Vanish

It took the smallest things to upset Master Casimir. He was the young prince of the royal family I'd been assigned to attend to. I helped him dress, brought him his food, cleaned his room, and anything else he ordered me to do. We were both young, but I was two years his senior at 20 years old. He'd only just become an adult, though he acted more like a spoiled child.

I'd been assigned to him at just the young age of 15 as his page boy. So I knew the young Master very well and had been in attendance to him for some time. My job wasn't too hard, I didn't mind cleaning and doing my other chores. When doing so I had to remain unseen and was forbidden to address any of the royal family unless spoken to, but answer immediately when given an order. I found it easy, even natural.

Being invisible was great, I was often in my own thoughts when cleaning but knew to keep my head down and quickly move to the side when my betters were passing. It was custom for them not to acknowledge the servants.

But I was assigned to Master Casimir and he was different than the other royals. He seemed to not grasp the concept that we were to be invisible as we worked. He liked to address me often, which wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't so mean.

"Silas! Get in here now."

I took a deep breath lifting myself from his bathroom floor and hurriedly walked into his room bowing crossing my hands in front of me.

"Yes, Master Casimir."

"I told you to have my clothes folded and organized in my drawer, why are they all thrown around." He asked sternly.

I swallowed nervously glancing over to the closet confused. I knew I had cleaned and organized it first thing this morning.

"I..I did fold them and organized them from light to dark and casual to fancy Master Casimir."

He glared at me and I shifted uncomfortably looking back down. I felt my heart pound in my chest as he moved near me.

"Are you talking back to me Silas?"

I quickly shook my head keeping my head down.

"No Master Casimir of course not, I'm sorry I'll fix it right away."

"Good. Get to it."

I bowed again, "Yes Master Casimir."

I quickly went to the closet, kneeling in front of the mess, and sighed. I'd put so much time into organizing the closet. Master Casimir had so many clothes.

I rubbed my eyes trying to keep my eyes awake after two hours of folding and reorganizing. My eyes were getting heavy, I'd already done so many chores that day and had yet to receive my break. It took so much effort to keep moving, to stay focused on my task, and keep my eyes open.

I stood and carefully placed the hanger with a silk shirt on the rack and pulled another piece of clothing down. I gasped as a snowglobe fell that was sitting on top of the loose clothing and crashed on the wood floor of the closet making me jump back in surprise. My eyes widened as my heart dropped in my gut from fear.

"Silas! What was that."

I stood in shock and opened my mouth but nothing came out. I gulped and tried again.

"I...I was pulling clothes down from the shelf...I..I didn't know there was glass up there."

"Careless!" He shouted. "Ten lashings!"

My breath sped up as I shook my head in fear, "P..please Master Casimir. I..I'll clean it up at once!"

"You will after you receive your lashings." He said walking off.

I bit my lip and tried to control the tears that were welling up in my eyes. The other royals did not use corporal punishment on their servants. It just came out of their wages, but Master Casimir seemed to enjoy displaying his power over me. At least that's what it felt like.

I followed him knowing he expected to be followed and walked into the cellar. He pointed to the wall and I put my hands on the wall and tried to slow my breathing and waited for my punishment.

Master Casimir was strong or maybe it was just the leather whip biting into my skin, but it was extremely painful and the last strike made me cry out and fall to my knees.

"Now get in there clean up that glass and go to your quarters."

I trembled nodding, "Yes Master Casimir."

It took everything to stand but I eventually did, quickly cleaned up the glass and instead of running to the servant quarters, I ran outside to the stables. The open field and fresh air always felt good, it was always so healing. As I ran, my eyes leaked tears and the beating wind helped push them out.

I made it to the stables and smiled seeing the horses and went to Abigail. She was my favorite, I'd tended to her since she was a baby and we had a special bond.

"Hey girl," I said gently.

She nuzzled my head and I hugged her and petted her beautiful main. This barn was my safe place, my sanctuary. I closed the door after feeding the horses and just knelt down in the hay hugging my knees. I allowed myself to cry feeling stinging on my back but also just cry because I hated my life. Why did I have to be assigned to the young prince. He was so cruel.

I eventually laid on the hay and cried myself to sleep curled into myself.

It was the loud bang and the neighing that woke me up. I gasped and quickly got up brushing the hay from my tattered clothes and widened my eyes. It was dark outside. I went to open the door and quickly shut it back seeing another strike of lightning hit right in front of the barn with a loud bang.

