Sold for 30 Days

Chapter : 6. Final decision..

Flora’s point of view:-

---------------------

“Please god.. Please god.. please don't let them choose me… please don't let them like me… please make them choose another girl… please don't put my name in that list.. please god help me... Please... Please…”

I at least said the word 'PLEASE' a hundred times while praying to the God. Maybe repeating one word so many times to the God can make him notice me and grant my wish. Maybe he would listen to my request and won't put my name on that five chosen girls list. Maybe I can finally get released from the fear of becoming a slave and leaving my family to stay bound in this palace forever.

“… Kaitlyn Green, and for our last chosen girl, Flora Monro. Please follow me to the next room along with your guardian.”

The sky broke down on my head by hearing my name on that list. All the prayers I just did, was in vain because God didn’t listen to me at all. They put my name on that chosen girl’s list, which I never wanted. Now my chance to become a slave has raised from one out of a hundred to one out of five.

“Can you belive this? They chose you from all these girls. You are really lucky, Flora. I’m proud of you.”

My father spoke up beside me, startling me all of a sudden. I look at him to see a happy and glowing face looking back at me, which once used to be dull and full of tiredness. He is happy because I got chosen. He is happy because he thinks that, now there is a chance for him to give the rest of his family a happy life. He is happy because according to him, I’m going to have a nice and happy future. But I don’t think he understands that there is no happiness for me inside this palace. I could only be happy when I’m with my family in that small hut, sleeping in my mother’s lap peacefully, working in fields with my father to help him earn for our family, and playing with my little brother’s and sisters to give them some joy. I love them too much to let go of them so soon.

“We have to move. Everyone has already left. Let’s go…”

“But father…”

“Not now Flora. We are behind.”

Ignoring the lone drop of tear that was rolling down my cheek and avoiding my request, my father started pulling me towards the other room, where the minister instructed us to go. Like a powerless doll, I also walked towards it as my father took me. Entering inside, we were all mesmerized again. In was not less luxurious and eye-catching than the ballroom we just left behind. As all of us ten made inside the room, our king started with his speech. While everyone was busy gawking at this gorgeous room or listening to the speech, my eyes are stuck on my father’s face in a begging manner, with the hope that when he looks at my sad face and pleading eyes, he would revoke the thought of giving me away and take me back home. But sadly he never looked back at me and also got busy to listen to our king’s announcement.

“You are only going to serve your prince for 30 days while he’s on a journey out of our Kingdom.”

A thunder broke on my head by knowing that the time limitation of this s*****y is fixed for only 30 days. And after those 30 days, they will give his slave the freedom to choose her path. But it will be their choice to keep you around or not. Basically, the meaning of this whole thing is that, they are going to buy you for 30 days by giving your family some gold coins. Then you will be used by the prince for 30 days all the ways he wants. And after that, you will be thrown out of their lives forever. If you do a good job in bed with the prince, then there is a slight possibility for them to keep you as a maid and use you when they want.

My head snapped towards the king once and to my father in the next moment, after hearing the announcement. Another tear rolled down my cheek when I found out that my father had no care about this topic. Is he expecting his daughter to do all those things as the royals are expecting? Does he still care about money then the dignity his daughter is going to lose?

“Please father, look at me. Please tell me that you will never make a deal like this which can destroy your daughter’s life. Please comfort me by saying that you love me and you will never let any stains to come upon my purity. Look at me for once.” My heart kept crying for my father’s attention when I saw that he was avoiding looking at my eyes. I din’t know if it’s in guilt or it’s just that he didn’t want to hear my nagging. But he was really breaking my heart.

“I’m sorry, father, but I don't think I can force my choice on someone like this. Everyone should get a chance to speak for themselves. I don't want any of you to take this decision in a hurry because it's about the matter of your daughter’s dignity. That's why I want to request all of you to go home for tonight and think about this matter clearly. And if you are still ready to make this deal, then you can come back tomorrow morning, and we will select the one and accept her among us, right at that time.”

