A thief

*Abi POV*

I am initially disoriented when I wake up to find myself on a king size bed with silky sheets in a exquisite bedroom. I blink and rub my eyes a multiple times to make sure that I am not dreaming, then last night’s events come rushing back. I scan the room around for Omario but there’s no sign of him anywhere.

I curse when I see the clock and jump out of bed. It is almost 8 o’clock, I overslept. My chores start at 5 o’clock sharp. Brenda is going to punish me severely for this. I rush to the bathroom but freeze halfway there. I am still wearing Omario’s shirt and nothing else. He put it on me but I can’t walk out of here with it. I am pretty sure that equates to stealing from royals and that’s a punishable offence. Several servants have had their arms cut off for something like this. Even though it was a misunderstanding in almost all the cases, no one was interested in the explanation.

What do I do? I can’t find my clothes anywhere and I can’t really leave this place naked. I am really panicking and frantically looking around for anything I can put on that won’t be viewed as stealing, but there’s nothing. I even thought of wrapping the small carpet around me but that also looks expensive, something a servant can steal.

In the end I decide on the shirt. At least he put it on me. If I run fast to the servant quarters without being seen, I could change to my clothes there and return the shirt. With that plan, I open the door and peek around before slipping out and running towards the old stables, where our quarters are located. I am about to turn on to the last corner when I come crashing to the last person I wanted to see.

“Aha! I caught you today, you trouble marker!”

Brenda exclaims before grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the north side wing. My heart sinks and tears start welling up in my eyes. The north side is where guillotine room is located.

I get sympathetic looks from my fellow servants, who are already busy with their chores.

“Get Sylvester and Kane to meet me at the guillotine room. We have a thief to punish,” Brenda commands one of the servants, who looks sympathetically at me and rushes off.

Stealing has prescribed punishments. As the Beta, Brenda does not need any formal hearing to implement those. Just two other council members who agree with her, then I’m doomed.

“Not only a whore but a thief as well. You know the punishment for that, don’t you?”

Her menacing voice tells me that my fate is hanging by the thread, but I refuse to believe it. Even when she opens the door and the nauseating smell of the dried blood of the fellow servants who were unfortunate to end up here hits me, I just can’t accept it. I frantically shake my head. This can’t be happening, I can’t lose my arm.

She puts handcuffs on me and paces up and down. The big clock on the wall seem to tick at the same times as her evil step, each one a step closer to my doom.

My heart is pounding and whole body shaking when her husband, Beta Sylvester and their friend, Gamma Kane, walk in.

“That’s Prince Omario’s favourite shirt alright. You really have guts.” Sylvester sounds thrilled by my alleged crime.

“I did not do anything wrong, I swear.”

I am not hopeful even when I try to plead for my case. Brenda and Sylvester seem to have a vendetta against me and I have no idea why. I have been very careful to follow all the rules because they are always watching everything I do. Terrence thinks they are obsessed with me and even know how many times I go to the bathroom.

“The shirt you are wearing say otherwise,” Kane sneers.

“The prince gave it to me, I swear I did not steal it.”

As hopeless as my case is, I still try to advocate for myself. I owe myself that much.

A slap lands on my left cheek. My statement must have strike a nerve because Brenda is now livid.

“Liar! Why would he?” she yells.

Now I sort of get it. It is ironically at this moment that I realise that I possess some kind of power here, but I am not certain how much and if it will work.

“The prince claimed me. I am his property, I wear what he chooses and this is what he chose for me to wear. Are you sure that it’s wise for you to punish me for it?”

I have no idea where I got the confidence to look at them in the eyes when I say this but I can see them hesitate. Disobeying the prince is a serious offence for them too. They exchange worried looks before going to congregate to one corner, where they go back and forth trying to whisper but I can hear them.

“She stole, the rule is clear.”

“It’s different if he gave it to her.”

“We don’t know that!”

Omario claiming me and giving me this shirt really bugs Brenda. Her niece is his fiancé, maybe that’s why she hates me so much.

“He clearly warned everyone to stay away from her. You saw how he lost it with Blake when he wanted to take her.”

“Look, I don’t like her either but we can’t disobey Prince Omario. You both know that’s deadly.”

“We can always claim that we did not know that he gave it to her. We have done it before with others. It will be her word against ours.”

“Okay. That could work. Let’s do it.”

I shake my head when they approach me and tears start rolling down my cheeks. I am only twenty years old, it is hard enough that I am a servant and now I am going to lose my arm.

“Please, I did nothing wrong,” I am now sobbing and pleading with them.

“No longer cocky now, huh?” Brenda sneers before Sylvester shoves a cloth inside my mouth to mask my screams.

Brenda holds me in place while Sylvester pulls my arm across the table and Kane operates the guillotine machine. I close my eyes shut when the blood stained blade descends. The clock tick sounds louder as I continue waiting for the excruciating pain of parting with my limb……