The Beaded Necklace (Short Story)

Chapter 1

In a beautiful city there thrived a beautiful Kingdom. This Kingdom was powerful and mighty during a prestigious era. Even though many were poor and few were rich most of everybody was happy. One day the Queen decided that she wanted a baby girl. Not one to give birth to, but to adopt. She asked the King for a girl with brown eyes pure as silver, hair thick as rope, and a smile that could melt stone. Full of love for his Queen, the King goes in all the fair places in search of a baby girl. To his delight he finds her. Brown eyes pure as silver, hair thick as rope, and a smile that could melt stone, he falls in love with her. "And what should we name you little one?" he purrs. "How about Inocencia?" He smiles and kisses her on the forehead. "Yes, Inocencia." For she was pure and beautiful. Pleased with his new daughter, he brings her to his Queen. The Queen falls in love with Inocencia. She raises her to be well respectul, polite, wise, and mature. With each passing day, everybody in the Kingdom realizes that Inocencia grows more and more beautiful. She is strong. She is powerful. She is intelligent. But most importantly, she is innocent.

The King is proud of his daughter and attends to her every need. The Queen admires her daughter's beauty and boasts to all the people of her Kingdom.
Inocencia is placed with high expectations and great responsibility. During her adolescence she ponders over all the thoughts that have been placed in her head. She is powerful. She is beautiful. She is pure. She is wise. She is innocent. As she looks in the mirror she smirks in awe. There is none other who is as beautiful and pure as her. She is innocent after all. Accustomed to receiving anything she wanted, she soon got bored with life and she got bored with the lives of others. She wanted excitement to fill her passing youth. One day as she was sitting outside basking in the sun she saw an ant. She blew on it, making it run the other way. Pleased with the idea that she was in control of the situation she killed it.

Years passed and these emotions continued to grow in her heart. She wanted control. She wanted power. Then she learned of a flower. Not just any flower, but one that could entertain her. This flower was called Abrus Precatorius also known as the deadly love bean. The seeds of this flower could be used to make bead necklaces. What entertained her though was what was inside the seed. Poison. A poison that when entered into the bloodstream can kill. Pleased with this discovery Inocencia created dozens and dozens of bead necklaces. She would hand them out secretly, careful not to have any witnesses. At first, she gave the bead necklaces to those whom she despised. "Wear this necklace when you sleep. It will give you peace and will solve all your troubles. But make sure to place it on open wounds. Only then will it heal your problems." She would slice the beads making space for the poison to leak out. Those who obeyed her words would die the next day.
Nobody understood the cause of their deaths. The only summarization that they could come up with for the victims were that they all had the same bead necklaces. Inocencia grinned when she heard of the confusion and trauma that surrounded her. Still, people praised her. Being blind to the unknown truth behind her and the mask that she perfected since childhood, they claimed her innocent.

"Look at her eyes pure as silver, hair thick as rope, and a smile that could melt stone. Why our Inocencia is beautiful," they claimed. Among all the praise, Inocencia felt something strange in her heart. What was it? She could not look into the eyes of her people? Why were they always in awe with her? This angered Inocencia. No longer was she bored. She wanted to rid these people from her Kingdom.

She continued to make the bead necklaces, but this time she disguised them. She would paint them different colors and make them of different sizes. More people died making the chaos in the Kingdom increase. The King and Queen were worried. Why were their people dying? Inocencia had to hide her smirk every time while being in their presence.
Another day passes and Inocencia finds herself wandering the streets in search for her new "customer". She studies every moving creature from sight calculating when she should make her move.

"Look out!" a voice calls out.

Frightened Inocencia whips her head to the sound of the voice only to find a Clydesdale galloping towards her. Somebody pushes her away from a horrible collision with the horse but ends up falling on her. Inocencia hisses at the person atop of her. "Get off me!" she yells.

"Your Majesty! Are you alright?" her guard asks concern flowing in his voice. The person on top of Inocencia gets up and holds their hand respectfully towards her. The Princess stands up shoving their hand away.

"Falling on top of me was completely rude and dare I say unnecessary." She looks up at the person and finds to see that she is staring at a man close in age with her.

"I'm sorry Your Highness. I mean no disrespect," the man claims. He bows and turns to the clydesdale. "My girl here got a little frightened is all. I can assure she won't run at you ever again." The Princess scoffs and walks away signaling the guard to follow pursuit. Knowing that her guard is always obligated to follow her, she felt that the showy display of authority to the man was necessary.

"I wish to go home," she tells the Guard.

"As you wish, Your Majesty." The guard leaves, but then returns with a beautiful black stallion. This stallion was one of a kind and was incredibly good looking. Inocencia makes eye contact with the man as she gets on the stallion. She goes over to him with an eyebrow raised.

"I must say, what an ugly Clydesdale you've got there. You know, many say that horses look like their owners. If I were you, sir, I wouldn't know how to smile everyday." Pleased with her remark she rides away, having a smirk plastered to her face. Little did she know how much of an impact that incident with the man would have on her.