16 Dreams

Amelia was scared. More scared than she had ever been before in her entire life. A guard was pulling her arm so harshly that it hurt and even though she cried out that she would behave he would not loosen his grip. Only when they arrived at her father's office did he let go and pushed her in front of him so hard that she fell and scraped her knees on the office's floor.

Behind the desk sat her father with a look of disgust aimed towards her.

"Stealing the viscountess' jewlery… I wouldn't have imagined" He spoke slowly without softening his burning stare for even a second.

This was a familiar scenario that Amelia had experienced in her dreams many times before yet it was equally horrifying each and every time. It took place after she had tried to run away with an expensive piece of jewlery that the madam had thrown away the day prior. During the night while the entire household was asleep and the nightstaff was switching shifts she had taken the opportunity to flee but it only took a few hours until the guards caught up to her on horseback.

"Not going to answer me, huh?" Amelia flinched when her father's tone sharpened at the lack of a response.

He got up from behind his desk and as he began walking towards her all she wanted to do was to beg for forgivness. But she knew that it would not matter, not with her father. Only punishment soothed his anger.

He stopped just in front of her and to Amelia who was kneeling on the floor he almost looked superhuman, towering over her with an enraged appearance.

He slowly removed his belt and tightened it between his fists.

"Stand up."

"Father please… I didn't steal it, she threw it away… She pleaded even though she knew it was useless.

"Stand up."

Amelia detached herself as he hit her, pretending that she was merely watching it happen from afar. That way it was more bearable.

After he was done her legs hurt so much that it was hard to stand and warm blood trickled down her ankles and stained the floor. She was not crying any longer and simply looked at her own feet with an absent stare.

When her father had put his belt back on he once again turned towards her and harshly grabbed her upper arm. It seemed like he had not deemed her punishment to be enough just yet. As he began dragging her out from the office and into the corridor outside Amelia did not have any energy to fight back.

She was being taken towards the broom closet, a cramped space reserved for when Amelias misbehaviour was deemed to be especially out of line. She was usually locked in it for hours, sometimes overnight, with no available lightsource, water or food. It was the worst imaginable punishment to her, being left in the dark with nothing to do but to listen to her own thoughts.

Due to the pain from the wounds on her legs it was hard to keep up with her father's pace and she stumbled multible times. When they reached the closet he threw her into it with so much strength that she ended up hitting her head against the wall.

The light from the hall slowly disappeared as the door began to close and in the remaining opening a large silhuette towered over her.

But the figure did not belong to her father as it usually did. Instead it was Dario Beaumont who was locking her up, with a wicked smile playing on his lips as he shut her away from the world.

"Don't ever think of running away again, Amelia."