Chapter 22: News
The following morning, I was unsure as to whether on not the previous evening's happenings had been dream or reality.
I sat up from the floor; my head was throbbing, and only after the first few waking moments of groggy thoughts had subsided, did I rub my head in the spot where I had fallen, and hit it-- when I had fainted; so last night sure had not been a dream, and if the lump wasn't proof enough...
I looked out of the dusty window; half expecting to see Jacqueline's disgusting face leering, and staring right back at me; sunlight was streaming in through the long streaks that she had left the night before, but the sun did not burn my skin for it had become darker since I had begun my hard labor. She's back, I realized, She's back, and she won't stop coming until I'm dead, I put my face against the still cool glass of the window, and cried...
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"You deserve to die," she whispers; her voice a mere hiss...
"NO!" I repeat, for what seems the millionth time, as I begin backing away from my once loving mother, but it is useless, for she is forever persistent, and follows me deeper and deeper into the wood, "Please," I beg; frightened, trying to find a way out, "Please. I am your daugh--"
"I don't have a daughter anymore," she hisses, "You condemned me to a fate worse than death."
"NO!" I repeat once again, and then I realize that we are now joined by a third; my father suddenly appears from behind one of the willow trees.
He stares at me; his yellow eyes ablaze with hatred, misery, and loathing; he is a corpse, and I want him-- both of them gone… He is not the father that I once knew and loved! I scream.
They look almost normal, and yet... yet they are changed somehow; as if corrupted. Yes. That's it. They have been corrupted by Jacqueline, the shaska, and all of her evils. One thing is true: I am frightened.
"What is this?" I scream, "What have I done to you?"
"You allowed me to marry Jacqueline," my father explains; his voice a frightening snakelike hiss.
"NO!" I scream; my voice hoarse from all of the screaming, "You're wrong. Wrong! I hated Jacqueline, but I never-- never could have dreamed what she truly was! I loved you. Don't believe what she told--"
"Yes, you did," my mother chimes in from behind him, "You wanted James dead, so you watched from the aisle in that pretty pink dress as he married his downfall. Her and her kind killed us--"
"--And now it is our duty to kill you," my father finishes, and he and my mother clasp hands, and in a flash of bright light, they become Jacqueline; she laughs at my fright. Her gauzy black robe flutters in the wind, and she smiles with amusement. I can read her eyes, and they say KILL.
I am her prey…
I did my best to analyze the situation that I now found myself trapped in-- and it was bad. I began running away from the beast, and intently began to observe my surroundings; it was around Midnight, and I was trapped... trapped in the forest. I had been trapped in the woods one way or the other. Whether it was scrubbing floors, or finding my fairy godmother dead, or wasting days in some sickening oasis, or trapped at home with my brain-dead father, and slutty stepmother... I had been lost in the woods for almost seven years. But only now, I knew that the end was near.
At that second, a laugh sends shivers up my spine, and I quicken my pace... I tear out of the woods, but there is zero way whatsoever of my getting out... the forest-- all of D'Nalge-- all of the worlds are Jacqueline-- the monster, and they wish to kill me! I am trapped with the sickening creature, and I must face it, I think wildly; spinning around… and there she is…
There is no need to hide, for there is no hope to live. I am ready-- ready to die; she is right behind me, and her cold hands wrap themselves around my neck; her black fingernails digging deeper and deeper into my flesh... She draws blood, and I cannot scream out for she has cut off my air; I am being strangled... it gets harder and harder to breathe, as she tightens her grip… and then, I hear the painful snap of the bones in my neck breaking; She broke my neck! I think, panicked, as I fall to the floor, and gasp for air... I'm dying. Quickly. And it's painful. So painful...
Jacqueline transforms, becoming the snake-- the same snake that has haunted my dreams for all eternity. I expire, and the snake devours me…
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I awaken abruptly at the very end of the dream in a cold sweat. My mind is racing. I look out of the window... and there she is; watching me, just as I sensed she had been. "Leave," I hiss under my breath, "Leave..."
A shiver is sent up my spine, and I turn away; determined to forget her eerie presence at my window, for I know that she will remain there until the sunrise.
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The following morning, I am instructed to begin the spring cleaning. I was scrubbing the floors of Jessica's bedroom when I heard the noisy wheels of a carriage approaching; I got off of my hands and knees, and rushed over towards her window. I peered out, and into the courtyard.
It is a carriage… and Royal by the look of things; a coat of arms adorns each and every side. A young man-- a steward steps out from the passenger side, holding a manilla envelope sealed with red wax; I suddenly have a vision of being escorted by him, and taken away to a better life; I pound on the glass to get his attention, but he either does not hear me, or doesn't bother to help me... He approaches the house, and there are three loud knocks. Someone answers it, and then he is gone as quickly as he had come. My hopes of rescue now dashed, I return to my hands and knees, and resume my tedious scrubbing.
