A Simple Mind

A Simple Mind

         The Lights were bright and obtrusive after so much time in a cell. Two weeks, I guessed, maybe less in the cold dark. The source of the lights weren’t candles; nobody was daft enough to use fire in the summer heat. Rather, shafts of afternoon sunlight flooded in through the high windows onto the cold stone floor.
         It was curious, how detached I felt, how utterly bored I was. I could feel a drop of sweat rolling down the back of my neck; I noticed a cobweb next to my knee on the wooden bench I was sitting on. In front of me, among the ranks of spectators, a man coughed – or was it a man? I looked up to see a thin, handsome figure with a hand over his mouth. A quick check told me his ears were pointed.
         Simpletons, I thought contemptuously. I wondered who had let elves in. They might disrupt the proceedings with their inattentiveness.
         My reverie was interrupted by a light banging next to me, and a white-wigged man in a black robe spoke loudly,
“Miss Bianca, are you with us?” I jerked my head towards him and nodded curtly. He did not let the matter go. “The attorney has asked you a question three times.”
         I shrugged and muttered an apology, turning to face the man in the black suit who was pacing in front of me. He waited for a few seconds before speaking.
“Miss Bianca, where were you the afternoon of the twelfth of June?” He asked finally, turning to look up at me. I glanced briefly at him, and turned my attention to examining my nails.
“Would you like me to tell you what happened?” I asked blandly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the man do a double take.
“Is this a confession?” He asked, barely restraining the surprise in his voice. I shrugged.
         
June twelfth... I had been alone that day. Father was with a friend in town on a Saturday visit, leaving Dinah with me, as though I was thirteen years old and needed a nanny. I was glad to have him out of the house; the fool was constantly meddling in my affairs.
         I spent most of the morning in my room, avoiding Dinah as much as humanly possible. She was revolting, with her red hair and hopeful smile. I had never met a sillier girl in my life, constantly dreaming about things she had no right to want. She had the nerve to think that her looks, which drew even my very own father’s eye, coupled with those sickeningly pointed ears made her desirable. She had no intellect to speak of; indeed, the smartest of her race of elves barely reached the average human intelligence. It was laughable, how she so desperately tried to extend her friendship to me.
         At noon she knocked unexpectedly on my door and presented me with a garishly pink hair ribbon, no doubt something she had bought in the city. I had no use for such a ridiculous accessory, as I never tied my hair, so I refused it with a shudder of annoyance. The look of childish misery she gave me, however, drew me over the edge. I made my mind up in an instant, and said in my most sickly sweet voice, ‘Dinah, darling. I’m sorry... come here, help me put it in.’ I waited for her to come up behind me and endured those soft hands in my hair. I turned her to face me, and saw her face light up with tremulous joy.
‘Mistress Bianca, it looks beautiful!’ She said to me, and her pretty face registered happy surprise as she found me stroking her cheek. I smiled at her, looking into her eyes. ‘Thank you.’ It was only then that my hand slipped down to her throat. I began to squeeze, hard, marveling at the feel of her neck between my fingers.
‘Mistre-’ was all she managed to gasp, before her airway was blocked.
        Dinah’s face reddened, her eyes bulged, and still I squeezed harder. I dragged her to the ground, one knee on her belly, using my weight on top of her as extra strength. Feeling a click under my thumbs, I glanced at her face and saw that, blue now, it had suddenly lost its expression. Her head rolled back, her eyes blank as ever.
It was difficult, for she had struggled fiercely for such a slender elf, but I was stronger in the end. That feeling... I remember it now, it clung to me, the aura of power, struggle. My stomach flipped in pure excitement, and I let out a wild giggle, heady with the sensation. It caused me such satisfaction that I cannot possibly describe it, to see those hopelessly stupid eyes go still and lifeless.
         I watched her on the floor, panting as the adrenaline coursed through me. For a long time, I just stared at her. I was still looking at her when my father came in.

         A dull shocked silence fell over the courtroom as I finished my narrative. I caught the attorney’s disgusted look, and shot him a cold smile fingering a lock of my hair absentmindedly.
“I can’t abide the unintelligent, sir,” I said conversationally, “She had a simple mind.”
         I laughed at the look on his face, and turned my attention to the lock of hair, twisting it around and around my finger.

-Emina Causevic