Here it is.. R&R

Chapter 4

I was depressed for days after the revelation. I couldn't eat, barely managed to sleep. I suppose that's like a cliché. That eat sleep thing, I mean.

I supposed I had been shocked. I never had been happy with my, well, situation, you could say. But the fact that I was the heir to the throne of the Silver Side freaked me out. I had always known my grandmother was totally into politics but a QUEEN! I sure would have laughed at the person who told me that. Not Leah, I was pretty sure she was telling the truth. She had no reason to lie to me and my not-yet-of-age but still really sharp instincts told me that she meant me no harm.

But even though I sensed an ally in Leah that didn't mean anything except that she and her siblings were in this one heck of a mess basically as unwilling as I was. Except they were the ones with the power and the food. Food that I needed.

Leah had been right. Her uncle hadn't finished with me. In fact, it looked as if all the waves of pain and other feelings of torture were just the beginning. But that hadn't mattered to me. All I wanted was to die. To leave my wretched existence.

But obviously that didn't happen. I was stuck in a place where I shouldn't have been. I should have been home. I almost wished for those long and semi-dull lectures about geography and magic. But that was not to be. Leah and Rebecca had told me, a week or so after the revelation, that my grandmother, the Queen, had gone into hiding and that their Uncle King was exceedingly angry because, try as he might, he couldn't find her.

I didn't see why he was so furious. I mean he was in a good situation. He had the heir to the throne in one of his prison cells. But I guess Grandmother was too young to be dying any time soon and I wouldn't be of much use to him except as an anger-venting instrument, a position I greatly disliked but (SURPRISE) had no say in.

"Addie, please! You must eat something! I know prisoners aren't fed much but you haven't eaten a morsel for three days! I know you're upset but don't take it out on yourself," Leah begged exasperated. Leah was right about that. But I'd also noticed that the guards weren't fed much more. Well except for Rebecca but that was because Leah and His Royal Highness gave her half of their food. How chivalrous of them, you could say.

"Addie, are you even paying attention?" The chains on my arms had been replaced, with much lighter ones. I think that my guards could see that those heavier ones just weighed me down.

"Please, Addie. Please?"

"Fine, what is it that you want? I have the odd feeling that usually prison guards are not interested in their victims. Which I happen to be."

"Just eat your bread." Leah held out the tray with a pitiful meal: A thin slice of bread with half a glass of water. Mmmmmm, YUMMY. Not.

I obliged her though and ate. You didn't get that many meals down in the dumps and I had a weird feeling that I was getting really skinny. Heheheh, Addie the stick.

After I had begun eating Leah went to go get ready. She had an audience with her Uncle as did Jesse. Rebecca, however, did not and seemed to be my guard for the morning while the two older Highnesses went to par-tay with their cruel and unfeeling Uncle.

But that was no biggie. There was no way I was going to escape with all those chains on my arms. I would just sit down on the jagged part of the floor and listen to Rebecca chatter on about her life and, for once, feel sorry for her and her elder siblings and the life that they had to live through.

It's sort of funny thinking a kid can guard a nearly grown fairy. But that's how bad my condition was. Also the chains seemed to prohibit any magical force coming from me. Usually I would have been able to spice up my food a bit or heal a few scabs on my arms. Whenever I tried it just gave me a huge migraine. The Red Side probably thought that I really was a huge threat, a thought I found highly amusing.

Rebecca was seriously a chatterbox. She couldn't keep a THING to herself. As soon as she started talking, well, there was no way to get her to shut up, short of a disaster.

"Are you done eating now, Addie? Are you, are you?" Obviously I was. There had been barely any food for me and what was there could be consumed in a few mere minutes.

"Yes, of course." I attempted to sound cheerful and happy in order not to upset Rebecca. It wasn't her fault her uncle was a sadist and that she and her siblings had been told to be my guard. Even though I still held it against her older siblings. Well, mainly one. The one whose fault it was that I had been captured in the first place.

It was funny how Rebecca had acted as if I was her equal. I don't think she even paid as much attention to my prisoner status. Even wwhen I was still depressed she had talked my ears out asking me random questions. And asking for help with her sums.

"Jesse and Leah are so lucky."

"And why the heck would they be?"

"Why they get to see uncle of course." Rebecca said in this completely confused voice as if doubting my sanity. Something that I was doing back then as well as doubting her and her module of saneness.

That's what I didn't get. How could they be lucky to see her creepy uncle whose idea of fun was to somehow magically torture me and imprison me with his brother's offspring?

Yeah, I seriously didn't get it. Last time I checked that seemed like a sort of cruel thing to do to your own nieces and nephew. Especially Rebecca. She was just a kid and the way it looked like she really loved her Uncle Psycho.

"And what is so wonderful about your dear uncle?" I asked refusing to add my, well, rightfully biased opinion on her precious uncle. All I'll say that it was NOT at all complementary to his parentage.

"Uncle is always very nice to me. Mom says its cause Uncle doesn't have a child of his own. He never got married so I guess he treats me like a surrogate daughter. But I guess Uncle does have a bad side."

Bad side. Ha! That's like saying that, that…okay, so I can't find a comparison. Big whoop! That just means he's so evil that there is NO equal to him.

"Well, why don't you tell me about this place. Or your home, I guess." Yes, I was making conversation. Sue me. I was bored and there didn't seem a way outta my hell of a situation.

"Oh, Addie, this isn't my home. I usually live on a different cloud. I don't really live here. My royal blood would put me in danger. At least that's what Mom and Dad say. Uncle was overjoyed when I moved in."

Overjoyed, eh? What a wonderful place to keep your niece…

Yes dear Rebecca, I have just the place for you and your siblings, in the dungeon with a half-breed fairy, who by the way is the spawn of the cloud that we just happen to be at war with.

He definitely missed Rebecca, all right. And loved her too, no doubt.

"Stop it, Addie, I know what you're thinking. It's not like that."

Not like what? I so desperately wanted to take my fury out on her. But the look her eyes made me stop.

It was pretty ironic, the prisoner feeling the compassion for her keeper. But it was my life. Ironic, I mean.

It wasn't always like that but after my dad died and I came to live on Cloud Nine..

"Yeah, sure." I replied to Rebecca and turned over, signaling a definite end to our conversation. Secretly, I was afraid I would start to cry.