Upon her return to the hidden palace, from the capital, Dupli felt the world shift beneath her once again.

Within the week, she was beaten by maids, and had to recuperate in bed.

Nightmares about them calling her names and then tripping her, went deeper into them cornering her and then using a wet towel to hit her on her back…

Sweat would be covering herself and her small, crude bed, when she harshly woke up, making things even harder for her to recuperate, as she gained a small fever as well.

The only thing that kept her from crying, was the phrase in her mind. The words were on repeat, yet, she had to hear them over and over again to feel okay. It wasn’t just the words, but the voice, that continued to soothe her and give her the smallest upon the smallest of hopes that she will not die and forever be here, but a future away from this hell.

She focused upon it so hard that she was able to forget the lingering pain from having been hit with the wet towel.

As time started to go by, she started to ask why…Why me? Why are they doing this? Had I done something so terrible? Why can’t they like me?

Yet, there was no one to release this frustration, nor ask these questions too…And Dupli found that since she had to endure, she found herself becoming even more quiet and detached. She didn’t cry or bite her thumb anymore. She didn’t complain or yell out her sufferings…What was the point? It was easy to understand…That if she didn’t cry, she wouldn’t be teased or hit…

As Dupli found herself accepting that she was in a bad place, she wasn’t even surprised when Donna came, purposely sitting on top of her leg. Having been so sick that she couldn’t go on with her chores for a whole day, news of this had gotten out!

 

Donna only laughed at Dupli’s indifferent face, dragging her out of the bed and making her work, even before she had completely healed. Through Donna doing this, Dupli suddenly thought that this was how they acted, this is what they did. They wanted to give her a tough upbringing, but she didn’t understand why.

Seeing all this, Dupli started to lose her innocent childlike thoughts and started to see how much she was nothing.

She was a shadow, used to ‘look and act’ like the Princess and she shouldn’t have any thoughts, because she was a slave. She had no rights to ask for anything, she had no right to act out her innocence. She felt like she was in some kind of place she couldn’t get out of, trapped…

She was like a play toy, a doll. If she felt, she felt too much. So, she tried to stop feeling…Her thoughts of this were relatively simple, but she felt like it was all wrong! How could this be normal? Surely, not every child felt like this! Yet, she found no other way, she didn’t want to feel all of this, but this was her way of coping…

 

Through having to work longer, because of being a step too late to stop someone from making things hard for her, Dupli found herself sicker and sicker as time moved on.

And then a day came by, that she fainted away while cleaning dishes. The scalding hot water, making her hands tremble uncontrollably, seemed like the last thing that she could have handled at that time.

Through sleep, she felt a strange glimpse of a dream overflow through her.

It felt real, like it really happened. The place, the smell, the feel of it…She saw herself gracefully moving and smiling. It looked like a dance, and in her dream, she felt free and happy. A familiar music was playing in the background and upon the end of her dream, she opened her eyes to see a blurry glimpse of someone.

Then, everything was gone, to feel and see someone slapping her face.

“Get up!” Donna yelled.

 

Without delay, Donna pulled Dupli out of bed and pushed her towards the door, “Here.”

Dupli was still quite sick, only seeing a blurry vision at present. She lifted her head, to try and understand what was going on, but dizziness overwhelmed her once again.

“Feed her to the dogs!”

That voice frightened Dupli so much that she couldn’t help but want to be able to at least open her eyes or shake her head.

“Yes, head nurse.”

Dupli breathed out quickly and felt herself being dragged along the ground. The dog’s growls were heard as they went outside of the building and Dupli tried to hide her terror…

She could feel how desperate this situation was, she had to try and get better, she had to overcome this!

The phrase and a strange emotion went through her head and suddenly something clicked inside her.

Change…

She had to change!

Strangely, for a ten-year-old, this made sense. Her problem, of what she thought, was being unwell. So, she had to become better…

Relaxing her body, Dupli closed her eyes and felt familiarity run through her as a strange force was felt inside of her body. But, there was also a feeling of something coming towards her body as well…

It could shock anyone to the core on how easy it was to accomplish this ‘change’, as she felt herself become a lot more better now. She felt scared, yet, very thankful.

The growling dogs making her unable to think to much into her astonishment of what she could do, so she could only think more of what is happening right now, later…

 

After a few seconds, Dupli opened her focused eyes and pulled away from Donna, “I am fine, send me back to work.”

They were right next to the fence, that would enter into the dog pen, and all the dogs were looking at her like she was a meal. They had started to growl and show how hungry they were through drool coming out of their mouths. Dupli started to breath rapidly, hoping that they could let her off, they had too! She was not going to die today!

A familiar feeling of being stubborn entered her feelings and she became more determined to not enter that pen!

