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The crowd trickled out of the great hall, many amongst them perverts and deviants. They shuffled along, their mouths dry and their minds set. The queen’s wrath was a fearful thing.
The queen rubbed her aching neck. It had been a long day. Perched on her head, the crown was an object of absolute splendor. Encrusted with rubies and emeralds, it glittered darkly in the evening sun. Five hundred of her subjects waited in tense silence, their eyes flitting back and forth between the shackled prisoner and their haughty monarch.
Her general was speaking, listing the man’s crimes. Petty larceny, robbing the odd grave and thieving from the royal wine cellar. She closed her eyes and waited for it. “And assault,” the general finished with a flourish.
The queen took a deep, shuddering breath.
“Elaborate”, she said.
“The court accuses this man of assaulting his wife and daughter on multiple occasions. Physical abuse and rape, your highnesses.”
The queen opened her eyes. “Is this true?”
The man started to speak, but she raised a hand to silence him.
“Is this true?”, she asked again, glaring directly at the drunk’s wife.
“Y-y-yes your highness. When he drinks, he’s a monster,” the woman replied.
A slow tingle fluttered down the queen’s arm.
“And he raped you? Your daughter?” she asked.
“H-h-he doesn’t mean to, your highness. He’s weak.”
The tingle grew stronger. Her hand thrummed with a life of its own.
“What’s the verdict, your highness? A few days in the dungeons?”
The queen stood up, her dusky skin gleaming and rippling. Rape. Assault. Another woman, another child.
Wordlessly, she drew her long sword. A fluid, graceful arc, and the man’s head came off cleanly.
The wife gasped and cried out. But her tears were transient. The monster was no more.
The great hall stayed silent, five hundred hearts beating in unison.
“Any more?”, she asked.
“No, your highness. That was the last one.”
The queen stared ahead, breathing a little heavier. Then her face broke out into this radiant smile.
“I think we’ve had a full night. You’re all dismissed,” she roared.
As the sun set on the near empty room, the queen took off her crown. Stretching her neck, Mina carefully placed the Virtual Reality Headset on the console. It was rather heavy.
Smiling to herself, she bid adieu to the young family.
“Did you enjoy the game, Mina?”, asked the lady of the house.
“Yes Ma’am. Very kind of the young Master to let me try it.”
“It wasn’t too violent for you? I don’t want you to have nightmares.”
Mina thought about her alcoholic husband. The physical abuse. The forced nightly horrors.
“No ma’am. It was just fine,”.
“Same time tomorrow, then. Don’t forget to buy the laundry soap!”
“Ok ma’am,”.
And gathering her belongings, the dusky queen walked home. Head held high and her arm tingling with a weird energy.
A version of this was first published here.
Image source: pixabay
I'm a proud wife and a warrior mom awaiting my certificate in "Advanced helicopter parenting". An avid coffee enthusiast. A physician in another life. My hobbies include reading and writing, then nitpicking what I read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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