“Sayemontess: The Beginning” #ReedsyUnknown

Trigger Warning: This short story contains Strong Sexual Content, Nudity, Gore, Violent Content, Some Language and Mild Drug Use.

Sayemontess: The Beginning

I was born in the galley of a ship that headed towards Sayemontess, a castle that had been long forgotten by the locals. No one dared to go near it. Well, except for us. My mother told me when I was four that the wind was violent, and the clouds grew darker by the minute. A storm was brewing right above our heads, but we made it into Sayemontess by the grace of God just before the storm hit. She said everything was a blur from the opium. 

On my eighteenth birthday, my mother died and left the castle to me. By that time, and you must understand, it was our own little world. I grew up there in a castle surrounded by forests, and natural water sources. No one dared enter our gate. No one. 

We, my people, share a deep bond and a different type of thinking. There had been no pregnancies, no childbirth. Not in eighteen years. Yes, it was me. I was the youngest, and I was in charge. 

We were not family. We were all from different bloodlines and backgrounds. Sixty-nine people desperate for me to produce an heir to the throne. We did not have a high life expectancy, so time was running out!

During our evening gatherings before dinner, I set the tables myself, and I put all men on one side, and all women on the other. It was so hot in the kitchen. I would duck in there and stir the rabbit stew we had left over from yesterday’s dinner. Not a scrap ever went to waste. Not at Sayemontess. 

Have I mentioned to you about our fire pits? We would undress and mingle around the fire pits after dinner. Kissing, and making love, we all hooked up together, but still no pregnancy. No pregnancy for me.

When I turned nineteen, the people of  Sayemontess- my people gave me an ultimatum. Their spokesperson stood up to me in the middle of my court. 

“We must find an heir. Your time is running out. You’re dying!” He cried. 

“If I am dying, then be a good servant, and help a lady to her chambers. There we will make love one last time. This will be my one, last chance, and if I fail, then off to the gallows with me you fools!” I screamed as tears began to race down my face. “You shall be cursed forever! Cursed forever! Damned to spend the rest of your lives here at Sayemontess! Now, come!” I demanded, and he came. 

Later, he came twice.

“That’s it?” I asked in utter disappointment. “That’s all you have for me? My final chance, and that’s it? Well, damn you. Damn this castle! Get out! Run!” I screamed so loud- I caused damage to my vocal cords. I put my legs up to keep in his finishings, but I feared they would not find their way. What if we all were sterile? We had no way of finding out. The gallows? Why did I say that? My worst nightmare. The gallows. 

One week went by, and everywhere I went, I felt eyes on me. 

“She’s the one! She’s the problem.” They’d whisper. “What if she’s cursed? We must have an heir!”

“Alright! It’s only been a week!” I’d yell at them. Then I’d demand silence while being in my presence.

“You!” I said as I pointed to a man who always cried during sex. Maybe this time I would cry with him. “Be in my chambers in half an hour.” I was having shortness of breath. I needed help, but was too proud to ask. I had to be strong, though, even at the age of nineteen, I was not as tough as I thought I was. I struggled, but I made it to my chambers. 

After we were done, we had both soaked our pillows in tears. Maybe this time would work. Maybe. 

Two weeks later, I knew they were going to lock me in the stocks, and throw away the key. I was right. 

I thought I was dying from panic and pelvic pain. I couldn’t breathe. I could not catch my breath. 

“She’s hyperventilating!” Laughed a wretched woman from the crowd that swarmed my chambers and carried me away naked to the gallows. 

My feet went in first. Then my hands went in second. I still could not breathe. Panic!

After the laughter died down, and the crowd dissipated, I tried to pull out my left hand, because I had tiny wrists. It wasn’t that hard, but my feet were stuck in there good, so I pulled on them as hard as I could, until they were skinned and burning, and blood began to provide lubricant to the stocks. 

“Harder! Pull harder!” I shouted at myself. “Do it! Just do it!” So, I did it. I got my mangled left foot through the stocks with the lock still in place. I ignored the pain. I wanted out! At all cost! Panic!

The right foot was harder to pull out of the worst contraption ever invented. I heard voices in the dark. I pretended for a second that I was all locked back up. I heard laughter, but it faded. Were they still laughing at me?

Now, to free the right foot. I began twisting it. I pulled on it so hard that within two minutes- my heal bone was completely exposed. There was more blood. I looked at it as more lubricant to free myself of this horrid, wicked, torturous contraption.

Mutilated from the shins down, I managed to crawl like a mutant lizard, pulling myself with my arms naked across the gravel. My front scraped, but I did not care. My breasts had never been so perfect. Now they were ruined. Bloodied, blistered, and bruised. They would never work again. I would never work again. I was probably going to die from blood-loss, but I craved one of our home-grown and rolled cigarettes, and I knew just where to find one. There were three stashed next to my seat near the fire pit just a few feet away, but the fire was dying. Everyone had gone and left me to rot till morning. 

Two more feet! I could see the cigarettes. I pulled myself faster as the embers in the pit were dying. My final wish, God, if there is a God, is to have that cigarette!” I screamed as rain began to fall, thus snuffing out the fire entirely, but wait, I could still see smoke. An ember! It was still glowing in the moonlight and rain. I got to my cigarette and lit it with joy! Then I carefully held it to shield it from the rain. 

My favorite part of Sayemontess would have to be the dungeons. I crawled down there for one last look. It took me most of the evening. I left trails of blood and peeling flesh as I dragged my legs down several flights of stairs in the dark. I did not need light. 

As I made it to my favorite lair, I did not cry. I stayed strong, and I saw a cobweb- covered skeleton in the glimmer of the moonlight that shown through cracks in the stonework. How could I have never seen him before? His skull faced upward towards the light. I pushed him out of the way. I had to see what he saw in his final moments. I had to see! It was the full moon. I could barely see it nestled in the clouds. I smiled, let out a deep sigh, and bled to death next to the stranger.

My body still lies in the dark, undiscovered dungeons of Sayemontess. Perhaps, someone will find me someday like I found the stranger. Maybe not.