Captured Witch

XVI: Picking up the pieces

When I woke up, my hands were by my side. I was still dressed, with no new injuries. I was confused, had everything been a bad dream? The pain in my lower body signified that something had happened. I sat up and looked around, no one was here. I felt sick, not knowing what had happened. I felt so angry. I walked out of the room to see two new guards in place. I started walking out, determined to find Daniel. One of the guards stopped me. “I need to see Daniel,” I spoke up.

            “He has already been called here; he should be here shortly. You should go back to the room and rest.”

            “Umm, how long have I been asleep?” I asked, still feeling groggy.

            “A few hours, is there anything you need?”

            “No, thank you,” I said walking back in the room. I walked over to the sofa and sat down, trying to determine reality from dreams. Was it all a dream? Tam, Declan, and Edwin. I no longer had any cuffs on, so at least I know I broke it off, but had that been a dream? I walked to the closet and saw my shattered cuff on the floor. So at least I knew that was real. I stripped off my blouse and skirt and walked to the bathroom. Staring in the mirror, I didn’t see any new bruises or cuts. My legs, however, felt as if I had been running all day. I heard the room door open and close.

            “Adalaide?” I heard Daniel call. I stepped out of the bathroom and stood against the door frame. I stared at him as he remained near the sofa. “Are you okay?” He made no effort to approach me, signifying to me that something had happened. I stared at him confused by his question. I wasn’t sure how to answer his question. Was I okay?

            “I- I need a drink.” I managed to get out. I walked to the bar cart and picked up the glass I had earlier. I poured some more whiskey in it a quickly gulped it down. I needed to remember what happened. Daniel approached me slowly, confusing me further. “Why are you acting like you are scared to startle me? I’m fine, I think.”

            “Adalaide, we um. We took a break from the proceedings and Declan and Edwin escaped. We should have come here first, but we were led to believe they were somewhere else. We didn’t get back here in time. They had already… done what they wanted to.” I had just realized that his hands were a faint pink color, signifying bloodstains. I took a deep breath and nodded.

            “Are they gone?” I asked shakily. He nodded.

            “Yes, we’ve killed both of them, they can’t hurt you again.” I moved to sit on the couch beside me.

            “Did they tell you why?” He nodded.

            “They wanted to ruin you, to break you so that you stayed in your place as they put it.”

            “Well, I can’t let them succeed,” I said, determinedly. I stared at the empty glass in my hand. After a second the glass shattered into a hundred pieces. It was like me. Broken, shattered, ruined. But this didn’t break from sheer force; it broke from my mind. Daniel sighed as the started to pick up the larger pieces. “No,” I told him. He stopped and looked at me. I used my magic to bring the pieces back together, forming a cup again, back in my hand as if it had never happened. “See? It’s all fixed up.” I said solemnly. Daniel took the glass from my hands and set it on the table. He grabbed my hands in mine and I didn’t pull back. “I’m fine, actually I’m kind of hungry. Can we go to eat?”

            “I’ll have something brought from the kitchen.”

            “No- um, I want to get out of the room. Maybe even outside? Like a picnic.” Daniel smiled a bit and nodded.

            “Okay, but you have to put clothes on.” It was then I realized I was in a slip again. I sighed and grabbed some clothes from the closet, this time a white blouse and a forest green skirt. My hair was damp so someone must have bathed me. I stepped out in the room.

            “Did someone bathe me? My hair is wet.”

            “Oh yeah, some of the maids gave you a bath after everything. Don’t worry, I wasn’t in the room.” I blushed a bit and quickly put on my clothes. I miss my human clothes. My cheerleading clothes showed a lot of skin, but my tight black pants and a nice black tank top, I would kill for those again. I guess I looked spaced out because Daniel asked, “What are you thinking about?” He looked concerned. I laughed.

            “I was thinking about how I missed my old clothes. And how I would kill for my black pants and tank tops.” He laughed a bit.

            “After everything, you’re thinking about clothes.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Let’s go,” he said.

