Into the Azure: A Fantasy Bad Boy Romance (9 page)

I held Eva as tight as I could for as long as I can remember. It was one of those moments that truly were suspended in time. As she held me I saw the slave girls leaving the room one by one silently. I looked down at Eva’s feet and noticed that she was wearing the same kind of boot that had been kicking the poor girl. But it couldn’t have been her, I thought. We gained control of ourselves and Eva lifted me off of the floor. “I have so many questions for you,” She said shaking me by my shoulders. “But first let’s get you dressed,”

“I concur,” I laughed, wiping the residual tears from my eyes. “What are you doing in here anyway, you could get in big fucking trouble for this dude, big fucking trouble,” She said looking out the door and into the hallway.

“Well,” I started, “This is just where the girls took me,” I explained trying not to make anyone sound guilty. Eva turned and looked at me through her brows. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, those stupid fucking bitches, are they trying to get you killed? When I get my hand on them, arrgghhh…” She trailed off her voice sounding different. It didn’t sound like Eva, it sounded mean. “No, they were told to bring me here, by a guard,” I explained trying to calm her. Could it really have been her boot kicking the poor girl. “I’m afraid they misunderstood sweetie, no one is allowed in here but slaves and the Queen, you should be thankful I found you and not her. ” Eva cupped her hand and looked both ways down the hallway and then turned to me, “She’s an evil bitch, if you catch my drift.” I smiled and gave her a halfhearted laugh.

“HEY, HEYYYY!!!” Eva yelled into the hallway, her voice trailing off the high walls. Eva threw me a towel that sat on the back of the wooden chair and I covered myself with it. I heard the sound of boots as a guard ran in. He immediately embraced Eva, she seemed to almost recoil at his touch. She pushed him back, he looked me up and down and nodded his head. “Can you tell me,” Eva started, her finger pointing up towards his face, “Just what the hell those slave girls think they are doing? They just so happened to bring not just a friend but MY BEST FRIEND back here to bath and dress, would you mind telling me just what is going through their minds?” Eva stood there with her hand on her hip, staring at the guard who in turn stared at me. He took a couple steps towards me and stared me down. “Did you arrive here with the king today?” The guard asked me, his English seeming slow and broken. “Yes,” I said, my voice slightly shaken. “Were you with the prince before you left with king?” He added. “Y-Yes,” I said, starting to get scared. The guard quickly kneeled before me and took my hand in his. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” He said, his mask touching the top of my hand. I looked up at Eva in confusion. I saw her looking down at the guard, clenching her jaw so tight it looked like it might just fall off all together, her eyes looked like they were on fire.

The guard lifted himself to his feet and walked over to the table, he picked up two fine cotton towel and pulled out a long, black silk dress from underneath them. “This is for you,” He said, pushing the dress into my arms. He hurried over to the door, Eva stopped him before he could leave. “Would you mind telling me just what is going on,” she breathed through her teeth, her voice sounded stretched and tense. “She is property of the prince and king,” the guard explained as if it were nothing, “Kings property right now, he holds on to her for the prince.” The guard leaned down to kiss Eva on the cheek and I could tell it was all she could do to keep from smacking him all together.

The guard rushed out and Eva stood there staring at the floor, her face looking contorted and confused.

“Is-is everything OK Eva,” I asked, almost scared of her response.

She looked up at me through her brows. I had never been scared of her, but something about the look in her eyes that she had then made me absolutely terrified of my own best friend. “Yeah, fine, get dressed, I’ll show you to the house.”

She turned quickly and slammed the door behind her, making one of the many painting on the wall fall to the floor.

I dropped my towel and threw on the dress the guard had given me. It was one of the softest dresses I had ever worn, its silk bodice caressing my breasts just right, the long velvet skirt just hitting the floor below me. It was, by far the finest thing I had ever worn.

I spun around in it a few times, making the skirt fly out below me. I stopped for a moment; Is this what could have gotten Eva so angry? That I was getting special treatment? She had never been the jealous type, if anything she embraced, almost celebrated when other people were doing well, that kind of behavior would be completely unlike her.

