Chapter Two
Pink-The Death Girl
It has been about a month since I took Pink into the castle. My father had no trouble with giving her the extra master bedroom, and he had no trouble hanging the two men who were beating her, mostly on my behalf. I didn’t like the fact that the village would chain her up, barely feed her, and then use her as a punching bag. When we first got to the castle a month ago, I immediately fed Pink the most extravagant dinner the poor thing probably had. Needless to say, she ate until her stomach was about to burst. I quickly noticed that the only person she would trust was me. She was extremely shy with everyone else, especially men. It was easily apparent that Pink had a favorite color…which was oddly enough, pink. She kept my pink handkerchief from the very first time I met her, and secretly took my pink gem necklace. Of course I let her keep the handkerchief, but I had to take back the necklace. It was my grandmothers and I didn’t want anything to happen to it.
The next day after we arrived, a bath was needed. The old crummy clothes she was put in had to be thrown out, even though she protested like hell. So I had a brand new set made of fine cloth and silks to see if she liked it better, and of course she did. The bathing was a bit challenging. Pink had no idea what the hell I and a few servant girls were trying to do. It seemed as though she was terrified of the water and she fought with every power she had.
“Pink, sweetheart, it’s okay, we’re not trying to hurt you…” I stated calmly, pushing past her blood stained hair.
She still shook her head no in protest, putting her hands up to her eyes to cover them. Then I realized that her gloves and the shackles needed to come off. I took her hand and examined her wrist; surely enough there was a break where the sides connected. I ordered to get a butter knife or something to break the shackles off and I tried my best not to hurt her while breaking it through. It took a while, but I finally broke through without harming Pink and without breaking the shackle itself. Daniel had taken the other shackle off a bit slower than I had.
The gloves came off and another servant girl walked up to help her into the tub. As she went to pick her up, Pink turned around and set her hands on the girl’s chest. I noticed that Pink’s hands looked as though they were starting to decay from the fingertips and I felt my heart sink; was it all because of those men beating on her, or something unnatural? I stood up just as the girl fell to the ground and the other girls whimpered and scattered away like scared dogs, Daniel included. Pink looked back at me staring down at her with a look of worry on the poor girl’s face. She must have felt fear, and even whimpered a bit, probably waiting for me to scream and then beat her.
Of course, I wouldn’t dare do that to anyone, unless if they deserved it, so instead I hesitantly kneeled down to check the servant girl, even fearing for my own life. The servant girl was indeed dead, an instant death, her heart stopped the second Pink had touched her. This was the reason for the gloves and the shackles were there to keep those gloves on. She was like the Grim Reaper reborn into this little adorable girl, looking over at me with fear in her eyes, just waiting for me to throw her into the dungeon and chain her up like before.
I heard Daniel whimper in the corner of the huge bathroom, trying to get away from Pink. I looked over to her for a split second to see the horrible expression of fear on her face; and then I immediately set my attention back on Pink, to her even more horrible expression of fear on her face. I could see the tears forming in her eyes, I know she didn’t want to touch me; she was scared.
“P-Pink, dear, it’s okay.” I stated as calmly as possible. I couldn’t hide the fact that I was scared as well, I knew she could feel it. “Just d-don’t touch anyone okay?”
When she nodded, I turned my attention back on Daniel. “Danni, I need you and the girls to take the body and bury it somewhere, please…do something with it. I’ll take care of Pink.” To this, Pink whimpered back behind me into the opposite corner of Daniel.
Daniel and the other two girls did their best to take the body out of the bathroom and they slammed the door shut behind them. I heard them sigh in relief and whimper just a bit when they exited the room. I stood up and turned around to face Pink. By now, she was in tears, scared that I was going to beat her just like the villagers did before I saved her. This made my heart sink a bit more as I kneeled back down to get to Pink’s height.
“Pink, you trust me, don’t you?”
Pink whimpered and nodded her head. I wasn’t sure if she was old enough to understand the word “trust,” but I took her word for it.
