Red As Blood

Chapter Two

Red as Blood 2

            Nan woke up to the sound of the two oak doors hitting the ground. They were splintered, and in the light of the lanterns of the corridor she saw the queen’s silhouette. It was the moment that all of them dreaded, the moment that the queen chose them as her next meal. But the queen didn’t even look in her direction. Nan saw her fisted hands, her feral look focused onto the little princess. She could see the queen struggling to walk back, but Nan knew that when the beast part of her took over there was nothing her human part could do but watch.

            Sim stirred, her eyes still groggy. Nan stepped between the queen and the girl. The cold, hard body hitting her had never been her plan. She thought the sight of another person would shock the queen back to her usual control. Blood spurted from her neck before the wound was covered by an eager mouth. Draining her blood, draining her of life. Nan’s body slumped down onto the marble of the floor, surrounded by the fallen splatters of her own blood.

            The princess had seen everything. The last person in the kingdom ignorant of the queen’s identity had been brought into the open secret. Her nursemaid lay dead at her feet. Blood dripped from the queen’s jaw, sticky and dark. Her dress was an ugly mess of reddish brown on green velvet. She grimaced in disgust at her own appearance before turning on her heels, pausing by the doorway.

            “You shall have a new nursemaid by the morning, princess,” she stated before going back to her quarters.

            Sim crawled out of the bed. Her Nan was sprawled over the floor, her soft skin a pale white, the light brown eyes blank and staring up at the ceiling. Sim stepped closer, afraid to touch. There was something in her that made her want to look. Made her want to see the gory truth of it all. The queen was a beast, a monster. She had heard it before, but never before had she seen how literally people said the truth. She was a murderer.

            Two soldiers walked into the room, one holding Nan by the shoulders and the other by the legs. They walked towards the door, carrying her as if she was worth nothing more than a sack of dirt. She had been a person. She had been the person in Sim’s life.

            “Stop. Lay her down on my bed. Her family will take her in the morning,” she ordered. To her surprise, the soldiers obeyed. She sat on Nan’s old stool the entire night, recounting the stories the old nursemaid had taught her. The rose was wilted, and the tiny drop of her blood was caked over on the little thorn. Without doubt she knew that her blood had caused the attack. She knew the old stories of vampires and their thirsts. To think that she had been stupid enough to only think them stories, concoctions of her nursemaid to frighten her into being a dutiful princess.

            Nan had saved her life. It was something that weighed down on her. And Nan hadn’t given up her life after thought, or after consideration. She had been a victim, not a volunteer. The stricken look on her frozen face confirmed that. Her cotton gown was soaked to a deep brick color. Sim grabbed a washcloth and proceeded to clean her face and neck. The tears were dripping down her cheeks, the sorrow blocking the sobs in her throat. But she didn’t know what to do. She had spent her entire life living in darkness, ignorant and innocent. To have that ripped away from her in so violent a manner…  There was nowhere she could go, no one she could turn to.

            She knew now that the walls of the castle had never been to keep anyone out. No one would dare venture into the queen’s domain. It was to keep her in. She was a prisoner of the luxury that surrounded her. Sim wondered how much her life was really hers. Did she really have a father that was going to come home one day? Had her mother died of illness as everyone claimed? None of her questions would get answers. Not within her current confines definitely.