I shrugged it off and chalked it all up to her just having one of her “Eva” moments. I walked over to the table and pulled on the underwear that had been left for me, then the small white socks, then the small black leather boots that were not unlike Eva’s. I picked up the painting, a Monet, and hung it back on the wall straightening it meticulously before I turned to leave. I felt good in that moment; cleaned, dressed, reunited with my best friend. I walked towards the door and couldn’t wait for Eva to tell me of her journey.

That night Eva and I had walked the grounds together, I told her of everything that had happened to me; the prince, the fight, the carriage ride, the food, sleeping for two weeks. She was almost completely silent through all of it. When I asked her about her adventure all she could do was mumble about some “stupid guard” she had met or that “evil bitch” of a queen. She only perked up once when I brought up the slave girls.

“A bunch of worthless bitches is what they are Izzy,” she said, stopping in the middle of the courtyard as we were on the way to her house. It was almost night and the shadows cast down on her face, making her look even more cruel and hollow than she sounded.

“You can’t just come here and start making assumptions about the order of things, you have always done that. You always think that you know the right way to do everything, well Honey, here you don’t know anything, so just drop it OK?” She barked as she stormed off ahead of me, I hurried behind her not wanting to be left alone.

We walked into a small circular stone building, Eva slammed the door behind us, barley giving me enough time to make it in. I looked around, trying to get a proper layout of the house, but Eva turned down the lantern to only a flicker before I could get a good look. She grabbed some extra blankets off the end of her bed and pushed them into my arm. She pointed to another cot in the corner. “You sleep there,” She said, sounding almost caveman like. She jumped in her bed and turned her back to me, her frame small and delicate underneath the heavy blankets. I sat on the edge of my bed and looked at her, “Eva, is something wrong?” I asked, genuinely concerned. “No, go to sleep Izzy.” She muttered, sounding more than annoyed. I laid down and threw the heavy blankets over myself. I laid there awake for the longest time, listening to the noises outside of the window; a guards’ boot, chatter the occasional whinny of a horse in the distance.  The one thing I didn’t hear, was Eva’s snoring. I had spent to many nights with her to know that that girl never fell asleep without sounding like a chainsaw was being started. I rolled over and looked at Eva, her back still turned to me. Her breathing was still small and fast, like it was in the courtyard. I could tell she wasn’t asleep. I began to wonder; What is wrong with my best friend?

I breathed your name into the wind as I stared up at these stars, my darling. I gazed endlessly into the abyss and wondered, if thousands of miles away, you may have been gazing at them as well. How could you have been torn from me so easily? Swept away like leaves in a rushing creek. Where have you gone? Where had he taken you? What is he doing to you? I stared up at these stars and swore on every one of them that I would return to you, that I would find you. No matter where he had hidden you, I would soon be at your side, it was only a matter of time. I could still feel your skin underneath my hands and it drove me wild. The thought of him touching you made me want to shriek, made me want to smash my own body. When I got my hands on him, he would kneel before me, and he would pay dearly for what he had done to you. I swore on every star and bet my kingdom on the moon; I would be there for you soon.

I just breathed your name into the cold night air, hoping maybe the wind would carry my voice to you.

All I could say was; “Izzy” “Izzy” “Izzy”

I could hear her stirring in bed as I laid there staring at the stone wall. I could feel all of the blood in my body rushing to my ears, making them ring and pound, as if I had just gotten punched in the head. I clenched the blankets so hard I felt like my fingers were going to snap. I could hear her tossing and turning and tossing and turning, the sound of her occasional sigh made my feet numb with anger. I clenched my jaw and grinded my teeth, trying to block out the sound of her all together, but her every movement was nearly ear shattering. I felt a chill run through my body every time she moved and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to will my mind to block her out entirely.

I heard her turn one last time, let out a deep sigh, and then settled, her breathing growing steady and predictable as I stared into the darkness. I swore that if she had not stopped moving in that moment, I really thought about throwing myself out of my bed and smothering her with my pillow. I could make it look like an accident, surly the creatures of the Azure, as progressive and advanced as they may be, would not be able to do a proper autopsy on a human.

Or, I could blame my guard. I could say that he busted down the door in the middle of the night, threatened to kill me before trying to have his way with her. He would have used the pillow to try to mask her screams and wound up killing her. That would take care of both of them at the same time. Or the shelf that hung above her head that was heavy with bowls, plates, knives and pitchers could fall on her, crushing her head completely.

