Delilah sat on top of her bed in a soft pink silk night gown, waiting for her husband to come in to bed. She was so worried about him lately, he had let such little things stress him. Even the petty work from day to day caused him such strife. And now the day’s new developments had put him on edge. He snipped and snapped at everybody, even the passerby couldn’t get away from him without a trite remark.
The transparent drapes blew gently in the breeze . Their luxurious room, shaped like a large wedge of a pie, was brightly lit by spheres of magic light hanging from the walls. Despite the darkening outside, the room was bathed in brilliance with the bright blues and light beige that decorated the walls. The room was simply designed, with only a few pieces of smooth metal furniture, including their wide bed, a dresser and two night stands. On the wall hung traditional hand made delicacies from their people.
Her husband’s first fan from childhood hung on the wall next to his brightly colored octha that his oldest son hand made for him. Each was made with the smooth dull metals that her people used with mastery and skill. Hung on the opposite wall, Delilah’s own fans were tactfully displayed on a simply metal shelf. The lights reflected off the metal drowning the room in more radiance.
She looked longingly out the window, past the trees and shining city that surrounded their house, up into the sky where a night owl roamed over head. The stocky short build of the owl was silhouetted against the bright full moon that dreamily floated by in the frosty dark blue sky.
Free. That was the only word she could think of to describe the moon and the owl, free. All she could think of was the free wind, the free leafy tree tops, the free mouse scurrying through the woods, all free.
But that was something she could not think of, if not for her sanity then for her husband’s. He had enough on his plate, no less to let her thoughts of escape weigh on him. She sighed heavily and watched the door, conscious of the freedom wafting from the open window, but she kept her eyes away from the tempting shooting stars and the sensuous black night. Finally he walked through the door.
She softly smiled at him and he gently returned the favor, obviously distracted. He walked up to the dresser in the far corner and started taking off his fine jewelry draped on his neck and hands. He unwrapped his elaborate designed silk shirt and leaned his hands on the short dresser, looking at himself in the mirror above. His built body, was withered slightly with age. His hair grew more and more gray with each passing day. Small wrinkles creased under his glossed-over eyes. Glossed-over from exhaustion he assumed. He mutter to himself, “Titus you are getting to old.” His wife’s hands appeared softly around his tight belly and her head rested tenderly on his shoulder.
She frowned, creasing her many wrinkles as well, “Um… to old? I think not, you are at the peek of your youth.”
Titus chuckled and put his hand gently around hers on his belly, “You think so.”
Delilah smiled widely, “Oh, of course.” But as she gazed at him in the mirror she saw the lines of time spread across his face. He was so tired. She wished she could make all the petty fears disappear for him, to make themselves disappear. Teasingly, the wind blew at her back with the whisper of escape. She shivered, “Mmm… it’s nipped. I think I will close the window.”
As she pulled away, Titus grabbed her hand “I like it open. Can we?”
Helplessly she nodded. She couldn’t say no to those weary eyes.
He rested on the dresser, looking deep into the mirror. Delilah leaned her back against the dresser next to him, turning her head to face his. Looking at this sagging profile, she sighed, “You look so tired.”
He took a deep breath, “That’s cause I am.”
“Daringly?”, she questioned him, “Why don’t you let him go?” As soon as she said this, he stood up straight and paced a little away from her, but she went on, “Or at least stopping hiding that he is here and hand him over to the government, it was years ago that he was here and he had no intention of coming here again.”
As soon as she said this, she could almost feel the anger build in him, he tried to keep his voice calm, but his bitter words did nothing to conceal his anger, “So you think I should just let him go, happy and free.”
Free, she hated that word more and more. Hushed, she answered, “Well, you could at least give him to the right authorities, and why not?”
Facing her, Titus spat, “To make him pay, that’s why not.”
Delilah shook her head, “How is that our place?”
Titus took a step closer, “It was my daughter-”
Angrily, Delilah interrupted, “He was doing what he thought was best and maybe that was what was best!”
Titus flared, he yelled out, “You were always on his side! You wished your fate with Ripple and our daughter, more than you ever did here!”
She folded her arms around herself, “We are not talking about what was, we are talking about now and revenge is not the way!”
Titus threw his hands up in frustration, “How can we not talk about what was. It was my daughter! Our daughter!”
Delilah had lost control on her tongue, “Don’t let stupid pride blind your view just because you are not man enough to let it go!”
Delilah knew she had gone too far, but Titus put his arms back down and took a few deep breaths and softly said, “Oh Delilah, I know my pride is too big. I am just not as good as you to let something die. But I can’t let it die, when my ache still lives.”
His dark eyes stared longingly at her, imploring for something, but she didn’t know what he expected.
Quietly she hugged him, rapping her arms around his waist and back, encompassing as much of him as she could, “Oh my love, think of it no more tonight.”
Ripple groaned as he dozed out of sleep. He lay on his side, with his cheek pressed against hard rock. Thick, wide metal cuffs dung into his hands. His head pounded in pain and his wrists ached. Slowly Ripple opened his eyes. Darkness closed in around him, except for some dim light that shone from a corner of the room. The floor and walls were made of flat jagged rock and the ceiling rose high above his head. The room was long and thin, shaped more like a rectangle then a square, but the most peculiar thing about the room was that there were no doors.
The dim light came from a passageway that quickly turned left, so he could not see into the dark hallway.
Exhausted, Ripple was content to lay there a while till he could get up the energy to stand. As he laid, his mind slowly recalled how he got there, and with a jolt of memory he saw Ellaway unflinching, face down in the mud. He squeezed his eyes shut and sat up. Where was she now? Surly the Kin had her lifeless body, ready to hand it over to an exuberate Greenda. He had to get out of here.
