Life is Funny That Way: a "Nightmare Castle" short

King's Grilled Cheese

The five foot, four inches pale young man knew better than to walk around in any state of undress. Sovereign of all the supernatural creatures of the United Kingdom , son of a multi millionaire businessman, and leader of a tactical assassin guild, Kingston Murray (King) should of put something more on as he rooted around the pantry. But in a black cotton undershirt that barely covered the tribal tattoos going down his left side of his torso and white boxer briefs with only one tube sock on. While  the other long flat foot was bare with only four long boney toes. His father had cut off the baby toe when he was a child.

 No matter how hard he tried, when he transformed into a full wolf pup his baby toe would not change.  He was only four years old and had barely comprehended that his hair being naturally blue was abnormal.  When he was a puppy he didn’t know one digit being human was a problem. But his father considered it an abomination, he considered Kingston and abomination. King didn’t remember the cut. Didn’t remember the cattle prod pressed against his body to produce the transformation that caused the skin to heal as if his tiny toe had never been there. 

He didn’t care about what was appropriate hundreds of years later either.  His four toes naturally splayed themselves out so he didn’t fall as he stood on the tips of his toes to find the bread.  His focus was Just on the loaf of bread in his arms as he moved back from the pantry shelves. 

“What are you doing!?” The stern voice of Merna Gray demanded, arms folded over her small chest. Pinched face looking even more pinched at that moment. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a bun that sat atop her head. Her blood red eyes glaring at him. The woman was older than him by two hundred years to his three hundred and fifty and as a vampire could probably take him in a fight. She had been appointed his nanny, then guardian, by Emmerson before he was born. No one knew him better.

“Grilled cheese” he said and hoped that would be the end of it. 

“…” Merna silently watched him move around her with those sharp red eyes and to the kitchen island where butter and pieces of cheese awaited. She moved with vampiric speed not only beating him to the space he was moving but plucking the bread from him and setting four slices on the plate.

“I can do it myself,” King mumbled but the look she gave him left no room for more words. He watched her, in her black silk pajamas as she made the sandwiches the way he liked. No crusts, butter both sides of the thick slices. She had them in the toaster and started coffee before asking, 

“Is Emerson hurting you?” The grilled cheese had been a treat she had made him years before. He had snuck out to see a concert in Wales. Meaning he hadn’t been there to receive important dignitaries. His father had literally flayed him. Merna had appeared with a grilled cheese while he had been laid up healing from the wounds that time. 

“Focus on the flavor, the way it tastes, oppose to how you feel.” She had said

King remained silent but sat on the bar stool and placed his head in his hands. He simply wanted his grilled cheeses and to brood. It was 3 in the morning. Merna should be asleep or out hunting like the others but of course she was here being being his nanny. He knew he should be grateful but that meant she would eventually get the truth out of him. He feared letting her down most of all. 

“You don’t have to talk, I can just sit here with you.” She said placing the sandwiches in front of him before sitting  on the barstool next to him. King ran a hand through his short opal blue curls and was about to go for a sandwich when his hand was swatted, hard. 

“Wash both your hands. Now.” Merna said looking at him as if anything he said would get another slap and he knew it would. He rose from the stool and marched to the kitchen sink. It was rare that anyone ordered him around like a child. But Merna wasn’t anyone, she was his Nanny and therefore had permanent parental rights to him. 

“Dry them as well. For a centuries old werewolf you act like a toddler.” Merna said dismissively as she opened a packet of blood and poured it into a stainless steel pot and started the burner.

“Can’t I just eat comfort food without the commentary?” King muttered as he doused both hands in soap and put them under the water and scrubbed.

“Can’t I have a charge who cleans himself and dresses appropriately, we all want for things we won’t get. Now dry your hands and eat.” Merna said patiently. The words were simple. Sweet in a motherly way but as they sunk in, cutting deep into King as his fears of disappointing her manifested. He felt tears burn his eyes and moved to wipe them before it was too late. The burn was instant from the soap on them as he hissed.

Within seconds cold strong hands of a living dead woman were on him and warm water was washing his eyes out. King barely had time to register them before a clean dish towel was dabbing at his eyes next.

“Ruler of the supernaturals, and can’t wash his damn hands properly,” Merna said looking down at King who looked like he had 300 years before. Red face and blubbering, she would never forget him as a newborn babe.  She rolled her eyes and released the man. If there was a creature she would die for it would be him. She had decided that centuries before and it held true today. The man was like her son and that would never change. Even if his father, her employer was as evil as the demons of Hell itself. 

True to her word, Merna asked nothing on the subject of why her Sovereign was awake at such an early hour. She also didn’t mention that he’d been crying. She just boiled her blood and sipped it like tea beside him from a china mug. 

“What if you liked someone you shouldn’t?” King hedged his European French accent making the words hold more of a deeper sound as he talked around a mouthful of bread and cheese. 

“Then I wouldn’t.” Merna said plainly looking at the windows on the other side of the dark forest green kitchen. The green contrasted with the stainless steel appliances well, she was happy with King’s redesign of the castle’s architecture after Emerson gave it to him. She’d been nervous, the boy was barely two hundred at the time and never been in charge of anything besides regiments in the various wars they had fought. But as on the battle field, King worked hard to transform the large tower into a home for all who lived within its metal and glass walls. 

“This person …they get under my skin. Challenging me constantly, picking fights with me like Napoleon could, petty, nonsensical skirmishes that make me want to…kiss them, to shut them up!?!” King exclaimed the last part and chunks of sandwich flew out of his mouth. He rose to pick them up while Merna stared at him in shock. Centuries alive together and she had never seen King react this way to anyone. 

“And this person, they reciprocate your feelings?” She asked it slowly, giving him time to stop it if he so chooses. 

“No, yes, it’s hard to say. They would rather hide behind some self righteous duty to a bastard than face how they feel about me. It’s two steps forward then ten steps back. It’s utterly vexing and I wanted grilled cheese to focus on the taste, not how I was feeling.” King said and at the last word he lay his head on the counter, chin on his forearms and looked ahead.

Merna felt proud that something she’d said to him years ago stuck into his thick skull. But she felt sorry for King. She knew the time would come when he would face something she couldn’t protect him from but it didn’t make it any less acceptable to her.  

King felt her cold hand in his hair as she stroked his head and for a moment he stiffened. This hadn’t happened since his mother died years ago. Merna had been the only one to console the little boy left alone after the light in his small sheltered life went out. He relaxes into the touch and closes his eyes, thoughts of Fergus 57 instantly sprang to life with nightmare visions but he was awake and very much protected.  

“People like us for who we are, and we like them for how they are. Give it time and it will sort itself. For now finish your sandwich and off to bed. Or do you want to face your father with wrinkles and be grumpy too boot.”  Merna said gently before taking her cup to the sink and rinsing it out before placing it in the dishwasher. The soft sound of snoring was the response from King. She rolls her eyes and goes to the far wall by the door out to the living room. 

“Siegfried, can you come collect King from the kitchen and get him back to his room.” Merna said, looking at the sleeping werewolf. Such a unique man. Natural blue hair. Pale vanilla skin. Looked barely twenty three yet time have stopped aging him for centuries. Now so late in life he had found someone to hold and love.  

Life is funny that way.