The sky was a burst of blue.The clouds and sun seemed like a dismantled sunny-side-up egg that swam in the ocean up above. I laid on the meadow with my head placed on my mother’s lap as she combed through my hair. My mother was a queen who knew how to straighten a crowd when she was in the room yet she sang the softest lullaby to her child. She was fierce yet gentle; in command but understanding. It was a perfect day. My mother’s song dropped and her hand stopped from combing through my hair. I looked at her and I saw how frantic she looked with her eyes that darted throughout the meadow. A strong wind gusted and I could see how the branches of the trees waved to it as if they were giving off a dance before a turmoil. There was silence after it— the calm before the storm. The horses on the carriage neighed loudly and started to stomp against the soil. Their cries were like calls to remind us to leave— there is danger. “Let’s go, Victoria,” my mother hurri

My body was nothing but a mere pulp that was pushed against a tree. I felt the searing pain on my legs from the scratches of the hard soil. My head throbbed from the pain of being beaten repeatedly. My left eye was almost shut closed from the inflammation that it had gotten from the direct punch the dark brown-haired man gave to me. His hand wrapped around my throat which restricted my breaths. I clawed on his arm and tried to kick at him, I resisted his restraints but my actions felt like nothing but a weak effort to set myself free. I stared at the foliage of the trees up above us and tried to reach out to the dim glimmer of sunlight with my losing eyes. I thought of the trees around the castle and the way I would lay beneath them with my mother when I was still a child. I thought of the green leaves that are similar to the shade of my mother’s eyes and how it reminded me of spring. If I was asked years before if I have envisioned myself to be in this position, I would say

The fire crackled as it sent tiny sparks to linger in the air like fireflies in a summer evening. Its bright light was big enough to show the man splayed on the ground, not even moving. Blood dripped from his head and into the dark soil of the earth beneath him, the rest of the people who had joined him a while ago surrounded him and tried to give him aid. I stood in front of them completely frozen. Ezekiel threw the rock towards the man and I don’t even know if he is still alive. I hope he is not dead. I brought my hands to cover my mouth as I started to cry for everyone, for everything, for the mess that we are in, and for every pain that there is. I wanted to disappear. The servant held my hand tightly. “Go,” Matthias unshackled the hands of Ezekiel, “Go kill him…that’s what you want right?” he yelled as he grabbed the collar of Ezekiel’s shirt and pushed him towards the man on the ground, “Finish him.” Ezekiel walked towards the man with his head down and

I opened my eyes to a dark and starless night sky, even the moon did not dare to show up as she pulled the blanket of clouds over her. My head seared in pain due to the concussion after being thrown down the hill. I looked to the side and I saw the parts of the carriage, pulled apart and laid haphazardly all over the rocky ground. Despite the pain and the inability to feel my feet, I stood up and stumbled my way towards the rubbles of the carriage. I limped to the remnants of it and began to search for my mother but she was not there, I began to panic. The fog started to thicken and it had made the twisted trees transform to looked like ghastly beings. The horses were gone and what’s left was the dead body of the man behind the reins, it laid coldly on his pool of blood. I backed away from it and I felt my stomach churned as I smelled the metallic scent of blood. Everything inside me rose and I fell to the ground on my knees as I vomited. I heaved out all that was in

The water hugged my body and it lulled the bruises and wounds that I have endured yesterday from being beaten up by Matthias. The coldness of the river felt like medication, it was far from the baths that I have taken in the castle but it was enough. The servant and I went to the far side of the river under the shade of a tree; its branches hanged below, the leaves nearly touched the water. It had created a decent cover for us to hide our bodies. Ezekiel went a bit far from us, he took his own time and bathed alone— it was more of a way to give us some private space, after all, we were naked. We washed our bodies and I saw how the filth was carried by the calm river currents. It was my first time to expose myself to people I didn’t know. William already saw me naked but it was different with him, I trusted him. It was my first time to take a bath with my servant and it made me realized how far my current life was from the one that I once lived. I watched the two children as