Or, I could somehow get ahold of the poisonous pendant that the Queen wore around her skinny neck. I knew how much Izzy loved her evening cup of tea. She would sip it down as we talked about our new lives in this new land, where we were going to go and what we were going to do with ourselves. We would watch the bright lavender sun set across the land until darkness finally covered the valley of the kingdom.

Being the gracious host that I am, and always will be, I would offer to put on some water for tea, she would accept as she stared off at the stars that would have just appeared in the night sky. I would slip into the house and boil the water, add some of the strange herbs my guard had gifted to me as some kind of present, their taste bitter and unsettling. I would slip in some of the deep purple poison that the Queen wore, and come back out into the darkness. By the cover of night Izzy would never notice the difference in color. She would sip it down, still trying to make small talk, I would oblige her in her mindless banter, nod my head while smiling warmly.

The way friends do.

She would carry on about how she missed her pointless life on earth, when she really just lived in some crappy apartment in a ritzy neighborhood she didn’t belong in, no boyfriend of lover to speak of, spending those long nights on the roof of her building, gazing off into the stars like she was expecting an answer to reveal itself in the constellations above her? How she missed her shitty desk job and the cheap wine she would drink by herself at night. I would agree with her nonsense, indulge in her pitiful nostalgia. She would sip her tea and then begin to complain that her stomach hurt. I would help her into her bed where she would hold my hand tightly, scared of the pain she was in.

Maybe she would try to get up, I would have to hold her to the bed and let the poison do its work as I would watch the light slowly fade from her eyes.

She could get “kicked” by one of the horses if I hid the blood covered rock well enough.

She could have drunk the poison herself before turning in for the night, not wanting to live in this dimension with the Azurians.

She could fall off of a stool.

Or drown.

Or choke.

There’s a lot of horrible things that can happen to a girl.

I sat in the utter silence of the room thinking about the day we had; first off with her valiant effort to try to protect the mutant slave girl. What business was it of hers what I did with my slaves? She had no idea what I had been putting up with from that pitiful mute. The way her stiff hands struggled to do even the simplest of tasks I asked her to do. How she trembled whenever anyone merely spoke to her.The way she never made the water quite hot enough to clean my linen. The way she nearly dropped every plate she ever picked up, making her virtually useless in the kitchen, the list went on.

But today I had told her, as nicely as I could, that I needed the two new linen dresses the guard had given me hemmed just slightly near the ankle. Not the hardest task in the world, I had also told her that I needed it done by the next morning and to leave the, folded neatly, on the spare bed in my quarters.

When I was done serving the King and Queen their breakfast that morning, I saw as the Queen had motioned towards me and whispered something into my Kings ear. He nodded his head as she furrowed her brows and sipped the bitter tea I had been serving her.

She reclined back into her hard wooden chair and removed to poisonous orb from her neck, looking at it and then, at me. I began to grow anxious under her stare as I rushed to the Kings side to pour him more tea. I saw the Queen give him a sideward glance as my shaking hand tried to pour the foul smelling liquid into his cup.The King glanced back at her before turning to me and asked why I was wearing my ragged cloths, and why I was not wearing the new dresses that the guard had given me. I knew he was going to notice, and I had known the Queen had noticed, the way she stared at me up and down with a slight grin on her monstrous face. I knew in her mind she had been mocking me.

“Well sir,” I began as I held the hot, silver pitcher that was hot in my shaking hands, almost burning my soft skin in my hands, “They were beautiful as always, and I am grateful for you allowing the guard to gift me with such fine linens.”

The queen scoffed loudly as she crossed her bony legs and turned towards the window.

“But you see,” I continued, my hands shaking with rage as I stared at the Queen out of the corner of my eye, “They were just a hair too long around the legs, so I gave it to the mute girl last night to take in for me. I wouldn’t want such fine clothing dragging on the ground and getting dirty, my King.”

The king paused as he took a sip of his tea and looked over at the queen, who nodded at him, her eyes dancing at what was to come next. He dabbed his mouth with a napkin and then turned to me.

“Well, my dear, then where are your dresses now if you gave them to her last night?” He lifted his hand and dropped it on the table, making their cups shake, his tone was harsh and annoyed. He stared into my eyes looking for an explanation.

