Why would you take her,
Where would she go?
Why are you going?
When would I know?

Who was this monster who thought that he could remove my mother from me? What was he to do with her in that tall castle, buried in darkness? Why did he want to take her away? If we were to be separated I rather it be me. I rather it be me that went to face whatever awaited.

“Take me,” I said to the king again. “Leave her alone. Take me instead.”

The king scanned me. An unreadable expression cloaked his face. He turned to the man holding my mother, who shrugged once again. The king sighed and responded “look, child. I understand it is hard to comprehend what is going on. But we mean you no harm. We mean your mother no harm. Once we are gone you will forget all this and we need to…”

“No,” I interrupted. “I won’t forget. I never forgot these past few years, why would I forget now? Especially not when it is my own mother,” I spat out angrily through my veil of tears. “How do you expect me to forget her?”

“What do you mean, you won’t forget?” Came a bitter voice from the door. It was the boy. “Everyone forgets.”

I took a deep breath, steadying myself before responding, “the last person you took was a man; he was old, with grey hair. He was wearing a long blue coat. Before that you took a tall lady, with brown hair and a yellow scarf. She had a sharp nose.”

There was a short moment of pause. The king’s face was still hard to read, but the boy was shocked.

“You’re just guessing,” the boy blurted out.

“Before that, you took the mayor’s wife,” I said softly. “She had dark brown hair and she was wearing a bright red knitted dress. I remember.” When I was younger she used to give me cake. She had a lovely smile. I remembered her. It hurt me to know that the mayor would not. 

I stared them down, my eyes filled with anger, confusion, sadness and possibly hatred. I didn’t know what I was feeling, except the strong need for them to release my mother.

The three of them looked at each other, soundlessly wondering what they should do with me.

“We have to take the lady… it won’t be long for her now. She has to go before…”

“No… we can’t just take her with…”

“But grandfather, what about the portal? We don’t know how long it will hold, we need to get out of here…”

“True.”

They were talking quickly. My head was in a blur over their conversation. They did not know what to do. They did not have an answer to their questions.

I had an answer for them.

Take me,” I croaked. “Take me!” I screamed. “Take me instead! Let mother go, please... please,” I sobbed. I could not bear thinking about what they would do to my mother. She was so fragile. As the days went by I could see her getting more confused. But she had her routine she understood, she could fend for herself if I was not here… if she did not remember me. If I could spare her, then I would. I could not bear to think of her tortured and alone somewhere in that dreaded big glowing impossible castle. 

The king sighed long and hard as he looked at me. I flinched at his stare. His face turned harsh. “Child, listen…”

“Yeah, we can take her,” interrupted the boy. “Why not? Just take her!”

Everyone turned to look at him. He was looking outside at the floor.

“Look, we can send her through first or could use her as a new servant or something! We can deal with this later. We don’t have enough time to deal with this mess. Grandfather, the night recedes. We have to go.”

A servant. Was that all that they wanted? What happened to their other ones? Did they kill them when they did not perform up to their expectations? Or did something else happen to them?

The king looked at his grandson with a look that I did not understand. Before they could say anything else though I knew that I had to make up their minds for them. Mother would stay here and be safe if I could just get them to take me instead.

“I’ll do it,” I said. “I’ll be your servant! Whatever you need. If you need someone, anyone, then take me instead. I’ll do it, take me, just please, leave my mother. Don’t hurt her. Don’t take her away. Please. Please.”