I'm Alone

Lost Memories- By Ever Blackthorn
Chapter 1
I was sitting in a dark corner of my cell, away from the sunlight, unable to sleep. I was waiting for the guards to come and take me away so that my suffering would finally end. It seemed I had been here for a year, when in fact I had been here only four months. I thought I had plenty of time so I let my mind wonder and soon found myself reliving bits of my past. I was strapped to a chair; silver bound my wrists to the chair.
I heard footsteps coming towards me and a man chuckling at me.
“What’s the matter little puppy? Can’t move?” He laughed again.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked in a small voice.
“I’m going to have some fun”.
At that point the man (who I now knew as the Prince of the South) had whipped me, stabbed me, robbed me of all the possessions I had on me and when he was finished, locked me back in this room, in this chair.
But no more; I killed him.
That’s the reason I was here, in the dungeons of the King’s palace and hiding in a corner.
When I had killed the Prince I had accepted the punishment long before I had done the deed. I was so sick of being used that way and it drove me over the edge. The punishment was obviously death but I was prepared. If I died I wouldn’t have to put up with all of the memories, the memories of my teeth sinking into his throat and tearing until his head was completely detached from his body. Not a very pleasant scene if you ask me, and I did it!

I heard voices coming towards my cell. This is it, I thought, I’m finally leaving this miserable world.
But when I lifted my head, the guards were leading me in the wrong direction. Instead of turning left at the end of the hallway, they led me through a door on the right that led into a messy office and in the middle sat a neat desk with a man sitting behind it. He didn’t look up until one of the guards shoved me and I fell onto the floor.
“Please don’t treat prisoners that way in my office, you are dismissed” He had emerald green eyes and uneven chin length black hair. He sounded very bored, sitting at his desk interrogating the prisoners for who knows what reason.
“Iliana isn’t it?” he said, holding out his hand for a handshake.
“Yes, sir” I replied, hesitantly shaking his hand.
“My name’s Ash. Do you know why you’re here?”
“I killed a member of the royal family”
His eyes widened slightly, like he was expecting me to lie. I knew I was going to die anyway, so what was the point?
“Well today would be your lucky day Iliana. How would you like to work as a cook in the palace?”
He had to be joking. But as I looked up into his eyes all I found was complete honesty. All I could do was nod my head and stare.
“Good, I’ll send for Dixie, one of our maids, to come get you”
He got up and walked out the room to speak to the guard. When he was gone I tried to take it all in. I was going to live! Ash said that I would be a cook, so I would help in the kitchen. One problem with that, I’ve never cooked or stepped inside a kitchen in my life, or at least I think so.
The thing is, I don’t remember any of my life before I was imprisoned by Prince Jake.
Ash came back in the room with a girl my age with curly brown hair with a straight fringe. She was also wearing the dark green uniform of a servant.
“Iliana this is Dixie, she will show you to your room and show you around. If you have any questions ask her and she will also get you up at dawn so you can start learning about equipment and such with me every morning. You are dismissed”
Wow. I thought they were just going to dump me in the kitchen and see if I fail. They must not be as mean above the ground, away from the dungeons.
Dixie came towards me and took my arm gently and helped me out of the chair and headed out the door.
“We’ll go to your room and get you a change of clothes and get you to the bathroom so you can clean up”
We walked past a number of doorways, each one closed and old looking. No, not old, ancient. This castle would have to be hundreds of years old.
Dixie stopped at a door and got a fancy looking key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.
Inside was a room that looked like no-one had lived in it for ages. Dust was everywhere and I was expecting to find a skeleton or something to fall out of the closet when Dixie opened it and took out a pair of black pants and a white shirt. A cook’s uniform.
As soon as Dixie locked the room back up we were heading towards the bathrooms. What surprised me was that the bathroom was only a couple of doors down from my room.
“I’ll wait out here and when you’re finished we’ll go back to your room and you can get some rest, you’ll need to be up a bit earlier than dawn so I can get some breakfast in you”

When she left me alone in my room I lay in bed thinking. I escaped a death penalty today. That one sentence kept swirling around in my head. There was also something I found quite amusing. I was in the dungeon for murder but they made me one of the cooks. For all they know I could poison the King’s food or spike his drink. The thought made me smile and I eventually fell asleep.