The Vixen and The Damned: Sleeping Beauty

Pain, that was the only thing she could comprehend. Everything, every part of her hurt. Her eyes swelled with tears, her body stung and her arms were too weak to endure her weight.

She needed to get up, laying there in self-pity wouldn't do her any good. She was well beyond the point of thinking life would change, that this was all a terrible nightmare and she hadn't woken up yet.

As her eyelids peeled open she couldn't help but wonder whether or not she was thankful for being alive, whether this was a blessing or a curse. As she sneaked a glance around her and her gaze settled onto the sleeping body beside her, she know it was the latter.

Aurora had expected many things from the narcissistic bigot beside her, but rape wasn't one of them. A tear slipped from her eyes as she recalled the past, reflecting on the moment that had changed it all.

A weirdly textured object was pressed firmly against her mouth, parts of it were wet while others were dry. It took her a moment to realize the odd object was a pair of lips, and an even longer moment to wrestle her eyelids open after their long slumber. Her arms jerked against the intruder's body, the limbs too stiff to properly move.

Thankfully the young man got the message and staggered back, a wolfish grin adorning his face.

"So the tails were true, the princess can be awoken by her true love's kiss."

A scoff fell out her mouth before she could stop it, a sarcastic remark followed.

"You believe in the poorly crafted sailor's tail the local maidens created to overly romanticise my fate?"

The voice echoing around the turret was hoarse and scratchy, sounding like she was being choked while speaking. A hundred years of slumber had apparently erased her drive to always seem and sound presentable. The egotistical male didn't take too kindly to being insulted and defended his 'logic' by her sudden awakening.

"You were lucky-" she shifted in her bed, successfully pulling her knees a little way under her butt and hoisting her upper body off the plush mattress before falling back down due to reasons unknown to her (after all, women weren't educated enough to know such things)

"-I wasn't asleep, I was in a coma, and your sexual harassment was seemingly enough to cause a burst of movement. My eyes have been functioning for over a fortnight, and my finger twitched two weeks ago, I should've anticipated this."

Apparently, the clear explanation staring him right in the face wasn't enough to quell his ego, and he began boasting about wedding 'the damned princess' and uniting their kingdoms. The poor princess could do nothing but comply, her sudden burst of adrenaline had diminished, leaving behind a weak pile of bones and flesh.

They had been wed, and quite grandly. Well, if you consider the sting of several slaps resonating through your face as the picture of your raging, forceful fiancé's features refused to leave your mind 'grand'. Not to forget the burning sensation coursing through her right leg as a result of her attempted escape, and the busted lip covered up by layers of make-up coated onto her face.

Her new family wasn't much help, after all, they were blinded by the promises of their kingdom's expansion to care about 'trivial' things like free will and abuse. Pleads fell on deaf ears and cries were ignored by blinded eyes. They had rehearsed the ceremony quite a few times, each time a new punishment was inflicted onto her fragile form due to her disobedience and refusal to utter the phrase that would seal her fate.

Each time the audience of direct family shrugged nonchalantly and feigned innocence. The silence was violence, and their refusal to help spoke volumes.

A broken sob escaped my body as I once again glanced back at the man that had ruined my life, the man who had 'claimed' me, and raped me, while I was unconscious. The man who was my husband.

It wasn't supposed to end like this, Aurora was supposed to live a life full of happiness, love and any material object she desired. As a teenager she had accepted her fate, her present couldn't have been changed but what she did after her hundred years of slumber would be her choice.

Her days would be full of freedom and fun, and her nights would be spent exploring her kingdom, the everlasting sleep making her an insomniac.

The naive little girl had held onto that hope, that little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. As a princess in her time, she was supposed to do what was asked, be what others wanted and just sit still and look pretty.

She hoped the future would change those silly restrictions, she hoped her future would change.

Oh, but fate had weaved a cruel tale, for she could see that freedom and change, yet couldn't acquire it. The loosely set ropes of limitations were now tightly bound across her body, the pain and helplessness almost suffocating. She didn't have to pretend to be a soulless shell, for she had become one. A cloudy look fell upon her eyes as she reminisced over that day.

"No, please, stop!" Screams begging for mercy were heard across the east wing, yet the prince didn't plan on seizing his movements, instead choosing to gag her.

"One more word out of your vixen like mouth and I will make this worse than it has to be. You deserve this punishment for degrading me in front of my family."

What could be worse than this? What could be worse than being forced to engage in such vile activities and then wed to the assailant?

She was not only stripped of her clothing and raped that night, but she was also stripped of her remaining dignity and faith in the world. She was stripped of all things pure and just, she was thrown into a cycle of despair, a cycle many humans from the future would face.

He hadn't tried to be gentle, no his sadistic tendencies ensured that the occupants of the castle all heard her muffled wails and screams. Yet no one had helped, no one had dared stop him.

Shudders and sobs racked her body, the body that was currently sitting beside the partially full bathtub.

"I tried mother, I tried so hard to save myself, but there are some things a lady can never be ready to face, things that ruin a human. I can still feel that maggot's hands crawling under my skin, seeking out ways to break me. And I have broken, I have failed you, mother."

Some would think the moment her head started pulsing due to lack of oxygen was the moment she regretted her decision, the moment she tried turning back. But there wasn't such a moment, relief and utter peace engulfed her being.

She was free, she was content, borderline gleeful. And she would be united with her family.