(A/N: Heyhey! I was SO shocked by the sudden increase in reviews, starting about...three chapters ago. It was like, all of a sudden, people were responding to this story! Lol, anyway, thank you to everyone!! I had considered just dropping this story because I didn't know what to write about next, but your reviews just gave me some motivation so I kept writing! I've got a more ideas and future stuff worked out for this story and so maybe (hopefully) updates will be more frequent? Or at least somewhat frequent. You know reviews are what make the most difference! So enjoy! Oh, and as an apology in advance, sorry for any typos you might find, but I had to write this fast. reviews are welcome!)
The raucous laughter, yells and screams could be heard from the highest floor in the castle. Fiyero and his family had just sat down for lunch. Fiyero hadn't spoken for a week. He might say a word or two to his mother, but he didn't even spare his father a glance. The outburst came from the dungeon, first it was just laughter and yelling. Everyone dismissed it as the guards getting all shaken up from an intense game of poker. The royal family began eating lunch, trying to ignore the yelling and laughter coming from the dungeons. Fiyero was about to take a drink of water when he heard a scream. He dropped the glass of water. The Queen and King looked up from their meals and exchanged glances. Fiyero had no doubt in his mind that it had been Elphaba who'd screamed. He shot out of the room. The King sighed and put his hands over his face.
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Elphaba tried to back away from him, but he moved with agility and pinned her down before she'd moved an inch. He grinned evilly at her. She tried to get away from him but he couldn't be moved. He climbed on top of her and pressed his body onto hers. The other guards were laughing and yelling encouragements and dirty remarks.
"Let me go!" Elphaba screamed, "Get off me!"
"What makes you think I'd do that?" asked the guard. Elphaba felt his hands at her waist, playing with the material. One hand began to slip up her side, beneath the material of her shirt. His rough hand caressed her soft skin as he groped her mercilessly. She screamed and kicked and hit him, but he paid no attention to her. She closed her eyes as she continued to struggle.
"Open your eyes my pet." he purred into her ear, "I'm going to make you mine."
"No!" Elphaba screamed, "I'm not yours! I'm not anybody's!"
"Is that so?" asked the guard tauntingly, chuckling lowly. His hand was at her shoulder, tugging her jacket off. His mouth had moved to her neck, sucking on the soft skin there. Elphaba screamed again, wishing that someone would hear her and come down. But she was in the dungeons, wasn't she? Who would help a prisoner? She shivered in disgust as his mouth sucked on her skin.
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It seemed like hours for Fiyero to find the door to the dungeons, but that was only because he was so desperate to get to Elphaba. It had never been down to the dungeons before. The stairs down there seemed to go on forever. It became darker with each step. The stairs were crooked and creaked and spiraled down a long tube, torches lined the wall, but that did little for the light. Fiyero ran as fast as he could down the steps. Her screams seemed to get louder in his ears as the desperation grew inside of him...and her. He finally reached the bottom of the steps and was astonished by what lay before him. The darkness spread out forever, tunnels and tunnels of cells, cages, bars lined the darkness. A few blazing torches flickered haunting shadows across the walls that were covered in grime. So these were the dungeons. This is what he had sent her to. He felt himself shaking with self-loathing. Another scream resounded throughout the dungeon, laughter following it.
"Please! No, stop!" Fiyero heard her voice come from a thousand different directions. It was impossible to tell which way was which. The dungeons were a maze of cells. The echo effect made it impossible to tell which direction her voice was coming from. He clawed his hands across his face and he ran forward, taking a turn at the right. He heard another scream and it seemed further away. He backtracked and went left this time.
"Elphaba!" he called. His own voice echoed throughout the dungeons and he heard a loud outburst of raucous cruel laughter. He listened hard, trying to hear over his racing heart and heavy breath. He kept going forward running past cells as he searched this dark land that lay beneath the castle. He came to a guard post, where a group of guards were sitting, playing poker.
"Where is she?!" Fiyero yelled. They pointed to the left and Fiyero rushed past them, knocking a guard off of his seat. The yelling got louder as he pushed forward. He saw shadows dancing on the wall to the side. He turned, and followed the shadows. He could finally see her cell in the distance, men were crowded around it, cheering. They seemed miles away, a speck of figures in the long tunnel. As he neared he saw a guard on top of Elphaba, ripping her jacket off and putting his mouth to her neck. Fiyero ran faster.
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Elphaba felt the cold concrete of the cell floor touch her back as the guard began to pull her shirt up. She pushed him and screamed for him to stop, but he wouldn't. He sucked on her earlobe and kissed her lips and pressed himself onto her.
"Hold still!" he yelled as she struggled more.
"No!" she screamed.
"I would've preferred you to be conscious, but I guess that option's out." he yelled, "C'mon, just be still you want this."
