Girl Possessed (Book 1 of The Girl Trilogy) (8 page)

I wondered nervously what had happened
to Shaul. I didn’t see him at the lake while I was climbing down
the mountain. Where could he have gone? There was no time to save
him now though. Soon the work day would start and if I didn’t show
up, the guards would come looking for me.

I quickly stripped out of my clothes
and bathed in the pond. Despite the pain I felt in my body and
mind, I loved these moments alone in the serenity of the water.
Lying on my back, I gazed up at the leafy branches overhead, tiny
streams of sunlight breaking through upon my face and the
water.

Water was my life force. My long black
hair spread out upon the surface of the pond. It was fifteen years
of shiny waves as my mother had never let me cut it. A half a year
from now would be my birthday; on that day puberty might start, as
my mother warned. I had no idea what she meant exactly—she said a
lot of strange things, always full of secrets. But, I didn’t want
to clutter my mind with thoughts about that right now.

As I floated on my back, trying to
get a grip on reality before I went to work, I thought about the
faerie I had seen below the cliff. Nothing made sense to me. I
wondered if Shaul had seen the faerie. And then I thought about how
my mother said she used to go to that lake when she was young. Did
she know about the faerie? Was that why she said I couldn’t go
there? And if so, why not?

It all seemed so surreal. I felt like
I was living in some sort of science fiction dome cinema show, kind
of the way I felt when I first learned that the serpent people had
taken over the United States.

Then I started getting worried again.
The stinging in my chest was bitter. My thoughts were negative.
What if the serpent people’s air scouts discovered Shaul at the
lake or what if he got caught by someone in our community? I was
filled with fear.

I stepped out of the pond. My upper
chest looked clean. The bleeding had stopped. I could see the word
“slut” set in my chest in pink lines. It would leave scars, but I
could hide them with my shirt.

Though I was completely naked, the
private parts of my body were covered by my long wet hair. I
quickly washed the bloody spots on my clothes in the waterbed and
hung them to dry on a branch under a thick stream of sunlight. It
was hot out, so they would be dry enough in no time.

I was starting to get anxious, afraid
that more time might have passed than I guessed and that maybe work
had already started, but I had to clean off the blood stains or the
guard might ask questions.

Then a sudden shock overtook me, I
felt a warm hand grab me at my naked waist. I turned around and it
was Wardo, President Tratzel’s guard!

11

The guard didn’t even let me dress.
Instead he pulled me along roughly through the woods. His shiny
head sweated in the heat.

“
Get in there,” Wardo
commanded. His voice was gruff and threatening.

I was forced into the head quarter
cabin and put in a tiny pitch black holding space.

“
Wait!” I begged. “Please
let me out.”

He didn’t respond. Instead, I heard
the padlock thump against the box as he locked me
inside.

Darkness surrounded me. I hardly had
enough room to shift my crouched body position. I thought the
summer heat was intense outside, but inside this box, it was
excruciating. I wondered if I would suffocate. I felt around the
walls with my hands. There was no way out.

But, just when I thought I was a goner
for sure, the guard must have opened a small vent at the top of the
box because a thin stream of air entered in computer generated
vibration. To my dismay, neither the darkness nor the heat altered,
but the gentle hum of the generator and the air gave me hope of
survival at least.

This must be part of the punishment
for being late to work. If I could just make it through the rest of
the day in this box, the evening public whippings for tardiness
would be nothing in comparison. In this crouched position the cuts
on my chest stung something awful.

Hours later, I was dehydrated and felt
very dizzy. An odd chill had overtaken my body even though it was
extremely hot inside the box. But my only solace in the darkness
was that I could hear a soft shimmer of song deep within my mind
like a velvety echo in the distance. It was as if someone was
lulling my senses. The sounds lifted me up to a higher realm beyond
the discomforts of the physical. I felt as if I was losing touch
with reality.

Shortly thereafter, from inside the
box, I began to hear the distant sounds of people gathering in the
clearing in anticipation of my public whippings. I felt sorry for
my mother, knowing she must have been worried to death about
me.

I heard someone approaching the box.
There were a few knocks on the side wall. I felt the vibrations as
I leaned against it in my delirium.

“
Wake up, Peach Cake,”
Wardo said gruffly. “Time for the gathering.”

The guard unlocked the box and dragged
me out by my bare leg as he tangled his hands in my long black
hair. “Stand up!” he demanded in his low, guttural
voice.

I flinched at his roughness, but
submissively wobbled to an awkward stance. He dragged me out of the
cabin door and into the spectacle area of the woods in the space
between everyone’s cabins where community meetings were held and
public punishments were facilitated.

With the entire community standing
before us, he pulled me atop the platform. In the sea of faces, I
gradually began to recognize people I knew. I saw Lola, Franz, and
Tomaru from school and some of my fellow workers. The cook and his
wife with their young children whispered to each other. I noticed
Jezebel Bradeere glaring at me.

Then I saw my mother’s face turn pale.
I wanted to reach out and comfort her, but the guard held my wrists
tightly together.

In my dizziness, I almost forgot that
I was entirely naked except for my hair that cloaked my privates as
well as possible. But, when the realization that I was fully
undressed hit me, my face reddened from humiliation. This isn’t so
bad, I reasoned with myself. At least you weren’t caught crossing
the boundary line. The punishment for running off during my chores
was only whippings. Whippings are painful and cause scars, but I
can live through that.

Mazen Tratzel stepped upon the
platform and stood beside the guard that held me. He began in his
usual toned speech, “Today we are gathered to witness the
punishment of one, Cordellia Dressemme, who was caught crossing the
boundary line…”

The crowd gasped. My mother screamed.
I nearly fainted at his accusation. How did he know I crossed the
boundary line? Nobody saw me except for Jezebel Bradeere. She must
have reported me.

