Love Is Never Ugly

Chapter 62

Charlotte once again found herself gazing upon the surroundings of a castle but it had become vastly different from the one she had seen previous. Before there had been so much light, warmth, and splendor, now it had become dark, cold, and withered. Then she heard something in the mist. Someone crying.

That's when she saw the woman from before. The woman who had married a prince and had become an expectant mother, which was now visible. She was on her knees and sobbing over a body. The body of her husband who lay dead in a puddle of his own blood. His form was completely covered in claw marks and his face had been viciously mauled. His death was no doubt a brutal one. A brutally slow and painful one.

"Oh Etienne." She wept, taking her beloved into her arms. "You promised! You promised that you wouldn't hunt after dark! Why couldn't you keep your word?!"

The prince tried to keep his word. He kept it for eight months but at dusk today he had seen the most remarkable creature. A stag as red as blood and he thought that it's hide would make a fine coat for his wife. He knew dark was closely approaching but he was so pleased with the idea o his princess giving him a child, that he felt a coat made from such a magnificent beast was a worthy prize for her. He chased the stag through the forest, a fast and tricky creature who managed to dodge him for a long time. Long enough for night to fall. Long enough for him to be seen by two mysterious birds. An eagle and a nightingale.

When he successfully shot the stag, he brought it back to his royal abode, unaware that those birds followed him. And when they saw him run to embrace and kiss his sweetheart, that was when they attacked. The poor princess had tried to stop them but they were always so much more powerful than she was. She felt herself restrained by an unseen force while they took the lives of not only her prince but the wonderfully kind servants who had always been so good to her. They were all dead. Dead and gone. Destroyed by her own family.

From the shadows, stepped forth two women Charlotte recognized immediately. She recognized them because she had seen them in her dreams many times before. She recognized the firey red hair and emerald green eyes of the first one and the sandal wood blonde hair and ember eyes of the other one.

"Marie." The red head slowly approached the devastated princess and reached a hand out to her.

"Don't touch me!" She ripped her husband's dagger from his belt and held it to them in a threatening manner. This act horrified her sisters, yet it did not nearly as horrify them as the sight of her swollen belly.

"So it's true." The blonde said. "You carry a human's child."

"Did he violate you?" The red head asked. "Did he hold you down and force his seed into you?"

"No!" She screamed. "I willing gave myself to him! Many times! As any wife would!"

The terror in her sisters's eyes grew.

"Sister, how could do this to us? To our people?" The blonde continued.

"How could I?! How could you do this to me?!" She turned back to her prince. "You killed him! I loved him! I loved him and you killed him!"

"Marie how could you love him?" The red head asked. "He's a human? A filthy human!"

"He was the only one whoever loved me without controlling me!" Marie cried. "All my life, all you two ever did was belittle me, judge me, and tell me how to live my life! You never listened to me! You never cared about what I wanted! Etienne...He loved me for me! He actually cared about what made me happy! And you took him away!"