            Once we got outside, I felt so free. I kicked my shoes off and let my feet feel the grass. Daniel had set up a table with so much food on it. I walked over to the table and sat down. I didn’t even know where to start. Daniel laughed and put some food on my plate. I smiled and thanked him before eating some of it. I looked around at all the trees and wanted so desperately to be in the woods. I sighed and leaned against the back of my chair, closing my eyes and enjoying the remaining sun on my face.

            “I thought redheads hated the sun.”

            “Mmmh. I always heard that was vampires.” I shot back at him

            “Hey! I don’t drink blood to survive.”

            “Nope, you just feed on the souls of innocent girls.”

            “Well, you are safe then because you haven’t been innocent since I met you.” I laughed and grabbed the cup of tea in front of me. We sat in silence for a bit longer as I enjoyed the fresh air.

            “I used to enjoy this. Every day, even when I wasn’t at the school, I would find an hour or two to just sit outside and feel the sun on my face and the grass on my feet. It helps me reconnect with myself, and the spirits, and nature.” Daniel didn’t respond. He looked around like he couldn’t feel what I felt. “Witches are more connected to their surroundings. Even humans feel it. But immortals don’t have it. I remember when I was little and James, the head-father, he would take me out to the garden and teach me how to help the seeds we planted grow into these beautiful plants. He taught me a lot of survival skills too. I can compartmentalize my emotions for short periods of time so I can focus on things more easily.”

            “Is that what you’re doing now?”

            “I don’t know. I wasn’t ever trained for this.” I laughed. “I wasn’t trained for any of this really.”

            “We should go back inside; the sun has almost set.”

            “Mmmh. Just a few more minutes.”

            “I’ll arrange for a few guards to be out here with you every day. I’ll even let you invite a few friends.” My eyes lit up then I pulled back. Let me? What am I, five? He laughed at my sudden change and mood and walked behind me, pulling out my chair.

            “Such the gentleman,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. We walked inside and down the winding halls to his study. “What are we doing here?”

            “Well, I have work to do and I’m still working on replacing your guards, so you’ll stay with me for now.” I sighed and threw myself on the couch.

            “This is stupid, I’m not five. I don’t need babysitters.” I mumbled.

            “Trouble seems to find you, whether you want it or not. So, until a time in which fate decides to let you live a normal life, ‘babysitters will follow you around.”

            “A normal life would be me at school in my cheerleading uniform with my friends.”

            “Cheerleading?” He looked up from his desk with a raised eyebrow. “You, out of all people in this world, were a cheerleader?” He laughed. “With pom-poms and everything.” I scowled at him.

            “Oh, shut-up already. I was quite popular at my old school. That is before your men blew my cover.”  He went back to working on his papers, still with a stupid smile on his face. I laid down on the couch and shut my eyes. I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up, I had a pillow under my head and a blanket covering me up. I stretched out and sat up. “How long have I been out for?”

            “About two hours. I had a maid bring that in for you.” He pointed to the tea tray next to me. I got up and poured myself a cup and then one for him. I walked over and set it on his desk. “I didn’t need any but thank you.”

            “Wow, he shows manners. So much progress in one day.” I said, laughing. He rolled his eyes and took a sip. “You shouldn’t have let me sleep. I’ll never sleep tonight.”

            “You need to rest. I had Christopher drop some sleeping pills by our room in case you needed them tonight.”

            “I don’t want to go back in there,” I said sharply. This caused his head to snap up.

            “Why? It is your room after all.” I glared at him as he suddenly realized he should have thought about his words. “Nothing is going to happen to you.” He said, going back to his papers.

            “What is all this anyway?” I said snatching some papers off his desk.

            “Important kingdom business. Not for anyone’s eyes but my own.” He said snatching the papers back from me before I could read any of them.

            “So, if I supposed to be a queen, what am I supposed to do?”

            “Look pretty, be quiet, attend important affairs. You know, the works.” I set my cup down on his desk and stared at him.

