Chapter 3 3

I didn't fight back anymore. I couldn't. My voice had gone hoarse, my soul bruised. I simply followed Valentina as she dragged me down the corridor in silence, her grip unrelenting, her eyes blank.

I thought maybe she'd say something - anything - but she didn't. Not a glance. Not a breath of sympathy.

She brought me back to the tiny, suffocating cell I'd woken in the first time. The moment the iron door screeched open, the scent of mold and iron returned like a slap to the face.

She shoved me inside like trash.

"Don't you dare speak to me in public again," she snapped, voice raised for the whole dungeon to hear. "You're a slave, not my equal." Then she slammed the door behind her. Hard. The sound echoed in my chest like a final nail in a coffin.

And I broke.

I collapsed to the floor, crawling weakly to a corner of the cell. My body ached, my skin still raw from the last attack - but the ache inside me, the hopeless, soul - deep kind, was worse.

Tears flooded my eyes as I cried out loud, shaking violently. "Where is my father? Where is my mother? I want to go home! Please! I didn't do anything! Please, take me back!"

My screams bounced off the stone, unanswered, uncaring.

"Please! Please, I want to go back! Let me out! Let me out!"

But no one came.

Until they did.

The door creaked open again. A guard stepped in, clearly irritated. He didn't even look at me.

"The princess says you're disturbing her peace," he muttered. "Keep quiet." And just like that, he turned and left.

I stared after him, stunned. Disturbing her peace?

I wasn't even sure what peace meant in this place.

But I wasn't finished.

"I won't keep quiet!" I shouted hoarsely, dragging myself to the door. "You people are wicked! Treating human beings like animals! This is cruelty - this is madness!"

My voice rose with every word. "When I get out of here, I will sue all of you! I will take you to court! I will -"

The words froze on my tongue.

She entered.

The princess. Flanked by two guards, her presence made the air colder. Her eyes gleamed with fury, and a cruel smile curved her lips.

"Hold her," she commanded, her voice calm but deadly.

Panic exploded in my chest as the two guards rushed forward. One grabbed my wrists and pinned me down. The other yanked at my legs, stretching me out flat like some captured animal.

"Please! No! What did I do?" I cried out, squirming helplessly. "I was only calling for my parents! Please, don't hurt me!"

But the princess was already gone.

For a moment, I thought maybe it was over. Maybe she'd changed her mind.

Then she returned.

A silver bucket in one hand. A thick, leather - bound cane in the other. "Animals should be tamed," she said coldly. "And if you insist on acting like a beast, I shall treat you as one."

Without warning, she poured the ice - cold water over me. My breath caught as the chill soaked my thin slave clothes and bit into my bones.

Then came the first strike. Crack.

I screamed.

The second blow landed harder. Then a third. Then more.

Each lash burned against my back, my thighs, my arms. I twisted, screaming for help that would never come.

"Dad! Please! Help me! They're killing me!" My voice was almost unrecognizable. "Somebody! Please..."

But no one came. Not even Valentina.

The guards held me tighter. The princess kept whipping. The cane hissed through the air like a serpent, finding every patch of skin not yet marked.

Finally, after what felt like hours, she dropped the cane beside me. I lay there, motionless, soaked and broken.

She leaned down and whispered, "Next time you raise your voice without permission, you'll be sentenced to death."

Then she left, her footsteps echoing with regal indifference. The guards dropped me, and the door slammed shut again.

This time, I didn't cry out loud. I couldn't.

I just lay there, curled in a shivering heap, tears slipping silently into the straw beneath me.

I had learned my lesson. In this kingdom, your voice meant nothing. Your pain meant less.

And beauty? Beauty was a curse.

I should have stayed blind. I regretted that surgery.

Because when I was blind, the world may have been dark...

...but at least I lived in peace.

Now I could see.

And it was hell.