Agnes looked so unkempt as she sat at one end of the prison. She was starving, it’s been days now yet no one had come to give her food but for Tracy, her cellmate, it seemed like a particular soldier was assigned to her because he kept bringing her food, not just anyhow food but quality food.
Agnes was hungry but the shame in her wouldn’t let her ask Tracy for food and Tracy, on the other hand, had entirely ignored her since she came here.
“Please help me with just a little,” Agnes pleaded when she couldn’t contain the hunger anymore.
She was expecting Tracy to ignore her, but surprisingly Tracy handed her some loaves of bread.
Agnes devoured the bread like she was going crazy, she has been so hungry for days. She never knew being thrown into the prison was this bad, but then it was okay to her as long as she was no more Beatrice puppet.
Beatrice woke up the morning feeling so angry, she had a strong urge to hurt people that day, but who was going to walk into her trap?
Beatrice hated to admit it, but it hasn’t been easy without Agnes. She has grown so used to Agnes carrying out major jobs, but now Agnes was no more her servant.
“I am going for a stroll,” Beatrice announced to the two soldiers she personally assigned to herself, and they nodded in response to her.
As Beatrice took a stroll around the kingdom, she saw the people of the kingdom all smiles and happy, and that provoked her. Why were they happy? They weren’t meant to be happy in her reign.
“Attention everyone!” She yelled and everywhere fell silent.
“I see you people have time to lazy around and be happy. Since that’s the case, I have a task for you all.”
“Every family must gather enough fresh food and bring it to the palace tomorrow. Failure to do that will result in the demise of the whole family.”
A young, unkempt looking lad stepped forward to where Beatrice was and fell to the floor before saying,
“Your Highness, it’s just me and my sister, and we don’t have anywhere to get food from. Please show us mercy.”
Beatrice was taken aback, it was the little boy’s audacity for her. What made him think she had that thing called “Mercy” in her dictionary. Showing mercy was a taboo to her.
“I don’t care how you get it, just make sure you do,” Beatrice replied to the boy with a deadly expression on her face.
“We really don’t have anywhere to get food, please you can take me as one of your servants. I’ll carry out every duty you give to me, but please don’t kill my sister and me.”
Beatrice was infuriated. Was this lad telling her what to do? She was the giver of the order, and whatever she said must be carried out as she instructed.
Whether there were underage kids who are orphans that couldn’t carry out the order themselves, she didn’t care, they just had to find a way to do it.
Beatrice made to turn the boy who was still kneeling into an ice sculpture for disobeying her as a warning to others, but an old woman caught a wind of it and before the magical power could touch the boy, the woman blocked him, and she turned into an ice sculpture Instead.
The people, including the boy, immediately flew away to carry out the instructions before they became scapegoats, while Beatrice stood with her eyes wide open.
The woman she turned into an ice sculpture was her mother!
Her mother!
Beatrice’s mother had been missing for years since she was a teenage. Beatrice and Daisy woke up one morning only to find their sweet mother’s room empty.
They went searching for her, but she was nowhere to be found. They only saw her clothing in a nearby forest, and they concluded she was dead.
Furthermore, they never knew their mother left the house and placed the clothing she had worn that day in the forest, so they’ll think she was dead.
Their mother did that when enmity began between her and her Twin sister. She wanted them to realize they needed each other and family was family regardless of what happened.
So she left, so they’ll understand that the absence of one family member could create a void that couldn’t be filled.
She prayed for them to realize enmity wasn’t the solution and if they settled their difference she’ll come back, but unfortunately, they never settled.
She couldn’t come back to them, but she kept watching them from her hidden corner.
The motherly love Beatrice mother had in her was the reason she shielded the little boy.
She was unable to stand and watch her daughter harm someone innocent in her presence. Her daughter had really turned evil and had no iota of sympathy.
Not minding the presence of the soldiers, Beatrice knelt down and cried a river. Thereafter, she decided to turn her mother back into her normal self.
Beatrice could turn those who she turned into an ice sculpture back to themselves.
Shockingly, no matter how much she tried, her mother didn’t turn back into her normal self.
No! This was not happening!
Beatrice saw a table nearby and turned it into ice then turned it back into its original form and it worked.
Furthermore, she turned one of the soldiers into an ice sculpture and turned him back to his real form, and it worked.
Her powers were intact.
Why was it not working on her mother?
Does that mean she has killed her mother?
“No! Mother! Nooooooo!” Beatrice screamed in regrets. She just killed the woman she searched for many years.
Beatrice couldn’t forgive herself. Oh! If she had just pitied that little boy, then her mother wouldn’t have acted as a shield to the boy.
It was all her fault!
She killed her mother.
****
Tracy coughed repeatedly, the ice was expanding to various part of her body, it had now almost expanded to her tummy region.
Maxwell kept bringing her fire to keep her warm, if not, it would have gone beyond that level.
Agnes looked at Tracy with pity in her eyes. If she hadn’t sold her out to her mistress, she wouldn’t have been stuck with this ice in her body.
“I am sorry,” Agnes didn’t know when she said that to Tracy. She couldn’t contain the remorse she felt inside her.
Tracy, who had silently been hoping that Agnes, would apologize to her, smiled. Finally, Agnes did. She knew Agnes had been battling with remorse since she was thrown into the prison.
She has caught Agnes staring at her severally, but each time she turned, Agnes always averted her gaze.
What happened to her wasn’t Agnes fault but hers. If she hadn’t been so bitter towards her sister that she wanted her dead, this wouldn’t have happened to her.
Agnes felt more ashamed when Tracy just smiled and said no word to her. What was she expecting? If she were in Tracy’s shoes, she wouldn’t have forgiven either.
“It’s okay. I hold nothing against you,” Tracy spoke, and Agnes’s eyes looked as though it would jump out of their sockets.
Agnes was perplexed. Just like that, Tracy had forgiven her? No, that wasn’t possible. Her offense was grievous and unforgivable.
“I really mean it, I have forgiven you a long time ago. If I hadn’t sorted for revenge against my sister, this wouldn’t have happened,” Tracy spoke as though reading Agnes’s mind.
“No, I was the one who lied about your sister being the cause of your mother’s death, and that led to you hating her. I’m at fault, and I’m deeply sorry.”.
“It really wasn’t your fault, I had a choice to hate or keep loving my sister when you lied to me. My sister was just a baby when my mum died, she was innocent and didn’t have the power to kill my mother. I was blinded by wrath that I didn’t think of all this.”
Agnes was about to speak when Maxwell, the soldier, stepped in and broke the latest news out to them. He was one among the two soldiers who went out with Beatrice.
“The Queen just killed her mother.”
“What? She had a mother?” Tracy and Agnes exclaimed simultaneously.