Excerpt: Unbound

I have freed myself for nothing. I can feel it in my bones. It is not just the cold seeping in through the crumbling stones of the abbey that makes my hair stand on end and my body tremble. It is the sensation of power not my own, of an alien force, growing stronger and rising. It is far away, still, but I know that the time will come. I can almost taste it.
The nights grow longer now and our meagre fires cannot blaze large enough to keep us warm. We hurry everywhere now, walking in long strides, our habits flowing behind us. I can hear the others whispering about me. I do not get close enough to make out the words, but they look at me like a mother looks at a wayward child: concerned, frightened, almost pitying. They suspect, of course, but no one has ever succeeded in finding out where I had come from when I huddled on their doorstep one morning. Their theories and fabrications have worked their way into their books, their prayers, and what they imagine my history to be has become part of their gospel. I do not dare correct them. I do not dare open my mouth.
There is comfort in this silence. I do not speak. I keep my eyes directed at the ground, shielded by my hair. I am the only one who does not cover their head, the luxurious mass of black curls are my sole act of defiance, my only link to the woman I used to be. I lost the velveteen dresses along with my shackles and my ability to speak. I freed myself, but I have paid for his sins all these years.
And now, now he is coming back.