Falling For The Gods

The Girl In The Hallway

CHAPTER WARNING: DOMESTIC ABUSE AND MISCARRIAGE

Chapter 5

                Isla –

“He was just so cold, Astrid. How do you deal with him?” I was still mad at Brandt for rejecting my kindness this morning. I was only trying to do what my mother taught me about being a good wife. Astrid’s eyes started to shift around.

“He’s just a little different, he was the black sheep of the family and grew up without many friends. He really isn’t a bad guy; you just have to get used to it.” She stated as she motioned for me to get back to work on slicing the peaches.

“Get used to it, that’s going to take a while!” Astrid laughed. We had become a lot closer these past couple of days, currently we were working on slicing peaches, to make a pie, for the upcoming banquet in my honor. I was told this morning by Father we were hosting a large banquet for the entire village to celebrate the union and peace between the Terra and Ancients. I was nervous to say the least, I was on another planet, married to a God and hated by everyone except the few people who have gotten to know me within the palace walls. So lost in thought I didn’t even realize that the peach in my hand moved and I had cut my palm open.

“Ah s**t! My hand!” I exclaimed in pain. I reached for a towel to help stop the bleeding. Astrid jumped to her feet and began rummaging around the kitchen. She turned around with a big bottle of alcohol in her hand.

“What are you planning to do with that!” I knew what she was planning, but I was really hoping she was only going to offer me a drink.

“Please don’t! I think its ok!” I begged to Astrid, but she just kept moving closer to me.

“You can’t get an infection here, Isla. Our infections and diseases are different here than on Terra. Our bodies are larger and stronger, if you got sick from a virus here it would most definitely kill you.” I outstretched my hand and let her pour that burning liquid on me. I let out a loud yelp as soon as it hit my open wound. Astrid started to profusely apologize; I knew she was only doing it so I could maintain my health. She started to laugh.

“What?”

“I will have to tell Brandt to keep an I on you, he’s one of the most agile Gods there is.” She looked over the open the wound and then started to dress it with some gauze and medical tape. “I just hope you don’t cut your self next week when we have to cut two times the peaches.”

“Wh-What do you mean next week?” I was never told about a next week, if its two times as many peaches that must be a huge crowd.

“Next week we are having visitors from the southern part of the world. Father is the King of all Gods, but we don’t have just one village on the whole planet. Many other Lords or the hierarchy wanted to rule their own plot of land and Father felt no need to stop them. He allowed other Gods to start their own villages if they were governed fairly, and no one was a tyrant. We have a total of five villages including our own, we will host the Lords Ivar and Gunnar, and Lady Ignis next week at the royal banquet. Unfortunately, Lord Hemming is away in battle, but he sends gifts to the new married couple.”

“Oh…I wasn’t…”

“They will stop parading you around after a month or so, I promise” Astrid gave me a sympathetic grin.

“They said you were once married?” Astrid immediately broke her gaze with me and turned back to the peaches, she let out a pained sigh. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Astrid, I won’t push.”

