Out

A Chapter by Dramallama

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"Open up!"

I turned my head slowly towards the door, which the guard was pounding against the reinforced golden door, cursing under my breath. If they caught me now, with a bag slung across my shoulder, about to jump off my balcony, what will they think?

I decided against answering, climbing down the side of balcony and dangling my feet over the next balcony. First balcony down, I thought as I dropped onto it lightly, before repeating the same thing for the next three balconies before my feet hit the the ground. I glanced around, relieved they didn't keep guards around this area.

I snuck over the the palace walls, finding loose stone in the gate I could climb and proceeding on with my plan. I hoisted myself up onto the top of the wall, glad to find there was a building I could jump onto a few yards away. I made my way down a nearby ladder on said building, brushing off my bright pink lady dress and shaking my head like a wet dog.

I brushed my fingers through my long, curly scarlet hair, concealing it under my hood as not to get caught roaming the city. Who wouldn't recognize this famous bright hair?

Apparently these guys don't.

"Hey, look who came out of the walls." A deep, grating voice boomed with laughter, and I heard footsteps closing in behind me. I turned my head slowly, before pressing my back against the wall as a big, burly man dipped his head down into my face with a greedy look on his face.

"We'd get some good cash for you, girly." He growled, and I dug my back into the tough stone behind me. There was no escape.

He snatched my up by my hair, and I let out a cry of agony. The rest of them laughed, but a voice rose in above their grinding chuckles. "Hey, you mind let tin' her go? I'd damn appreciate it, lads."

It was a woman's voice. It struck me as strange, because her accent was... Different, as if it weren't meant to be spouting English. Almost everyone in this country knew English, though. It wasn't uncommon to have different accents, like my New Zealand one.

"And who're you?" The boss crowed, laughing at the woman who he was blocking.

I couldn't see it happen, but suddenly the man was on the ground, holding his head and groaning in pain, holding his head.

The woman was standing above him, glaring down at him with amusement dancing in her eyes as she picked his belongings off him. "Sorry, lad, but I don't really like it when you mess with innocents on the streets. Thanks for the goods!"

Unloyally, his buddies had all already fled by the time I remembered they were supposed to be there. She snatched my wrist, yanking me along from behind the building. I quickly pushed up my hood, and blinked quickly.

"Where arre you taking me, exactly? And who are you?" I asked, calm enough not to freak out because she was dragging me away from my comfort zone.

"You'll see." She replied nonchalantly, and that scared me even more.

This was going to be a long day.
[Time Change; 1 hour]
We walked past many shops and such I'd never fathomed existed, like jewelry stores with more than just gold, fabric stores with silk AND cotton. Who puts those things in the same store, anyway?

She finally led us into a building, with a secret door and hidden stairs, of coarse, and into a room that looked nothing like any of the rooms in the palace.

"This is your house?" I blurted, and she gave me a funny look with her bright Emerald eyes.

"You've never been out of the castle, have you?" The woman guessed, amusement tingling her voice.

"No, I've never been outside the castle. It's not my fault, anyway. Don't laugh at me. I've always wanted to be free, and now they want to add a few more chains by wedding me off." I snapped back, accidentally expressing my anger about the news. Guilt hit me like a train. She didn't need to know that, or deserve to be snapped out for it. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap."

"It doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the fact you openly admitted to never having been outside the castle, but snapped about being metaphorically chained up by arranged marriage." She pointed out, vanishing into the other room for a minute, before emerging and tossing something to me.

I hastily caught it, and glanced at it. It was a loaf of bread, which made me laugh. "I'm not hungry."

"You will be if you don't eat."

Rude.

"My name's Daniella. What's yours?" I asked as I munched on the wheat roll, ignoring the constant sound of townspeople below. It's always so terribly quiet in the palace, but the noise, now that it was there, was simply annoying.

She took a long, hard look at me. "Ashleigh. Do you really not know who I am?" She asked, amused by my dumbfounded expression. "I guess that's alright. It's better that way."

As she turned away, I slowly realized why my father had kept me in the castle. Not that it justified it, as I would've run off either way.

Something tells me that when I leaped off that wall, I tumbled into a deeper shithole than I could've ever imagined.