The stood undisturbed for a long time, but it was hard to tell how long exactly.
Perhaps it had been a few days that only felt long due to the monotony.
Or perhaps it had been years, and Beth had been long forgotten.
She had regained consciousness at some after being placed on the pedestal, and quickly realized where she was, but there was little she could do in her current state, especially so because she had no idea how she had ended up this way.
If she knew what had happened during the time she wasn't aware of her surroundings, then she may have been able to figure out a solution, but the only thing she could do, and what she had been doing to keep herself from going mad, was to slowly think of every single possibility and any potential solution in her mind, before testing out the ones she could, and sorting away the ones she couldn't, in case she could contact someone at some point and have that person try them for her.
She was completely lost in thought, when the first sound she'd heard since waking up ripped her out of them.
Beth focus, and quickly recognized the footsteps that were slowly approaching her.
Was someone coming to help her? Was this the person that put her here?
Only being able to wait, while the slow, steady steps approached her was like torture.
The steps finally stopped, but unfortunately for Beth, the person had stopped just barely out of her field of view.
She wished she could turn her head, or at least move her eyes, but she was stuck staring slightly off to the side, which only allowed her to see a vague, blurry silhouette.
"I suppose this is her." Beth's thoughts paused for a moment, and she started to get excited. This person hadn't put her here, so perhaps she was here to help. Maybe she could finally get out! But while this person- or rather this woman sounded familiar, Beth couldn't determine where she had herad her voice before.
But then the woman leaned forward, and Beth immediately regognized her face. She recognized HER face.
"I really hope you can see and hear me, otherwise this won't be nearly as much fun."
The woman smiled with a condescending look in her eyes.
"You probably wonder what's going on, right?" She paused for a moment and her smile grew wider.
"I'm a Doppelgänger. And your replacement. I suppose you wonder how such a rare monster not only entered your castle, but even replaced you without anyone noticing, well..." Her smile grew unnaturally wide for a moment, before returning to a condescending smirk. "You have your assistant to thank for that. He put a lot of time and effort to find one of my kind to take your place. Now, you probably think that means he betrayed you, but he actually wanted me to come here to get you." She picked up Beth, giving her a shred of hope.
"But did you think i would actually do that?" She gave Beth a mocking smile, before putting her back down.
"After all, i am 'Beth', while you are just some trivial little thing i own." She stood upright, again putting herself out of view.
"Perhaps i'll have him teach me how to turn you back and pretend to switch places, or maybe i'll simply have him removed."
The creature with Beth's face turned her slightly, putting itself back into her field of view.
"If he disappears, then i'll be the only one that knows what happened to you... but even if they knew, they may not want to bring you back."
She smiled again. "After all, people actually like me." With those words, the Doppelgänger simply turned around and walked away, leaving behind Beth, who would have been screaming at the creature had she been able to.