Veronika Orlov
Veronika Orlov is the oldest child of the Duke and Duchess Orlov, one of the seven high families of Ruskovich, and rulers of the Winter Court. Having grown up behind the Iron Curtain, her ways are sometimes odd, and she aspires to be everything her famil
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Laudanum Dreams
The bath was wonderful, but the laudanum beforehand was luxurious. The rat bites all over her body would be cured in the morning, but the scars in her mind would take longer to heal. Peg had rebuffed her when she tried to look after her. So that left Vera and the bath. The water made the rat bites itch, so she put simple binders on her wrists to prevent herself from scratching then laid back into the tub.
That was when she heard the scratching sound. She tried to ignore it, to keep her eyes shut. Whoever was at the door could wait until she finished her bath. But it continued. She opened her eyes to look over, and gave a gasp. There was a rat. No ordinary rat though, as he wore a crown. A crown for a king, and that was how tall he was, because Vera had not shrunk yet he seemed to fill the room. She moved to take off the binders to cover herself, but they were bound tight. That is when she noticed the eyes. Rats had crawled up along the edge of the tub and were watching her. "There is no prince to save you," taunted the rat king.
Vera looked for a way to free herself, but it was too late. The rats began to swarm her, running up her arms, diving into the bath. They began to bit, and to chew. She opened her mouth to scream, but a rat lodged itself in her throat, stopping her screams. She could feel them eating her, the teeth were....
She opened her eyes to see the surface of the tub. Kicking out her feet, she brought her face to the surface. Her mouth was full of water when she tried to breath. Her wrists still in the binders. The most she could do was get her face to the side of the tub before she began to hack up water, expelling her lungs. Finally, she was able to gasp in a breathfull of air. She let out a whimper and disengaged the leather binders, easily slipped out of once she was lucid. Scrabbling with a burst of energy, she slipped over the edge of the bath and collapsed on the floor. She lay there a moment, absorbing the indignity of having slammed her face against the tiles in her hurry. She wanted to cry. There was no one there to cry to. Slowly she crawled over to her towel, to her mask. She slipped them both on and finally rose on wobbling legs. The next goal was to make it back to her room unseen.
Fuck baths.