Splints of wood pierce under my knees, a promise of a migraine threatening in the midst as the captains' hands tightened into my hair, his nails digging into the skin of my head. And the worst of it all. I can't even look at her.

Gunter continues on, "Many of you may have had mixed feelings about me, becoming, the new King. Stemming from a family of a mafia. However, my father's past does not blur my pathway. I know many of you still view me as a dark prince, and I have a long way to go before I gain your trust."

His calculated words gained him an applause. His voice clear. Masking his darkness.

"However, as I have toured through the land, and have met all of you, more and more I feel the root of pride growing in me, each day that I am sitting on the throne. And yet even I as the king, failed to oversee the many threats, that lurked right under my nose."

I feel the burn of many eyes watching me, but my sole attention was searching for her.

"It pains me to know, someone who I have considered an older brother, a friend, and a close bond, do this to me and our new home." He paused for a second, angling his chin upwards and pretended as if there were brimming tears, and he looked down to me. "A bond that that has been damaged."

The crowd rials up, there hostility evident, chanting and speaking all at once, the sound effect mimicked a swish effect of an ocean.

But in the worse, came the best.

A cool drought of air whipped across the stadium. A gentle touch of a breeze, and it carried her dress along the drift. The silken colors of green swayed along my peripherals, the grip atop my head loosens in time and I slightly angle my eyes over to Tiana, standing only six feet away from me.

Eyes coated with sorrow and tears line her lids. Puffed rings around her eyes, broken inside, drained of light and energy. Her crown threatening to fall as she stays glanced down to the floor.

The strands of my hair were tugged and my head whips back to Gunter.

"My brother." he says. "We are not from the same mother, nor father. But to me you are and forever will be my family. And hence why, today, I come to you all as the King and ask for your forgiveness on his behalf."

The uproar silences to murmuring whispers.

"To the families of those who have had to bury their loved ones by the tragic incident. As your new king, I assure you I have made extensive measures to ensure my brother suffered horrendous consequences. And though it may not be enough for having to lose someone you love; I can only hope all the costs my wife has made out to you has been well than enough."

"And what does the queen have to say about this?" A man shouted from the crowd.

"She has been awfully quiet." said another. And soon they all piled.

I wanted to shield her from their eyes. Gunter only stood by as the people ripped her apart, mocking her, diminishing her title until he can finally say. "My wife suffered a great lost, and she has not been herself. A queen's job is very demanding, and it is a process she still has to learn. Even if it is far from her grasp at the moment."

Every man, child, and women lifted with laughter. But I roar with rage inside witnessing the mockery at her expense, caused by her so-called husband. The man holding me down curls his fingers into my shoulder. A silent gesture as if telling me to calm down.

How could I? not when she is in need of a shield. My arms are tightly gripped, and I am brought down to the ground yet again. Strong knees press against my spine and a deep voice spoke aside my ear quietly, "Either behave, or we'll put a muzzle on it."

"Careful with him," Gunter says through the speaker. "He went through a lot last year Dominic."

'Dominic.'

"He has much healing to do, and a lot of rest, when he heads back to the castle."

I could hear the questioning murmurs; I could visualize their faces etching to confusion. The man above me lifts his head as he too was caught off guard.

"Sir, we could put him down now if you like -"

"No one will shoot my brother down. His sins ... " he silences. Suspense bleeding into the scene as everyone fell silent. "Are mine to bare. I take full responsibility for what has happened. I took on the position of a king and neglected the one person that mattered to me. And my brother matters. Ladies and gentlemen, you see, my brother is not well, he suffers hallucinations."

From the ground, my brows slowly knit.

"You see back in the day, my brother and I got into a fight," he sighed. "Over something very minimal I believe. And siblings do fight, but this was not like the others. It was bloody." he preached as if this were a sermon, "I was losing bad, already had multiple fractures and awful bruises. But it was the look in my brother's eyes that frightened me, as if he had forgotten in that moment who I was or where he was."

Shattered mini pines of wood scrape alongside my cheek and jaw as I slid my head forwards for a better view of him, spreading a false narrative. My eyes stare at the brown leather dress shoes, with both ears his voice now crystal, no words could be mistaken.

"I was fragile. Weak and feeble, and no mother. But his childhood life was just as tough, only I chose to not take that anger out on those that wanted to care for me. Despite my pleads, my brother was too lost in rage and was read to deliver a hook so bone shattering, I would have been on killed on contact. But luckily for me, there was a lamp aside of us, and I used that as self-defense,"

Thier reaction of the crowd shifts. Applause lightly scattered until they unite as a whole. Whistling cheers and flashes of camera.