He continued, “This is the most severe
crime. It is a crime of the strictest punishment.” He looked around
at the crowd, their eyes widened. “Cordellia Dressemme is sentenced
to life imprisonment in our newly restored dungeon. There will be
no further tolerance for this crime. She jeopardized the safety of
us all. Let her be the example of what happens to the serious
offender.”

At that, in my dreadful haze of
disbelief, Wardo pulled me down the platform steps. My heart broke
when my mother tried to push the guard away from me and he threw
her to the ground.

“
My baby, my baby,” she
screamed. “Don’t take my girl.” She was crying and pleading, “Don’t
take her. Don’t take her. Please.” Then she grabbed onto the
guard’s leg.

The guard kicked her off. I wanted to
kill him, but he held me tightly by the wrists. Her womanly face
was as white as snow. I had never seen my mother so
addled.

Everyone else stood oddly still
looking at me blankly. Some bodies quivered slightly in
bewilderment, hiding their emotions out of fear of
punishment.

I struggled to get away. I felt I had
nothing to lose. But, the guard smacked me in the face and forced
me along.

I surrendered, realizing I could not
get away as he pulled me through the trees, over thorns and
thistles, past a stream, and finally to a gothic stone building on
an edge of the forest that I had never seen.

I was shocked and couldn’t think
straight, but I did notice the eerie looking building he was taking
me to. It was narrow and tall with stone pillars at the
entrance.

Once inside the grey walls, I was
given a cup of water to drink and a brown robe to dress in. In
silence, Wardo led me down a long, dim stone stairway to the
dungeon area.

My heart was pounding so fast. I felt
as if I could hardly breathe—I was so frightened. At the end of a
short hall, he unlocked a heavy door and pushed me inside a small
stone room.

“
You’re a stupid girl,”
Wardo said in his gruff voice. “You’re almost pretty except for
that hunch on your back and you threw your life away.”

“
Please help me,” I
gasped.

“
Stupid child.” He kicked
me hard in the stomach. I keeled over just barely holding my
balance.

Without saying another word, he picked
up a long whip leaning against one of the grey walls. And in a sort
of sudden rage, he threw me to the ground and began whipping my
back.

I was shocked at the intensity of pain
I felt. It was an excruciating sting that cut through my skin and
made me fear for my life. I clenched my teeth, trying not to
scream. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me.

Then as quickly as it occurred, he
locked me in the dim, cold room and I was alone. My eyes glazed
over. I could hardly believe my devastating turn of
fate.

Barely able to think straight, I
rolled onto my side in utter pain and opened my eyes. The room was
dim, grey and mostly empty except for a sink, bathtub, and toilet.
The floor and walls were made of stone. The ceiling reached high,
high up with a small window at the very top.

My head reeled with turbulent thoughts
as I realized this was where I was to spend the rest of my life.
The idea was insane, yet true.

I must have dozed off because when I
awoke, the darkness of night had descended upon the cell. I heard
someone’s footsteps moving toward my room and then a latch lifted
and a key turned at the bottom of the door. A stream of light
shined through the bottom edge of the door as a small slider
lifted. Then a tray of food slid through. The slider quickly closed
and the latch shut. The light faded away into blackness.

The food was horrible. I couldn’t see
what I was eating, but it tasted like stale bread and smashed
beans. I bit into something crunchy and bitter and realized I was
eating an insect, probably a cockroach. I spit it out, gagging and
wrenching.

I crawled in the darkness, feeling my
way to the sink. It was a primitive sort of sink compared to the
computerized sinks I was accustomed to in Los Angeles before we
were forced into hiding. I had to turn the handle myself which I
knew how to do because we had a sink like this in our cabin in the
woods.

My back stung and ached something
awful from the whippings, but I managed to tilt my head to the side
and let the flow of water rush through my mouth, rinsing it clean.
I splashed some on my face and cut chest, trying to rinse the
burning wounds.

Then I felt around in a cabinet
beneath the sink. I found a small towel, so I wiped myself off.
There was also a blanket in there. I laid it on the floor and
positioned myself upon it on my side. To my relief, my mind became
hazy in exhaustion as I drifted off into dream world, a place I
longed to stay.

I was so exhausted from everything
that had occurred and weak from my injuries that I slept through
the next couple of days only waking to use the toilet and to eat
meals. But, on the second night in my dreamy haze, I was startled
out of my sleep by the sound of a piercing scream.

12

The scream sounded like a woman’s
voice. But, as the high pitch waned, other noises came. I heard a
lion roar! How could that be? There was pacing like the steps of an
animal. Then the pacing changed to the pitter patter steps of a
horse. And then a loud “Nay” sounded… and snorting that I knew most
definitely was a horse. Was there a woman, a lion, and a horse in
the cell beside me?

The rest of the night I sat up leaning
against the stone wall between us listening to the strange noises,
the faint songs still luring me to the lake sounding in my weary
head like background music to a circus of sounds behind the
wall.

The woman began to talk incessantly in
another language. Nothing she said made any sense to me, but the
imagery lit my mind and directed my thoughts away from the
stinging, burning pain that nearly overwhelmed my body.

As the sun began to rise and the room
began to turn from black to gray, I closed my eyes and fell asleep
with my cheek against the wall. My dreams were surreal, entirely
vivid and all about Shaul Hainsworth. He was beautiful with
disheveled black hair and entirely surrounded in light. He caressed
my cheek and my mind filled with love and peace.

When I awoke to the prettiest little
song in my mind, the sun was bright overhead. I guessed it was
around noon time. My back itched like crazy, but I knew that was a
positive sign. It meant my wounds were healing.