Chapter 9

Escape

"I don't belong here, got to move on dear,

Escape from this afterlife."

- Avenged Sevenfold, Afterlife.

After hearing the footsteps a few weeks ago while trying to pick the lock, it should have warned Morgana that breaking out at night was more risky than she thought, that she was not the only one who could be wandering around the corridors after dark. But she did not heed the warnings, and her dreams were filled with nothing but the mysterious Merlin, so they could not tell her what was to come. Afterwards she would curse herself for not realising it had been going too well for too long, she should have known something was bound to go wrong sooner or later. But she didn't have time to think because she was already running. Running because her husband had found out her secret and was still unable to keep his temper.

It was a particularly chilly night when Morgana successfully picked the lock once more and crept out into the corridor. She was feeling peckish and was planning to head down to the kitchen for a midnight snack. It reminded her of the days when she was a child and she would do such things with Odin's son in the middle of the night. Back then it felt like nothing more than a game, but many things had changed since then. Usually Morgana did not wait to leave her chamber until much later in the evening, but due to her past successes she was feeling more confident, or more reckless. Kasim had also told her that he was going out for the night, she didn't know where because it was none of her business, but he would be staying at the home of a fellow noble and going hunting the next day, he would not be back for a while. Morgana was not invited but she didn't care. A whole castle to herself and not having to spend the whole day avoiding Kasim? She welcomed it, so it wasn't long after darkness fell that she sneaked out of her chamber that night.

At first things were going well. There were no servants about to question where their lady was going, and although Morgana regretted not putting anything on her feet to protect them from the freezing stone floor, she could move swiftly and silently. No one would realise that she had disappeared from her room once more.

Almost no one.

"Morgana, what are you doing?"

Morgana whipped around and could see through the dim her husband standing in the corridor, a shocked and confused look on his face as he stared at his bare-footed wife. She tried to act like she had nothing to feel guilty about.

"I'm just going for a walk around the castle," she said calmly, but her voice was slightly higher than usual. "I thought you already had left?" She added.

Kasim shook his head, "I'm not leaving for another ten minutes."

Morgana silently cursed her foolishness. Just because it was dark and Kasim said he was leaving at night, didn't mean he would be gone as soon as the sun had set. She had been too reckless and now she had been caught.

"I thought your chamber was locked," Kasim said, his voice tinged with anger now as well as confusion.

Morgana shrugged, "No, it was unlocked. Otherwise, how else would I have been able to get out?" She knew it was best not to tell him that she had learnt to pick the lock, or else he would have a guard outside her room every night. She couldn't tell through the dark if Kasim believed her or not. She tried to keep calm and knew the best thing to do was to keep her husband calm as well, but the longer Kasim stared at her and as the silence grew the quicker her heart thumped in her chest.

"I didn't give you permission to leave your room," he said slowly.

"I don't remember you giving me that order," Morgana retorted, she meant it to sound calm and innocent, but she was starting to panic and it came out as a snap.

"Get back in there," he growled.

But Morgana stayed her ground. Her foolishness was not over for the night. She was in enough trouble already, she decided she was going to be brave. "Why must I? I'm not doing harm standing out here, and besides, you said you'll be out all night, so I won't be disturbing you."

"That's not the point," Kasim snapped.

"Then what is?" Morgana demanded.

To her surprise, Kasim laughed. But it was not one filled with colour and light. It was dark, grey and bitter. "Odin was right, you are impossible to control. When will you learn to keep in your place? If I tell you to go back to your chamber, then you'll go back!" The last words were spat out with anger and not a trace of laughter.

Still, Morgana stood her ground. "Perhaps if you treated me with a little more respect and didn't lock me away all the time, I would have learnt my place and wouldn't be wandering around in the castle at night," she pointed out.

"You've got to keep monsters in cages though," Kasim hissed.

Morgana stared at him, horrified. Even though she didn't care what her husband said, somewhere inside those words still hurt. "You think I'm a monster?" She asked in a whisper.

"What else are you?" Kasim snapped. It was dark but Morgana could tell his face had turned bright red, she could almost feel heat radiating off him. "You throw me across the room without even lifting a finger, just cold light in your eyes. You obey no word I say and you do not respect me, you insult me. You're wild, out of control, not even the King knew what to do with you. I don't know what made me think I could control you either, I must have been filled with wine when the proposal was offered. I just thought of the status you would give me, what people would say if they saw me with a wife such as yourself. But no, you put me through hell instead. Over a year I have been married to you and you're just as uncontrollable as you were before. You'll be more at home with the wolves in the forest then here."

"I put you through hell?" Morgana was so shocked and angry she struggled to even get the words out. "How do you think I feel? Locked away all the time, always being told what to do, never being able to leave this place when I wish to. I don't deserve to be caged and I'm sick of it. All my life I have been treated as nothing but property and all I've wanted to do is escape that and get some respect."

"You are property." Kasim spat back. "That's all you'll ever be."

"Maybe," Morgna spoke now with deadly calm. "But I will never be your property."

