• i feel black silk fly in strands around my face. i know he watches my captor never misses seing me perform. I sweep my arm upward i hear the steady beat of the drum pick up tempo. I lift my left hand above my head. I grope for the deep red curtain i felt brush my head. chang of plans Gage i think to myself. im going to perform the dance that had condemd me in the first place. the shak-ra-leh has been performed since the ancestors first saw the sunrise. it was used as a trubute to the god of life. This would infuriate him. i smiled, and gladly felt cobras fangs press into my lips as i thought of how the beating i knew would come would give me the oportunity to finally kill him. swinging myself up ward, I wrapped my ankle in the curtain. to none of my suprise i heard a gasp and a growl. just as i planned! I heard the matallic clink of army boots against the stone floor. spread my arms and smiled showing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. I had learned long ago that he hated to see me show off my power. his pace quikened. i felt the wind as he reached tward my head. i flipped up and grabbed the curtain at i higher piont. i un hooked my foot and kicked off the wall; using the speed i swung both legs out. i felt leather strands slide across my calf. it was his shirt. I wore the same thing I always wore. he was such a jerk, he wouldnt even get me some decent clothes. it was leather. I could tell by the way the material slid across my skin. It was essentially a longer mans shirt that had been tied around my waist with a thin cord of rope, and a pair of mens pants that i had cut very short to keep from catching on the curtain.i had also cut the sleeves. i had cut a sheet into thin bands and tied them around my arms. it was very theatrical. i smiled wider and wrapped my legs back around the curtain then dropped to where i was eye level with him. i opened my eyes and saw the white haze i always did. This irritated him the most. he had always wanted me to see him coming. he hoped I would cower like the others; you cant fear what you dont see coming. i flipp back up and wrap the curtain around my thigh, down my calf and finally my ankle. i brought my right ankle and pressed it into my left knee. then lifeted my upper body away from the curtain, now i was facing my audience. i would never see them only hear them. this was the final move i would make tonight; the true dance would be performed from sunrise to sunset and i would never eat, drink, or rest. Gage had no respect for real art. i flip down and drop right in front of him. i feel his breath slide across my cheek and know hes ticked. i look up and smile then turn in the general direction of the applause i heard. i bowed and twirld off stage. hearing him tell every one good night i bolt down the corridor with my hands stretched out to my sides.
    "Amaranth! get back here you worthless slave!" he screamed after me. i felt the familair stone i know leads to a store room. i turned left and ran to the corner and reached toward the ceiling. i heard his boots scrape across the floor and cursed. He was far to fast. i turned and felt his hand strike my cheek with appaling force. My necked popped sickeningly as it was flung to the side by the force of his hand. i gasped as pain shot down my spine and i felt his hand wrap around my wrist. he pulled me forward and i thudded into him. hte pain was immense i could not concentrate. then i pulled myself out of it and suddenly i was on the floor with his knife shovedd into my throat. i gsped and felt arounfd on the floor hoping to heaven there was a loose stone or a knife he had dropped laying there. i was failed yet again. he grabbed my hair and jerked my head back into the floor. every muscel in my neck sreamed at me to cooperate and to lie still. but iwas never one to do as i was told.
    "amaranth! do you hear me?! you will never dace that dance again!" he screamed as he presses his knife harder into my fleshy throat.
    "why? ..... huh Gage? why? you want me to dance that dance alone for you! you fell in love with art the day you saw me dance!" i gasped out daringly. "but you lost all apprecaition for art the day sheronnica died! you died too! now all you are is a skeleton!!" i felt his hand connect with my face and i knew by the matallic taste in my mouth i was really in for it. i gasped as the familair white haze flashed crimson.
    "you never mention her agiain! she was my love! she was mine! and i lost her! you know nothing of loss!" he screached in my face. i felt wet streaks on my face. i hadn't started to cry at all. it was Gage! he had started to cry! what the hell was this place coming too? i felt his hand waver and i sighed. if i was smart i would run now and flee with my life. but Sheronnica had been my freind my freind as well. her death had been a horrible loss. I sat up slowly and the knife fell away. i was never really all that smart. i drew my knees up to my chest and his hair brushed them lightly. i felt more tears slide down my calfs as they fell from his cheek. i was beaten daily and hardened to pain, but i was not cruel. i sat on my knees and heard his hair slide across his hirt as he lifted his head. i new he was looking at me. i could fel his eyes burning into mine but i couldn't see them. they were supposed to be green. his eyes were green. the kitchen slaves told me they were. i reached out my hand and found his shoulder. i let it rest there.
    "i mourn at her passing as you do. she was my freind you. did you know that?" i was trying to be comforting. he had lost his wife. she had been carrying his children.
    "she was everyones friend." he repied sniffling.
    "yes she was a wonderfull person. they tell me she was buetifull i belive them with all my heart." it was true. she had been buetiufll. he let his head fall again.
    "you are right she was the fairest af all." he said as his voice cracked.
    "i know." i put my hand under his chin and lifted his head. i used i thread of silk to wipe his cheeks. they were wet.
    "you know i cried at her passing as well." i said reassuringly. he lifted his head farther and looked at my face.
    "you did?" he asked seeming suprised
    "im not some cold emotionless shell" i replied offened that he would think it below me. i am human too you know!
    "you know what hurts the most?" he asked quitely.
    "what?" i asked silenlty waiting to hear some sobb story of how he was alone and he had no one to talk to.
    "she looked like you." he said plainly.
    i blinked several times. what? i was a slave. how could i look like her?
    "what?!" i asked outraged that he would even bring her down that far. how cruel was he?
    " she had long back hair and bright eyes." he stated as though he was talking to a room of ambassadors. wait my hair was black? i had never seen myself. but its black? i was born blind. every color i thought of i had been told was in my surroundings. but no one had ever described me. black!? i felt him wrap his arms around me and pull me close to him. he was hugging me! what the hell happened to this place!? i felt him rest his head on my shoulder and then his tears slowly floe down my shoulder,
    "your just like her. you are like her sister." he stated. i blinked several times and rested my hands on his back in a similair way to they way he was to me. why was i so sad for him? he had beaten me countless times. was i really that weak? then he sighed and hugged me tighter. i never moved but some how he was so close i could feel his breath sliding down my back. i startd to breath faster; i was panicking. is this a trap? is he going to kill me? is he gonig to beat me again? his grip loosend and he leaned back. i scrambled away from him and pressed myself into the corner. he was gioing to kill me i could tell. he was just sympathitic because i wouldnt be here much longer. i heard him get up and walk over to me. he reached down and his hand touched my shoulder. i shrank away. i didnt want to die here. i wanted to die free or escaping! not in some grimy corner. he reached don to my elboe and lifted it up to above my head hten rached down and grabbed my my other elbow. i flinch away. i know im gonna die now. he would have ripped my off the floor if he wanted to beat me. he was going to kill me. you know the calm befor the storm. this was hte end i would never feel grass on my feet. never smell a flower, never feel the running water between my toes, never feel the sun on my back as i danced. it was over i had always hoped i would be free when i died. but when did a slave ever get anything. he was right i was worhtless. im worht nothing. he would keep me alive if i was. how could i be so stupid? i was just some dancer girl he picked up off the street. then the floor was gone. what the hell? where is the floor? then i realized Gage was holding me. his hands were holding my arms to my side. i was about 3 feet off the floor by the draft i could feel. why though? hes just gonna kill me? then i felt my back explode in skorching pain. i screamed bloody murder and dropped to the floor. my head is spinning. i see white and red blobs float across blakness then i feel him shake me and something press against my lips. blackness................