Miles Vorkosigan Fic: 'Trapped' (Princess Kareen, Vidal Vordarian)
Title: Trapped
Fandom: Miles Vorkosigan
Characters: Princess Kareen, Vidal Vordarian
Summary: ‘Ever since she’s heard of her child’s death, there is a small girl trapped inside her body, struggling to escape.’
Disclaimer: Miles Vorkosigan belongs to Lois McMaster Bujold.
Prompt: W is for Writhe. Written for
alphabetasoup
Characters: Princess Kareen, Vidal Vordarian.
Summary: ‘Ever since she’s heard of her child’s death, there is a small girl trapped inside her body, struggling to escape.’
Trapped
Ever since she’s heard of her child’s death, there is a small girl trapped inside her body, struggling to escape. Even though Princess Kareen does not say a word, even though she does not shed a tear, the small girl underneath her skin is screaming at top of her lungs, hitting her flesh from the inside, her miniature, weak fists bleeding along with her broken heart.
Princess Kareen shows no sign of it. She walks down the corridors like a ghost, nods at the tainted lies Vordarian whispers in her ear, stays still when his treacherous fingers grasp her body possesively. She doesn’t flinch, even though his touch burns holes on her skin, she doesn’t recoil even though his kisses taste like poison. She remains cool and unaffected, nothing can reach her through the walls of stone she has built around her. Her child’s death has devoid the world of colour and light and robbed her the ability to feel, to care, so she just stands there, as the statue that has become Vordarian’s new toy.
Inside her, though, the small girl’s grief is eating her alive, her pain is scorching her from the inside out and there is nothing she can do to stop it. The small girl struggles and writhes, her tears burn her eyes, her sobs echoe in the depths of her mind… but nothing reaches the cold surface her face has become.
Until she sees it. A black, impossibly small shoe. A shoe that she’s looked at a million times, a shoe she’s hold in her hands as though it were the key to get away from her misery, a shoe that was the proof that her life was over, that her child was gone…
A shoe that is completely dry, a shoe that has never been under water.
In an instant that stretches into eternity, the final piece falls into place, the walls come crashing down. The small girl is suddenly not so weak, not so little. She breaks free of the chains that tied her will, she tears apart the veil that covered her eyes. All the heartache, all the fury, the impotence, every feeling that she tried to trap inside her reaches the surface, burning her from the inside out.
She launches herself forward, her hands aiming for Vordarian’s neck, intent on inflicting as much pain as his lies have caused her.
She never reaches him. Blue light consumes her life before she can see it coming and her lifeless corpse crashes against the floor before she has time to close her eyes, a small, black shoe still clutched in her hand.
Table
Fandom: Miles Vorkosigan
Characters: Princess Kareen, Vidal Vordarian
Summary: ‘Ever since she’s heard of her child’s death, there is a small girl trapped inside her body, struggling to escape.’
Disclaimer: Miles Vorkosigan belongs to Lois McMaster Bujold.
Prompt: W is for Writhe. Written for
alphabetasoup
Characters: Princess Kareen, Vidal Vordarian.
Summary: ‘Ever since she’s heard of her child’s death, there is a small girl trapped inside her body, struggling to escape.’
Trapped
Ever since she’s heard of her child’s death, there is a small girl trapped inside her body, struggling to escape. Even though Princess Kareen does not say a word, even though she does not shed a tear, the small girl underneath her skin is screaming at top of her lungs, hitting her flesh from the inside, her miniature, weak fists bleeding along with her broken heart.
Princess Kareen shows no sign of it. She walks down the corridors like a ghost, nods at the tainted lies Vordarian whispers in her ear, stays still when his treacherous fingers grasp her body possesively. She doesn’t flinch, even though his touch burns holes on her skin, she doesn’t recoil even though his kisses taste like poison. She remains cool and unaffected, nothing can reach her through the walls of stone she has built around her. Her child’s death has devoid the world of colour and light and robbed her the ability to feel, to care, so she just stands there, as the statue that has become Vordarian’s new toy.
Inside her, though, the small girl’s grief is eating her alive, her pain is scorching her from the inside out and there is nothing she can do to stop it. The small girl struggles and writhes, her tears burn her eyes, her sobs echoe in the depths of her mind… but nothing reaches the cold surface her face has become.
Until she sees it. A black, impossibly small shoe. A shoe that she’s looked at a million times, a shoe she’s hold in her hands as though it were the key to get away from her misery, a shoe that was the proof that her life was over, that her child was gone…
A shoe that is completely dry, a shoe that has never been under water.
In an instant that stretches into eternity, the final piece falls into place, the walls come crashing down. The small girl is suddenly not so weak, not so little. She breaks free of the chains that tied her will, she tears apart the veil that covered her eyes. All the heartache, all the fury, the impotence, every feeling that she tried to trap inside her reaches the surface, burning her from the inside out.
She launches herself forward, her hands aiming for Vordarian’s neck, intent on inflicting as much pain as his lies have caused her.
She never reaches him. Blue light consumes her life before she can see it coming and her lifeless corpse crashes against the floor before she has time to close her eyes, a small, black shoe still clutched in her hand.
Table