Before you read: Please vote for chapters, and also remember to comment and suggest ideas. I might use them, and I can also dedicate the chapter to you. Also, I'm Australian, so I use "s" in "realise" instead of "realize" the way Americans use it. "Colour" (the Australian version) and "Color" (the American version).  So please don't judge me too harshly. Thanks! :)

This story is about a evil emperor who takes over and enslaves another tribe, but falls in love with one of the women, but the woman and him are fated to die torturously, unless the king changes his illusion-like, gruesome way of thinking.

Lyrics:

When the days are cold
And the cards all fold
And the saints we see are all made of gold
When your dreams all fail
And the ones we hail
Are the worst of all, and the blood's run staleI wanna hide the truth
I wanna shelter you
But with the beast inside
There's nowhere we can hide
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom comeWhen you feel my heat, look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Don't get too close, it's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hideAt the curtain's call
It's the last of all
When the lights fade out, all the sinners crawl
So they dug your grave
And the masquerade
Will come calling out at the mess you've madeDon't wanna let you down
But I am hell-bound
Though this is all for you
Don't wanna hide the truth
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom comeWhen you feel my heat, look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Don't get too close, it's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hideThey say it's what you make
I say it's up to fate
It's woven in my soul
I need to let you go
Your eyes, they shine so bright
I wanna save that light
I can't escape this now
Unless you show me howWhen you feel my heat, look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide
Don't get too close, it's dark inside
It's where my demons hide
It's where my demons hide

ELORA CONSTELLE

The harsh, icy wind whipped Elora Constelle's face like sharps wires, leaving cold red marks on her freezing, pale face. Again she wished that she had been into hiding with her unloving family, no matter how much they abused her as their only girl (apart from her mother). But still, of course she couldn't have stayed there. If they had been found, they would have sacrificed her to the enemies with no second thought, and she also wanted to stay in the tribe village during a war because she wanted to help the poor townspeople who were either too weak to travel or didn't have enough money. 

Elora had un-barricaded a fairly large furniture shop and with the help of the stronger people, discarded most of the plentiful furniture and left more than enough for herself and the others. They re-barricaded the windows and doors again so everybody outside would think the shop was still empty. They occasionally took turns of sneaking out under cloaks to steal food, clothes and medicine and toiletries from other barricaded shops. Elora lived there with the townspeople and helped them as much as she could.

Sometimes there was an occasional suspending moment where everyone had to freeze and be quiet, kind of like a game of musical statues. And the soldiers who were walking outside passed. Until things started to go wrong.

Last fortnight, while the soldiers passed the shop, what happened was horrific. One of the newborns saw a creeping shadow cast by the smoke of the just put out fireplace and cried. Screaming, screeching. And burly, evil warriors had forced open doors and windows and entered the room.  

The group decided to keep this to themselves. And what they did was torture them. Every second day, a citizen's name was picked out of the box, and they burned him or her alive. Even it was a newborn they did the same thing. They strapped all the people to the walls to watch a person burn either on a stake they had established in the middle of the room or forcibly hurled them into the fireplace while putting their leather-protected feet on the person's chest as they collapsed in the fireplace, heaving their final breath.

And two days before, Elora's name had been chosen. As soon as she was strapped to the stake, The rest of the soldiers had burst in. They said to the ones that had been with the people and her that the king of their kingdom had put up a new rule to bring any enslaved to the castle. If they had potential, they would stay as a servant in the castle. If they were too weak, they were thrown into the cells until midday of the 30th June, where they would be killed in front of all the slaves, servants, peasants and people of the kingdom. And babies would be kept in the nursery and trained to be warriors of the Dark Kingdom, the Evil Realm.

The slaves were dressed in proper winter clothes. Elora was given pants, a long sleeve and cloak, all brown leather, and also a pair of black leather boots. She grabbed a knapsack from the rack and put her toiletries, medical kit, some food and old clothes in it. Though she dumped down the blue velvet long sleeve ankle length dress and overtop green velvet shin-length dress with the dangling sleeves in the sack, she kept the silken white bonnet over her red curly hair so it protected her ears where the icy air could come in. Elora added the cloak on top, too. 

So there they were, shackled together in a double line as convicts walking in the bitter cold. The winter was upon them like predators upon prey. Unless they found shelter, they all would be deprived of their lives. They had been walking for seven hours and Elora's legs howled like wolves in their aching. 