"No----I---don't!" Elphaba punctuated each word with a punch. On the last word she was finally able to hit him somewhere he felt it. He yelled as he felt his eye begin to swell. The other guards laughed and the guard above her just put all his weight on her. She cried out and fought to breathe as he trapped her airways. He lifted himself off of her slowly and she took in deep breaths, coughing violently. She thought she heard someone shout her name in the distance, but dismissed the voice as a hallucination, her imagination.
"Here, use this to knock her out!" a guard offered his musket through the bars. The guard in the cell with her took the musket. He slammed her head into the concrete. Everything began to spin and her vision came in blotches of black and white and she could feel her head throbbing with pain as unpleasant chills resounded throughout her body, making her feel like she was falling a million times over. The guard took the metal part of the musket, the barrel of the gun and struck her with it, making her neck bleed as he missed his mark and hit the side of her neck and her shoulder. She screamed. But his aim hardly mattered, slamming her head into the concrete was enough. She felt herself loosing conscious, but she pulled back into the world as she heard her name again, and this time, she was sure it was no hallucination.
***********
As Fiyero finally got closer, he watched in horror as the guard hit her with his musket, her body went limp.
"STOP!" Fiyero yelled. All of the guards whirled around and saw him. There was no mistaking the anger and rage in his eyes. He looked like he could kill them all in one swift move. They all froze and backed away from the cell. The guard who'd been on top of Elphaba slowly stood up. He backed away, his eyes darting between Fiyero, Elphaba and the door to the cell. Elphaba was left lying on the ground, breathing heavily, her chest rose rapidly. Her shirt was hiked up a bit, revealing her stomach, but nothing else. Fiyero was relieved the guard hadn't gotten a chance to go that far. Fiyero cautiously approached the cell.
"Give me the key." he growled at the closest guard. The guard put a shaky hand into his pocket and drew out the key. Fiyero grabbed the key and pushed the guard roughly. He hastily unlocked the door and stepped in. The guard made to move out.
"No, you stay right there." Fiyero pointed to the corner of the cell farthest from the exit. The guard moved over there. He would've just pushed past Fiyero, that was, if Fiyero hadn't looked stronger than any many in this instant, angrier than any man in this instant, taller than any man at this instant. The guard was actually probably stronger than Fiyero, he was taller too. But in this instant...Fiyero was so angry; he seemed to be the most powerful man. The guard backed away without question.
"You," said Fiyero, looking to a guard outside of the cell, "Handcuff him to that bar on the wall." the guard reached through the bars and handcuffed the guard on the inside to the bar, making it impossible to go anywhere. Fiyero then turned his attention back to Elphaba. Her eyes were open and scarred but she was unresponsive.
"Elphaba?" Fiyero asked quietly. There was no response. He kneeled down next to her and touched her shoulder. She jerked away from him as the world zoomed back to her.
"Don't touch me." she hissed. She pulled her shirt down and sat up, moving away from him.
"Elphaba it's me." he pleaded.
"No, no, no, no." she said, closing her eyes and shaking her head, "Don't come near me, don't touch me, don't speak to me, don't hit me or yell at me. Don't do anything to me."
"Elphaba, I'm not going to hurt you." he said.
"Please, please, please." she hugged her knees and hid her face. Her voice was muffled, small and broken. It was heart breaking really, "You don't own me, he doesn't own me, my father doesn't own me, the King doesn't own me..." she kept saying, "I don't belong to anybody."
"I know." said Fiyero, he took a hesitant step closer to her, when he saw the blood glistening in the torch light. He saw the trail of blood lead up to where she was sitting now, her neck and shoulder were bleeding and if he didn't stop the blood, it could get really serious, "Elphaba, you're bleeding." he said, "We've got to go."
"I can't see anything." she said, "I can't breathe, I--" she began to cry then, "No, not tears, they burn like fire!" she cried. Her body shook as the tears spilled from her eyes.
"But the water didn't hurt--" Fiyero began.
"It's only tears." Elphaba cried, "That---hurt." Fiyero slowly approached her, not wanting to frighten her. She didn't move or acknowledge his movement. He leaned down and scooped her up into his arms. She kept her eyes closed and pressed her face into his chest and he felt her body go limp as the pain over took her and the blood loss caught up with her. He walked out of the cell and handed the key to a guard.
"Lock this cell." he ordered, "No one goes in, and no one..." he looked at guard handcuffed inside the cell, "...goes out." The guard nodded and locked the door after Fiyero. The guard Fiyero had locked up looked horrified and collapsed against the wall.
For some reason, it was easy for Fiyero to find the exit to the dungeons. His eyes were hard as he walked forward. Elphaba's breathing was faint and weak. He walked carefully with her back up the mile high spiraled stairs. How could he have allowed this to happen? Why had he just succumbed under his father's will? He should have fought harder for her the day she'd been discovered. Oz, he felt like such a monster. Would she ever forgive him? Could she? He doubted she'd ever even speak to him when she woke up. His father was at the top of the dungeon steps, Fiyero brushed past him, pushing his father back. And for once, the King didn't protest as he stared at the way his son gazed at the girl in his arms. The Queen ignored the King and yelled for the maids to go fetch a doctor.