Donna had been literally startled. This little girl…Had she been…

“Too late! You should know that acting is just as bad.” She tried to pull at Dupli’s collar again, but Dupli sidestepped.

A strange familiarity went through Dupli once again, “I will go back on my own.”

Dupli walked back and went straight to finding a chore to do, leaving Donna staring at her back.

Narrowing her eyes, Donna went straight to report this to the head nurse.

“So, she went back to work?” The head nurse asked.

Donna nodded, “Do you want me to still feed her to the dogs?”

The head nurse let out a chuckle, “No, if she is working, that’s fine. But there’s no second chances.”

“Very well.”

Donna left, thinking that it won’t be long now before the little maid will be on her way…

 

***

 

Dupli grew colder and colder as time went by.

Name calling, stares and laughing, she handled now with no problem. With the laundry becoming dirtied and the basket breaking, Dupli now protected it to the best of her ability, even hurting other maids in the process…

A wrist was broken, due to some kind of move she didn’t know that she could do. But afterwards, she was beaten with a stick fifteen times for punishment.

While her hands being forcefully put into scalding water, to wash the dishes, she found the sense of force that helped her hand overcome the heat and pain. Through this, though, she’d also realized that there was a limit to how often she could do whatever it was that she was doing. She felt like whatever it was, ran out, and that she had to wait a near full day for it to recover. It was obvious to her now, that it seemed to be some kind of healing ability, as her fever had completely gone and even the scar on her body, that the Princess had made, had completely vanished…

Dupli could not come up with any realistic description about what was happening and even though her young childlike mind wanted to imagine some awesome things, she was unable to think too much into it, as she would be pushed, shoved or yelled at and snapped her out of her thoughts.

But there were no longer any howls of pain or complaining. Dupli had decided to stay as quiet as possible, as to stay out of more trouble then she was already in…

The worst times that she got hurt, were times after she had left the hidden palace and then returned.

She would become something that the other maids would lash out on, for at least three of them. Guiding her to a neglected corner of the hidden palace to severely beat out their jealous thoughts and wants on this little girl. They wanted her to bring back something as compensation, but Dupli never had brought back anything. They wanted to take all her special treasures, then got mad because she hadn’t gotten any. To them, she had seen the Royal Consort and was treated very well, but no words had been told on what they had missed out on, this was just their own assumptions…

Dupli fell more into a strange, cold place, waiting patiently for them to stop beating her.

If she were to fight back, she was only going to get beating anyway, so why bother? She wasn’t strong enough yet to take on three older maids at a time anyway, she could only wait until they were finished and left her there, crawled into a ball…

 

Three times, she had gone out to the capital. And every time she had left, she got more and more indifferent and cold. No smiles were seen upon this face anymore. No light in her eyes, as she looked for more ways, or ideas, to get away. It was strange how her life felt like it didn’t count at the moment, that once she got away, that was when her life would finally start…

She saw nothing, besides places she could possibly run too.

Knowing the route of the journey in the carriage now, Dupli wanted to get a better understanding of the capital. She had seen the abandoned children, like herself, dirty and sitting on the side of the road…

Did they have better lives than hers?

If she were to run away and change her predicament…

Seeing that the other children’s predicament might even be better than her own, Dupli started to disregard a little more on thinking she could find some family and decided that she will have to become independent. This idea, was because she had no one to run to anyway, because no one was familiar, so she would obviously become like the other children anyway.

Hope seemed to totally evaporate from her thoughts…Hope for love, hope for family, hope to find something familiar…All she wanted was to get away, to change her situation…Of course, to that, she needed more time. Not only to find the best place to run from, and the best time…But beforehand, she will try and remember some of the ways of cooking. Perhaps she could try and find some bow and arrow and learn how to use it. Then she could cook her own food.

Yes, her mind was made up for some time now, she wasn’t going to stay. She probably could only get fleeing right once, otherwise her life might as well be forfeit. She had to do things right the first time!

Dupli breathed out slowly, thinking that she will have to endure a little more…

 

***

 

It had become somewhat law, that knowledge of her being a duplicate was not to be told to anybody. At first, it was understandable, as it was for the safety of the Princess…But, it did make Dupli wonder that if she had said this secret to others, would the other maids still bully her…

What made matters worse, on the fifth time of leaving in a carriage, taking on the appearance of the Princess once again, Dupli nearly didn’t make it back…

In the capital, Dupli had been able to get off the carriage, as she had become more and more obedient.

Her silent and cold face had told them that her obedience had become very good, yet, she wasn’t like this to show obedience, it’s just how she was for now…For her to endure everything, she found this way to be the best solution to finding a way out. She knew crying wouldn’t help her, so she had stopped. She knew the maids wouldn’t stop bullying her, so she had to become stronger…And, her complete and utter stubbornness of showing others that she wasn’t scared or affected, was part of her personality, whether she remembered that part of herself or not…

 

This time at the capital, upon walking on her own and trying very much upon being a lovely Princess of the Kingdom of Eden, Dupli had become in danger.

