Dove.
My vision swam but I exhaled, the man wouldn't find me here, I tried to reassure myself, and I could hear him loudly grumbling as he threw fists out at the stone on the other side of the wall.
"Turtle Dove, oh my beautiful little turtle dove!" THUMP.
"I'm so sorry to have pushed you, I didn't mean it." THUMP.
"Come out and play with me." THUMP. THUMP.
He slammed his fist into the wall separating us with each sweet word. The stones tremble a little with each punch but they don't give and he doesn't find the small stone to press at the lip of the base of the wall to reveal the passage.
His pleading turns to threats, "If you don't come out little dove I'm going to tell the madame what you did." THUMP.
"Then I'll fuck you anyway and just pay the extra fee to punish you." THUMP.
"You won't be able to walk for weeks." He howls, beating his fist against the stones. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
My breath catches in my throat. Is that what killed Raven? Endorsed punishment fees? I felt sick.
His voice then gets dangerously low and he stops hitting the wall, "I know you're in there Dove, I can see the blood on the floor.. if you don't come out I'll buy you from the madame." He promised, a clear threat. I shivered again feeling nauseous.
"You made a mistake when you told me your name, because when I get you home I'll bring my brothers... and we'll use all three of your holes at the same time. I'll make sure you suffocate on my cock all day every day while my brothers claim your asshole and your pussy all at the same time like the good little whore you are. You'll pray for death because we won't stop, we'll keep going for days on end... just when you think you've got some relief, we'll breed you and then force feed you your spawn every time you birth a new bastard." This is a dangerous, twisted thing of a man.
I shudder growing cold from more than just my exposed chest, the bile rising in my throat. I can't stay in the Aviary. He'll come back for me. I know she said she wouldn't hire me out but who knows how true that is. Unable to stop myself, I throw up, hoping my silent heaves aren't apparent from the other side of the wall. I feel light headed.
Tears slip down my cheeks, even with the Usurper not here and with the madame saying I wouldn't take callers, she wasn't everywhere all the time. My leg throbbed from whacking the yet to be healed bone on the stone staircase during my fall and I see my bound hands shaking uncontrollably in the dark. Pulling my right hand out of the belt loop with great difficulty, I reach behind my head and feel the dampness of blood. The passageway fades from view as I slump over.
When I regain consciousness the walls are cool and damp under my hands and my shaking isn't as bad. I thought it would be darker but a slight blue shimmer ran along the floor. It pulls at me, tugging something deep inside that I couldn't recognize, something just beyond my reach. I could still hear the sounds of revelry up the stairs but the angry man's shouts are gone. As I pray he forgets me, the weird melody of slapping bodies, cries and music that permeated my entire being while I was here rises up to fill the void left in his silence. The sounds that overwhelmed and kept me from really truly sleeping, from my place curled up on myself on the cold floor, were almost comforting.
The urgency of my situation wouldn't let me just sit there though. He could come back, he could make good on his threats and I'm powerless here. I have no guards, no family, no support and nothing to keep me safe. Tonight was proof of that.
I placed my palm against the cool stone and stood up to take a step forward into the dark, it wouldn't be safe to leave the passageway until morning when he was gone. Without any other options and hoping the passageway may lead outside, I took another step into the almost darkness ahead of me, then I took another. Then another. Then another. Then another. I didn't know how I'd find my way back but anything was better than the sound. With all the dust it was apparent that this section of the fortress hadn't been used in a very long time. It was safe. Eventually silence wrapped around me like a cool blanket and the only thumping I could hear was the rapid beating of my own heart. Still I continued following that blue glimmer deeper into bowels of the building.
After a long while of walking in the dark I could blissfully only hear my own breathing, the scuffling of my feet and the random drops of water. Time dragged on and when I thought my legs would give out, or I'd faint from blood loss, the passageway opened up into a flat platform. In its center was an eerie blue, warm, flame.
The humming jostled my nerves and I turned to rush back up to where I'd came from.
"Child of the light" a soft voice whispered in my ear, closer than the humming had been, "it's been so long since anyone has visited me in the dark" it cooed. I stood frozen. Tips of cold fingers strummed down my right arm in a comforting gesture.
"You don't need to be afraid, breathe child." The voice chided in the dark. I exhaled shakily. "I can't see you.. who are you... what are you?" I whispered.
"Ah" she tutted, I could hear a tap of a finger against skin and then the clap of hands. "Yes. I can fix that." She announced. The world around me shifted. I could almost taste the ocean breeze, the hot sun on my shoulders and the feel of sand between my toes. "H-h-how" I gasped. Backing up and falling with a soft thud. A musical giggle came from behind me.
"You act as though you've never seen a simple illusion spell child." It chided. I picked up a fistful of sand, letting it trail through my fingers. Nothing about this was simple. Instead of fighting or fleeing, because nothing could be worse than where I'd come from, I turned to face the voice. As I started to pivot, she approached me and then plopped down in the sand next to me. I took a moment to really look at her. Her hair was a luscious silky red that trailed down her back and shimmered with other colours if I looked at her too closely. Her skin was fair like mine, but paler even still, almost white. When she turned to fully face me, she flashed the most spectacular golden eyes. "Ma-maat'ar" I whispered under my breath, stumbling over the word.
She quirked a head curiously at me before turning back to the ocean. "I don't concern myself with the foolish names of foolish kinglings" she grumbled.. grumpily? I could only wonder what she meant.
"What's your name? How did you end up down here, did the madame send you?" I asked in a hurry. She gave me a long look.
"I used to have a name but I haven't walked among our kin for a very very long time.. I don't quite remember it now." She seemed to whisper in my ear, both close and far away from me at the same time.
I felt a pang of pity. Maybe she'd been trapped down here, but she was marvellously well kept for someone who was living in a dungeon though. I reached out to grasp her hand and her shadow passed through my fingers like snowflakes in the summer. She laughed again, this time it reached her eyes.
"Child.. I told you, I'm already gone." A ghost? What a curious creature, but it didn't seem to possess any ill will towards me. I was surprised by how unafraid of her I was now that I could see her face. Her eyes, eyes so similar to the ones from my dreams at night.
"How are you still here?" I asked. She shrugged, "sometimes these things don't always hold sense, maybe you can help me?"
"Well.. yes, I can try." I tried to smile and I tried to mean it. That seemed to be enough.
She looked back out to the horizon ahead of us, silent for a moment as she tapped her index finger against her lips, "I like the name Cleo."
"What do you remember about your life before this? Maybe you have some kind of unfinished business that's keeping you here." I whispered, I didn't know much about ghosts but that seemed to be a reasonable suggestion as much as any I'd ever read about in a book. Sometimes my mother had read to us devastating tales of wronged mothers haunting their husbands or scorned brides returning from beyond. She didn't seem like one of those.
She was a slave but a beautifully well kept one. Almost as if she sensed my words, she frowned at me, "I'm as much a slave as you are you little fool." I wasn't sure what she meant.
She then disappeared without warning and the illusion faded, so did her warmth. I crawled forward closer to the blue flames to stop the shaking that was starting again.
I was again left alone in the dark with only the soft blue light to chase away my night terrors. I wrapped my arms around my knees. After the strangeness of my encounter with Cleo faded, what I just went through hit me again and I sobbed until my stomach started to spasm. Eventually even the spasms faded and exhausted, I drifted off to sleep.