I looked at the queen, I could tell that she was egging him on, trying to get him to humiliate me. He looked back and forth at her, waiting for her approval.

“You have given her the entire night and she still had not finished them?” His voice was becoming louder and I began to shake.

Well, I um-,” I stammered, clenching the silver pitcher tight in my shaking hands.

He looked back at the queen as I tried to find the right words. She looked back at him, raising her eyebrows, telling him to go further, that she was not pleased yet, that I needed further punishment before she was satisfied.

“I-I-I,” The words simply would not come out of my mouth, it was as if someone had poured cement down my throat.

I saw the king become red in the face as he lifted his massive hand and slammed it down on the table, sending a crystal vase of roses flying to the floor, smashing everywhere.

I jumped back almost spilling the pitcher of tea all over myself.

“SILENCE!” The king bellowed, his voice bouncing off the walls and making my ears ring.

He paused for a moment and stared into my eyes, his breathing was heavy, his hands clenched into tight fists. He stared at me as if her were ready to kill me, I trembled in fear.

“Who are you?” He whispered.

I paused for a moment, not know if I should reply or wait for him to tell me who I was.

“You,” he started, I breathed a deep sigh of relief for not having to answer his question. “You are the Head Slave Mistress, is that right?” He leaned back in his large wooden and crossed his legs, waiting for my response.

“Y-Yes,” I croaked.

“Well then, would you mind explaining to me why your subornments have failed to meet you demands? Did I not place you, and you solely in charge and they are ignoring your requests?”

He looked back over at the queen who continued to gaze out the window, I believed she was satisfied with his torture for the moment.

“Perhaps I misjudged you,” he said, looking to the floor and shaking his head in disappointment, “perhaps you are not a leader, perhaps you are not the one I should have placed in charge of my slaves.” He leaned forward, picked up his mug and sipped at his tea gently, almost lady-like in his mannerisms. He reclined back into his chair and dabbed at his damp lip with a fine napkin.

He stared off at the wall for a moment, before shaking his head and rubbing at his eyes. His obvious displeasure was enough to make me want to run screaming from the room, made me want to hide before the Queen nodded at him again.

He sighed and looked back at me, “How can I expect things to run smoothly in my kingdom if even your own girls will not listen to you, will not complete even the simplest of tasks without you having to hunt them down, how can my Queen and I trust you when you seem to have zero control over those whom are below you?”

I gripped the hot sides of the pitcher at a loss for words, I tried to think of something. Blame it on the girl, I thought to myself. Make her pay for this, not you, you are above them Eva, act like it.

“Well I- “My voice quivered, trying to come up with some excuse.

Before I could get my words out of my mouth, the King grabbed me by the skirt of my dress, pulling me towards him and almost knocking the pitcher out of my hands. Lifting my skirt to his face, he squinted his eyes and stared at the black fabric of my linen dress, examining it, rolling his finger over it while cocking his head, he made me feel as if I were just a bug under his boot, something that needed to be exterminated quickly.

My heart pounded as he looked over my clothes, scared of what was to come next. In one swift movement he reached his massive arm up and grabbed me by the back of my hair, almost ripping it out of my skull. He pulled my head hard to the piece of my skirt that he held in his paws, send the pitcher to the ground and dropping me to my knees. His hands shook as he held me there, shoving my face into the linen.

“Do you see this?” He shouted in my ear making it ring like a bell, his heavy hands making my head shake under his massive grip.

I stared down at the linen and noticed a small hole in the fabric. I remembered that the guard had been stacking wood in my fireplace the day before and had sent an ember flying onto my dress, making a cigarette sized hole in the heavy fabric. I had scolded him severely, almost to the point where I thought he was going to leave my chambers in an embarrassed rage. But, like the fool he was, all he did was bow at my knee, kissing my legs and apologizing profusely. It was pitiful to see creature of his magnitude bow down before a mere human as myself. But that is just what he was; pitiful.

“WELL DO YOU?!” The king boomed, almost shoving my face into the rough fabric.

I raced through my mind, trying to come up with the right words to say. My eyes focusing on just that small hole in my dress, wondering if this was just to be my demise, and it was all because of that incompetent guard.

“I-I, the guard,” I stammered, sound what the mutant slave girl would have sounded like if she could have ever built up the courage to speak.

