Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ᴰᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵗʳʸ ᵗᵒ ᶠⁱᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵗᵒʳᵐ
ʸᵒᵘ'ˡˡ ᵗᵘᵐᵇˡᵉ ᵒᵛᵉʳᵇᵒᵃʳᵈ
ᵀⁱᵈᵉˢ ʷⁱˡˡ ᵇʳⁱⁿᵍ ᵐᵉ ᵇᵃᶜᵏ ᵗᵒ
ʸᵒᵘ.
━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━
The Selected were furious and for the first time in her life, Princess Nychta felt the cold fingers of dread clench tight around her heart. She ran through the dark, faintly moonlit corridors, cursing herself for having claimed the tower rooms all to herself. A part of her mind was even praying, praying that she wasn't too late.
"I love him." She had declared confidently as she withdrew from the Selection. It was clear he wasn't her soulmate, but quite frankly, neither of them had cared. At least they'd spend this birth together albeit in misery, at least they'd be together. He had squeezed her hand and grinned that sunshine grin that had melted even Nychta's icy heart.
I could tell you about how that came to be. How they met and how this man, a simple guard had managed to win the love of Cruelty incarnate. But this story isn't about how it began, it's about how it all ended. It's not a happy story, clearly so I'd advise you to leave right now if you think they get married in the end. They don't. It's a bloodbath.
The current uproar in the castle was caused by the competitors of the Selection. Outraged by the fact that their princess had chosen a guard was a personal insult to each one and they were out for what they termed "justice", the power-hungry thrice-damned frog-spawn. They had come up with the twisted plan of killing him in his sleep, and call it an accident so the princess would be forced to choose one of them instead. But the thing is, Nychta got to know, thanks to the spies she placed around the palace, ever since she started this treacherous relationship with him, knowing the risk this put him at.
She had said, keep it a secret and they'd be happy. But he's smiled at her and kissed her, caressing her hair and assured her that they'd get through it. They'd run away if they had to, what's the worst that could happen?
So she was running, running down to the guard's quarters, unarmed, in her haste. Her breathing was heavy not just from exhaustion as she skid to a halt in front of his room. The room she had, in fact snuck into on more occasions than one. The hand of ice around her heart closed into a fist and shattered what was left of it. There he lay, her one lover, covered in what was mostly, his own blood. His eyes were shut and his breathing was painfully laboured.
She willed her feet to drag her over to him. She stood, leaning over his broken frame with her hand on either side of his head, refusing to let tears get the best of her. She'd fix this, she'd fix this, she'd fix this......or she'd ruin it all. The Selected, the palace, the kingdom, the world. Everything.
"Nychta..." he whispered, opening his eyes to peer at her with the softest of smile gracing his crimson lips. "I knew you'd come for me. Stubborn as you are." His sense of humour never left him even as he lay dying, it would seem.
Nychta could have slapped him for that. She was angry at him too. How dare he be so casual about this? How dare he think of leaving her after all his promises? After all her plans? She simply leaned down to him as she held him tighter.
"Shut up and breathe. You can't leave me. You can't!" She yelled, shaking in...was that fury? Terror? Grief? Perhaps a mixture of the three.
"Love, you know, as well as I do..." he started, but she didn't let him finish as she closed the distance between them, crashing lips to his. She kissed him furiously and passionately, she knew she was going to lose this all forever. This feeling that only he could make her feel. Never mind that his blood was now on her too. They were one, in her opinion, what difference did it make?
"I love you, Nychta...and I'm...I'm so grateful for whatever time we got..." he coughed as she pulled away to breath, holding her face so she's let him speak. "But we knew this wasn't going to last. It just ended sooner than we'd have anticipated."
This agonising calmness he had made her weak every single time. She wiped her tears away, getting some blood and dirt on her paled cheeks as well. She nodded and the two stared into each other's eyes. One last time as the hue and cry subsided, the universe shrunk to just them and their pain. The gods were sick, weren't they?
"I will kill them all. No. I'll make them beg for death. But it'll never come. They don't deserve it. I'll let them bleed out, starve them, burn them, bury them alive, rip their heads of with my bare hands. I don't care what I have to do but they will regret ever having touched you." She shook, now with a cold fury that not event he could quell. Instead, he let his thumb trace her lips softly as he was habitual to doing whenever she came to him, annoyed at anything and everything.
"I love you. And I will find you again." He promised quietly. Satisfied that he'd gotten to see her one last time. He leaned up to touch his lips, growing ever colder, to hers and lay back down.
"I love you too and I'll destroy anyone who comes between us again." She reiterated, choking on her own bereavement. Her hands shook as the life left his shining eyes. The scream that ripped through her throat then was nothing human and evidently, he was not the only one who died that night.
All the selected, anyone who came in the Princess's path that night met a most gruesome end. They all perished but worst of all, whatever sliver of humanity or twisted moral that had dwelt in Nychta's heart as result of his love had shrivelled up into a shell of what it used to be. Her broken heart was harder than ever and nothing lived in her but a monster. A monster. A monster made of remorse, pain, anguish, lost love. She had nothing to give anymore.
