Chapter 2

Pain could not be worse

Pain is God's great curse.

Fear is a shell to hide behind

Fear causes people to be blind.

Hatred is a different type of fear

Hatred does destroy their cheer.

But happiness is the truest horror

For once felt, nothing can restore her.

The memory of pain, anger and...and fear. The sound of cackling. The feeling of icy silk laying over her skin. The creation of the shell - her greatest design.

Gia sat in the middle of the cell, her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried out of view. A grate in the wall high up cast a slice of mocking sunlight onto her. A week. A good long week had torn away her heart. The sheriff still refused to believe that she knew nothing of where Robin Hood lived or who supported him strongly in the towns.

The soft squeak of a rat was music in the eyes of the prisoners and Gia noticed that it was in her cell, crouching in the corner, staring at her in fear. Instinctively, the other prisoners rammed themselves against the bars of their cells, desperate for some meat, and Gia found herself hissing at them as she prowled over to the rat, her mouth slavering. Looking up, the rat squealed and fled, leaving Gia leaning over a pool of her own spit. She looked desperately down at her reflection and her throat dried up.

Looking up at her was a face raw and red with bruises splashed onto it and outlined by coarse chestnut hair. Dull blue eyes blinked sadly and parched split lips hung apart. The memory of her beauty was a child's dream and tears pooled on her lids.

"What've I become?" she whispered, reaching out but not daring to touch the shallow pool.

"Alright, I have run out of patience with you!" the sheriff's voice boomed. Hurriedly, Gia dragged herself to the center of her cell and looked up at him as he stormed into the dungeon. "You are going to hang, young lady. You. Are. Going. To. Hang."

"I heard you the first time," Gia sneered.

She heard the clicking of bones and knew the sheriff's fists were clenching but she didn't bother to look, keeping eye contact with her keeper. Two guards unlocked the door and tied her hands tightly with rope, causing her eyes to glitter in an invisible wince. Then they hoisted her onto her feet - As if I can't get up myself, Gia thought bitterly - and led her out of the cell. She was forced up the spiraling stairs and down a corridor towards the old, rotting door used for taking prisoners out to the courtyard. The sheriff smirked in satisfaction before striding off to make a grand entrance.

"You must be excited," Gia taunted, rocking back and forth on her feet like she was standing on a handful of marbles. "I mean, it's not every day you get to see a girl hanged for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is it?"

The guards blinked, their straight faces trying to tell her that they weren't listening but the strange flicker in their eyes implying otherwise. She smiled, wrapping her fingers together behind her back and taking a stumbling step back. A guard grabbed her hair but not before she had drawn a dagger from his belt and slid it under her jacket, setting it into the waist band of her trousers.

"Prisoner for being an ally of Robin Hood," the sheriff's voice was muffled but the distaste was evident from where Gia stood anyhow. A proud smile brightened her dying features as the door opened and she marched out, chin held up and her steps bold. The people's eyes were locked on her, watching her with either disgust or admiration. "Sentenced to hang for treason against King Richard and Prince John."

Gia started at the two names but swiftly regained her posture as she mounted the steps and hopped without struggle onto a stool. The 'Deliverer of Death' offered her a bag-like hood but before he put it on she swiveled round to face the sheriff.

"Before I die, I have two requests," Gia said, forcing a grave look onto her face. She had always been good at acting and that was one of the reasons why the orphans from her time hated her so much - her tormenting mimics.

The sheriff's smile flashed evilly. "Very well but I cannot promise to deliver."

A sneaky smile glinted in Gia's eyes but she didn't show it on her twitching lips. "I wonder if you could grant me my life?"

"No," the sheriff cackled. "Not in a million years."

Gia's eyes narrowed. "In a million years you'd be dead." She forced a cough to cover the words but not so that he couldn't hear. He glared mercilessly at her and she flashed an innocent smile before continuing. "And my second wish: could I die with my hands loose? I don't want to go to heaven with my hands tied!"

"Darling, you will be in hell, not heaven," the sheriff snorted but he nodded to the 'Deliverer of Death' and Gia's hands were released. "Now be a good little girl and step onto the stool."

Nodding, Gia stepped back onto the stool and let the noose be put around her neck. Then, the man quickly put a hood over her head and kicked the stool under her feet.

For a few moments Gia swung from the noose, her thoughts frying and floating out of reach. However, after a small magnitude of time her hands stopped flailing and with the last of her dying energy she drew the knife from out under her shirt and began sawing at the rope, her lungs straining for breath and burning like coal. As her hands became numb and her arms began to ache whilst her thoughts swayed on drunken waves she closed her eyes and took a deep, strangled breath. The slight bit of air was able to keep her going for just a few seconds and with that she sliced sharply through the rope and fell to the ground, coughing like a fish back into water after lying on the sandy beach.

"Guards!" the sheriff's voice began to break through her dying shield and into her ears. For a few moments she had forgotten everything but life and death and so her ears had blocked. Little did she know that the sheriff had been silent too, lost in the determination of his prisoner as her hand searched blindly with the knife and began to cut through the rope. He hadn't thought of stopping her, only seeing what would happen. "Get her! Guards!"

Before they could lay a finger on her, however, she bounced to her feet and forced her way through the crowd, her heart pounding like a stick on a drum; a fast steady note that gradually became faster until it seemed as if the drummer never lifted the stick off the skin. Gliding swiftly, Gia dodged in and out of people, avoiding touching anyone as she hurried to safety, fifteen guards stampeding after her, desperate to obey the sheriff. Gia had never really thought of the guards as dogs but rather circus cats for they struck her as the kind of people who fled if they could and only thought of their own well-being rather than loyalty. Meanwhile, Gisborne was the dog and as Gia was running she was unlucky enough to knock into him and his horse.