The king threw his hand, tossing me to the hard stone floor. I laid on the ground for what seemed like an eternity, my dress becoming soaked with the spilt tea. I tried to decide if I should raise my head or not when I felt him grab a fist full of my hair again, almost lifting me off of the cold floor. He pulled my face to his and stared at me directly in my eyes, his pupils enlarged with rage.

I glanced over his shoulder and looked at the Queen. She sat there staring at me, her fingers folded together and her face laying on her knuckles, the hideous smile plastered across her wicked face as it always was whenever the King decided to give me a shakedown at her command. Her dead, grey eyes were alive with wonder as the king held me in his grip, nearly tearing the hair from my skull.

For a moment I saw the king nearly stammer over his words, he glanced back at her, looking for approval. She took the pewter cup of tea she had been sipping on and grabbed for her scepter that sat by her side at all times. She rose from the table and glided across the floor hauntingly, as if she were a ghost. She approached the King slowly, then entire time staring at me, her long ivory teeth glistening like polished knives. She reached down and touch the King ever so gently on the shoulder, smoothing her gnarled, pale finger over his leather suit. He bended at her waist and took his head in her hand. She pushed away the tangled locks of his dirty blond hair and leaning into him, kissing him ever so gently on his soft lips.

The King closed his eyes and seemed to savor her taste. His grip loosened on the back of my skull as he became transfixed by her touch, her spell being cast upon him.

She parted from his lips as he stared at her deep in her eyes, captivated by her. She pulled herself back up, I gazed upon her as she towed over my small, quivering body.

“It’s time for my bath, darling, I will be in my wash room,” She cooed, her voice about as pleasant as nails on a chalkboard.

The King nodded, still staring at her, as if her was awaiting further instructions as to what to do with me next.

The Queen glided across the floor, the tails of her long leather gown floating across the floor. She slowly opened the large wooden door before turning to the King and I. She gazed at him sweetly, then looked down upon me and lifted one of her long, black eyebrows, as if she was examining me. She tilted her head, still staring at me, her gaze feeling like fire throughout my body. She tapped her scepter on the stone floor, her wicked face full of thought. She let out a deep sigh before lifting her eyes off of me and placing them again on the King.

“Darling,” She said in nearly a whisper.

The King nearly jumped at the sound of her voice. He repositioned his hand on my head, grasping my hair tighter, obviously trying to please her, trying to put on a show for her by displaying his dominance over me.

“Yes dear?” He croaked, his voice was eager, if I didn’t know my King so well I would have said that he almost sounded scared of her.

She looked down at me and shook her head, then looked back at the King.

“Do with her what you please, my love. She must learn her place in the Azure, and that she is not to be serving her masters in filthy clothing, if I were having a worse day I would call that a crime almost punishable by death itself. But today, my dear, I am feeling rather kind, so we shall just reprimand her for her wrong doings and leave it at that.”

The King quickly nodded his head up and down as she spoke to him. He was taking note of her every demand. I shuddered thinking that my life did in fact lie in the clutches of this witch, this demon. What were I to have done if she were having a bad day? Would they take me out side and shoot me like a rabid animal in the streets? Would I drink of the Queens poison, something I’m sure she would love to see, me choking to death on my last words, her horrible, twisted face hovering above mine in my final moments. Or would the king just simply take my head in his massive paw and snap my neck like a twig? I trembled thinking about it as he tightened his grip on the back of my head and continued to nod his head, eagerly awaiting further instructions from the wicked Queen.

She looked down at me, her figure still massive in the large doorway. Her crooked smile grew larger, and my impending sense of doom grew stronger as she gazed upon me.

“We wouldn’t want to have yet another mutant, mute, slave running around our kingdom, now would we?” She spoke as she stared me down.

“NO!-No, my love, I believe one is quite enough for this Kingdom!” The King exclaimed, his voice sounding desperate and cheap.

The Queen nodded at him lovingly. It was all I could do to keep from screaming, all I could do from just letting the King rip a hunk of my hair out if I tried to make a run at her. Yet, I hung my head and staid still, I would never want to disobey the King like that. He had been too kind to me.

She turned her back and lifted her head before gliding out the door and closing it with a slam behind her. I felt the pressure of a thousand years get lifted off of my bony shoulder as she exited the room. I could have sworn the air almost felt lighter when she walked out.