Red's CD Project Story 2: Part 28, Section 1 - Disorder

Note: So I am cheating to get some more space out of this project by making sections with this song. I am doing this for a couple reasons. One, the last part was really hard to follow, in terms of writing anything that didn't seem less interesting. Plus, I think it just drained me a little creatively. I am afraid this section just has to take it on the chin for the good of the whole. Second, I knew I wanted another part that shifts perspective, but I struggled going forward once completing this part. So I thought, this would help me transition a little better. There will be five sections from this track, all of about the same length. The lyrics are not necessarily in order. Third, I knew I wasn't going to have enough time this week to write everything I have envisioned for this next part, but I wanted to get something posted. Anyways, I'll stop rambling now.


Disc 2
Track 7: Nowhere Again by The Secret Machines

“Right before my eyes – Erased. Our lives – Erased.”

The elaborately carved and painted animal figurines, maybe a hundred in all, were scattered along the sill and on the floor before the window. Monkeys and other such exotic creatures that Meriam barely even knew about mixed and tangled with big cats, elegant ponies and donkeys, painted brown and gray. The disorder of all of it made her twitch.

Meriam was not the kind of woman lost in fancy or fooled that the world was ever perfect, but she cursed the heavens for any type of disorder. Things were meant to be certain ways. Toys were to be picked up. Servants were meant to carry out tasks. Kings were meant to rule. While she could plainly see that lots in life were not always fair, she respected the order of it all. The toys should have been arranged in some sort of logical order on the sill if the girl was not playing with them. If Evandra had reached an age where playing was no longer proper then by all means the things should have been stored away neatly with maybe only one or two favorites left as a fond reminder of youth.

This chaos… this pool of wooden animal disharmony was not going to do. Yet, she had spent a better part of the week avoiding the scene while in the service of Princess Evandra and her mother, the Queen. Even in her thoughts, she maintained the proper titles that helped balance everything. It was only with Ewam that she had allowed a little slipping or blurring of the lines of order, but that man needed a firm hand to guide him to his place. She reasoned that it was part of her duty, part of her place in the great order of things to provide that hand. It was only a slip. Any more than that and she might fall down the entire slope. At the bottom of that slope were feelings for Ewam she had sealed tightly shut as to not to entertain the wild fancy of a King loving a servant. Order did not allow such. She would not waste her time.

Her duty to Ewam was over, she was reassigned to these two, neither of whom she could get a proper handle on, and King Eden, whom she had always had doubts about, but those doubts were now replaced by fear. Her mother had warned her about men and their behavior. The scoundrels were scoundrels and they rarely tried to hide it, but the men that were unbalanced or just plain mean, well they seemed the best at putting on a face that made them seem the opposite. Eden was perfect on the throne or walking in the garden with a straight back with evenly distanced paces. His voice was calm and his words thoughtful. He was the genuine image of the King, not at all like Ewam, but there was always something in Meriam’s head that whispered to put her stock in Ewam rather than Eden. “Looks shant always be true,” her mother’s words had been.

“Do you not feel it?” Evandra sat up still rolled in the sheets on the huge feather mattress set on oak frame with a massive headboard with intricate designs notched across it. The girl was not naturally frail, instead she had the square, sturdy shoulders that marked her as a Perde, but the ailment was draining her of weight, at least 15 pounds since Meriam saw her a few weeks ago, and color, she was deathly pale.

“Pardon me, Princess Evandra,” she regretted forgetting the girl was in the room. “I was pondering clearing these figurines away. Mayhap they have a case of some sort to store them away.”

“It’s vulgar, is it not Mistress Meriam?” Meriam could not look the girl in the eyes. The way they seemed drained of that important purity that every young lady held onto for as long as possible was chilling. Evandra was not old enough to look so jaded. “The way the bodies twist and join. I know they’re toys, but it’s vulgar, and it shames me to admit it, that it appeals to me in some sick way.”

“I’ll not have that talk from a young lady,” Meriam wondered if bullying the girl like Ewam would not do her some good. Meriam would ask her mother, but the Queen had not left her room in days. She shuddered thinking of the dust, dirt and disorder brewing behind that door. “It’s not proper for a lady.”

“Do you not feel it then?”

“Whatever are you prattling on about?”

“The call? My mother named it that. The call that beckons in my head all night long, the one that stirs things inside that I did not know was there.”

A lump buried itself in Meriam’s throat. She did not need to speak for the girl had her confirmation in rose red buds that blossomed on her cheecks. Of course, Meriam had felt it and had done her very best to bury it down there where she kept all the emotions of disorder. She could not tell if she was winning that internal battle, but so far it had kept her from running west.

“It calls us all,” the hollowness in the girls voice was only trumped by its sadness. “It will have us all.”

“No!” Meriam rushed over to the girl and took her hands. “You cannot, my lady. You cannot. I will not allow it, I promise that.”

Tears were running in well-worn paths down Evandra’s face. For the first time, Meriam was glad she had been reassigned to the girl. It was her duty to protect her if her mother and father were incapable.

As if listening to her thoughts, the door to the outer chamber of the apartments opened. The man did not smell like his less-groomed brother sometimes did, but Meriam knew that it was Eden before the door had closed behind him. The terror in Evandra eyes frightened Meriam even more.

“Kendra, my Queen,” Eden shouted from inside the adjoining room. Evandra jumped from her bed, ran across the room and slammed her door shut. A low moan came from far away. Meriam did not want to think about who or what made that sound.

“I am here for another go.” Evandra dropped to the floor wailing. Meriam was froze in place as the man started in again. “I’ll work this need out of you yet.”

Meriam could not believe her ears as another door closed and muffled sounds of pain and flesh followed.

“Heavens mercy,” she whispered to the girl who was whimpering. “What has taken hold here?”

The girls cried more and Meriam was filled with a great wave of emotion. Two rooms away, a woman, no a Queen, was being abused by a man that was supposed to be King. What sort of order was that? It was not order. Did Ewam know of this? It could not be possible. She was not naïve to the looks he flashed his brother’s wife. What was to be done? Ewam was leaving Omet, Satar and Meriam’s new charges under the rule of this two-faced brute. Her blood boiled. At the moment, she was the only woman west of the Belnor to not feel the call. There was a call much deeper ruling her thoughts, her will.

“I will not stand for it. I will not.”