Heart of darkness

Chapter Twelve

That look was all I needed to understand what she was truly saying. Calia had never loved King Garett, he had broken her, tortured her into an emotionless, unhappy human who he could use as he liked . This must've been what Damian was planning on doing to me. Breaking my heart and soul into a million pieces along with my willpower.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, I saw a small tear slide down her cheek, but she quickly brushed it away, so she wasn't as emotionless as I had thought her to be. We stayed in silence for a few minutes, the summer heat was making me sweat in this gown.

"We must start planning the wedding." Calia jumped. Her sudden mood change almost giving me whiplash.

"Calia, I won't-"

"Hush, Aurora. We have so much to plan." The queen quieted me. Her willingness to talk to me had disappeared and I was left with this brainwashed mother who was oblivious to the actions of her husband and son.

I stood silent as Calia continued to ramble on about the wedding. All I could do was think about how I would escape and how I could bring Calia with me. Being here had destroyed her, the only way I can help her is to get her out.

"Calia, why don't you show me around the castle. I hadn't seen much of it yesterday." Due to your son being a brute. I wanted to say, though I didn't.

"Of course dear. Where do you want to start?" She asked as we walked out of the row of apple trees and into the open. I could see the Prince and his father on the patio, anger filled their facial expressions.

"Father we must wait to attack, the witches will be expecting this." Damian said as Calia and I walked up the stairs and to the table.

"Damian we have to strike now or we might never get our chance." The king stormed, I looked into Calia's eyes and saw only fear. As if she had witnessed this kind of anger before and nothing good would come from it.

"Calia, darling." Garett said when he noticed us standing there. "Damian and I, were just discussing our plan of action against the witches."

"That's good dear." Calia's monotone voice rang out and I could see the king's expression turn to annoyance.

"Calia, come here." The King said, his voice raising with annoyance towards his wife.

"Come love." Damian said to me, taking a painful hold of my arm. "We must give my mother and father some space to talk."

It was as if Damian knew what his father was thinking as he pulled me back into the dark castle, not before I saw the king's hand flying towards Calia.

The queen's screams of pain flew through the almost closed patio doors, I couldn't see the king beating her. I struggled against Damians grip as I tried to get to Calia. She was the only one in this prison who I could relate to, who had shown me kindness, I had to get to her, I needed to help her, I had to pry the king away from his wife. As I continued to struggle against Damian, his grip became stronger and a thought made me want to be sick.

He wasn't letting go, he didn't want to stop his father. How could he let his own father do this to his mother? Why wasn't he stopping it?

"Why aren't you helping her?" I cried and continued to struggle.

"Because it's not my place. My father saw it fit to punish my mother so I'll let him." Damian said naturally, as if he was used to this and had grown to see it as a normal thing.

"You monster.You would let your own mother get beaten for nothing? Well I'm not going to let that happen." I yelled and slammed my heel deep into his foot. Now I was pleased that he had chosen for me to wear such high heels.

I saw pain flash through his eyes and I took his distraction to yank my arm from his tight grip. A bit of relief flooded through me when I felt the pressure be relieved from my arm, but I quickly pushed the relife and ran to the door. Opening it I saw the queen now on the ground with the king hitting and kicking her.

I didn't hesitate, all I could do was run, adrenaline coursed through me adding to my bravery. Behind me, I could hear Damian's yells of anger and pain, I blocked them out and jumped in front of the queen. The feeling of King Garrett's blow to my jaw surprised me, though the surprise was quickly followed by immense pain.

It spread through my face like a disease, whipping out the feeling on the right side of my face. I suddenly felt the king's foot hit my stomach where Calia was supposed to be. Despite the fact that the queen was no longer there, he continued with his beating. The adrenaline and bravery I had felt before was gone and I felt pain flood through me, I could feel the blood dripping down from my nose, the rustic smell of my blood flooded into my working nostril.

I felt ready to throw up as the blood continued to pour and the King continued to kick me. Why wouldn't he stop? I wasn't Calia, so why did he continue to beat me? The only thing I could hear was Calia's pleas for Garrett to stop. But he ignored his wife and kept going.

Blood dripped down from my nose, my ear, my mouth and other places that I couldn't pinpoint. My vision blurred as I drew near unconsciousness, the last thing I saw was Damian rushing over and punching his father.