His blood red eyes eerily gleamed in the moonlight. From the small window I could clearly see the moon and admired how it traced his visage and enhanced his beauty. If it were any other day, I would have admired how his face always seemed to curve into a perfect ever-changing smile. If it were any other day, I wouldn't be here in this damp and dark cell awaiting my inevitable death.
Today his face was etched with an unpleasant frown and those gentle sunset red eyes only looked towards me with disgust. What did I do wrong? Is love a crime?
I wanted to run away from his scrutinizing eyes, but my ankles were chained and there were two empty spaces where my hands used to be. I wanted to curl into a ball and hug my legs, a habit I had picked up when I was forced to hide from my abusive father in my first life. His eyes reminded me of my father's, it was the way he would look at my mother while throwing beer bottles at her feet and how he would look at me as I grew older. "You look just like her." he would say mockingly.
But it was all wrong, it wasn't supposed to be like this. How could he look at me this way? Everyone else could look at me in disgust except for him. I was made for him, he was the only one who could love me, the only one who gave me a reason to exist.
Incoherent words tumbled out of my lips and my eyes pricked with tears, but he continued to look at me indifferently as if I was an ant he could crush under his feet. The tears spilled down and blurred my surroundings, but I still continued to mumble out grunts and moans of pain. My tongue was long gone and now I was numb. The proud daughter of the light was now begging on her knees in the dark.
I continued begging and sobbing until my throat bled and my eyes were bloodshot. I believed that he was the only way to escape this hell.
Suddenly, I heard laughter. A low and hallow laughter came from that man's lips and he sneered at me. "Did she beg you when you whipped her and locked her up for days? You knew I loved her, so you tortured her for countless nights. If I didn't find her, she would have died." His voice was low and menacing, like the edge of a blade.
I did whip her, and I found ecstasy in her cries. These confusing feelings of disgust and pleasure haunted me for days and nights in this cell. But she deserved it, she took him away from me. He could only ever be mine.
"I know you don't regret it, you're at the end of your road and still look at me with those disgustingly sweet eyes." He continued darkly. "Don't worry, your death won't be easy. In two days, you'll be executed in front of the public for the murder of nine noble girls and the kidnapping and instigation of rape of your sister."
Once he finished his words, it felt as if a cold basin of water had been poured over my soul. He had abandoned me for the villainess. The last life-saving straw that I owned had been severed by his hand.
"Ahahaha!" I rolled on the ground and roared out in a depressing laughter. My hair was draped over my shoulders and reeked of feces and death; it had long lost its gorgeous golden luster and now was greyed and dull. It was strikingly similar to my current straits. I had been abandoned by everyone and now the only road I could take was death.
***
The clattering of heavy metal chains could be heard throughout the colosseum as a broken and battered woman dragged her way towards the stage. Her hair was tinted with gold, but was matted and dry, simply incomparable to its glory of the past. Her lips were chapped, and the sleeves of her dress hung lifelessly at her sides; her bright blue eyes that used to be full of light were now dull and lifeless. Her delicate ankles were bound with heavy chains that caused her to stagger as she walked. Her slender legs eventually gave out and the two imposing knights at her sides dragged her to the guillotine.
The hall of the woman's execution was shrouded in an eerie silence despite the thousands of commoners that occupied its seats. The only emotions that could be seen throughout the crowds were disgust and fear. The woman was a real-life version of the monsters that children have nightmares of as they sleep, and to add to this trepidation, was that she was the illegitimate daughter of one of the most influential ducal families in the kingdom.
A priest dressed in his midnight garb walked onto the stage solemnly and cleared his throat. He occasionally looked towards the seats reserved for the highest nobility, and as if receiving a signal, parted his lips and began to speak. "For the crimes of murder, kidnapping, assault, and attempted rape I hereby strip prisoner A of her birth name, family name, and sentence her to death by execution."
The woman failed to react for a long time until she seemed to hear a faint name and began to cackle loudly. Her shrieks sent chills down the spines of everyone present. It was filled with what seemed to be remorse, shock, and a tinge of despair.
The harshest of punishments in a kingdom that highly valued names and family names was the removal of such names. To remove someone's name was to deprive them of a burial place and isolate them from others in both death and life.
The woman released a slight sigh and closed her eyes. The image of a woman who had seemingly accepted her life and death as her head rolled down the steps was etched in the minds of all those present for a long time.