Elora was tempted to ask one of the guards when they would get there, but she knew she would get a beating if she dared to complain. So she put her legs on autopilot and settled her mind down for some brooding, complaining and wondering. 

Why did they invade? Who was the king, and what did the Dark Kingdom want with us? Elora wondered. Everything, even a little move to escape would get her a death sentence of burning. At least I would get warm, she thought ludicrously.

Three hours later...

At last, Elora and the townspeople, and some others who had been caught hiding by themselves arrived at the pointed black iron gates. Behind the gates about a metre there was a small bank leading to a vast inky lake. There were a bunch of little rowboats, waiting patiently to be led across.

But the castle, the castle was huge. Pointed turrets, towers and stairwells, all iron black except for lightning strikes of gold zig-zagging across the dreary, harsh stone. It was a starry night; you could see about a million gazillion galaxies up in the enhancing night sky. 

The gardens were inlaid beautifully with black and grey flowers, all different shades. The green stems reminded her of a field of perfect grass ruined by a cold, misty storm ready to strike the flowers into  scorching flames. The scorching flames were the enemy, and if they rejected orders they would be charred, dead grass.

Elora hopped into a small boat and grabbed an oar, rowing as fast as she could without getting ahead of the soldiers. She didn't have potential. She was going to die at exactly mid year, and that was the day after tomorrow, and she'd rather get it over with.

The guards outnumbered all of them, so each person had a personal soldier with some leftovers to go to each cardinal point, just incase the townspeople and her figured out some amazing plan and escaped with absolutely no effort. (Unlikely. Sorry, impossible.)

Elora's guard brandished a spear that looked very pointy and she didn't want to get on the bad side of it. The soldier poked Elora softly in the back with his blade, and it cut through her clothes and grazed her back. When Elora glared, the masculine patrol just smiled and poked her again, and soon she had a open bleeding wound on her spine. Of course she had to have the nasty guard. 

The guard drew a whip looped in his belt rings, and crackled it against her skin until it was rash red and bruised. A thin streak of blood opened at ultrasonic speed on her cheek. 

Elora cursed, and one of the priests guarding the door glared at her like she wanted to wash out her mouth with lye soap.

The inside of the castle was startingly beautiful in a strange way. The golden chandeliers hung diamonds, but instead of candles in the holders there were flaming skulls. The walls of the entrance hall were black marble struck thinly with white, and they were golden handrails all around. The floor was a organised patchwork of gleaming dark, shadowy white tiles arranged in a diamond pattern.

Maybe ten minutes later, the slaves entered the throne room. Elora was terrified. The throne room was not as dark as the other places. The walls were light grey rectangular tiles, and the ceiling was glass, viewing all the stars and the full moon. Rays of light came from gold-rimmed sockets with glowing light bulbs in them, sealed by glass. The ground was covered neatly in light brown floorboards. Gold handrails covered the walls as well. The throne was pressed against the back of the room, which was made of a regular gold frame, except for the top, which jutted out sharp spines outwards, creating a headframe. The cushions were red velvet, already sewn and inlaid together with the throne. The buttons to seal the pillows were of diamond circles. 

The king who sat upon the throne with two of his guards was quite handsome in a murderer's way.

He had gelled black bottom-of-ear length hair combed to one side, and he had light brown complexion, a bit darker than tan, which was tinged with red because of the cold. He had deep brown eyes that gleamed warmly or coldly and they sparkled in a nice way or bad way in the light. He wasn't exactly muscular, but he was strong-looking, and could probably bear a sword with no stress. He wore a gleaming black leather jacket over a thick black wool long sleeve turtleneck and thick black trousers, a black scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and chin. A golden crown with a string of pearl across its base was tilted on his head, the blood-red rubies menacingly sparkling.

Elora was forced down onto her knees, her hands being chained with iron cuffs. One that procedure was finished, her head was pushed to be bent down and a bloody axe was held at the back of her neck. 

How was she ever going to get herself out of this? 

The trial began.

So, how did you like my first chapter? If you want, you can go view my other story, The Child of Hecate: The arising Oracle, which is a fanfiction of Rick Riordan's Camp Half-Blood, demigods, monsters, wars, magic and stuff. Please comment below-just scroll down. Don't forget to click the star in the top right corner to vote for this chapter!

Also, thanks for reading. I really appreciate it. 

-Mabel D

P.S. I'm still in Primary School, and not in Grade Six...