Normally, she had showed no interest in anything. Her child like curiosity had nearly completely vanished.

Yet, this time, she saw from a few metres away, some chimes…

A flash came to her mind then, that same voice sounding out to her, ‘A chime only makes music when it is moving…’

Slowly walking over, to where she saw a few chimes, Dupli had walked away from a few people who were there to protect her.

Strangely, only two noticed that she’d walked away and followed, whereas others did not.

Stopping in front of the chimes, Dupli felt familiarity washing through her. Yet, she didn’t understand why the loss was so overwhelming to her, that she wanted to cry.

Putting out a hand, to touch the bottom of the chime, she moved it and it started to make random music.

The voice sounded in her head again, ‘You will forever be my endlessly moving chime.’

A strange sense of happiness flew through her and Dupli smiled. It had been so long that she felt any kind of happiness, that Dupli felt a tear flow down her cheek.

Wiping the tear away, Dupli took a deep breath in, feeling satisfied at having at least a dream of someone that felt she was worthy. That someone cared about her…That she was indeed someone special to one person in this world!

…Pain suddenly came out of nowhere then, and Dupli looked at her shoulder, to see an arrow imbedded there…

 

“Protect the Princess!”

Guards surrounded Dupli and slowly brought her back to the carriage, and before Dupli was out of sight, one person found themselves hoping and wishing that they had finally found who they had been looking for. This person desperately chased after the assassins, making sure that they don’t touch the first person he’d seen, that resembled the person he couldn’t believe he lost!

To have her suddenly disappear like that, the world had shattered! Then to see this person smile, while looking at the chime, he couldn’t help but think that it had to be her!

The tear that had fallen down her cheek had hurt him, making him sure upon this person…She has to be the one! She had loved chimes so much that she preferred to watch and touch them, instead of most other instruments…Sometimes he would play the flute for her, but she would interrupt his music by touching the chime right in the middle of his tune. But, he could never get angry, as he knew how much she loved chimes. Where they had lived, most times he would always have chimes and she would always touch them, when walking past…He had even made steps for the higher ones, when she was small, so that she could touch them too…

Upon seeing her getting attacked by an arrow, he hadn’t thought, but went into action straight away!

For so many weeks, this person had been isolated from the world, not seeing anyone or anything else, just searching…Searching for someone precious!

 

No more problems were found, as they rushed out of there. Dupli wasn’t muchly attended too, instead, she crudely attended to herself.

Pulling out the arrow, she had made things worse, yet the nanny sighed and just sat there, slightly rocking along with the moving carriage. After all, Dupli’s job was to take all of these attacks anyway, so that the real Princess wasn’t harmed…

Dupli put her hand to her shoulder and found herself slightly dizzy. Blood slowly crept out from the wound, going onto her hand and onto the pretty clothes that she was wearing.

I can’t die! I can’t faint! Fix it!

Clenching her other hand, Dupli took a deep breath and found that she was doing something strange again.

Having done this a couple of times now, she was able to try and comprehend what was going on…She was taking something in, and then using that and something else inside her, to mend herself…She felt that it was the usage of two things. Yet, when she had broken the maid’s wrist, she had only used one. There was a difference between the two things that she can do, and Dupli was still unsure on how to understand what was going on.

What is it? What was she doing?

Dupli sighed, feeling herself sweat and become weak.

Her injury had somehow healed by half, but Dupli could no longer continue and put her head against the carriage, fainting to losing too much blood from her weak body.

 

One watched the carriage and found the direction it was heading in. It was quite a shock, to find that she had become the Princess…The biggest shock in quite a number of years…

Sighing, this person watched the carriage, until it was protectively inside the hidden palace, and wondered what he was going to do.

Was she hiding from him now? Did she totally forget about him?

Remembering everything about her, he could not help but be upset if she had forgotten about him once again. But, what about the chimes? It looked like she did remember…

Desperately wanting to talk to her, he held himself back. They had time…If she wanted to do this, he will of course protect her and hope that she will talk to him once again soon.

He knew that he had left her for a short time, and that he had promised her he’d protect her…He’d let her down…

Having stood there for quite some time, he came to a decision. He was sure of who she was, but since the kingdom was getting close to being overrun by the war, his first thoughts were to stop the war from advancing further into the country. If he did that, he’d have more time to be able to understand what she wants…She should be safe inside this palace for now…

Not wanting to leave, but knowing he needed more time to attain her forgiveness, he turned and started to take in pure air around him. For what he was going to do, was going to take quite awhile to recover from, but he was sure that she should be safe from harm, being the Princess and hidden away like this…

 

***

 

When Dupli opened her eyes, she found herself in a cell. It was really small, and the door held one small part with bars, that was the only way to see into this small room. There was no window, there was no table or pillow. It smelled, and Dupli saw the bucket in the corner for her to do her business in. It seemed that it hadn’t been cleaned…

Her face showed no discontent, if anything, it was like this was expected. This was where they thought she belonged wasn’t it…

One small blanket was laid out and a small amount of hay lay under her, there was nothing else...

