Cry Me a River |✔️

Chapter 56- Unheard Voices

^^What I wrote this chapter to~ It's gorgeous^^

"There's no such thing as not being afraid."
      ~Robert De Niro

*I literally rewrote this chapter for almost 5 hours...and I'm still not sure if I'm expressing it well enough. I guess you guys will be the judge of that.

Chapter 56

River's POV

I awoke to a light clinking beside our bed. My eyes opened, immediately met with a familiar brightness shining through the open curtains. I turned towards the noise and my eyes met with a redheaded maid standing beside our nightstand. She seemed momentarily stunned by my sudden awakened form. Yet, managed to immediately hide it beneath a bright smile.

"Good morning, Your Majesty," she spoke timidly.

"Good morning," my eyes moved to the tray in her hands. Her eyes followed mine only to make a slight jump as her eyes landed on the tray as well.

"Oh," she placed the tray on the night table and removed the top. The sweet smells of cakes and cookies whisked past the opened tray and past my nose as I let out a light groan.

I tried to lift myself from the bed to get to the food, but with Alastair's tight hold around my waist, it seemed indefinitely impossible.

"This is embarrassing," I breathed out, "but I am so hungry and so unable to get to the food. Would you possibly be able to set me a small plate on the bed?"

The maid's eyes widened as she peered anxiously around her and then back at the tray, "There are no plates here but I can feed you if you like?" Her voice rose an octave.

"If that's not too much trouble," I said softly as the poor thing scrambled for a fork.

She finally found one in one of her many pockets and set to feeding me from the tray of food, satisfying my aching stomach.

Her fingers shook as she raised the fork each time to my lips and I felt my heart tighten in my chest. She reminded me so much of myself, my past self. So afraid and so timid.

"It's alright," I heard myself saying.

Her eyes pulled from its deep concentration on the vibrating fork to my eyes with a certain uncertainty to them.

"If this is making you uncomfortable all you have to do is say so. I promise you won't be punished. My word is not that of the Goddess."

A light giggle escaped her mouth and she nearly dropped the fork as she squeaked and managed to save it from its ascendance to the carpet.

She continued to feed me for a few more minutes but eventually, she excused herself to go back to work and I found myself nuzzling back into Alastair's heat and falling back asleep.

My eyes opened, a sudden flash of nausea sparked through my stomach. I felt trapped, an arm wrapped around my chest, keeping me in place as I quivered.

"A-Alastair," I choked. Yet, no reply ensued.

My nails dug into his arm as I shakingly untangled his arm from around me. I was finally freed from his tight hold. I lifted myself from the bed with an unstable shaking to my every step out of the room. My throat felt like a desert on its own, as dry and bland as the sand itself.

Water.

That was all I could think of as I wobbled down the stairs, fingers grasping harshly against the banister as I held myself up by the metallic bar. My legs shook, barely stable enough to get down the stairs as I breathed slowly from my mouth, the nausea becoming almost too much for me to bare.