A/N: I used a song in this chapter. Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley. I chose this song because of its religious meaning, that suits well in this part of the story.
Chapter Four:
Vox, Qui Me Terret
She ran…
Like a graceful, elegant doe followed by the footsteps of the quickly closing in hunter, she ran as fast as her legs could. Until they felt like solid stone, she ran, trying to escape from the harsh truth.
Not even for his precious daughter?
Not even for his precious daughter?
Not even for his precious daughter?
SHUT UP!!!
It's been over four months…
It's been over four months…
STOP IT!!!
If only your father conceded…
THAT'S ENOUGH!!!
Bitter tears flowed freely over her painted cheeks, a heartbreaking sob escaped her blood red mouth, fleeing footsteps echoed through the empty halls.
Vegeta's voice, his cold and stern voice, filled her chaotic mind, kept following her as she tried to run away from the words she was not willing to hear.
He will not grant my wishes…
No…
You said it yourself.
No…
Your father is giving you up.
No…
And you shall never see your beloved home…
Stop!
… ever…
Stop!!
… again.
STOP!!!
A vile chuckle, making the hair on her neck stand on their ends.
Foolish little girl! Did you expect that your father would free you?
There was a silence.
Princess, princess… Don't you know anything about the world?
She didn't.
I thought so. You always thought the world was full of beauty and peace. Full of gentle people, pink-and-white daisies, prancing ponies and sparkling waters. Cherry blossom, carried by the modest wind… glorious food produced by mother nature herself… symphonies of hundreds of dark wooded violins… citizens laughing out their happiness in the streets. The air is cool and fresh, bringing with her the scent of the far away oceans. The still lakes reflect the cloudless air on their perfect surface. The feathery wings of sleep guide you to your serene dreams as the sultry twilight turns into a velvet night, and you close your eyes with the last thing you see being the painting of a single boat sailing towards the swift sunset that hangs on the white wall opposite your bed. And you dream of endless fields of golden wheat, as you walk through them slowly and while you let the tickling strings run through your fingers. You wake up with the orange sun in your face and the birds chirping on your window-sill. And you think… what a wonderful world.
… What a wonderful world…
You should have stayed in that lie, you little princess!
… I should have stayed.
But now you find out the hard way… the world is a place of evil and filth. Of darkness, war, corruption and poverty. The plebs live a life of servitude, stuck in the well of drudgery from which they can't escape, their backs arching by the weight of their terrible labor, their hearts roughening by the endless stream of pain and tears. The aristocracy lives a life of constant fear… fear of being betrayed… fear of loosing everything they whole dear, always having to be submissive to their Lord and King, the sword of death hanging above their head, waiting to strike if chance allowed it. The animals are being extinct as the centuries go by, seeking their refuge in the ever diminishing nature, until they will have no place to hide from their doom. The blue skies shall turn gray and the clouds cry out their tears, grieving, for they witness the incontrovertible destruction of the world that was once empty of all its foulness. The gods have turned their back on us and in silent sorrow they wait for the apocalypse that is soon to come, they wait for their second chance of creating the perfect world, the utopia, as they have failed miserably with their first attempt.
That's a lie!
How would you know?! You have as much knowledge of the world as a newborn creature, you are in your cradle when it comes to life experience. Do you deny it?
No… no, I don't…
Then acknowledge the fact that the world is not a place of lightness, but of darkness.
Even in darkness, there must be light…
All lights have gone out… all hope has vanished…
As long as there's life, there is hope.
People have stopped living… they merely exist, souls wandering through the vast masses of darkness, until they are finally freed by death. And so shall it be for you.
It will not be like that.
Oh, but it will. Prepare yourself for a long and terrible existence…
No…
… in a world of despair and loneliness…
Stop…
… pain and loss…
I won't listen…
… from which you can't escape…
I refuse to listen!
… and every day for the rest of your life, you remain here…
"I heard there was a secret chord… that David played and it pleased the Lord…"
… you can sing, recite… pray all you want. Eventually you will see it is in vain.
"But you don't really care for music, do you?"
You will realize that nobody can save you from this living nightmare…
"And it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth… the minor fall and the major lift…"
… this hell you are not familiar with…
"The baffled King composing hallelujah…"
… and in the end, you shall loose all hope…
"Hallelujah…"
… because the dark secrets…
"Hallelujah."
… the silent force…
"Hallelujah…"
… shall summon feelings…
"Hallelujah."
… and they shall break you!!!
The voice was gone. When she started singing the first song that popped into her head, Vegeta's voice became increasingly softer, until eventually he had to scream out the last part in order for her to hear.
And that last part frightened her as she thoughts about it now.
Dark secrets… silent force… summoning feelings.
Was he… talking about the mystery of the palace? Had she been right in her fear and suspicion for something that lingered here, something she could not comprehend?
Then again, wasn't it peculiar that he used the exact some words she used in her mind regarding to the emotions she had towards this mystery?
Dark secrets… silent force… summoning feelings… it all came from her, and now Vegeta used the exact same words in her head.
What the hell?
Was she going insane out here?
Of course! It wasn't Vegeta who spoke to her in her head… it was just her imagination that created the voice of Vegeta. He didn't really speak to her, it was her own mind.
But it seemed so real…
… and it sounded so dark.
She didn't even know that her own imagination could create something that was so dark, so frightening that it almost made her loose all hope.
It was this damned place. That did the trick. It was this castle that created all these feelings, these emotions that slowly began to consume her. But what could anyone expect in a place where you could constantly feel eyes on you, where you felt uncomfortable, even afraid, when you were alone. A place so cold and distant and impeccable… a place that resembled a prison so much. A place were anyone could loose his mind, if that anyone was too fragile.
She was too fragile. She was protected from real life, where there was darkness if you didn't allow the light. Where there was pain if you couldn't see the joy. Where there were tears if you were blind for a smile.
Were there is despair, if you couldn't keep hope.
It was only natural that she had these dark thoughts now. She never truly experienced hardship, never truly felt fear. And now that she did, she felt like she was tossed into a deep pit, unable to get out. And of course, then you loose hope.
But no more…
She would not loose hope.
She would be free again.
Free from this castle, free from fear, free from hardship…
… free from those dark thoughts.
Videl Satan would not loose hope…
… because Videl Satan was not a quitter.
She would escape this hell…
… or she would die trying.
And after she took her vows, she finally realized where her legs had carried her, for she had not paid attention to her surroundings until then.
She was standing in a moderately sized hall on the fourth floor on the east side of the palace. There were many like these halls, and they had no function other than baffle every soul that entered them. the King obviously wanted to boast his wealth and he used these kind of rooms as a means.
But that was not was she was thinking about at that moment.
Because all of these halls were decorated opulently with the most brilliant pieces of art. And at the moment Videl was facing one of these objects. It wasn't originated from Vegeta, but from Earth… definitely. The style and themes were unmistakebly human. And as she looked more closely, she recognized it with horrified startle and she couldn't help but relate to one of the from marble carved figures.
It was a statue of a woman, seized by a bearded man. Her face was twitched in death fear as she tried to push herself away from the man's body, but it was in vain. He was holding her so tight that his fingers were pressed into her flesh, and he had tilted her off the floor, and he would take her with him. She would be abducted…
The statue was one of Bernini's masterpieces…
'Il ratto di Proserpina'
'The rape of Proserpina'