A Tortured Mind: Locked in Darkness: The Man in the Iron Mask
It all began, when the queen of France gave birth. She gave birth to two boys; identical twin boys. If the country found out all of France would be in an outrage. So I was sent for. My name is Aramis the priest. I collected the smaller boy, even though the two were almost the same. Their father wanted me to raise the boy and never tell him the truth. The mother was in an outrage she wanted to keep both. Her husband encouraged her that I taking the other boy would be for the best. I gathered the small infant in my arms and cradled him in a humble peasant blanket. I then returned to my home, making haste. No one could know of my secret visit. I told my maid that the boy would be adopted by me. She arranged for a young woman who had lost her own child to feed the boy. I would pay the woman to take good care of him. The royal family announced to the world that the heir to the throne Prince Louie was born very healthy. I took the other boy in my arms and christened him myself, Phillipe. My uncle who I had loved very dearly had, had the same name. The former Phillipe was an honest, kind, caring man who had died in a valiant way. I hoped my Phillipe would be as great as he was. The boy learned very fast from me. He was a handsome boy, but still looked exactly like the Prince. I took him with me to the countryside. I told him he could not go into the city and could only spend time with me, my maid Rose and a young farm boy who was my servant Shubert. Phillipe and Shubert soon became friends. Shubert did not know Phillipe's resemblance of the young prince. I told Rose the truth, though and she became like a mother to him. Phillipe was honest as a boy and always told me the truth no matter how hard it was. He was also good with animals and kind to the poor people that came to beg forgiveness from me. The people I did let him meet were either good people who understood the circumstances, or other less intellectual individuals. When Phillipe reached the bright old age of 15; the King of France, his father, passed away. All of France mourned the loss. The power of the crown then went to the bratty older counterpart of Phillipe himself. Their mother couldn't stop herself and told Louie of his brother and what his father had done. She begged him to let Phillipe join them. The brother like his father did not listen to his mother. He ordered guards to go to Aramis, myself and take the boy. I tried to put up a fight but they would not listen, the guards listened only to the king. They grabbed Phillipe and threw a hood on his head. Phillipe screamed out for me and questioned what was happening. I begged the guards to leave the boy but they did not. Phillipe was taken into a prison and locked away. Their mother begged to see him and begged he would be released. King Louie did not agree to her requests and instead ordered an iron mask locked around his brother's head until no one could see the resemblance of them. Phillipe tired from being locked in the gated prison was then summoned by two guards. They took his arms and walked him down to a strange room. A man then tied Phillipe's arms while Phillipe screamed. "What are you going to do to me?" he asked. They took his head and placed an iron face mask on. The metal was cold and uninviting. Phillipe shivered he could hardly see with it on, the two guards then place and outer layer surrounding his whole head. They locked the mask with a gold key and put it on a necklace. Phillipe confused begged the guards for answers but they did not respond. They took him to a darker prison room and bolted the door. Phillipe grabbed the mask and tugged and tugged terrified to get rid of it. He screamed and screamed for help until his voice was raw. The guards came and gave him a bowl of water and a substance he could suck down through the mask. Meanwhile his brother was awaited on by the court. He at the last minute grabbed the gold key for the mask and placed the necklace around his neck. Phillipe screamed and screamed in the mask. He hit his head against the wall trying to break his head free. The guards laughed at his avails, saying he had gone mad. After two years had gone by wearing the dreadful thing, another man was tossed into his solitary cell. "Hello there." The man called out. Phillipe had started losing vocabulary but made out the syllables the man had said. "Oh not a talkative chap are you?" The man's accent was different from the guards. "I'm British, that is why I sound funny to you my boy." Phillipe sat down. "Why are you here, my boy?" asked the man. "Oh that's right you don't want to say. I am here because I'm a spy. Well to the king I am." The man said. Phillipe rubbed his finger on the wall. "How long have you been here old boy?" Phillipe didn't respond. "Oh right." The man said. "Nice spot you've got her old chap." Phillipe got up again to pace. Suddenly the guards came to the door they grabbed Phillipe and slung a hood round his head. Phillipe grunted and screeched but to no avail. The men took him to another cell with a small window. After they took off the hood Phillipe quickly rushed to the window, his eyes fluttered when he saw the light. He looked out into what looked like an old village full of servants and farmers alike. Phillipe reached his arm up to the window but the grates were too small for him to reach out. He screeched and started banging the wall with his hands. No one outside the window heard him and continued with their day to day business. He was in a lower level and therefore everyone regarded the grating to be part of the sewage system. A couple of years went by and Phillipe had grown tired off trying to reach out to the real world. Until one day a woman in her twenties grew close to the grating and called out. "Hello." Phillipe ran over to the grating. The woman called out again not seeing the masked person. "Hello, is anyone in there?" Phillipe in response hit the wall with his arm not once, twice but three times. "Hello…oh who am I kidding this could be a prank." The woman dusted herself off and rose to her feet. Phillipe screamed and screeched with all his might but the woman had already left. Phillipe then smashed his head into the wall repeatedly until he ended in tears. The next week or so some guards came to retrieve him and took him to a dark room next to a boiler. The fires lapped through his cell door and gave him nightmares that left him screaming. Five long years went by and Phillipe at the end did not even move. His history, his name, his identity was forgotten. Even the strange man in the iron mask was forgotten. Then three men disguised hooded Phillipe and took him out of the cell. He wrestled with them