Chapter 8 - A friend To Escape

Her body remained tense as she waited for him to drive his teeth into her neck and rip it apart; waited for him to give her that pain once again. She could already feel unconsciousness spreading around the edges of her heart.

It was hard to breathe.

With bated breath, she waited for death, her fingers digging into the bedspread, her hands tight around Arlo.

How could he be sleeping so soundly in a moment like this?

Thump! Thump! Thump!

But the bite she was waiting for never came.

Instead, his nose rubbed against her skin, and his tongue glided over her neck. Protest was at the tip of her tongue, but the feeling that spread through her, from the depth of her stomach at this contact, was something completely different.

Something she had never felt before.

She shuddered slightly, and a moan slipped past her lips. She arched her body to him instinctively for more— then she snapped back to her senses and pulled away immediately, shocked.

She staggered off the bed, moving far away from him, patting Arlo, who had now fallen asleep sometime during their yelling. Her big brown eyes danced with confusion as she tried to put as much space between them as possible.

He didn't come after her; his eyes just seemed unfocused, drunk on something even.

The room suddenly felt small; it wasn't big to begin with, but now it felt smaller than before.

“You have done something to me,” she whispered as she blinked, her breath still caught in her throat. Then she looked across the room at him sharply. “What have you done to me?!”

He balled his fists by his sides, blinking the look away before anger took over again.

“I don't have time for this.” He mumbled something else in his language, which sounded like a curse, before he turned away from her and headed to the door.

She ran after him, ignoring the strange, confusing feeling that still lingered in her veins. It was even worse now since she was holding onto his large, hairy hand. “No, don't go. You have to take us back. Take us back home.”

He shrugged her hand off.

“This is home!” With that, he slammed the door.

The click she heard next confirmed that he locked it too.

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Aniya didn't waste her time slamming her fists against the door or begging them to let her out. There was no use wasting her strength on things that certainly wouldn't work.

She had to remain strong for her child.

Instead, she laid Arlo on the bed, but before she did that, she ensured to clean his body and wrapped him in a bedcloth.

There was nothing else to use.

While she did that, she thought about Zesika. Oh how her friend would be missing her so much right now. She would miss Arlo too, Aniya was certain that Arlo felt the same, he just had no way of communicating it yet. She thought about Belladonna. She knew that although her sister and she weren't on the best of terms, she would still be worried about her.

She had cleaned Arlo up and wrapped him in a blanket. When it was time for her to do the same for herself, there was a knock at the door, then the clanking of keys.

Standing in the doorway was Oana - her new friend, at least that was what she had called herself.

But she didn't come alone.

Another woman was standing beside her, her black curly hair styled into a bun. There was a single scar on her face, across her left cheek, and a faint one around her right brow. That caught Aniya’s attention a lot.

This would be the first time she would meet someone here who had some imperfections; not just one scar but two.

Who was this woman?

*”So, she is the one.”

“Yes, she is my new friend,” Oana said, and Aniya relaxed because Oana was speaking in a language she could understand, only to get self-conscious of the fruit and vegetable stains on her clothes, when the woman raked her gaze over her.

“Laila, meet Aniya.”

No one made a move, and Laila huffed, grimacing at Aniya’s scars.

“Get out.”

“Oana?” Laila questioned with surprise.

“Leave.” Oana turned to her sharply with anger. “Now.”

Without another word, Laila left. Then Oana turned to her and smiled.

“I brought you shoes and some dresses. You had no shoes on while you were running away.” At the snap of her fingers, two maids came in with shoes and some clothes.

They left just as quickly as they appeared.

“Now get rid of that dress, take a bath, and I will tend to your injured feet,” Oana said, shutting the door. “I will take care of the little one if he cries.”

“You said you would help. You said you were my friend.” She rushed to her, holding her hand. “Please, help us.”

Oana smiled warmly, pulling her hand away from Aniya, and then she wiped it clean with a napkin and tossed it to a corner of the room.

Aniya pretended not to have noticed that.

“He wants nothing to do with me, I promise. He doesn't need us. I’m grateful that he took a Ringer out of me—”

“Yes, that. It is strange that you are not in his room yet.” She walked away from her, looking around the room. “We will have to get some things to give this place some life. Flowers, maybe. A painting—

“You are not listening. What I need is to go back. I have to take my son back home. He cannot stay here, these people will make his life difficult. I need to—”

“What you need to do is to leave the planning of your escape to me and obey me completely.” Oana turned to her swiftly, her face firm. “We need to wait for the right time, or our plans will be revealed. Worse, we fall into the hands of my brother. You must never find out that I am doing this, or he will ensure that the only walls you will ever know will be the walls of this room, also he will take your little one away. I will no longer be able to help you then, for I shall be serving my own punishment.” Her voice trembled in the end.

Aniya observed that.

Punishment?

Aniya blinked.

She wasn't above the laws guiding them here then. She wasn't untouchable.

“Why are you helping me?”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “Go and take a bath, I’ll tend to those feet when you are done. While you are busy, I will find you a veil for that face. It will be good for you if you hide it.”

They stared at each other for a while, as Aniya turned the words over and over again in her head. Her next move would be an answer, whether she was in agreement with this or not.

With one final look at her sleeping son, she turned to the bathroom door.

Absolute obedience.

For Arlo.

More than those people who stoned her with fruits, Aniya was afraid of Oana.

If she would likely get punished by doing this, then why was she doing it? What was her reason? Was she truly a friend, or was there something she was hiding?

She had to find out her reason for doing this; only then would she know what the Princess truly was.