"...I was drunk and the timing of your sister..."
She gritted her teeth.
The feeling of this betrayal by her family felt mightier more than yesterday's.
How could her family do this to her?
When she spoke though, her voice was controlled and firm. "I see that. I see it all. But I am not about to cry over split milk."
Lytio froze for a split second before his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he straightened up, his hands falling to his sides.
"Your parents have discussed with mine on the 'incident'."
'Incident? Of course, that was how they would refer to it.' Belladonna thought but she instead, she asked, "and...?"
"Bell, I want you to know that I love you very much."
"I am sure that wasn't what they concluded on."
Lytio clenched and unclenched his fists before digging it into his pockets.
"I have to marry Aniya. It is for the best. For my reputation and your sister's. Also to prevent any more unfortunate incidents."
"Of course. Do exactly what they want."
"I don't have a choice. Don't you see how hard this is for me?" He stepped forward again, wanting to reach out for her but he stopped himself. "What if she gets chosen and later discovers that she is carrying my child? The Dragon King will fed her and your whole family to his dragon in anger. Besides, that would be my own child, I want to be father enough to protect him or her." He said, his eyes fixed to the ground because he just couldn't look up at her.
"Hmmm, your child."
"Well, you've never allow us to be together in that way, you don't stand that risk." She didn't react and he felt the urge to press further, suddenly angry. "You are losing me, Bell. Aren't you going to do anything?!"
"Like what? Cry? Scream for you to marry me? Come on, Lytio, we are not children."
She was 21 and he was 23, that sounded old enough for Belladonna.
He took in a deep breath and looked up at her. "I understand that you are mad at me but it wasn't my fault. We can say it was partly your fault."
"My fault?"
"Yes, maybe if you've allowed us to be intimate all those times I tried to initiate it, maybe by now you..." His voice trailed off, the words now heavy in his mouth. "I'm sorry."
He waited for a while for her to speak but soon he realized that she had nothing more to say to him.
"Bell?" He urged but she remained silent.
So he turned to the window and went back the way he came.
After a while, she started hearing noises from the sitting room.
She went outside her room to check what was going on. Just like yesterday, the moment they saw her, they kept quiet.
Belladonna smiled suggestively. "Am I missing something? It seems to be a big happy news."
"Bell, child, you still stink and you look hideous." Isa glared at her, then went off to her room, a large box in her hands.
Jasper followed right after her, so that Aniya was the only one left.
"Any, will you tell me?"
"I-I am..." She started in her usual small innocent voice. "I won't be.... qualified again for the P-Possible Potentials as..." she paused then rushed over her next words. "from tomorrow."
"Oh, finally." Belladonna's blank eyes lit with a shadow of happiness and she clapped. "That is what I have been praying for."
Aniya pinched her fingernails against one another, looking from the ground to Belladonna's face. "I am getting married tomorrow."
"Ah!" Belladonna smiled broadly, her voice filled with fake excitement and giggles. "We will be getting married on the same day, the Temple will be so filled with guests. Who are you getting married to?"
Silence. Long deafening silence.
Then Aniya ran towards her, wrapping her arms around her. Since Aniya was shorter than Belladonna, she couldn't reach for her shoulders, instead she wept against her sister's chest, sniffing in the aloe vera soapy scent that had now stuck to her.
Belladonna didn't hug her back. She just stood still, her smile had now disappeared.
"I feel like a horrible person, Sister Bell. I'm so sorry. Mother made me do it. She said-- if I wanted to be alive, I had to do it." She choked out between tears.
"Do you know that I have been working tiredlessly to get you off the Possible Potential's list? To make you unqualified without hurting anybody?" She whispered calmly, too calmly.
"I do." Aniya nodded against her chest.
"Then why did you stab me in the back?"
Aniya's hands tightened around her. "I didn't want to. I feel so horrible." She wept, rambling on and on about how terrible she felt.
"You should."
Aniya was shocked for a moment. She stepped back, looked up at Belladonna's blank face with her pale and hurt one.
"What do you want me to say? That you were just so naive and none of these was your fault? What is the point of all these? Are you now seeking for redemption? I can't give that to you, little sister."
Belladonna started walking back to her room when her sister's silent voice stopped her.
"I thought you would be happy for me."
"You laid with my husband-to-be."
"I thought you would be happy that your little sister no longer stood the risk of being chosen." Her lips were now trembling, tears running down her cheeks like a river. "Happy that your little sister was now safe."
"While 'I' now stand the risk of being chosen?"
"Isn't that what big sisters do?! They make sacrifices!" Aniya's intense gaze was on Belladonna's back. "If you love me as much as you claim, you will be happy for me."