What’s going on now? She asked herself.

Feeling herself hot and dizzy, upon trying to sit up, Dupli frowned.

She had the Princess clothes still on, and they were bloody from her shoulder. The jewellery had been taken off and now her hair was in a mess.

Feeling the strange mask on her face once again, Dupli was sure that she had returned back to the hidden palace once again, yet…

Leaning her head against the close by wall, Dupli put her hand up to her shoulder and gasped. It was still painful and had not been treated to at all.

Did any of them have a shred of care?

Hissing to the pain, she believed now that she had woken up because of it. But she couldn’t cry, she couldn’t even bite the side of her thumb…Clenching her fist and her eyes shut, Dupli endured through it quietly. What else was she to do?

After half an hour of trying to calm herself down and to think properly, even though she was sure she was getting sick again, a noise was heard…

 

The cell door opened, and the head nurse came in, seeing Dupli awake, “Ah! And here I thought you were going to die within the day.”

Food was dropped by her feet, spilling half of it’s contents. Not that it mattered too much, as it looked like scraps and already been half eaten…

Dupli weakly looked up at the head nurse, who looked back at her in a sigh, “The Royal Consort stated that since you have helped keep the Princess alive, we aren’t to kill you.”

Dupli thought about this for a moment and wanted to laugh, but didn’t, instead she found her heart growing colder. Disappointment ran through her as she found that she had wanted a thank you and perhaps eatable food…Instead, this is what she got…

“All is well if you get better, you can come back and work and even become the Princess again. If you don’t…”

“Fed to the dogs.” Dupli said, no emotions in her voice or face.

“Yes, you are correct. I’ll come back tomorrow.”

That was it, the head nurse disappeared through the door and Dupli was locked inside once again.

Was it like this to survive with everyone else? Why is it so hard for me?

Dupli was angry and hurt, sad and reconciled.

With no other choice, once again, and feeling that strange feeling flowing through her, she found herself feeling better in a couple of seconds.

Dropping her hand from her shoulder, she wondered if how they treated her would stop if she grows older.

The other maids, they were older, perhaps they survived this kind of lifestyle and now didn’t get treated like this.

Cuddling herself, Dupli could only wait until they come back, so she could leave the cell…So, she could continue to find a way out…So, she could get away from these people!

 

***

 

Dupli had wanted to be grateful to the person that had saved her life, but when she went through several punishments, that she was innocent of, and the attempted assassination of the Princess, when she had taken her place…Dupli had stopped being grateful!

Instead of feeling gratification, she felt angry and even desperate. How could she be happy being saved!?

Either way, her life was in a bad situation. At this point, she was just surviving in another way…Her life wasn’t even hers and she was being constantly bullied…If she hadn’t been found by the Royal Consort, at the river, would she in a better position now? Or, if it was in a worse condition, would she trade it for this one? Perhaps she would have even died…But, was there really any point in thinking this way?

Seeing that there was no use in thinking more about it, as this was her life at present, that was why she still wanted to leave…

 

Dupli knew that she was in a rough and terrible predicament. Unable to even speak her grievances, because the one who had saved her was a Consort of the King! After the Royal Consort had nursed her back to full health, Dupli had not really seen her since, but it was absolutely made clear to her, that she was somewhat a replacement for her daughter now…

With her innocence scattered, Dupli hardly thought the Royal Consort would give her freedom. That the only thing she would obtain by asking that of the Royal Consort would be a punishment…

Not only was she being used, she was abused, and Dupli was starting to understand a lot more of what was going on.

Her mind was maturing a little faster, because of what she was going through, and she found that she was able to figure these things out now…

She felt it, that prior to not remembering, her life had been a lot better!

A certain suspicion inside of her felt like she was treated very well and had felt very special beforehand. And comparing that feeling, to the way she felt now, it was astronomical…

Who had she been? Who had made her feel special?

Even being here for quite a number of weeks now, making her eleven, she wanted to give up…But, that phrase calmed her down…

Anyway, what would she receive if she gave up? What was beyond death? Wasn’t death the end?

No, Dupli thought, clenching her fists, I just have to do the best I can with what I have. Then when I get away from here, I’ll find the person that has the same voice. I’ll then ask them why did they let me go!?

Closing her eyes, the phrase went through her, and she fell asleep to the sound of the voice.