***

Time seems to drag on, in prison. The days are so similar that they all seem to bleed into one, making it seem like 24 hours lasts for so much longer. It was easy to see how everyone in here was crazy; my incredibly strong mind had probably been the only thing saving me. The goblins never stood a chance.

Let me tell you, it was humiliated being incarcerated among my old lackeys. Not that they would know who was in the cell next to them. I’d been here for a long time, and I’d yet to hear anyone say a word. When I walked the halls, the occupants of the cells gazed blankly out. I don’t think they noticed me, or registered that I was there. I doubt they were even in control of themselves anymore, they just…existed. I doubted that they moved, slept, even would have doubted that they ate, but that surely wasn’t possible.

I seemed the only alert one in the whole place, but I knew that was just an illusion. I had been tossed back in the far reaches of the jail, back where the ones with a life sentence had been sent. I knew I’d be no better off. Though I still hadn’t been put on trial, I’d realized that no one out there understood me. They were all too simple, too brainwashed by society to understand me. Society needed a fresh thinker like I needed a breath of fresh air—anything to banish the haze.

The cameras still sat outside my cell, but I’d never been allowed to talk to them. The reporters shied away from me, and I was kept under constant guard.

The only place I was still not watched over were the shower rooms, which soon became my favorite place. Once they’d ascertained that I would have no way of escaping from them, I had been allowed in there as much as I wanted, no, needed to be. It served as my breath of fresh air, at least for a while.

I never ever tired of looking at myself, and I thought of numerous ways to bring the reporters, and indeed The People, over to my side. I don’t consider it crazy, talking to and interviewing myself. It was probably the thing that kept me sane, actually. I was preparing for the outside world to see me. This time, I wanted them judge me right and see how wrong they’d been.

If only I had been alive long enough ago, I’m positive we would have beaten the mud men instead of being stuck down here. I could have ruled, would have ruled so well. I deserved to be practically worshipped, and I knew it. I also knew that other were afraid of me, and jealous. That was why I’d been persecuted. And that was why I had tried to destroy them all. There was no room in this world for subversiveness. I longed for a new world, one where loyalty and brilliance would be rewarded above all, and my beauty would set me above the rest. Right now, my desire for revenge and recognition were all that were keeping me going.

***

I was in front of the mirror again, a place I’d been spending increasing amounts of time. I’d heard the guards muttering of obsession; the reporters were gushing about this odd new fixation. But it’s not as if I’d never been called crazy before. I could feel their eyes on me out there, hear them thinking about me. They were the obsessed ones, but I couldn’t be picky. I had to take attention where I could get it. If I could get the guards on my side, I had hope of getting out, of escaping this horrible, horrible waste of my life.

I just stood and looked at myself. After all this hardship, all the cruelty and ugliness that had shaped and affected me, I was still beautiful. That was probably one of my greatest achievements to date, one of the things I was most proud of. You could choose many things in your life, and I had chosen to be beautiful. I’d always forced the ugliness out, before it could affect my looks. I had no room for it, and my greatest fear was that someday, the ugliness would take over my body and soul. So far, I’d kept it out. I was beautiful, and my mind remained whole and undamaged.

I think I would’ve spent all of my time in the bathroom if I’d been allowed, but the next best thing happened: they brought a mirror for my cell. I was still under constant surveillance, so I couldn’t be as free as I was in the shower rooms. But it made me feel like I was not so alone. I don’t know why they brought the mirror in, but I didn’t complain. I sat by it every day and fell asleep by it every night. When I woke up, I was the first thing that I saw.

The mirror made me love and appreciate myself even more, and it came so I couldn’t believe the things I’d done. I never should have worked with Cudgeon; he was the reason I failed. Next time, I promised myself, I would work totally and completely alone. No partners, no henchmen, just me. I would get out, and once I did, I would take my rightful place as leader of the world.

I would have confided to myself in whispers, but I couldn’t risk it. The cameras were too numerous, and the silence in that place too deafening. I was loath to break it, even to serenade the world with my beautiful voice. So I just looked at myself, and I looked back. We had conversations with our eyes, but oh, how I wished the girl in the glass could talk.

Some other stories by carino:

• Taken Away Updates
• How to Write A Good Fanfiction!
• Never Enough
• Desperation- Award Winner! 2nd
• A Christmas Surprise-oneshot