screeching and grunting like a wild animal. He wasn't even a man anymore. The men took him out of the prison and took him in cover of night to a blacksmith shop. One of them laid the young man down and tied his arms. They took out the hammer and hit the mask. Once, twice and three times, the sixth or seventh time released the first locked part. Phillipe whimpered he was terrified. Phillipe teared up and let out small uncoherent noises. The men then pulled of the first masked part. Phillip closed his eyes. His face was overgrown with hair. He opened them and reached up with his hands and touched his face. He got up and looked into a barrel full of water. Looking back at him was a man tortured so long he wasn't human he was a wild animal. The men cleaned him and cut his hair to reveal a handsome man of 25. Ten years had gone by since the mask had been placed upon a 15 year old innocent. Now this man was older and more shattered. His brother had grown ignorant of his people and treated his France like a power hungry brat. He had forgotten about the brother he had locked away and tortured. He starved his people and ignored his mother. I, Aramis and two others decided to rescue Phillipe and replace the King. First we would have to teach Phillipe how to be human again. We taught him to talk again and walk and eat normally. He was a kind person like he was before. He was not angry with his brother, but he was shattered. He had the most terrible nightmares and woke up clutching me or the other men. I hired Rose my old maid to care for him. She had to urge him into bed at night, or he would not sleep. He woke up screaming in pain sometimes. So Rose had to watch him carefully all night. The others and I conducted a plan. Now all we needed was for Phillipe to agree to it. He would pose as King. Now all we needed was a time. Phillipe agreed to replace his brother after a lot of coaxing. We put the King to sleep one night and dressed Phillipe for the part. We were to take Louie back with us looking like Phillipe and watch him closely without harming him. Phillipe would not agree to his mission if we were to harm his brother. The only problem with our plan was that Phillipe was not as snooty as his brother and would his adviser believe his acting? He made his first appearance as Louie at a royal ball. He walked regally to his throne and sat with the grace of a monarch. During the dances, though a woman let go of her partner and fell at the Kings feet on accident. Phillipe crouched down and took her hand to lift her to her feet. The musicians stopped playing, the dancers stopped dancing and all the onlookers stood by in disbelief. Their king was never as kind as that. Phillipe dropped her hand and raised his head up. "Continue." He ordered and the music continued and the dancers started to dance a little differently than they had before. "King Louie, my son. May I have a private audience with you?" The former queen approached Phillipe her eyes darkened from lack of sleep and her pale face paler from time worrying. "Yes, of course Mother." Phillipe said starting kindly and then finishing more snobbish. He and his mother than went to a private drawing room. "If only my son you would even consider releasing your brother please do so for me. Please I beg you. I have begged you for ten years. I beg of you." His mother begged sobbing into her son's feet. "You begged him all those years, mother. For me?" Phillip asked aloud out of habit. He alarmed opened his mouth. He had just ruined everything. "My son, my other son, is that you?" The mother asked. Phillipe nodded tears crusting his eyes. The mother hugged her son sobbing into his chest. "I prayed this day would come. Did Louie release you?" She asked. "No mother, I have to pose as him and stop a revolution the people are gathering from happening. Don't worry he is safe I promise you he is safe. I wouldn't want to harm him." His mother sobbed into his chest. "It's you it really is you." Phillipe hugged his mother. "I must go for I may arouse suspicion, but I love you my mother. I do. This must be a dream. I am here, and you are here and there is no more darkness." Phillipe with heart a glow left his mother to return to the court. The next few days went by without suspicion, but the close adviser to King Louie suspected something was different. He ordered his men to search for the masked prisoner that had been sent away ten years ago. When his men returned they told him that the man was gone. The adviser smiled he had a strange suspicion he was correct something was different about King Louie. The advisor sent his men to different homes along France to search for any trace of the King. He then decided that the three enemies of the kingdom where a good group to start with. They called themselves the Three Musketeers. He had his men search the house The Three Musketeers, which I was in, heard news of the advisor search and took King Louie with us in a boat to the castle disguised as Phillipe. We made it to a moat and I headed into the castle disguised to warn the real Phillipe. The advisor found our hiding spot, though and summoned Phillipe who was dressed as the King. One of my accomplices put his sword in front of the neck of King Louie. "I will kill the traitor." My fellow called out to the real Phillipe, but before Phillipe could respond the advisor turned his own sword on Phillip. "You kill my king. I kill yours." King Louie squirmed and we released him. Phillipe made his way to the boat, but the advisor grabbed him at the last minute, we watched as Phillipe was left to the mercy of his brother. The guards grabbed Phillipe and chained him. King Louie would determine his fate in the morning. When the morning came their mother came to see Phillipe. King Louie ordered her taken away from her son. She screamed for Phillipe as he did for her. King Louie snarled into Phillipe's ear. "The only reason you still breathe brother is because you are my blood. What do you wish should be your fate?" Phillipe fell down at his brother's knees. "I beg you kill me. Please I beg. My brother but please never make me wear that mask again." Phillipe cried tears running down his face. "You shall wear that mask until the end of your days and you will learn to love it." King Louie decreed as Phillipe screamed in terror. The guards held him down as they shackled the mask onto his face. His mother cried hot tears. Phillipe screamed in terror. King Louie ordered his men. "Give me the key and I never want to see his face again." Phillipe screamed as he was dragged away by the guards. "Please!" "I beg of you!" Phillipe sobbed. The mask was fastened tight and he was taken back to the prison to a dark cell, his prison until death.