The next morning Aldreera heard the door to her cell click and swing open. She jumped up with her back against the wall waiting for someone to come and grab her and bring her out to be tortured like her Godmother did. But what she saw she never would've believed. The magistrate from the county jail stood in front of her. Glairing like her Godmother used to. Looking down at her with disgust and a tinge of hatred and malice.
"What have we got here?" The magistrate was round and pudgy. His face gleaned with the brightness of baked goods and fried food. The whiskers around his square lips looked like hairs of a peach while his tongue lashed from outside his mouth. Slithering like a viper. His clothes were of the finest quality. Aldreera could tell. She had to handle clothes almost her entire life. The seams were immaculately hand-woven while the trim was stitched in the neatest lines. She looked in awe as this round and rectangular of a man stepped through the smallish doorway, with very little room on either side of his figure to allow another person the ability to stand, let alone look past. When he stepped closer to her she could feel his hostile intentions.
"Yes. I believe she could work for what I'm looking for." Turning around to face her Godmother with a toothy grin. "She looks a bit thin but we'll put some meat on her bones before she gets sold to the highest bidder."
Aldreera could feel the color draining from her face and the stench of the room came back to her in full force like it was her first day sleeping in the cell. Everything that she was witnessing felt like it was in third person. Was this actually happening to her? Was she going to be sold?
The magistrate closed the door behind him, taking a glance at her once more before shutting the creaking cell door. She could hear them talk. The words of his deep and pungently disgusting voice struck off the walls into her cell filling her with dread.
"So you're looking to sell the scrawny one there? How much would you take for that imp? I'd give you no more than 300 pound."
"Are you mad?" Her Godmother retorted. "I bought her from the orphanage at that price! You can't swindle me out of this one, Gerald."
The magistrate looked back at the cell and then at the lady. "Well, no more than 500 then. That is my highest offer."
"Deal."
Her Godmother said that word like it had no meaning behind it. All this time Aldreera thought that her Godmother held maybe a little bit of love for her, but now she knew that not to be true. In a fit of rage Aldreera could only do one thing…
"You can't do this to me! You love me don't you, Godmother? Please, I'll do anything!" Aldreera screamed with all that she had. Feeling that her bruised ribs were still not healed, she clutched to her side yet, still holding the intensity she began with. "I'll shine your boots every morning. I'll make sure all the laundry is done by the end of the day. Please… Please."
The Godmother looked at the magistrate through the side of her eye and gave a chuckle.
"Can you believe this girl? She has no shame even now. Maybe another month in here should settle her little tantrums."
"No, my lady. She might not come back at all if you were to hold her for even another day." The magistrate turns around and begins to head up the stone steps as he continues to talk. "I'll be back in a couple of hours with your money. You'd better hold true to your deal." And at that the large door at the top of the stairs was shut leaving the rats and the feeble bodies of the prisoners below left to nothing but darkness. Darkness that creeped into the mind. The kind that once it grabbed ahold of the fear it was hesitant to let go.
Aldreera whimpered. Tears welling in her eyes once more. Reminding her of the time she was in the laundry room. The time when all she had to worry about was the evil glares from her Godmother and the servants. She took life for granted then. Realizing now that life… could undoubtedly… get worse.
Aldreera crawled into a ball at the corner of her cell. Allowing herself to feel the cold stone beneath her feet and bottom. Her back centered the corner of the wall but there was no love from the cold stone. Because that's all it was. Cold and moldy stone. Nothing was going to save her now. So, All she could do was wait. Wait for the magistrate to come and take her away.
Aldreera let her mind wander which she then regretted ever letting happen. She imagined being whipped and scolded again. Or maybe worse, burned and beaten. Maybe the magistrate had a more sadistic manner of torture. One that involved the crueler parts of a man. The one thing she was looking forward to was the ability to see the sun again. Smell the fresh air; see the grass and feel the warm earth beneath her feet. Not long after her thought had settled came a knocking on the door. The magistrate had come back to get her. So soon?, she thought.
The door swung open to reveal that it was indeed the magistrate. Behind him were two of the Godmother's guards. Ready to help the plump, middle-aged man drag the bedraggled girl out of the cell by force if needed.
Aldreera glared with as much fire in her eyes as she could muster.
"Oh? She still has some fight in her? That's good to see. This will make my boring evening worthwhile." but, before the guards barged into her cell Aldreera spoke clearly.
"I will go. No need to force me."
"Oh." Came that word again out of the magistrates mouth but, with less enthusiasm. "So, you'll go without putting up a fuss, little dearey?"
For some reason that phrase resonated with her and made her eyebrows furrow. Where did she hear that before? Who said that to her?
"Well, little thing I believe it's time for us to depart. Whether you'll be coming willingly or not." The magistrate put his right hand in the air, snapping with haste and, at that very second the guards rushed into her room and grabbed her by the arm. Aldreera struggled, flailing her arms and legs in a fit of rage.
"I said I would go without a fight. Put me down! Unhand me!" The magistrate looked her in the eye and, without any hesitation, slapped her across the face. Smack! The sound reverberated through the corridor. The slap was no limp slap either. It was the kind of slap a person would give only when they had to prove a point and Aldreera got the picture very clearly.
"You think you're the first person to say they'll go willingly and then try to escape?" The magistrate turned red. Anger in his eyes staring daggers at her. The beads of sweat could be seen making their debut on his forehead as the excursion just about brought him over his physical limits. His breathing came in short, panting inhales and exhales.
"Get her out of my sight!" And at that the world was turned dark again as a sack was placed over her head and a rope tied around her hands and feet. Aldreera was tossed into the back of a carriage without the slightest bit of remorse from anyone. That was finally where her luck began to pick up. Finally…