"Where are we going, Daddy?" Eli asked, his tiny hand grasped in his father's large, calloused hand.
King Hanson's face was grim. It was a little bit before he spoke. "Do you remember how one day, you're going to be the King? Like me?"
"Yes," Eli replied.
"Well, a King has to know every part of his castle. We've already explored the upper towers, the 2nd floor, the Great Room, the Dining Hall, and the kitchen. Now there's somewhere else that you have to learn about. And it may be a little bit scary at first. But I think that you're old enough to learn about it."
"What is it?" Eli asked, his eyes widening.
Sighing, his father produced a key from his pocket. It was rusty and gold, the perfect match to the lock of the door in front of them. He inserted the key, and twisted it with an ominous click. The sturdy wooden door creaked open, revealing a set of cold, moist, stone stairs that led down into pitch darkness.
"Welcome to the dungeon."
All these years later, Eli didn't like the dungeon any more. He'd only been down there a couple times since his first expedition and had hated every second of it. The first time, he'd had to interrogate a suspected robber from Angeles City, a poor chap who'd turned out to be innocent. The second time, he had been searching for a child who had gone missing.
Never, not in his wildest dreams, had he thought he would go down for a reason as preposterous as the one he was now. His little sister, placed in the dungeon for the suspected murdering of 5 people. Even now it seemed implausible, yet he couldn't deny the evidence that had been placed in front of him.
Three guards flanked him as he descended the steps. Each sound bounced out of proportion against the moist walls, beaded with musty balls of condensation. Eli flinched in disgust as he caught sight of a particularly rotten section that was crawling with insects.
"They are keeping her in 4S, correct?" he asked one of the guards.
"Indeed, your majesty," the guard replied. "Would you like me to lead the way? Or do you know where to go?"
"Please," Eli invited, gesturing ahead of him. The guard hesitated for a second, surely grappling with whether or not to take lead from the Prince, even if it had been requested. His eyes flickered in the dim torch light, and slowly, he took a step forward.
"I'm sorry for what you're about to see, your majesty," he said softly.
Dread welled in Eli's chest. What was he talking about? Was she hurt in any way? Had something happened to her during her stay there? If she was in pain, if she was suffering more than necessary, heads would roll. Eli would see to that.
He and the three guards walked in silence. Their footsteps echoed hauntingly through the corridor, and Eli couldn't help but feel that he was headed towards a disaster. Chaos. The end of a rope. The thought chilled him more than the cold dungeon air, and he rubbed one hand against his face anxiously.
They turned down a hallway marked with a rusted iron number. Though it was deteriorated beyond fixing, Eli could make out what used to be the figure of a 4. If it was possible, the darkness became deeper, and Eli could barely see past the torch of the guard in front of him.
"Hey there, yer majesty," came a raspy voice from beside him.
Another sounded from across the hall. "Looking good, pretty prince."
Chuckling, somebody asked, "To what do we owe this delightful visit?" Murmurs of amusement traveled throughout the hall as prisoners came to their door to see the commotion.
"Ignore them," one of the guards said. "They do this every time. They can't hurt you, and they don't have anything interesting to tell you. Just keep walking."
So Eli did, passing cell after cell until they reached a door at the end of the hall. Above it hung a little wooden sign reading '4S.' Chills raced up and down Eli's spine as he clutched the handle. Slowly, he slid the key in and turned the lock.
The view that awaited him was too much to bare. He had to slam his eyes shut as soon as he took a single glimpse. Not right. What he had seen was not right.
Stella was there, sitting in the middle of the floor. She was wearing a raggy brown tunic, shredded and filthy from years of wear. Her hair was in a knot. Nothing would be able to untangle that. Never in a million years. It hung half heartedly down her back, limp and lacking considerable volume. Dirt clung to her skin, infesting her face and feet and hands.
But what concerned Eli most was her position. She was curled in a ball, gripping her knees like her life depended on it. Rocking back and forward, back and forward. A wild look was present in her eyes as she looked up at her brother.
"Big brother's finally come to play with his baby sister," she mumbled, mostly to herself. "Maybe he wants something, maybe he wants something. That's the only reason he comes to me. That's right."
"She's off her rocker," Eli breathed. He turned and glared at the guards. "You've had my sister down here a week and she's already gone insane?"
Stella laughed gleefully. "Completely mad," she chortled. "There goes the precious, perfect little princess. How are mommy and daddy going to explain this to the people? What are they going to say that could keep their reputation clear? Oh, they'll think of something."
Unimaginable pain burst in Eli's forehead as he watched his sister. This was his fault, he'd been the one to make the arrest. Sir Vanceton had encouraged it, yes, but Eli had gone through with it. Now he was paying the price.
"Stella," he said hesitantly. "There was another attack a few days ago. Nobody was killed. But there was a threat. A threat and a man. You haven't talked to anybody recently, have you? We interrogated him, and he said that his employer asked him to threaten one of our girls the day before. You were down here. You didn't talk to anybody that day, did you?"
"Of course I did," Stella said. Eli glanced at her in dismay, but he caught a wink on her face. "I was the one who told him to harass Lady...Sofie was it?"
The words cut through Eli's chest, but he could see it displayed all over Stella's face that she was innocent. That she didn't mean a word she was saying. Something was holding her back. There was something she wasn't telling him.
"Stel, this is your chance at freedom," Eli pleaded. "Do you want me to apologize? Because I will. I'm sorry I've been neglectful and that I accused you of murder. Will you please give me an alibi so I can get you out of here?"
"I will not."
Eli slammed a fist against the wall. "Why are you doing this, Stella?" he screamed. "I know you didn't kill those girls. So why won't you just tell the truth and set yourself free?"
For the first time since Eli had seen her that day, Sella's eyes cleared up a little. She looked at him thoughtfully, pain clouding the rest of her face. "I can't tell you," she replied in a hoarse whisper. "They'll kill you. They'll kill you. They'll kill you!"
"Get me out of here," Eli muttered.
The four of them backed out of the room, one of the guards slamming the door. Eli placed the key in the keyhole and slid the lock shut. In that moment, he let out a breath of relief he didn't know he'd been holding.
"What do they do down here that caused her to be like that? Who made my sister go mad?" Eli asked, his voice steely and frigid.
"It's a law that murder suspects are subject to one hour of torture per day in order to get them to confess. Oftentimes, it does drive a person to insanity within a week," one of the guards responded apologetically.
"That stops right now," Eli commanded. "Stella confessed, anyway."
They walked the rest of the way in silence, Eli's mind a blur. Nothing fit together, nothing seemed to make sense anymore. What was he going to do?
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Hello, my friends, if you're reading this you know that I most certainly did not keep to my updating schedule. Turns out Winter Breaks are really good for binge watching Netflix (Riverdale for life) and going to Christmas parties, not so good for writing and updating. But now I'll be back on my regular schedule. Maybe. I still have the next four days off of school. But after that it'll be regular. Anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed crazy Stella and her increasingly frustrated brother! The plot thickens...
