Ria:
Natalia decides, when she gets in, that we need to stop at a café. So we all drive to whatever café she's referring to. It looks like a fairly small place. We walk in, and I freeze because absolutely every single person in here turns to stare at me.
It takes me a moment to move again. This place just turned hostile to me. I see an empty table at the very back. I rush to it and sit in the chair at the back of the table so my back is against the corner, and I can see every inch of the room.
The guards take a table next to mine, so basically, they are between me and the room. It doesn't really make me feel better, but I appreciate the gesture.
Natalia is working her way around the room, greeting everyone. An older lady with grey, curly hair piled on top of her head, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, walks up to the table. She's wearing a small apron, so I think she works here.
She smiles at me and draws in a big breath, supposedly to speak, but she freezes, her eyes get huge, and she covers her mouth with both hands. I swear it looks like she's about to start crying, and it's weirding me out.
Suddenly, Natalia is there, hugging her. Her face is pressed against the woman's other shoulder, blocking my view of her. Evidently, Natalia said something to her, cause she side-eyes me and gently nods her head.
Then she turns back to me, "Can I get you something to eat, hun?"
"Ah, no thanks, my stomach hasn't really been feeling fond of food lately. Thanks, though."
She smiles, "Well, how about a cup of tea? I have a really good one that'll help your stomach."
Well, what can it hurt? "Sure, I'll try it."
She looks at Natalia, "The usual for you, dear?"
Natalia nods and takes the seat to my left. I can see her watching me from the corner of my eye, but if I look at her, I might stab her with my fork.
It is only a moment before the lady is back, setting a steaming cup of tea in front of me, and she also places some sugar packets on the table.
Then she scurries off without a word. I take a tentative sip of the tea. It's actually really good. I honestly couldn't tell you what kind it is, though, but I add one sugar packet and start sipping at it. It is, in fact, helping to settle my stomach somewhat.
The lady bustles back in and sets a plate with some kind of sandwich and fries in front of Natalia, along with a drink.
"Thanks, Helena, this looks great." The woman, Helena, smiles and leaves again.
The door to the café opens, and I am so keyed up and attuned to everything that I immediately hone in on it.
There is a gentleman, probably late 50s, if I had to guess. That's not what grabs my attention, though; it's the uniform. It looks like what I remember Sheriff uniforms looked like.
He sees us in the corner and walks over. He briefly stops at the guards' table and speaks to them. Then, patting Svendish on the shoulder, comes to sit in the chair on my right.
We stare at each other. Suddenly, he looks down at the table I am pulled up to, then he shoots Natalia a glance. I am still just staring at him.
"I'm here against my will and am being held captive." I blurt out to him.
He looks at me, then his face softens in what I can only describe as compassion. He reaches over and places his hand over mine, which is lying on the table.
I stare at his hand covering mine, and my whole spirit deflates. He knows, he already knows, and he'll do nothing to help me. I jerk my hand out from under his and clamp them together on my lap.
I stare at the white cloth on the table for a second, making sure I have control of myself.
"Well damn, I thought cops in the US had cornered the market on corrupt cops. Way to show me I'm fucking wrong." I glare at him as I say it.
Helena places a cup of coffee in front of him, along with some pie. He turns from me long enough to thank her. Then he picks up his coffee and takes a sip. He looks back at me.
"So, what exactly have they done?" He lazily asks me.
My reply is scathing, "Well, they drugged me, kidnapped me, raped me, and are holding me captive. But hey, I'm starting to think that's just a normal weekend for this fucked up place."
He looks down at his pie. He doesn't say a word. He just meticulously eats his piece of pie while I watch him, hating him more every second.
Then he drinks his coffee. Once he's done, he turns back and looks at me. Right at that moment, a tear I couldn't hold back rolled down my face. He watches it the whole way. Then, without a word, he gets up and leaves.
He couldn't have said that better in a speech. He effectively showed me, without a single doubt, that he knows, and he doesn't care. This entire fucked up town doesn't give a rat's ass what they do to me.
In that moment, no matter how fucked up, I wish that someone would have obliterated this whole god damn place.
My stomach still doesn't feel better, but I robotically pick up my tea and sip.
At some point, Helena brings another cup and a small plate with different kinds of crackers. I don't say anything. Just go through the motions of adding sugar and sipping my tea. I nibble just a bit on a couple of crackers.
"This is our village, these are our people. Our family is very much loved here, and by extension, that will extend to you. Everyone here is a dragon. They will never help you leave."
I don't even turn my head to look at her or acknowledge that I heard her.
Eventually, we leave. Natalia says we have two more stops to make.
The first is to another boutique-looking store, and I internally groan. This place actually looks fancier than the other one.
When we go in, there is just a fancily decorated room, no clothes in sight. In walks a beautiful, statuesque woman.
She gives Natalia a kiss-cheek greeting, then they turn to me.
"She will need several gowns for official functions, so you should talk to her about what's appropriate. You know what types of functions we're talking about." With that, Natalia sits down in one of the fancy velvet chairs.
This woman approaches me, holds out her hand, and introduces herself.
"My name is Zoey, and I am most excited to meet you. If you'll accompany me to the table, we'll look at some items and see what you prefer."
I'm not sure what she's talking about, but I follow. We are seated at a round table, and she brings over a couple of books.
She sits next to me and opens the first book, it's full of dresses, but not ordinary dresses, nope, these are evening gowns and ball gowns and shit.
I look at them in disgusted horror. "Ah, I'm not sure what we're doing, but I don't do dresses, especially not fancy shit like this."
She pauses in shock, then looks over at Natalia, who gets up and comes to the table.
"You will need dresses like this. You will be expected to attend functions with us as the mate to the royals."
"Well, they can leave my ass behind. I don't even want to fucking be here in the first god damn place. So why the fuck, would I torture myself by wearing things I despise to make my kidnapping rapists happy?"
I am yelling by the end of my tirade. I am just done, I am beyond done.
They both stare at me open-mouthed, like they can't believe I said that out loud. Too fucking bad, why the hell should I keep my mouth shut? Obviously, this whole fucking place is complicit.
I storm out of the store, passing the guards stationed outside the door. I rush to the car, rip open the door, and get in, slamming the door behind me.
I yell, loudly, at no one in particular, "Get me the fuck out of here now!"
The guards look at each other and get in the car. Natalia follows shortly. Once everyone is in the car, they drive us back to the house, or castle, or my prison, whatever the fuck it is.
When we get out of the car, the guards grab the bags. I don't pause, head upstairs to the cage they prepared for me. I don't bother closing the door behind me.
One of the guards deposits my few bags down on the bed and retreats.
I go into the closet. I start violently ripping down everything that's not black and simple, and absolutely not a dress. I throw them into a pile on the floor. Then I claw through the drawers. Anything that's not black, or has lace or pretty bows and shit, I add to the pile on the floor. Then I add all the shoes, except the ones I'm wearing, to the pile.
When I'm done, I have a fairly good pile. I gather it all up and head downstairs. When I reach the foyer, Drago and Natalia are there talking. I dump the whole pile on the floor.
"Give it away or get rid of it. If I see any of it again, I will build a god damn bonfire!"
With that, I turn and go back to the room. I don't put anything away in the closet. I keep everything in the bags and put them on the floor by the armchair. Then I grab the comforter off the bed, and curl up in the corner, with my back to the wall, with the armchairs in front of me. Only then do I let the tears fall.