At that point, Belladonna turned to look at her. "You slept with my man, Aniya. While I was out there, slaving away for you, you were in here rolling in 'my' sheets with 'my' man. Little sisters aren't meant to do that."
Aniya was now messy crying, her nose running with mucus as more and more tears flowed down her cheeks. She had always been like that, crying her way out of things, no matter how big or little.
Belladonna looked away uninterested and started walking back towards her room.
"None of these was my fault! Mother said it was better that I was saved than a daughter that was from a product of rape!"
Belladonna immediately stilled to a spot, her breathing rasp, her head hot.
Within a flash, she rushed through the room and slapped her.
Aniya fell to the ground, her hand on that part of her face, her eyes filled with surprise and shock.
Belladonna had never hurt her before.
She heard Belladonna's door slammed shut and she started sobbing really loudly, crying for her mother.
Belladonna turned the key in the keyhole then slid to her bed, her back resting on the door.
Once again she really wished she could just cry, wish that she could just let it all out but all she could feel was numbness. While she had slapped Aniya earlier, she had felt so much anger but it was all gone now.
Product of rape.
She couldn't believe her mother still called her that.
She knew she was the unwanted child. Her mother had always reminded her of that everyday of her life.
The thing was that, her mother had not always been from Inaymi. In fact, she was from Kaytegun, the second village that made up the great Kingdom of Ignas.
She was an orphan who had to grow up on her own. One night when she was selling things on the street of Kaytegun to make ends meet, she had been raped by a drunk man.
She was only 17 when she discovered that she was pregnant. She tried to find the man but he was a traveller and he had left Kaytegun.
So she decided to leave Kaytegun too in search of him. She started with the smallest and seventh village in Ignas, which was Inaymi.
There she met Jasper, who was two years older, had a little farm and had fallen in love with her. Although she hadn't loved him at that time, she had married him at 18 so that she wouldn't have to bring Belladonna up alone.
Later she fell in love with him and they had Aniya when she was 20.
Their sweet, precious, good willed and forever innocent Aniya.
Isa would always tell Belladonna that her presence constantly reminded her of that night, and although she had never made an attempt to get rid of her as a baby, she just could never love her as a daughter.
Belladonna thought that if she was good enough and loved them enough, they would one day love her but now she knew, that day would never come.
To them, she would always remain a product of rape, the unwanted child, the bad fruit on the family tree.
Belladonna stood up slowly, walked to the only window in her room, her gaze on the small field outside.
She closed her eyes, breathing in the fresh air. She could hear flutes playing distance away.
Drums banging and maybe even a trumpet.
People were getting married.
Suddenly, she heard the key being turned in the keyhole but before she could even react, her mother dashed into the room, yanked her low bun, turning her violently to face her before slapping her hard across the face.
"How dare you?!"
"Mother?"
She held that part of her face, feeling blood seep out of the fresh small cut that one of her mother's long nails had now dragged across her left cheek.
"How dare you hurt my daughter, you poison!"
Belladonna looked up at her mother before her eyes widened in fear and her heart raced at the sight of something in her mother's hands.
Oh, no.
It was a long black leather whip splited into eight pieces.It swept through the air and landed on her back. A gasp of pain escaped her lips as she tumbled to the floor, her long black curly hair scattered to the sides of her face. She immediately curled up on the floor, her folded arms protecting her face.She knew how this went. This wasn't the first time, nor the second or third. She couldn't even count how many times her mother had done this to her and she knew this wouldn't be the last.Isa swung the whip, striking it countlessly against her, on her back, her hands, anywhere it landed on. She was breathing heavily and although her hands were arching her from how long she had been flogging her, she was blinded by so much anger that she just couldn't stop."H-how-- dare you?!"The beating continued, then Belladonna heard her dress ripping from how much the beating was, the whip cutting into her flesh and blood seeping out of the long cuts. She bit her lips till she tasted blood
It read: "Just wait for me, my love. I will find a way for us to be together again." Lytio must have had his brain replaced with one of the fishes that he captured to make such ridiculous promises. She looked at the piece of paper blankly once again and muttered to herself, "such terrible handwriting." She threw it into the fire, where some women were cooking for another wedding. Then left for the library. The moment she stepped into the library, the Librarian greeted her. "There you are, child. My wife told me everything. That mother of yours is a witch." Gladies, his wife, always some how knew everything that was going on in Inaymi. Belladonna had always thought they were a match made in heaven. While she knew about the things going on in town presently, her husband knew very well about the things that happened in the past. Soulmates, she often called them. "And that sister of yours is a snake. Spineless man, the father you have." "Technically, he is not my father."
