death and imprisonment

"Sam!" She screamed immediately without thinking, her eyes glued to the lifeless body a couple of meters away. The body was covered by cloth but something in her told her she would find Sam's face underneath the blood-stained cloth.

Her blood ran cold instantly. Time seemed to slow simultaneously as her heart pounded inside her chest so vigorously that she could hear its beat reverberate inside her eardrums.

Kiera staggered, making her way through the bloodied hallway. The blood made the hall slippery so as she stumbled her way she slipped and fell on all fours next to the body. She released a gnarled cry as she lifted her hand, now smeared with blood. She was shaking uncontrollably as she reached for the cloth, blinking between the visions of when she found her deceased parents and the present.

"No, please!" She cried in between taking gasps of air, to keep herself from hyperventilating. "Please," let this not be him.

Kiera had to use both of her hands to lift the cloth, one hand over the other to keep her hand steady. Once the cloth was pulled back far enough for her to see, she regained enough sense to make out some of the body's features.

The visions of her dead parents ceased overlapping with reality and she slowly began breathing normally again.

Staring down at the body, she felt only relief as she confirmed the head looked nothing like Sam's. It was the face of a man that was much older than Sam. He seemed so familiar to her but she couldn't remember since she was still not fully back to her senses.

It wasn't until she recovered her hearing that she finally registered the sound of heavy footfall heading her way. By then it was too late for her to do anything as the knights descended upon her. They surrounded her with their swords drawn.

***

Kiera had been dragged to the dungeons beneath the palace even though she went willingly. She remembered the face of the Head Knight, and the smug look as he personally pushed her into the dark and musty prison cell.

"Get inside savage."

He closed and locked the metal grate door, spitting on the floor of her prison cell before he disappeared, leaving two of the knights to guard her.

Kiera's head reeled. She still couldn't understand what had happened to her.

She was found covered in the blood of one of the human Kings. That was what led up to her being shackled in the underground prison to await for a decision to be made about her fate.

Her head went through every detail that she remembered again and again as she sat on the cold stone floor. More than half of what she remembered was unclear because she had been too preoccupied with finding the identity of the body.

She spent hours on the floor with her back against the wall, staring off into the dimly lit prison corridor just outside of her cell.

Kiera felt a shift in the room when another knight entered, followed by a hooded figure. Her head lifted up to follow the path of the knight and the hooded person when she smelled the familiar scent.

The new knight passed a leather pouch to each of the knights posted by her prison door.

"Make it quick."

One of the knights guarding her door gruffed, and then both of the knights to her prison cell started to leave. The first knight was stopped by the hooded figure who stepped in his way.

"What do you want?" The knights seemed annoyed.

"You need to open the door." The knight that had come with the hooded man spoke up in his stead.

"Are you crazy?"

"What difference does it make? There's only one exit out of here anyway."

She watched from inside her cell as the knight stuck a metal key into the keyhole of her door and swung it open. "Her feet stay shackled to the floor." He instructed, pointing to the shackles around her ankles.

"Like I said, make it quick."

Then he and the other knight that was guarding Kiera's cell stalked away, leaving Kiera alone with the hooded man and the knight she had never seen before.

"Kiera." The hooded man entered her cell without hesitation, going over to where she sat on the ground and enveloping her in a hug. She wrapped her arms around him too, all too happy to feel his warmth.

"Sam," she said in a hoarse voice, "you are safe."

Sam brushed a strand of her black hair away from her face and kissed her forehead.

"My love, can you tell me what happened?"

"That's what I've been trying to figure out. I found the body already in that state." She shook her head, wanting to forget the memory of feeling like her whole world was crumbling. "I thought it was your body lying there."

"Why would you think that?"

"You weren't at today's meeting." Upon listening to her, he seemed to understand instantly.

"Oh Kiera," he reached down to take her hands even though they were dirty and caked with dried blood. "I'll get you out of here soon. King William is also doing everything that is within his power to help."

"I know," she smiled weakly at him, "I'll be fine in the meantime."

He looked as if he wanted to say more but the knight that came with him and had stood by silently guarding the both of them cleared his throat.

"The guard said time is up."

Sam cursed fiercely under his breath. Upon hearing such scalding words come from a prince, she bit her lip to keep her from laughing.

"Listen carefully Kiera," he bent his head down to whisper straight into her ear, it was the most serious she had ever heard him. "I will be periodically sending you food through one of my people. The trays will each have a small carving of a sun. Only eat from the trays that have this carving."

She nodded her head once to indicate she understood.

"I love you." He turned his head and kissed her gently on the lips quickly, then he stood up from the ground just as the two knights returned.

"That's enough. Get out now."

He silently did as he was told and stepped out of Kiera's cell. He watched as the knight relocked Kiera's door.

"What are you still doing here? Go." The rude knight made a move to shove Sam but he was blocked by the knight Sam had brought with him.

"We are leaving." The knight seemed to say something to Sam that successfully convinced him to leave.

It was painful to hear his retreating footsteps, but Kiera knew he had to leave to prepare for whatever it was that he needed to do. In that time, she would wait and follow the instructions that he had given her.

First was a tray that was brought to her with measly scraps of bread and a horrifying sludge of goo that only slightly resembled soup. As soon as the guard that brought the tray of food left and closed the cell door, she inconspicuously searched the wooden tray for any signs of the small carving Sam had told her about. Finding none on the tray, she kicked the tray away with her shackled foot.

"Seems like she isn't hungry." One of her guards walked by her cell and opened it to pick the tray of untouched food away, perhaps thinking she was going to regret kicking it away. Then he made a show of throwing away the food before her very eyes.

"Starve then."

The hours trickled on by and the knight had been replaced with new ones. She was certain it was the next day as another knight brought a tray of food for her and again Kiera searched for the sun carving.

She had found it. A few tiny squiggly notches around a carved circle. There was no doubt in her mind that it was a Sun.

Kiera ate the food on the tray quickly, scarfing down the stale bread and licking the bowl clean of the goey stew that only appeared ghastly, but was actually delicious. She could only wonder in amazement how Sam had gotten the stew to look like that.

Kiera sat back once she was done and one of the guards came in to take her now empty tray away.

She quickly lost track of how much time had gone by. The indication of time even moving at all was when she was brought the trays of food. Kiera stuck to what Sam had told her and only ate from the trays that had a carving. For the other trays, she would find different ways to make it so she didn't have to eat it.

"Look at this, she spilled this one all over the floor." Her guard had roughly kicked the bottom of her shoe when he went inside her cell to take the tray out. "I'm not picking that up."

Another time a guard tried forcefully feeding her the food she left untouched. He must have not known that Beasts were much stronger than regular humans as she easily pushed him away. He tried again and she had bit his arm, drawing blood as she growled out. It took another four guards to get her to release the man's arm and that was after they kicked her and punched her.

"Bloody Beasts! You will pay for this!" The knight Kiera had bitten screamed as he had to be taken away to get treated.

Kiera laughed and then spit out the blood of the man from her mouth.