            “I am not going to be a kept woman,” I said through gritted teeth. Daniel laughed and continued to work on his papers. I slumped down on the couch, earning a look from Daniel, clearly based on my posture. I sat up and fixed my posture, angrily. We sat here like this for at least another hour before he was finally done.

            “Ready?” He asked, stretching out his hand. I grabbed his hand and stood up, rolling my eyes as he laced his fingers through mine.

            “Wow, we’re holding hands. I’m so excited to take this next step in our relationship.” I muttered sarcastically.

            “You are just full of these sarcastic comments, aren’t you?” I rolled my eyes.

            “Where are we going?” I asked.

            “Bed. It’s after midnight.” f**k, was it really? How long were we in the study? I wasn’t even close to tired, so he was probably going to make me take those pills again.

            “Can I go for a run tomorrow? Like a run in the woods or something. I have all this energy and it’s usually a run or magic that calms me down.” He sighed.

            “I might be able to organize something with the guards if you can behave and sleep tonight. I’ll get you some clothes to run in.” I hid a silent squeal of excitement. It’s been so long since I ran for fun, and as much as I hated having to ask him for permission to do it, I was excited to go. Once we got back to the room, Daniel handed me some sleeping pills that Christopher dropped off. I didn’t want to take them but if I took them, he would let me go for a run. I got undressed and popped the pills in my mouth. I fell asleep excited to be able to go out tomorrow.

            I woke up in a cold sweat. I struggled to make out the time on the clock in the darkness, but it looked like it was around 3 am. I don’t remember my dream, but I know it was terrifying. So much for some sleeping pills. Not wanting to wake Daniel up, I leaned against the headboard and stared into the darkroom. Not even 24 hours ago I was r***d here. What bothered me the most was I had no idea what they did to me, no one will ever know. I shuddered and shook the thought out of my mind. I can’t move on if I keep thinking about it. I know eventually, I’ll have to talk about it but not now, not until I’ve moved on. I wanted so desperately to move on. I felt Daniel shift slightly in the bed as he thought he put his arm around my shoulders. When he felt my legs, he sat up and looked around, finally landing on me sitting against the headboard.

            “Why are you awake? Did something happen?” He asked, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

            “I’m fine. I just can’t fall back asleep.” Daniel sighed.

            “Let me get you some more medicine.”

            “It doesn’t work,” I whispered.

            “What?” He asked.

            “It doesn’t work. It makes me sleep but it doesn’t keep the memories away.” I said, slightly louder.

            “I’ll talk to Christopher; he probably has something to help. But for now, you need to sleep.” He said handing me the pills and a glass of water. I sighed and took both pills and laid back down. Daniel pulled me into his arms, and I let him, too tired to argue about it. As much as I wanted to fight being with him, it felt natural. I drifted off into sleep again.

            The nightmares were terrible. I was running from something, but it kept chasing me. It was so dark, but I could see its eyes every time I glanced over my shoulder. I couldn’t run fast enough and before long I felt it grab my wrist and pull me back. I screamed and looked to see who it was. ‘No’ I screamed in my dream. I continued to scream and fight against his hold, but I couldn’t get away. “Please! Let me go!” I screamed.

            “Adalaide!” I heard someone whisper to me. “Adalaide, wake up! It’s just a dream!” I snapped awake to feel two strong arms holding me. My breathing began to slow down as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight in the room.

            “I’m fine.” I finally managed to say. I pried myself out of his arms and got off the bed. “Can I go for a run?” Daniel sighed and picked up some clothes off the couch. He handed them to me, and I quickly walked to the bathroom to change. After changing into the running shorts and sports bra, I tied my hair up into a ponytail and slid some socks and running shoes on. I bounced a bit, getting the feel of the shoes before going back into the room. Daniel looked at me and a smile lit his face up.

            “You look very hot in that, you know?” I rolled my eyes.

            “I hope you never set foot in a human world cheerleading practice.”

            “Maybe I’ll have to investigate. Ready?”

            “You’re coming with?” I asked, finally noticing his running attire.

            “Of course! And a couple of dozen guards. Let’s go.” He said, grabbing my hand in his.