Everyone fell on their kneels immediately, their heads bowed. Although Belladonna had been a little clumsy about it, she had managed not to draw any attention to herself. "Rise." The Dragon King commanded, his voice was deep and it commanded respect, a sought of authority that couldn't be ignored even if one dared. Indeed, even a flick of his finger resonated power.They rose up to their feet."Sit."They did.Then the Dragon King started walking towards the Possible Potentials section, the woman who had arrived earlier following after him.Belladonna quickly casted her gaze to the ground, her arms around herself protectively. Then she heard them stop right in front of them."Begin." The Dragon King said to the woman that was now standing behind. She stepped forward, looking from one lady to another while she went through the space between the benches. "Up." She commanded.Now that she wasn't announcing the presence of the King, her voice sounded firm yet sultry. The lady stood u
It was all a blur, right from the moment when she realized that she had failed herself and allowed herself to be chosen. All while the seven Potential Brides were led into the long carriage that had come to take them, while the carriage journeyed into the night, through the forest, down to the castle, while the ladies sat side by side, their hands curled up in-between their thighs, their eyes fixed to the carriage's floor under the strict gaze of the woman who had chosen them, until they finally got to the castle and stepped out of the carriage one after the other.Everything just felt like a huge blur.Belladonna had expected some dark, desolate castle with distant eerie sound of a forest, in the middle of no where. She had been wrong. Very wrong.The castle was the most beautiful building she had ever seen. There was a huge beautiful water fountain and a long colorful garden along the walkway. The lights illuminated the whole castle, making it look magical in combination with the
Just like that, she turned away, up the stairs and the servants started leading each down the hallway, to seven different doors. Everyone got a male and a female servant to help them to their door. The female servant helping Belladonna was a couple of inches shorter than she was, although she looked older, like she was in her early thirties. She had bags underneath her eyes and a few wrinkles by either side.The male servant on the other hand was just an inch or two taller than Belladonna. His face was calm and he seemed collected.Asides that, they were both wearing sought of deep blue uniform and they looked like as if they are well taken care of.Belladonna got the fifth door.Hung on it was the kind of slate which had a name carved on it. Moria Nakunriver.She furrowed her eyebrows at that.That was the name of the previous bride, the one who had authored the book containing all those rules she had read. The bride whom everyone had thought would be the last.Had this been her r
The landing would have been rough had she not landed on a bundle of blankets placed just at the bottom of this crazy tunnel."Making a run for it, Lady--""I wasn't..." She jumped, startled that she was still alive and that she hadn't fallen into a dungeon instead.She stood up, looking back at the man who was sitting by the dinning table, some distance away from her. He was oddly silent and her heart started to race. Was he looking at her and thinking she was absolutely useless?If so? Good."I admit, it was stupid." She chuckled but her mischief immediately died the moment she realized something. What if he was thinking of making her his dragon's meal and not sending her home instead. Her breath hitched, trying to rack her brain for exactly what she was still doing wrong.Too bad, she couldn't figure it out through his face because of his golden mask.Was he seething in angry or was he boiling over with rage.Her eyes grew wide the moment she realized she hadn't greeted."Your Ma
"A black gown? My Lady, you can not. The Choosing Ceremony is today."Ceremony? Belladonna scoffed, internally while she looked at herself in the mirror.'sounds more like a funeral.'She had cried so much for this past one week that she now felt absolutely drained and empty. Her eyes were red and puffy. If anything were to sadden her right now, she would have no tears to shed.After her outburst in the he presence of the King, she had decided to stay in her room without coming out for anything. Her servants Plea to Lady Kestra on her behalf had been denied, not that she cared to begin with, and the rumours were flying around that the King wouldn't pardon her disrespect in any form.Rumours said that she would indeed be a dragon's meal by the end of the Ceremony, which was to happen tonight.Her punishment was sure.The rumours also conveyed that Lady Piper would most likely be the bride as Lady Kestra was most pleased with her performance at her dinner test.As much as Belladonna did
Once again, her mind went into a blur. Her environment fading into a distance while she remained stunned by the crazy thing that had just happened. How was it that she was the crowned the Bride? How was it even possible?Her mind was so occupied that by the time she realized that she had been brought into a room that wasn't hers, the guards were already gone and the door had been shut firmly. She jumped to her feet with a start, looking around the red painted room, it stung her eyes somehow considering red wasn't even really her colour to begin with.She yanked at her hair, pacing around the room, mumbling inaudible frightened words underneath her breath. At that moment, she heard horses neighing, a carriage driving out of the castle and heavy gates been pulled open from a distance away.She looked around the room quickly searching for a window, pulling open all the red curtains she laid her hands upon till she eventually from one with just the right view.From here, she could see