"Ah!" she yelped as the horse reared up, scraping its hoof down her chest and leaving a long mark as she tripped and fell onto the floor at its...hooves.

"Get up," Gisborne snarled in disgust as Gia slid away on her back. The cut had not only slit open her shirt but left a long scar down her front and it was budding with blood. "And stop sniveling."

"You can talk," Gia muttered as she struggled to her feet and stood before him, ignoring the searing pain that was caused by this.

"Follow me if you do not want to die," Gisborne commanded. Gia looked behind her and saw the guards hurrying forward and - not without a sigh of annoyance, mind you - walked on after him.

They traveled along the road with the guards eventually catching up and creating an arch around her and making a noise with their 'stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp' routine. Bit by bit, the road curved and twisted until they reached the snug little town of Locksley once more. The people looked up and stared in surprise at the long gash down Gia's front but didn't dare advance under Gisborne's penetrating glare. For a moment, Gia felt intrigued by Guy's icy blue eyes but she quickly forgot it, her lips sliding back over her teeth in a wolf-like snarl.

Locksley Manor was huge but not much larger than the orphanage. It cut round to make a courtyard with a set of open gates that led inside the square. All the buildings had two floors and they had dark grey straw-thatched roofs with white walls that had wooden beams crossing over them. From the path that led onto the land you could see a set of simple doors that led straight into the building with the quarters but the group carried on round into the courtyard where Guy dismounted. Obediently, a little groom boy scurried forward and took the reins of the horse before leading him away but not until after he had cast Gia a wary look. From inside the courtyard it was easier to see that three sides, all linked, were the stables whilst the slightly taller last side was the only living quarter building. There was a second set of doors there that led inside the building as well.

Gisborne was about to say something to Gia before he scanned her in disdain and called to a maid inside. Immediately, a young girl with her hair tucked into a cap and wearing an apron over a simple brown dress scurried out. With a few words from Guy - which Gia didn't bothering listening to - the girl hurried over and took Gia by the arm, bustling her inside.

Inside the building there was a wooden landing over the large entrance room which could be accessed by a wooden staircase. The landing led to three doors that Gia guessed were two bedrooms and a bathroom. Meanwhile, leading out of the main room were two doors to one side that led to the servants quarters and the kitchens. The maid guided Gia up the stairs and through one of the doors into the bathroom where she asked Gia to wait.

"We will just go and heat some water for you. I will fetch you a dress that you can..." the girl frowned at Gia's attire "wear."

Gia smiled sarcastically. "Thank you. Are these not good enough?"

"Oh no, not at all!" the girl blurted in a stammer. "It is just-"

"Yes I know," Gia grunted. "In this time girls don't wear trousers."

The girl smiled nervously and turned, placing her hand on the doorknob before turning back. "What do you mean 'in this time'?"

A small, genuine smile brightened Gia's features marginally but not long after it shifted into a furious scowl. "Why do you care?" she snapped harshly.

Large eyes stared back at her in terror and the girl fumbled uselessly with a curtsy. "I-I-I do not, ma'am," she stuttered diffidently. In a flash, the girl had fled the room and Gia smirked in sly content as she settled on the edge of the tub, waiting impatiently for the long awaited bath.

"Gosh, I'm not used to waiting this long for a bath," she muttered as, after an hour, only half of the bath had been filled from the girls running back and forth, filling it bit by bit. "Half the bath will be cold by the time they finish."

It seemed like hours before the girls finally finished filling the bath and it was! When they had completed it by three quarters the fire in the kitchen blew out and they had to spend a good half hour trying to light it again. Once Gia had stepped into the bath after something like three hours, she almost fell asleep with the exhaustion and comfort. The water eased into her bones, calming her muscles and slowing her breathing until her eyes fluttered shut and she fell asleep.

It was five hours before Gia woke up. Cold water dripped from her hair and standing over her with an empty jug was a smirking Gisborne. Gia could have screamed right then and strangled Guy but she was still so relaxed and her muscles were still only waking up. Instead, she just blinked and yawned openly.

"Time to get up, sleeping beauty," Guy hissed, a smug sneer overtaking his features.

"Oh, you think I'm beautiful?" Gia fluttered her eyelashes mockingly and he growled.

"Get up," he snapped, turning away and muttering under his breath. Once more, Gia didn't bother to listen as she stood up and wrapped herself in a towel, stepping out and staring blankly at the knee-length blue dress lying over the back of the chair. "I will leave you to get dressed."

There was a long pause and then he stormed out, slamming the door and Gia figured he went downstairs to wait. Carefully and softly, reveling in the smoothness of the towel, Gia dried herself off and then slipped the clothes on, frowning in distaste at the tall white stockings and the hair net before pulling them on. Last of all, she stepped into the half inch high sensible black pumps, frowning at her reflection in the mirror. She looked like a noble from the time she was in. Her chestnut hair was twisted up into a bun and held there by a few pins and the hair net; her dress stopped just below her knee and was tied around her waist with a lighter blue ribbon; her shoes covered the foot of her white woolen stockings that reached up, covering her thighs; her blue eyes were brighter already and the way she had put up her hair hid most of its unhealthiness. Calmly, she twisted round and turned the door handle, taking a deep breath before she left the room.