Sayemontess- The End of an Era

Trigger Warning- this short story contains Sexual Content, Nudity, and Violence.

Sayemontess- The End of an Era

Even though the musty dungeons held no living prisoners, Sayemontess was still on the verge of collapse. With Sonja as their leader, the shrinking population focused on conception, so as Sonja made love on her balcony with Benji, and Thornton, the balcony began to become unhinged. Cracking sounds could be heard down below in the gardens, but they were so into it that they did not notice. So happy were they. After they had been through so many tragedies- they deserved to have the time of their lives. Then it happened as they thrusted against the bricks. Bricks began falling to the ground below, and Benji, and Thornton pushed Sonja inside. Sonja looked up at her cardinal ceiling mural and went into shock.

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Sonja loved cardinals so much that she painted a mural of a male and female cardinal necking on her ceiling. You would think that it would have taken her weeks to complete. After all, it was the castle’s master bedroom. It took her two days. The drugs in Sayemontess grew naturally on the property across the bridge, and they were so fresh, and so powerful that Sonja would lose herself in her artwork. Her drawings, and paintings adorned nearly every wall of the castle at Sayemontess.

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Next, Benji reached for the bedroom curtains as the entire balcony quickly began to fall. He succeeded, but Thornton did not. It all happened so fast that he did not even get the chance to scream. He and the bricks hit the ground, and there was nothing that could be done to save poor Thornton.

Benji struggled to pull himself inside as the curtains slowly began to tear. He was quite built, and Tessa heard him screaming for his life from the gardens down below as she had decided to take a nice evening stroll. She loved to spend time in prayer amongst the Cupid statues. She did most of the gardening at Sayemontess. Her sharpened spade was always by her side tucked in her tool belt. She did not like this new initiative- this new order under Sonja, but she still loved her, and would never let anyone hurt her. Tessa screamed,

“Help! Sonja, help him!”

Sonja heard her, and was grateful. She snapped out of shock and into action. She grabbed Benji by his left wrist, and she quickly pulled him to safety. She had just lost one man; she was not going to lose another.

—-

Sayemontess was old. I do not even remember the year when we arrived here. The castle was now dying. The musty dungeons were only inhabited by dead corpses, and disturbing insects that were worse than the bedbugs, and centipedes that recently had been taking over Sayemontess. There were no citizens in the stocks. There had been no need for public humiliations in days. People were all focusing on one thing. They were all preoccupied with sex- all except for Tessa.

—

Tessa began to cry as she carefully approached Thornton as he lay dead under the rubble. Careful not to trip, she began to try to dig his body out. She began to hold back the tears with full focus on retrieving his disfigured body. She gasped, and she lifted the bricks that had landed on his head. She would never forget that face. The way his eyes had bulged from their sockets! The way he had been severed at the pelvis. One foot was missing, but oh, that face! The images would haunt Tessa until her death.

Sonja had saved Benji. She quickly covered him with his royal blue robe as he laid shaking, weak, and crying. They were all right, but was Sayemontess? How could the balcony break due to the weight of three people and some light weight patio furniture? There were so many questions, but there was no time to ask them since the whole castle began to shake beyond belief.

Sonja and Benji watched in horror as the bridge below began to crumble into the mote. Everyone needed to head safely to the gardens, so Sonja sounded the alarms.

The alarms meant CODE RED- meaning, GET TO THE GARDENS! Before, they would run drills, and they would make it a big contest! Everyone would gather on the top floor of the castle, and the first one to the gallows won a whole roast dinner, but the last one, regardless of age, was hung. It was a yearly tradition in Sayemontess. A strange tradition. Some may say, “Absolutely terrifying,” but not in Sayemontess- a place that had a history of being hostile, and downright dangerous.

In time, everyone made it safely to the gardens. The castle remained intact after the short earthquake. Sonja did not have the chance to grab her robe, so, as she stood before her people naked, and unashamed, she ordered all who could swim to go across the mote. They would need to retrieve boats for the elderly in order to get them safely across. Benji surrendered his robe to shield Sonja from the cold. He did not mind being seen since everyone had seen him before, and he liked the cold sometimes.

The waves were high from the earthquake, and Sonja feared for her swimmers, but all was good. They all made it safe. They raced to get three large, and heavy, boats for their elderly men and beautiful women. In Sayemontess, at the age of forty, you were considered elderly.