Ripple gazed at the corridor with no door. He looked around the room making sure no guards sat watching him. The room was empty. The lack of safe confinement irked Ripple. They hadn’t even tied his legs! What made them so sure he couldn’t just walk out?
He listened for noise and could hear people, talking quietly as they passed. Ripple stayed still until their voices faded away. When silence returned, he push against the floor and stood. Wobbling a little, he regained his balance, widening his stance. Gently he tiptoed to the doorway.
Cautiously, he examined the doorway, checking if there were any means to keep in their prisoner, but nothing seemed to be there. He wondered why a people would put him in a room tied up him, with no guards or locked door. Did they think the simple cuffs around his hands could keep him?
There was only one way to find out.
Hesitantly, Ripple took a step into the exit. Proudly, he looked the around, but he found himself facing the opposite wall of the room he just left! Disoriented and a little confused he shook his head and turned sharply toward the passageway. A befuddled look scrunched his eye brows.
Once again he headed toward the narrow way and not even a step in, he found himself back in the middle of the room. He couldn’t explain how it happened; it was like walking around in a circle without realizing it. He didn’t feel himself being pulled back in the room or being transported in any way, but some how he was there. With new determination he went at the door in a run, but almost ran straight into the opposite wall. He tried every thing he could think of, he walked out back wards, he ran out backwards, he jumped out and crawled out, he slid out against the wall, then the other wall, but nothing worked. Every time he took step into the hallway he ended up in some other location inside the room.
Frustrated, he turned and glared at the passageway, but instead of staring at rock he glared into a face he knew all to well. The dark figure and Ripple stood facing each other in a fierce stare down. With dark glowering eyes the man at the door spoke first, “Why have you dared to come back to our woods?”
Ripple cocked his head in shock, “Your woods? I was not near your woods nor had any intention of entering them.”
The man calming explained, “You were on the outer rim of our city, close enough for us to feel you, and reach you. That is pretty close for not coming here. Why are you here?”
Ripple let loose his civil tongue, “I am here because you brought me here! I had no chose and I would have definitely not chosen this fate if it were up to me!”
The figure folded his arms in front of him and simply said, “You know the destiny that lies with you here.”
Ripple looked at him cold, “So death is my sentence.”
The dark form took a bold step towards his prisoner, “Oh no Ripple I have a sentence much worse then death for you here. You, the free bird that flies from nest to nest with a trail of destruction behind you, will be trapped here till your far distant death. You will eat here, sleep here, live here,” he paused and delightfully added, “die here. With the door always open, beckoning you to escape, you will go insane here.”
Ripple felt a flicker of fear burn inside of him, he had already felt the suffocating truth of being trapped in one place, but he didn’t let it show, and chuckled, “Is that the worse you can do?”
His enemies’ eyes flickered with hunger and lust, but a smile played across his lips, “You are brave to show no fear, but I know better than that, you will feel the pain.”
Angrily Ripple spat out, “Oh yes! You should know the pain! She felt it every day here, didn’t she?! You know of the pain because you caused that upon your own flesh and blood! You punish me, but you should thank me!” The bold, firm, figure started to waver, “What!? Can’t handle hearing about her anguish?”
The man recomposed himself and smiled devilishly at Ripple, “Goodbye Ripple.” He turned and simply walked out of the room with no trouble. Quickly Ripple tried to follow, but found himself in another corner. The figure laughed loud and clear as Ripple looked around confused. As the man march off, his laugh echoed and rang in Ripple’s ears.
With unstoppable despair he sunk to the floor. A life time in this cell caved in on him, and the walls closed in around him. But he had been threatened to many times with death and entrapment to give up now. Somehow, he would get out.
Ripple sat…
and sat…
and sat...
With no company but his never ending thoughts, he sat. He didn’t even have a friendly fat rat to keep him entertained. There were no windows to watch the lonely world pass him by. He didn’t know if it was night or day and slept on and off, depending on his mood. He was unsure if a life time had passed or a minute since his last visitor.
Every once in a while a quiet man dressed in simple elegant silk shirt and a shimmering wrapped skirt, brought in wooden bowls’ of thick, dark brown mush, and of dirty, slimy water. He chuckled when he first saw the two bowls, and no spoon or cup.
They were trying to insult him. But he changed his mind, not “they”, but “him”.
Ripple remembered telling him about pet dogs, about keeping bowls of water and food for them to eat out of. He thought it was so ridiculous! Keeping a filthy, dumb, stinking animal locked up in your house! They didn’t think that highly of animals. Now his captor was keeping his own filthy, dumb, stinking animal locked up and feeding him out of bowls. But it didn’t bother Ripple, let him poke and insult, if it truly made him feel better, which he doubted.
His thoughts to often turned to the unmoving figure of Ellaway, but he tried not to think of it. Not thinking where she might be, or who might have her now. It was all his fault! If had kept closer to her, he knew she was the one they want, if he knew she was hurt…
When he couldn’t handle his thought, he attempted the haunting door way, trying to at least figure out its magic, but that only made him more frustrated. So he made an effort to climb the flat but jagged walls, but there was no part uneven enough for a good foot hold. But he couldn’t just sit! The tension in his legs from doing nothing was more then he could bear. To use spare energy he ran little laps around the room, then did a hundred awkward push up, crunches, sit up and any other exercise he could think of. Dejected and out of breath, he would crawl back to his position and… sit.
And as he sat, he was going crazy.
The whole ordeal was so frustrating! He didn’t understand at all about his daughter! He sees nothing! Nothing! And he didn’t even try! Didn’t even hear him out! It was maddening to be locked up for letting an innocent girl go free! If he could see her now, how happy she is! Then he would understand, surly then…
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