As soon as I heard the prince announce this, a hope raised in my heart to save myself. I picked up my head, which was looking down at the ground to hide the tears that I couldn’t control from falling, and looked up at the person who gave me this last ray of light in the darkness I was falling in. Unknowingly my eyes fell onto the blue ocean like ones of his, which was also looking at me. Don’t know why, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, which made me feel like I was drowning on that ocean of his. The small smile that is always stuck on the corner of his lips, raised a bit more after catching my attention. It made me think that, is this person is really nice as the rumor was heard?

“Very well then. I support your decision, son. And I guess, I will see you all here by tomorrow morning. Have a good night everyone.” The king agreed and left the room. The prince also followed his father but without breaking the gaze, as long as he wasn’t out of my sight.

Did we really got a second chance? There is still hope that I can get out of this. All I have to do now is to make my parents understand that I don’t want this. I’m not the girl these royals are searching for because I can never do those things, as they are expecting from this slave. I have to convince my parents to change their decision, no matter how.

“Lets go home. It’s really late.” My father said, still avoiding looking at my eyes, and started walking out of the palace, toward the way of our house.

The surprising thing was, he never mentioned about eating any of those delicious meals which were kept for us at the banquet. I know he was looking forward to have something from that table, before leaving the palace. Then what changed his appetite all of a sudden? Although he said it was late, it wasn’t even time for our night’s meal, which means we still had a lot of spare time. Our kingdom is the safest place among all neighbourhood kingdoms, where anyone can roam in the middel of the night or leave our houses open without any worries. So, that means he was not afraid to get back home at night. Then what is the reason behind his hurry?

I didn’t have the heart to ask if there’s something wrong or not. So, I just kept following him behind quietly, until we finally reached home. As soon as we entered the house, my mother came rushing to us with a lot o questions then my father can handle. He asked my mother to let my brothers and sisters sleep, before starting this discussion. Maybe he doesn’t want them to hear what sacrifices they are expecting me to do, to give them a better life. My mother agreed and stopped the discussion for now.

As the night grew darker and the moon came on top of our heads, my mother fed the rest of the food of our house to her little souls, leaving only us three with an empty stomach. She offered my father a little, but he refused and distributed it among my brothers and sisters to let them fill their stomachs a bit more. And after their meals were over, she made them fall asleep sooner than the usual time. After the night became quite, we went outside to talk freely, without disturbing our little ones’ sleep.

“Now, tell me what happened at the palace? Did you get entry? Did you meet the king and the prince? What did they say? Did they choose someone else?” My mother started blabbering again, without letting my father a chance to speak.

“Can you calm down a bit? I’m already too tired to handle this.” My father said with a tired voice and a sad face, making my mother become silent.

“Yes, we went to the place in time and joined the event. We saw the king and the prince as they asked all the girls to introduce themselves. They chose five among almost hundred or more girls and our daughter is one of them.” His words made her excited immediately, and she jumped up in joy.

“Really? Our Flora is going to be chosen to work for them? Oh god! Finally, my children can have a better life. You are going to work in the palace where you will never be hungry again. You will have nice clothes to wear, a bed to sleep, and many more. You will be happy there for the rest of your life. And don’t worry. We will come to visit you every once in a while and…”

“The prince wants a slave for only 30 days, who will accompany him out of our kingdom. After 30 days she will return to her home.”

My mother, who was holding my hand in excitement, dropped it in shock at my father’s words. Her jaw was dropped as her eyes were looking at my glowing ones in that darkness. Although it was late at night, but I could clearly see the change of her expression from a happy one to a scared one, in the moonlight. She became completely speechless when just a minute ago she couldn’t stop herself from talking.

“They will choose one among those five girls tomorrow morning. They gave us this night to decide whether we want to do this or not. Not only because it’s about our daughter’s dignity, but because if she gets chosen, they will take her in right away. We won’t be seeing her again until the 30 days ends. I think you understand what they meant.”

In the next moment, the whole place became quiet. Only the chirping of the crickets and the croak of the frogs could be heard in the surrounding. Both of my parents were quiet and I couldn’t understand what is taking them to decide when they clearly understand what is going on? It’s a simple decision to not allowing me to go to the palace tomorrow. It’s not like they could expect me to become the prince’s slave, even after knowing the possible result of my future.

“She’s going to attend tomorrow’s event.”

What? Did I just heard my mother right? Is my ears ringing or am I hearing things? Am I even awake or is this a dream? Please god. Don’t do this to me…