My Knight in Shining Armour, Chapter 1.

Chapter 1

Who’s There?

I woke up to a strange noise, I pulled myself from the hard, dusty bed and shuffled over to the bars of my cell. Outside my musty cell was pitch-black, so I could not see a thing.

‘Who’s there’ I called. No response. I wearily crept back and sat on my bed. I heard more noises but figured it was just the guards. Still, I was fidgety. Suddenly a strange figure of a man stood by the cell door. I walked over to him.

“You might wanna stand back” He cautioned. I raced away from the door as he pulled out a pistol from his coat. I see this happen even in the dark. He shot the lock on the door. I run to him and thank him for saving me. We walked out of the dungeon and out of the castle. The king is too scared of this stranger to even go after me. The strange man helps me up onto his horse, and we ride off into the sunset. We get married and have one little daughter.

A Noise wakes me up. A guard is hitting the cell bars with his crowbar. I look around in disappointment. It was a dream? I should have known! I start to cry. The guard yells at me and asks if I want to eat my supper or not. I quickly wipe my tears and get up to get my food. Tonight's supper is… Actually, to be honest, I don't know what it is. It looks like some sort of stew with cooked carrots, and potatoes, and..

“Wait is that a tail?” I ask the guard.

“Oh yeah, that there is mouse stew.”

I completely lose my appetite. The guard looks at me, waiting for me to be done so he can take my dishes back to the kitchen. I sigh and give him my supper. He shrugs and takes it. As he walks away I see him take the tail and eat it. I shudder in disgust, and try to wipe this memory from my brain. I know that the guard will tell the king that I didn’t eat, and the king will come down here and “talk to me.” As I sit at my table I think of the dream I had moments before. I felt so free. I hear footsteps down the hallway and know who it is. The king. I run to my bed and pretend to sleep. I hear the cell door open and shut. Silence. Is he gone?

“BEATRICE!” He scares me out of my pretend sleep. I look at him while pretending to still be sleepy. “Oh cut it out I know you were awake!”He scolds. “You need to be eating. I can’t let the people think I’m starving a lady now can I?” He asks clearly annoyed.

“It helps that no one else knows I’m down here.” I add quietly.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?”

“Um nothing. I’m sorry.”

The king shakes his head and looks at me one last time before leaving my cell and locking the door once more.

“Wait!” I holler. The king turns back and waits for me to tell him what I want. I decide If I am to live here forever, I might as well write about it.

“Could I have a notebook?” I beg. All he does is nod and walk away. It feels as if I have been waiting for hours before a guard finally returns with the most beautiful notebook I have ever seen. The guard hands it to me and tells me the king sends his apologies for the fact that the first two pages are used. I thank the guard earnestly and he leaves. I’m alone once more. I bring the notebook to my table and sit down with it. I run my fingers over the cover. The design on it is like nothing I have ever seen. The brown cover has a blue swirl engraved with gems surrounding the outside edge of the cover.. As I stare at this one of a kind notebook, I notice two little letters on the bottom right corner. R.W. I don’t think much of these letters. I flip to the first page, and that’s where I see it. A name. Roleena Walton. My mother’s name. I quickly read what my mother wrote. She had the same idea I had, to write about her time here in this prison. Only she thought of it two days before her execution. Let’s hope I have longer to live. I write about everything that has happened in the past three weeks since I’ve been here. My dreams, The meals I have choked down, The king. I think of why my mother had to go through this. She was taken away when I was only 7, She died a year ago, And now I’m 18. I don’t remember much about my mother. I do however, remember coming home from school, and she was there waiting for a hug. Her hair always smelled like lavender and vanilla. She was always smiling and laughing. She never had a reason to be sad. Everyone in the city was jealous of us. We had a perfect family. A mother, a daughter, a son. My mother knew she had it good. Until her son, my brother, was violently murdered by one of the king’s guards. I had never seen my mom cry until that day. When she got the news, she cried for a week. After that week, was when she was put in the dungeon. Here I am in the same cell as she was. I was put in here for the same reason as her. We both yelled at the king; we both accused him of killing part of our family. I’ve only been in here only three weeks but I already feel sick. Apparently I fell asleep writing in my mother’s little notebook, because I woke up still sitting at my table, open notebook under my head. I look at the clock that the king gave me. It is only 6:30 A.M., My food won’t come for another hour. Not like I really want any of the food I am given here, but because I didn’t have supper, I am starving. While waiting I glance up at my barred window to see the light shining outside. I grab the notebook and write. As I turn the page, the wind picks up outside. The next page has been torn out and set back in. I set the book down on the table under my window. I turn away for one minute, but when I turn back I see the wind picked the piece of paper up and pulled it outside through the bars of the window. I lunge toward it. It’s gone. Suddenly I have an idea. What if I can get someone to know I’m here?