I shrieked and fell backward as the horses all went crazy. It was so incredibly loud and felt myself holding my chest. The rain was pouring down like buckets of water. I tried to calm the horses, they were going nuts.

"It's ok girl, calm down."

I couldn't help but feel frightened myself, being all the way out here in the barn. I quickly walked over to the other section where the pigs and cows were sheltered and fed them and calmed themed own as well.

I stayed with the animals, keeping them calm petting and talking to everyone, and just prayed Master Casimir had not called for me. I would be sure to head back to the castle first thing in the morning.

Once I got the animals calm, I hummed quietly trying to calm my own heartbeat when another loud bang sounded from outside. It settled down after a couple of hours and I'd managed to fall back asleep.

***************

Hot sunlight shone brightly in my face making me flutter my eyes open and shield them right away. I gasped realizing it was the next day, knowing Master Casimir had called me by now. I always made his bathwater, got his clothes out and helped him dress then brought him breakfast.

I had a whole line of morning chores and I was out here sleeping. Master Casimir would for sure scold me. I hurried to my feet but something stopped me from going to the door.

The Barn was empty, every inch. There wasn't a horse in sight in the stables, and the other section with the pigs and cows and goats were all gone.

"What the....did Magnus come to get all the animals?" I asked myself.

Magnus was another servant, he worked out in the barn a lot. I often helped him. It was odd that none of them were here, but not only that the hay was nearly all gone.

I blinked a bit as it also looked a bit worn down. I finally went to the doors and opened them and just stared as the open green pasters were all of a sudden dead grass and weren't kept up. the servants worked hard to keep all the land green, trimmed, beautiful with flowers lining the castle.

The Castle looked...old and...abandoned. I blinked a bit confused and stepped outside, turning around looking at the barn and my jaw dropped witnessing what I was seeing.

The barn looked nothing like it did just yesterday. The paint was chipped and cracked and old, it wasn't even red anymore it was dirty brown. The doors looked worn and cracked.

I walked around wondering what was going on, wondering where all the animals were and why the castle looked like some haunted old building. The royal family would cringe at its condition and surely every servant would receive a cut in pay.

I bit my lip and ran towards the castle. The closer I got the worse it looked. I couldn't help the way my heart pounded in my chest seeing everything just gone. The servant quarters were completely empty and cold. We never had much but we always had a small little fire burning, little cots, and little chest to keep our clothes.

I ran to Master Casimir's room and felt tears well up in my eyes. His immaculate royal room was nothing more than a huge empty abandoned room. His bed was not there, it looked just empty and my sobs echoed in the room.

I felt afraid, scared as I fell to my knees unsure what to do. I walked to the king and queen's quarters and everything was just the same, empty abandoned, old smelling.

I left the castle, unsure what else to do, and just started walking. My feet started hurting by the time I reached a road. The road wasn't dirt though and there weren't wagons being pulled on it but fast metal buckets.

It made me shriek in fear and fall backward when one zoomed past me. I swallowed shaking and crawled to the road touching it and was surprised at its texture. It was like gravel but all melted together and solid.

One of the buckets slowed in front of me and I gasped and crawled backward.

"Hey, are you alright? You look a bit lost and scared," A friendly voice asked.

I looked up and examined inside the bucket more than the person, looking at the big circle in front of him and intrigued with the strip that tied him to the chair. The loud sound the car was making as it subtly shook and roared spitting out smoke from the back. I flinched when he got out.

"Hey it's ok, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm Sierra, come on how about we get you some food huh?" She spoke gently, the way I spoke when trying to calm the horses.

I nodded and took her offered hand and she lifted me to my feet.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Silas, servant belonging to the Royal Family of the Huntingtons."

She tilted her head, "You're a servant of the royal family? What?"

"Yes, I tend to the young Prince Master Casimir."

She chuckled a bit and opened the car door.

"Come on, get in."

I hesitantly got in the bucket with much convincing from her and we ended up at some sort of local eatery. It reminded me of where I came to fetch bread for Master Casimir, only...much different.

As soon as we walked in the smell took me back, it smelled amazing and I felt my stomach growl. I looked embarrassed and she smiled. When we were escorted to a table I was impressed by how much food there was to choose from. Meats and eggs were so expensive and they had a plethora of options.

"Don't worry about the price, just get what you want." She said smiling.

I smiled at her and nodded. Once the food came, I ate better than I ever had in my life. This was royal food.

Everything was different. The castle was abandoned, life as I knew it had just seemed to vanish. Life would be different now and I smiled as I took a bite ready to embrace it.