She turned round and ran down the corridor.

Barely seconds later she heard the hurried footsteps of her husband chasing after her."Morgana, Morgana! Come back here!" But she ignored him and instead urged her legs to run faster.

Morgana raced down the corridors, she didn't know where she was going, but the further away she was from Kasim, the better. His cries echoed off the cold stone walls and she couldn't remember the last time she had seen or heard anyone so angry. She managed to get a glance over her shoulder but all she could see through the dim was a huge monster filling the corridor, charging after her with a terrifying roar. And it was catching up.

Morgana had just reached the top of a staircase when Kasim finally came within arm's reach of her. He snatched at the air and grabbed a handful of her hair. She screamed with shock and pain as she felt herself being pulled back by her hair and tried to fight against his grip. But when she managed to wrestle free of his grasp she lost her balance and with another cry Morgana found herself tumbling down the stairs.

Everything was a blur. Grey against grey against grey as the floor, ceiling and walls all turned upside down and inside out around Morgana as she tumbled down the stairs. Her arms reached out to grab hold of something that would stop her from falling, but she felt nothing but air and more pain. Finally she felt cold stone smack against her cheek as she finally reached the bottom of the stairs. She felt like she had been falling for hours but really it was only a few seconds of shock and pain. She felt battered and bruised but she didn't think anything was broken. She had been lucky.

Just as Morgana thought about her luck, Kasim reached the bottom of the stairs. Without a word he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She cried out once more and tried to fight against his grip, but this time it was tenacious. He spoke no words and his face was in shadow as Morgana found herself being half dragged up the stone stairs again. Her legs felt weak from the shock of falling and she couldn't fight him anymore, but she shouted and screamed at him the whole way. Demanding to be let go, warning him of what would happen if someone told the King about this, even begging to be set free. Part of her was terrified of what he was planning to do to her next, realising how angry he must be, but at the back of her mind she also realised that he was probably just as panicked at seeing his wife tumbling down the stairs, and that was why he couldn't look at her.

Finally they reached Morgana's room once more, Kasim wrenched the door open and threw her in. She stumbled, almost falling again, but this time kept her balance. She turned to face him.

A fire lit up her chamber, and now Morgana could see how Kasim truly looked. He was still filled with rage but also fear. She had warned him once that he should never touch her again and not only had her pulled her hair and grabbed her arm, he had made her fall down the stairs. He could have killed her. She imagined the way she must look in the firelight, with her bruised arms and face and dishevelled clothes and hair. He would know that he had caused that.

There was a long pause as Kasim breathed heavily like an angry bull. He didn't know what to do now and Morgana was uncertain as well. She couldn't try to run again, she might not be so lucky as to escape with only a few bruises. She wondered if the servants had heard her cries, what were they thinking? Why weren't they coming to help? Did no one care? Kasim didn't care about her, but he cared about his reputation, and if anyone found out what he had done that night, that he could have killed his wife, he would be in disgrace.

At last, he spoke. "I'm still leaving tonight. I need time away from you, I need time to put myself back together," he said, and Morgana was surprised with his honesty. Even he knew that his temper had got the better of him this night. "But I am coming back first thing tomorrow morning and you will not have left this room. Then we will talk about what just happened. Do you understand?"

Before Morgana could reply, to say that she understood perfectly well what he said but couldn't understand why he did not even apologise for attacking her or give a clue of what he was feeling apart from fear and anger, he turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him. In the silence Morgana heard the key turn in the lock.

Morgana remained standing in the middle of her chamber, frozen to the spot, panting as if she had run the length of the whole castle. Her legs still felt shaky, her arm throbbed from Kasim's grip and she could already feel a bruise forming on her cheek, but adrenaline was starting to take over the pain. Adrenaline, anger and determination.

Kasim should have learnt by now that Morgana does not obey his orders. She would not be in this room when he returned. She wouldn't even be in the castle. She would be miles and miles away. She would be free of him at last.

This was the push out the door Morgana needed. The realisation that whatever frightening things may be waiting for her in the outside world, they couldn't be any worse than the world she was living in at the moment.

If she stayed she would be nothing more than a ghost after this. Trapped in a world she didn't belong and only sometimes allowed to wander the corridors, the rest of the time being locked away as if she didn't exist, as if everyone was afraid of her. She might as well already be dead.

No, she would escape from this world that had left her for dead. It was time at last to run away from the past and enter the future. Whatever may be waiting out there for her, Morgana no longer cared, because it wouldn't be the world she was running from, and that was what mattered.

Kasim may have locked the door, but she knew how to pick locks. This may be the last opportunity she had to escape, and she would not waste it.

Suddenly, Morgana snapped out of her frozen position and grabbed some shoes and warmer clothes, pulling them on. Her mind had been made up and there was no time to lose.


So, we have reached the place we were at the beginning of the story with Morgana running away from her husband. From here on, everything will change!

Not my best chapter so far I think, but I hope you still enjoyed it!

Reviews much appreciated :)