A Crown of Thorns

Chapter Five - Locked away

A shimmering orb surrounded the infant's small frame, a halo of a rainbow shimmered from it as the child stirred in her sleep. Her cheeks grew a fiery red as she fought against the sleeping charm, her hands bawled up into tiny fists as her silver eyes finally opened, shattering the charm with the remnants sparking into fine silver sparks. I stared at her bewildered as I pulled the rest of her body out from under the steel bed. Her lips quivered as the forced breakage of the charm wretched the infant’s body; bile formed from her lips as she fought against the rough blanket that bound her within it.

“No!” I hissed as I sensed her distress.

Her tiny lips parted as the wails grew louder, her tears streaked down her rosy cheeks as she shook her fists before her. My eyes widened as fear consumed me as sound scarcely found its way into the room that held me. I was forced into compliance with the threat of my vocal cords being cut if Rezel caught me uttering a sound. I feared the things he would do to my child if he caught her, what he would do to the tiny soul who I kept hidden away within the darkest confines of my prison.

The sounds filled the room, travelling past the walls that bound me and suffocated the trees that stood outside the aged oak door. I caught glimpses of the wild vegetation at times when Rezel stood at the entrance for a moment too long. The terrifying n man was never too far away, with a keen heightened sense that always seemed to know my brief movements. I grew paranoid that the man lived within the walls itself and always had his peering silver eyes on me, contemplating his arrival and the ways he could further break me.

I glanced uncertainly towards the walls, convinced he would hear the infants’ shrill cries. The thought of his approach terrified me, with the memory of his heavy booted feet pacing outside the room, wandering towards me with the steps growing clearer. My breath halted as I sat completely frozen, the only sound was that of my child’s erratic screams and the haunting memory of the man approaching, a memory that grew increasingly more real. My eyes shifted towards the door and held frozen at the brass doorknob, waiting for it to turn and for the man I feared most to enter the room to discover the newborn.

No! I wanted to cry out through quivering lips.

My head began to throb as I pressed my palms into my temples and clenched my eyes closed. my heart raced in my chest as the fear consumed me, I fell over the wailing infant with her small frame tucked under my stomach as I used my body to shield her from the entrance. My stomach suffocated her cries, silencing her for a moment as I screamed painfully into the ground. Tears swelled past my eyes and stained the dirtied floor as images of my deceased son coursed through my mind, he was the spitting image of the child I ached to protect and yet his lifeless form shook me to my core.

He's coming to take her, a voice repeated in my mind.

I glanced up, my eyes red from the tears as they stained my dirt-smeared face. The sound of Rezel’s footsteps echoed throughout the room, I could see his disgusting sneer as he towered over me, the thought of his presence terrified me as I grasped the infant's frail frame and shook it, her tiny head lopped painfully from side to side as she grew louder and shriller. I ceased the shaking and pressed her body back onto the ground and grabbed the rough wool blanket and threw it over her desperate face.

“Shut up!” I creamed as I pressed the fabric down over her face.

I suffocated her until my knuckles grew white until I imagined her vibrant silver eyes as dull and lifeless as the boy I had previously borne. Rezel couldn’t have her if he never found her, he couldn’t have her if the child he so desperately craved for were dead in my arms. My silver eyes grew wide from insanity as I imagined holding the lifeless form in my hands as he entered the room. Seeing his shocked and desperate expression excited me as I bit down hard on my bottom lip. The pain shocked my senses as I was forced back to reality, my hands trembled as I glanced down at the lifeless form beneath me. I quickly removed the blanket, the sight beneath me shook me to my core as my child’s face was now almost identical to her brother's.

Her lips were a faded blue with her silver irises barely peeking through heavily hooded eyelids. Her once bunched-up fists unravelled with her tiny fingers lifeless and unmoving. I searched drastically for any sign of life as if the innocent soul before me were simply playing a trick and yet her chest remained still with all signs of life remaining nonexistent.

“No,” I murmured as I shook her more gently now, convinced the motion would awaken the infant.

The image before me was haunting, I was a murderer, a monster just like Rezel said I was, I was destined to suffer this grotesque and miserable fate with Rezel puppeteering my misfortune. I shook violently as I rejected the things he would often whisper in my ear, I wanted to reject the reality the vile man placed upon me. I needed to escape to give the innocent creature I bore a better chance at life than I was ever given.

“Agh!” I screamed, the vibration was both violent and powerful.

The air around me rippled from the intensity with the borders of the room vibrating a dull blue hue for just a moment, I glanced up, surprised, as the wards that kept me imprisoned were finally visible. Faint blue lines merged in intricate patterns across the walls that bound me, the ancient language of the gods lay scribbled in horizontal lines as they spelled out the incantations that were meant to bind a creature made from god. I glanced at the faint lines, my eyes bleary from the tears, the knowledge they consisted of awoke something inside me as I instinctively knew how to escape this hell.

“He cannot have either of us,” I murmured to myself as I raised my child to my chest, now knowing how to save the both of us.

Finally, I thought.