“I’m hungry, and so thirsty,” complained one of the elderly gentlemen. “Me too!” Exclaimed one of the beautiful women in the boat that Tessa herself took control of carrying the three elderly citizens.

Tessa heard this, and she whispered to them,

“Shh, I will help you. Just wait a little longer, please. I’ll need you to keep some secrets away from everyone.”

Luckily, these three were in for a treat. Tessa knew quite well what wild vegetables grew on the property. Turnips, carrots, collard greens, and there were apple and cherry trees that were all lined up in a row as if planted by someone years ago, and everyone could eat the fruit, but the veggies, those were for Tessa and her little clan. They would all be fine. Tessa would make sure of it.

The citizens all made it across the mote safely. Benji offered up a prayer of thankfulness that was just perfect for the occasion. Then, aftershock!

—-

Tremors in Sayemontess were normal, but never did they have full-on earthquakes. The aftershock was worse than the first earthquake. It rattled the castle so violently that the walls in the west wing began to crumble, thus causing fire to rage, as the chef forgot to turn off the burners in the kitchen, and the fire was always ablaze in the fire pits inside, and outside of the west wing. The fire spread so quickly that each citizen could not believe their eyes.

First, it was the drapes that really set the fires roaring. Once they caught fire, Sonja knew all was lost. She knew they should have installed a system for these occasions. Next, there was an explosion near the dungeon’s entrance. Sonja did not know what could have caused it, but the entire castle then fell to the ground.

As Sonja’s people watched their castle fall, Sonja did not know what to do. She did not know at all. Little Johnnie Walker did not survive the aftershock. An investigation into the matter will soon be conducted.

---

Sonja was going to miss her cardinal mural the most. It was what helped her sleep at night. That, and her sound machine that played cardinal songs, and mating calls. So sad was she, but she would not show it. She would not shed one tear. She was the fierce leader of the citizens of Sayemontess. She made her decision then and there. Soon, they would rebuild. It would never be the castle that Sayemontess was known for, but it could have the potential to be better. At least, in Sonja’s mind that is.

All in one night, too young men were lost, and so was the castle. Oh my! What to do? What to do?

They all sobbed and mourned the loss of the castle at Sayemontess for days. Some starved as Tessa kept her secrets of the food hidden from those who were not in her care. It was the wrong thing to do for all of the right reasons. It was a tough decision on her part. She had a big heart, and she hated losing people, so she was not going to lose the three elderly citizens that she had decided to care for. Love even. They were still beautiful in her eyes regardless of their ages.

After days of grief and starvation, some of the swimmers offered to go to the ruins to search for food where the west wing’s kitchen had been. Surely, they could find some canned goods, bags of potatoes- who knows? They hoped the fire had not destroyed everything. They took two boats, and they were all high. Only the strongest swimmers would go, so they could fill the boats to capacity, and push them across the still raging waters. Yes, they were very talented.

At what was once the west wing, Horace and Mason found two large cans of baked beans, two bags of potatoes, and one fresh fish- I’m not joking. Lars and Carmella found one whole crate of untouched radishes that had been foraged from the woods. They also found two cans of sardines, and- thank God- a locked freezer that had the key still in the lock. When they opened it- they found legs of lamb, and pork ribs that were still frozen! They should have come back sooner, but the castle was still smoldering. They fed the masses.

——

The clouds blew in, Tessa got frustrated with Sonja, and Marshall, the youngest of them all, never got to have his final meal with the other citizens. He was also the best swimmer, but on this last swim, he sustained a massive cut to his inner left thigh, and the loss of blood caused him to go quite quickly. At least he had died for his citizens. Tessa then accosted Sonja.

“How dare you let these people die! You know this land better than most.”

“Not as good as you,” said Sonja. “You’ve been keeping secrets. Secrets about the food here. Your three are strong for being so old.”

Just then, a male cardinal landed on Sonja’s shoulder. She grabbed it by the neck, ripped it’s head off, and simply said,

“I’ll prepare us a meal. Then we can discuss the secrets of the forest. The secrets of Tessa.”

Tessa was not impressed, so she took out her sharpened spade from her tool belt, and jammed it right into Sonja’s right kidney. Then, as if it were a bludgeon, she smashed her face in with the curved plate of the spade, thus killing Sonja dead on the spot. Tessa took the dead cardinal from Sonja’s clutch, and said that she would be the one preparing dinner that night. Cardinal. Tessa hated roasted cardinal.