Dedicated to MysteryGal5. Happy Birthday!
Warning- Contains slight violence.
Trigger alert.
"Good evening, your highness." A guard, Officer Jeffery if I am not wrong, greeted me as I walked along the third floor corridor, heading to my room.
"Good evening," I replied and asked him, "Do you know where my mother is?"
"I believe she has retired to her quarters for the night, your highness." He informed me.
I nodded and thanked him, continuing on my journey to my room. Once again, earlier during the day, father gave mother a gift. Then, during dinner, he gave her wine until she felt extremely tired, making her go to bed earlier than her usual routine. There isn't anything wrong with gifting your wife some precious jewelry, but if it happens on a weekly basis, you know something is wrong. Especially if it has been happening for a month or two now.
And I now know exactly what he is doing. Sometimes, despite the walls in the palace being thick, if you cross his bedroom during the night and listen hard enough, you can hear what they are up to. Not mother and father, but father and his mistress. The guard he had positioned outside his bedroom door for as long as I can remember also disappeared after a few of her visits.
As I walk along the hallway, I spot a portrait of mother and father standing next to each other. Side by side, dad's hand around mom's waist. You can see the love, adoration and respect she has for him; it's written clearly on her face. But you can tell nothing from his expression; it's as blank as a sheet of unused paper.
Father's room comes on the way to my room. As I walk along the hallway, nearing his room, I see her. The mistress. Her dress looked like it was worn in a hurry and she was wearing a cloak. As if that could cover up what they had been doing a while ago. Does mother know about this? Should I tell her? It's wrong for him to do this, but my father is the king. There is nobody to tell him to stop what he is doing. So I suppose I should tell him. After all, I am his only son. There is nobody except mom and I to look out for him, and since she will be unable to right now, I will.
With this thought in my mind, I go up to his bedroom and open the door. There was beads of sweat dotting his forehead and he was tying his robe.
"You cannot let that whore in here again." I said, getting angrier by the second. This was a mistake. A big mistake. He came up to me as quick as a cheetah and yanked on my hand really hard, pulling me into his room. I screamt out in pain as a burning sensation ran over my shoulder. I fell to the ground, cradling my shoulder as it throbbed with the worst pain I ever experienced. Everything started to get blurry and tears formed in my eyes from the pain.
"Mind your own business." Father said. "You will tell this to no one. Do you understand me?"
I nodded vigorously, still trying my best not to cry from the pain in my shoulder. I was hunched over, my non-injured shoulder on the carpeted floor of the king's suite. I heard the attached bathroom door open and assumed that he is going to get a medical kit to help me. He came out from the bathroom, went into his walk-in wardrobe and went back to the bathroom.
After a while of no noise in the room, I carefully lifted my head to see where he went. I couldn't see very clearly because there were still tears in my eyes but I didn't let any of them fall. I saw a figure moving towards me, a hazy outline of my dad coming out from the bathroom. I could see him hold something black in his hands, something which looked like one of his belts. I started to painfully crawl away from him, whimpering from the still-existing pain in my shoulder. It felt as if someone cut it off of me and then shabbily stitched it back together. A tear slipped out of my eye and I quickly wiped it away. Father told me countless times that kings don't cry and every time I did, he ended up shouting at me.
I hit the leg of his bed and he took two big strides, hovering over me. "Kings don't cry, Maxon." He said and paused for a moment. "Don't try to tell me what to do." He added.
He hit the belt against my back as I screamt out in agony. This is nothing compared to the pain in my shoulder. All the tears sprang free of the barricade in my eyes, falling down onto the carpet. I cried, unable to hold back my sobs anymore. He bent down and pulled me to the center of his room by the collar as I cried in pain. My shoulder hurt, my back hurt, my voice hurt, my eyes hurt. My shirt rubbed roughly against the gash on my back, feeling as though someone stabbed my back a million times with a sword.
He let go of my collar as we reached where he wanted and repeated, "Kings don't cry, Maxon." The belt hit my back again as I shouted out on the top of my voice, hoping someone, anyone, heard my screams of pain and saved me from this torture. The world started to tilt and change colours. Purple to blue to green to orange to red. The colours kept on changing, like the world couldn't decide which colour it wanted to be. My ears rung. He hit me again as I started to curl up on myself, despite the ache in my shoulder. I could feel the tears in my eyes, running down my cheeks and falling onto the carpet. There were so many tears. So much pain. Finally, after what felt like a century, the world decided which colour it wanted to be, and everything turned black.
The sunlight hitting my face made colours dance inside my eyelids. As I tried to turn away from the light, my back burnt and that fire spread up to my shoulder. I groaned and as I did so, I slowly opened my eyes, using the hand which hurt lesser to move as a shield for my eyes from the sun. Someone closed the curtains and I snapped my head to the person who closed them.
"Are you feeling better, Your highness?" My butler, Emory, asked me. My eyes widened in panic. Does he know what happened to me? Does everyone know? Seeing my rising fear, Emory added, "You were roughhousing with one of the guards. I suppose that he got a little to rough and dislocated your shoulder, Sir. Do you need the doctor? Or maybe some painkillers?"
I had no idea what Emory was babbling on about until it hit me, he doesn't know. No one knows. They think I was playing with some guard and dislocated my shoulder. That's probably what father told them. Emory was staring at me with concern and as soon as I realized I still haven't replied, I told him, "Some painkillers will be fine, thank you."
He nodded and got me some medicine with a glass of water. I didn't dare move. Not until he was out of here. After keeping the medicine and water on the bedside table, Emory left, informing me that the doctor will be by later today. I tried moving, but as soon as I did, my back and shoulder started to burn again.
Eventually, I managed to reach the medicine and swallowed it as soon as possible, dying for some relief from this seemingly endless pain. As I swallowed, I realized, no one but father knew what happened. There was no one to help me get through this now. No one to save me from going through this again. And I wasn't going to let anyone find out about this. Who knows what father will do if he finds out I told someone?
Okay, so how was that? It is the first time I have written something, and I feel like its pretty good.
This is what Maxon told Eadlyn in The Crown about his first whipping. I know, he might have been quiet and endured it, but I thought that it was his first time. He dislocated his shoulder. He has no idea what's happening. And he is 11. It isn't that realistic that he wouldn't scream out.
I might have gotten a little carried away with making Clarkson evil and all as well... Whoops.
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Next update- Find out what went through Clarkson's head.