“No, no its ok. I feel like I can trust you.” She looked up at me and then back at the peaches, I picked one up and started peeling slowly. “I was married, or I mean I am married. Father met a young blacksmith, Rollo, who was an expert weapon maker, he mad things only the Gods could wield. As payment for being exclusive to the royal family he offered my hand in marriage to him. I was…excited, I had known Rollo for many years now and couldn’t wait to become a wife and maybe a mother. So, I married him, and we were happy, for the first couple of years. After a while he locked me in our house, I wasn’t allowed to go outside or attend to family events. He took it as far as chaining me up to the furniture in the house when he was away. I eventually became pregnant, and he was happy again, I was allowed to go outside and bask in the sun. I could go to the market and farmers and buy fresh food for the growing baby.” She hesitated; I saw tears welling up in her eyes. I felt horrible for even asking now, I wish I could take those words right out of the air now. I laid my hand on her wrist. “Thank you, but I’m ok. I got sick one day and started to feel cramping. I then bled and bled and bled. I called the palace doctor, they came as quick as they could, but it was still too late. They couldn’t save my child. When Rollo came home and heard the news rather than hugging me or comforting his sad wife, he struck me. He told me if I had only stayed in the house, it wouldn’t have happened, he then accused me of cheating. I will save you the details, but beatings became a regular occurrence in my house and only got worse. Brandt became worried after he returned from battle and his sister wasn’t there to greet him. He made a house visit to us, Rollo tried to keep me hidden, but you can’t hide anything from Brandt. He pushed past him and tore our house apart only to find me chained to wall in a closet. I had been there for weeks, Rollo slide meat under the door for me to eat and regularly poured water in the ground for me suck up. I was skinny, dirty and my entire body was swollen and bruised from his abuse. He put me in the care of the guards to get me back to the castle, I caught a glimpse of him dragging Rollo to the castle, his hand gripping his neck and Rollo’s body limp dragging behind him. I thought for sure he was dead. It turns out he isn’t, but he is locked away now set to be executed in a couple months, I’m allowed to live freely, but will remain married to that monster till he is executed. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I didn’t deserve that, but it’s hard to remember some days. I still feel dirty, like I got what was coming to me.”

“Astrid, I’m so sorry. Nobody deserves a life like that, especially not someone as sweet as you.” Went around the side of the table and threw my arms around her. I felt so bad for her, all this time I thought I was the victim in this marriage, but I should be more thankful. Thankful my husband respects me, he might hate me but doesn’t beat me, thankful I have food to eat and security, and also that I have a best friend to lean on.

We continued to prep for the upcoming banquet for the villagers tomorrow. We got done late into the night, way past dinner. I’d only had one awkward encounter with Brandt, he came into the kitchen told me I looked nice and knocked some pots off the counter trying to get out of there. For being the most agile God, he sure wasn’t graceful. I said my goodnights to Astrid and started for the house. Just as I was rounding the corner a large sweaty man was running towards me. I stopped and stared.

“Isla…” *pant* “I need...” *pant* “to tell…” *pant*.

I knew from looks this was Brandt’s warrior partner, Asmund. Astrid described him as a tall sturdy man with broad shoulders and charming, good looks. She was right he was handsome, high cheek bones, long brown hair adorned with braids and bits of metal and a well-trimmed bead covered his jaw.

He had finally caught his breath “Isla I’m sorry to run you down, I wanted to make sure you knew how marriage went here. I know your from Terra.”

I looked at him in confusion “What do you mean?”

“On Terra you keep your marriages more sacred. Here if its an arranged marriage it’s not monogamous.”

“Oh, um okay” I was still so confused about why he would be telling me this, but I just shook it off and continued to my house.

I opened the door to the house, everything was the same still completely untouched “was he even home today? Where does he go?”. Just then I heard the bathroom door open at the end of the hall I peered down to see Brandt wrapped in a towel coming out.

“Oh, I thought you were still in the kitchen with Astrid.” He was oddly standing in the c***k between the door to the bathroom and the hallway.

“No, the night cooks took over for us so we could get home at a semi-decent hour.” Just then I hear some giggling and Brandt got a pained look on his face. “What was that?” Just then a beautiful villager pushed past Brandt and into the hallway. She didn’t even acknowledge me, just kept her gaze with him a slipped into his bedroom. I swallowed hard.

“Well I wont keep you any longer.” I quickly walked to my bedroom. Thankfully Brandt gave me the master bedroom with an attached bedroom, so I didn’t have to go out into the hallway till morning. I sat on my bed a little taken back “of course he has a mistress, why wouldn’t he. We were just a contract marriage” I have no clue why I was so hurt over it, but it really stung. It was like a reminder that I wasn’t enough. Even though I only saw her for a minute she was everything I wasn’t. She was tall and lean, short black hair that I could never pull off and dark eyes. I knew we were married for love, but I just kind of thought it would still be exclusive. I felt so ridiculous for believing that.

The rest of the night I just milled around my room, organizing my things. Trying to keep my mind busy so I didn’t accidently hear anything.