Dark and lovely

I sat anxiously in silence, my heart pounding, as the door slammed open. My hand instinctively covered my mouth, trying to keep the scream inside. He was coming. He would find me.

"Where are you?" he shouted angrily.

From under the bed, I could see the bottoms of his legs near where I was hiding. Tears streamed down my face silently.

"Come out... I know you're in here," he whispered menacingly while pacing back and forth.

I didn't move. I was frozen with fear, not a single muscle in my body twitching.

"You ungrateful person! Come out and face me! I am your lord and master. After everything I've done for you, you do this?!"

I couldn't hold back a small whimper this time. His deep laugh filled the room, and suddenly, I was pulled out from under the bed by my hair. I screamed in pain as I felt each strand being painfully yanked out of my scalp.

He forcefully threw me onto the bed, straddling me. His fists pounded on me relentlessly, accompanied by a barrage of profanities. I shut my eyes tightly, trying to shield my face with my arms. It wasn't until he tightened his grip around my neck that true fear gripped me.

My eyes snapped open, and I found myself locking eyes with the man who had haunted my nightmares for years—my husband. His malevolent eyes stared down at my struggling body. A rush of memories flooded my mind, recalling the once-happy life I had before being forcibly taken away by this man. I remembered how I was coerced, threatened, and blackmailed into marrying him. Images of the terrible life I endured since he became obsessed with me and claimed to love me flashed before me. At times, I even contemplated and attempted to end my own life to escape the suffering and pain.

But it seemed that I wouldn't be dying by my own hands anytime soon. This time, it appeared that the Dark Prince, my husband, would finally succeed in killing me.

"No, Anna, I'm not going."

"Oh, come on, Shirley, you have to go," my best friend, Anna, pleaded. Her light brown eyes begged me from where she lay in the grassy meadow.

I ran my hands through the grass, savoring the sensation of the gentle blades drifting through my fingertips.

"No, Anna, it's just a stupid ball." I had been trying to convey this to her for days. Ever since the invitation was posted in the center of our village, Anna had the misguided idea that attending would be a great idea.

But not me. Balls are just not my type. It's where the elegant rich ladies and lords got to. All it is used for is social status, and I'm fine spending the rest of my life as a farm girl.

"But it's the first ball that has ever been hosted in this region! When will a chance like this ever come like this again?" Anna whined

I sigh annoyingly, "If you want to go to the ball so bad, then why don't you go yourself?" I have better things to do, I thought. even though a part of my mind wanted to go and experience a change for once.

"Papa will never let me go on my own. He knows you are the responsible one between us. Pleeeaase, I'm begging you to come." Anna crawled on her hands and knees till she was in front of me and grabbed my hand. "This could be our chance, Shirley! we could get out of this village, we might meet a Lord that will fall head over heels in love with us and make us princesses..." Anna got that distant face as if she was daydreaming about becoming a princess and having a handsome prince.

I don't want to meet a Lord. All they are is rich folk who don't care about the likeliness of my kind. They will look down their noses at us in disgust. but even as I thought that, I knew that I was already caving in to Anna's wishes.

I just couldn't deny her for long. Then a thought burst through my mind and doubt spread.

"But don't you know the Dark Prince is hosting the ball?" I question her.

Anna pales slightly and she is at a loss for words. I press on. "The same Dark Prince that burns down villages and kills all in his path to conquer new land. He kills innocent farm workers like us, Anna. I heard he even takes in slaves." I whisper the last part as if the Dark Prince's spies were hiding in the surrounding forest.

Anna's eyes widen, but her demeanor quickly changes. "Yeah, but....but we probably won't even see him Shirley. There will be hundreds of people there, and he will be too infatuated with the Ladies to notice us, much less take us as slaves."

she had a point...

"Plus I'll make you an apple pie all for your own." Anna persuaded.

And that decided it for me.

"OK fine" Anna let out a squeal of delight. "But, what am I going to wear? I have nothing formal enough for this occasion."

"Don't worry Shirley! I have something that will look fantastic on you! Just come to my cottage tomorrow and we will borrow my dad's carriage to the ball."

I sighed. "Ok fine." as i lay down in the meadow gazing up at the clear sky. But even as I was agreeing, I couldn't help but wonder what I had just gotten myself into.