“Sweetheart, I’m not going to hurt you, ever, okay?” I reached over to move her hair back from her face but she whimpered and turned her head to prevent me from doing so. “If I show you that the water is harmless, do you promise me you’ll take a bath? It’ll make you smell pretty like me…”
She had told me before how nice I smelled; and I think that is one of the reasons why she took my pink handkerchief other than it being pink. When I told her that she could smell like me, her head perked up and she wiped her eyes of the tears as she nodded a bit. I smiled and started to undress myself to take a bath to show Pink that the water is harmless. I washed my hair, talking to her gently and telling her how to do this and that when taking a bath, especially if I can’t wash her hands or anything. I smiled back at her, sitting a few feet away watching me. For the first time in a while, she smiled back and then I knew her fear of me hurting her was gone.
Washing her hair was the hardest thing I could ever do. The blood stained her hair a light pink color, and that’s where I think she got her name. She loved the color so much she named herself Pink. It was an odd thing that blood could ever do to someone’s hair, so I just figured it was just because of her death powers. It killed me to see all the cuts and bruises all over her tiny little body. She was so malnourished I bet I could keep feeding her huge dinners every hour of each day and she still could eat all of it; it’s amazing how she lived through those beatings every night.
After her bath, I dried her off and helped her dress and I set new gloves on her hands. Pink immediately set the shackles back around her wrists and closed them shut. It was like she was scared of what would happen again. I brushed her floor-length pink stained hair and set silver berets on each side of her head to keep the hair out of her eyes. She looked adorable. To finish everything off, I kissed her forehead to make her confused, and she was. She looked up at me with a puzzled look on her face.
“It’s called a kiss… it just means I love you.”
She blinked and stared. “Love? Kimi, what’s that?”
I looked at Pink and felt a large amount of pity fill my heart. As I sat there I wondered if this poor child had ever known what it was to feel loved. To not even be able to know what the word meant she must have lived a life alone and with no one to be there for her. I stared into Pink’s eyes and hope that what I said next would help.
“Love is the complete opposite of fear, hun. It makes you feel warm inside, right here,” I pointed at Pink’s chest where her heart was located. “It is when you feel completely safe and happy with another person. Honest true love is so strong that you never want to be apart from that person whom you love.”
“You mean how you make me feel? This is love? Please Kimi…..please….I don’t want to be alone again.”
I felt as though my heart had stopped and skipped. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks as I pulled Pink into my arms and I just couldn’t let her go.
“Pink, sweetheart…you’ll never be alone again…”
Just the other night I fell into a deep sleep but I was awaken by a gentle touch.
“Kimi…” A familiar adorable voice rang out.
“Neh--yeah sweetie?” I somewhat sat up in bed and rubbed my heavy eyes. “You okay?”
“I-I’m scared, can I sleep with you?”
I stared for a few moments and I couldn’t help but smile. This poor thing and if anything she was like my own daughter and I loved her just as so.
“Of course sweetie.” I stated as I moved over so Pink could come into the huge master canopy bed. Its emerald drapes weren’t that visible in the dark, although I could clearly see the silver sparkles from the moonlight shining in from the balcony doors.
Pink quickly got into bed and snuggled up against me, she was trembling. At first I thought she was cold so I pulled the other blankets over us--but then she took them off of her.
“Sweetheart, what happened?”
She hesitated but said, “I had a nightmare.”
“What was it about?”
Again, she hesitated and started to tremble even more.
“It’s okay Pink, I’m here for you, you’re safe.”
She took in a breath, held it in and then let is out. What she said next made my stomach turn:
“A-at first everything was white. I was alone--by myself again. B-but then again I felt this heat on my back--I turned around and then this black smoke stuff surrounds me. The heat’s still there and I-I wasn’t alone though--people were behind me up on crosses as well screaming in pain, crying for help. T-then this thing crawls up on me. H-he had these claw-like fingers although his pinky was longer than the rest--only skin and bones and his skull was on fire. He got up in my face and said ‘I will never let you be happy’ then I woke up.”
I couldn’t help but stare at the balcony doors. How could this little girl have a dream like this? A lot of the maids would never take any dream I had serious--when they should have. So needless to say, I took Pink’s nightmare very serious.
“Pink,” she was trembling even more. “It’s okay, dear, I won’t let him get you, promise.”
“Kimi, I love you…”
My heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t help but cry. “I love you too, Pink.”
) Of course, this has been a month, but I wouldn't think you could grab such a vocabulary in a month.
