"It hu..rts so much! Mo..the.r.." Tears filled her eyes. How had her life changed so much. 'Witch'. One single word had changed everything. Everyone had changed, even her older brother who always spoiled her, had hit her until she was black and blue, her sisters had fled as if she had the plague and she could see, in the smiles of her third uncle and fifth brother, the conspiracy and the lies.

"Here is your pail of water, Princess!" A cold laugh filled the cell, as she was splashed with foul smelling water. "Don't say we don't give royalty its due respect!" The guard let his sneer and left to go back to his duties.

Ravel's feet and fingers had long gone ice stiff, but now the pain was more like needles piercing flesh. As her fifth brother and third uncle's plans progressed, soon her royal father, King Wimbledon II of Greycastle, would meet a dreadful end.

'I wish I really was a witch! Then I would get my revenge.' She argued in thoughts filled with hatred. Nevertheless, that really wasn't the case. She was trapped, wrongfully accused of being a witch!

Ravel tried to cough to see if it could help her to clear the metallic taste on her aching throat, but it only brought her pain. 'Breathing hurts!' Through the corner of her eye, she could see football sized rats making their way to her, attracted by the smell of blood. The biggest one tried his luck biting her wrist. The pain was awful! Maybe her death would come faster than imagined. If so, she would not have to see the disappointed look in her family's eyes, nor the treachery on her uncle's smile.

Before the rat could take another bite, its head was struck by a small rock, and It dropped dead.

"You cruel creatures! Why don't you mess with someone who is able to defend herself?"

Ravel tilted her head to see across her messy bundle of grey hair, and was astonished to see a young girl clinging to the iron bars of the cell across the hall. Her hand was holding a fistful of small rocks, which she threw at the rats with great precision. Soon Ravel was surrounded by rats corpses.

"Are you ok? Can you move?" asked the girl.

"What a stupid question! Does she look ok?" said someone else. In the dim glow provided by the torches, Ravel saw a second person sitting in a dark corner of the girl's cell.

"Shandi, don't be mean! Help her!" asked the girl to the figure in the dark.

"Why should I?"

"Please!" Asked the girl, with her glimmering brown eyes.

"Fine" The shadow gave up. 'It seems that this cold shadow has quite a soft heart' thought Ravel, trying to see through her blurry vision. Maybe this was her last breath. At least she met nice people before parting this world. In the darkness she heard Shandi's cold voice say "This will hurt", before she experienced the most excruciating pain of her life.