Stupid fool, I thought, scrubbing fiercely, How could the idiot not have heard me? I mean, really!
I threw the scrubber down in anger, Now I'll probably be stuck here for ages, and all because that asshole was too stupid to look into the window!
"BEATRICE!" the voice of the woman called, suddenly dragging me out of my angry thoughts. Knowing that I would be in for it if I did not obey her, I threw down the scrubber once again, ran downstairs, and found the woman sitting at the dining-room table with her daughter (her husband was thankfully at work.) She smiled at the sight of me, as I trudged down into the room, and held up the envelope, "Read it," she demanded, throwing it across the table in my direction.
I grabbed it off of the table, and read:
By royal decree, in honor of his Highness's
twentieth year, a ball is to be held. All women
of sixteen years and older are to come…
The daughter yanked it out of my hands, before I had had the chance to finish reading it through, "Isn't it great?" she asked; her voice simpering and demanding.
"I suppose," I quickly lied God, I need to go! I thought to myself, It's the perfect opportunity for me to leave my prison…! I did not want them to know how much I wanted to go-- after all, it was a way to escape, and start a new life...
" 'You suppose?' " she repeated, clearly flabbergasted by my response; she turned to her mother, "I cannot wait!" she screamed, "The scullery made can do my hair, and-- and--" both her voice and smile faltered, "but what about his gift?"
The woman's face, as if expecting a question like this suddenly lit up with a radiant smile, "The jam. The jam that that scullery girl made the day she came here!"
Jam…? I thought, When did I make… And then it dawned on me as well, Oh, that jam! The one made from the sickening berries of the oasis! "I left it in the cellar as I was told," I said, matter-of-factly.
"Well don't stand there like a lazy bump on a log! Go get it!"
I nodded; picked up the hems of my rags, and ran away from the room, open a door, and hurried down the stairs, and into the cellar.
The cellar was dark, while the flight of stairs is quite long... On the way down, I realized, with a grimace, that the jam would most likely taste like shit... It would not be something suitable for a prince...
When I had been told to make it, there had been no recipe to follow... What had I done, anyways...? Let's see. I had boiled the berries, and had flavored them with nearly all of the sweet spices in the house; poured the putrid mixture into a jar, and had put the lid on; tightening it to cover up the stench... But did that make jam?
Probably not, but I shrugged my shoulders, unconcernedly; reached the bottom step of the stairs, took the jar of jam off from the shelf, praying that it would miraculously taste good, and ran back upstairs...
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"WHAT IS THIS GARBAGE?" the woman screamed, as she heaved the putrid jar of jam across the room; it fell, and the glass that had made up the jar shattered into a million pieces, and the purple jam spread across the floor.
"I'm sorry," I murmured.
" 'Sorry' doesn't cut it, peasant!" the girl screamed, as she stood up from the table, and suddenly pushed me onto the floor-- I had no time to struggle, "We've clothed you, let you eat our bread, and how do you repay us? You mess up the jam! Our royal jam, made with royal berries, and you expect us to forgive you?" she scoffed.
"No," I repeated, trying to get up off of the wooden floor, but she had pinned me down with all of her body-weight (surprisingly a lot in such a concentration.) She spat in my face; the woman stood up from the table, as if nothing had happened, and left the room, headed for the study. The girl slugged me in the face, making it black and blue.
"Stop it!" I screamed, "Get off of me, you--"
"You little whore," she hissed, as I struggled for breath underneath her somewhat immense body weight-- although she was such a scrawny little thing, "The prince would have married me... he would have married me!" She burst into tears, and seizing my chance, I pushed her off of me; then as an added bonus, as she was sitting on the floor; her face buried into her palms, I kicked her right in the head; she fell over in a slump; I realized that I had knocked her unconscious.
And there would be hell to pay.
But that didn't matter just yet, so smiling triumphantly at my long-awaited revenge, I ran upstairs, and slipped all of my belongings into my pocket; I still had the knife, And I'll need it, I thought, wildly; my actions a blur, When I find her, I'll use it to slit Jacqueline's throat…
I was no downstairs, and the woman suddenly approached me; She must have heard the commotion, I thought, "OUT!" she screamed, "YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN OUR HOME ANYMORE. OUT. OUT!"
"I am leaving, you fucking bitch," I hissed, as I pulled out the knife, "I don't need your fucking hospitality anymore," I shoved her backwards, and ran out of the house. I paused at the doorway, "And don't bother sending your perverted husband to look for me... He'll never find me."
The sun was setting, and my smile widened when the bitch screamed when she discovers her daughter's unconscious body lying on the floor...
I felt much more alive and sane than I had in nearly a decade... the shining bruise on my face was a reminder, and the bruise on that bitch, Jessica's face... well, that was an added bonus.
I walked out and away from the house, and into the golden sunset...
