that was Willa rubbing her eyes and stammering with anger.
“Come on.” The little boy pulled me out of the room. Hot on the heels of the mature man who had literally just flashed Willa and pushed passed her.
“Come back here!” Willa stammered, bursting through the doors—still in a daze, and slithering her way to us.
We were on the top level in the now darkening castle. Below us was the door leading to freedom—cracked open and letting in a slice of the orange and purple light. I recognized the area that was all too familiar, only I had been with Angela the last time I set foot on this area earlier today. The Queen was gone. The door, open—she’d probably ran out with the other Enthiduans.
Just as I was about to make for the stairs, I was whipped to the ground by Willa’s large heavy tail.
“You’re not going anywhere!” She said in a shrill as her tail wrapped around m
e and lifted me to her. She was still blinking her beady eyes, trying to regain her vision. Her black forked tongue flashed in and out as she inhaled my scent yet again. “I should just finish you off right now.” Once again, her sharp fangs protruded as her vicious mouth whipped up into a hiss.
“You just ate. What’s the matter, still hungry?” I sassed.
“I’m always in the mood for a sssnack?” She grinned.
I sent a blow to the side of her face, and nearly fell to the floor from her loosening grasp. “I’ll be damned if I go back to the dungeon again.”
She hissed even louder, ready to strike, inches from my face. The rattle at the end of her tail shook violently. Her muscle tightened as tight as I’ve ever felt it and I let out a moan as I felt my bones beginning to crack and chip away from underneath her grip.
The Enthiduans who’d been stopped with me returned from the bottom of the steps and threw themselves on Willa, trying to pry me away from her.
“Get off of me!” She screeched, trying to grab for them. They clung on strongly and did what they could.
“Leave—while—you still—can,” I managed to get out. One of them had already sacrificed themselves for me, and I wouldn’t know what I’d do if they died for me too. They didn’t hear me, or if they did, ignored it. The mature man whacked Willa clear across the face, and the small boy opted for biting. She flicked her long tail up and sent the Angels flying. She reached for me with her sharp, villainous claws, but I clasped them together and knocked them away. I managed to grab a hold of one of her hands and brought it to her back. Her other claw came around her shoulder trying to free herself, but I grabbed for it as well. It slipped from my fingers and instead Willa pounded me in the side, swinging it behind her. I yelped with pain, but still kept my grip on her hand, and tried again for the other. And then, success! I grabbed for her dry, scaly hand and matched it in the back with the other. I’ve learned this before! Now’s not the time to mess it up!
With a mighty kick, I struck the lower-middle of her back and she fell to the floor, howling in pain as I felt something snap. Her whipping tail swooped me off my feet and I landed back-first to the ground, as she wrapped herself into a coil. I was helped to my feet by the same two Enthiduans who held something in each of their hands. The little boy tugged on my shirt. A small glowing orange pearl levitated above his hand. Next to him, the other Enthiduan had a lime green one in his. “Miss?” he said.