"Thank you. Thank you. Though it has been a day that haunted me, I could say for certain I am glad that it did not take his life. But instead, it left him with mental burden."

The applause steadily lowers until quiets down. Leaving suspense to thicken like mystic fog.

"Since that day, my brother's health has steadily declined tremendously, and it left him to believe that every night he is visited by an entity from the heavens."

I'm rooted in place, stilled by time as waves of my breath escape my lungs in one big drift. That was no ordinary condition he just described, something about screamed familiar. My pulse quickening on the side of my neck as he continued on, a part of me hoping it wasn't being led to where I assumed.

"And this entity allows him to believe that the only way of salvation, is to kill those around him."

Ray

Ray's condition. Evangeline. The star. Kill. Gunter knew, yet how? He drifts his gaze over to me, a wicked gleam taken a course as it slid slowly across his mouth.

I blanket my shock and display a stoicism, even as he held my glare and said, "My dear brother, I have kept this from you for so long. But you are ill. From this day, consider yourself watched keenly. Guarded. And observed, fail out of line once -" His eyes drifted to something aside me, and I stealthily follow.

Our gaze trailing towards Tiana, her distant sorrow defeats me, but it is the man standing behind her, that somehow slipped into the scene. His left arm blanketed by a white sheet, that seemingly created a figure of a gun pointing at her. His dark eyes flat and he looks blankly out into the crowd, with no suspicion.

Gunter has ticked me off in many ways, but to threaten my woman's life in front of me has become his undone. I drift my eyes back to him, feeling the ink of black rim around my eyes. My chest rising and falling to sustain the rapid drums, as the crowd murmurs in the distance aside us. The bolted cuffs around my wrists have begun to loosen until a hot barrel is pointed to my head.

"Down boy." Dominic growls lowly. "Let's not do something, you will regret."

"Then I myself-" Gunter continues, shattering the contact between me and Dominic. "Will personally deal with you." The widest grin stretching across his face.

"You trust so easily King Gunter. Such atrocities should be put to death." Said a voice of a man hidden in the crowd. The tone ladened cold mockery. Seemingly scripted.

Gunter does not look over to acknowledge, keeping his glare on mine, as he responded. "Ill or not, he is a great guard. So great in fact my wife fancies him greatly. It would be awful of me to tear such a bond."

"But king Gunter-" the same voice responded, I arch a questioning brow and searched out to the crowd for the owner. Majority of the people appeared older than the voice itself, when my scanning eyes landed on a younger man standing near the front row. Dark hair and brown eyes, I watch his lips move in time. "Because of him, the queen was almost shot and killed. he has proven unreliable."

"Your concerns for well taken. Thank you, however, I choose to keep him by my side, keeping a close surveillance on his every move."

On the other side, a man strides up the stairs towards Gunter, leaning into whisper something into his ear. "Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all once again for coming. However, there ae matters that need to be handled in the land, and I must bid you all farewell."

Like a swarm of bees, they unite together with a loud cheer as they chant. 'Long live the king.'

Gunter slides his hand around Tiana's waist, stepping aside her as he waved over to the crowd one last time. though her smile is tight she forces herself to wave for only a second when they were guided off the stage.

I'm lifted and hauled behind them. Guns pointed at every limb of my body until I am sitting in the back of a car.

Cuffed, and restrained, the leather seats bringing me immense discomfort with any movement and stuffed in the car with a bunch of trembling rookies -- Fuck me.

***

I remain silent for the car ride, hints of nostalgia pinching my nerves until I could see the tallest window of the highest room. A year and a half later I returned, seeing faint visions of the day coming and going. for a long time, while I was away, I wondered where those children were that were freed. And if they were reunited with their families.

My car maneuvers across the pavement, sailing smoothly behind the fresh cut bed of grass, and I was driven to the back of the castle where Dominic and two other men awaiting me. The two knelt to the ground as they aimed their pistols at my window. My eyes scan around the back, a different scenery then the front, large unkempt grass and mold on the exterior, a single vine sprouting brown leaves ornamented around a lonely door.

Neglected. An abandoned cage for a beast.

A smirk across Dominic's face as he stood there with his hands crossed in front of him. Those challenging eyes finding mine through the tinted windows until the car comes to a steady stop.

"S-step out of the car." The airheaded rookie said, his breath alternating behind the mask as I met his eyes.

My door swung open behind me. In poured a wave of a cooling breath of oxygen. Clicks of guns readying for me to make a wrong move. My back peels from the leather seat. Soft weeds of grass press under my feet as I stood. Multiple barrels pointed to my head as I stealthily walk towards Dominic who awaited me by the door - the grin ever so wide.

Our eyes throwing daggers at one another as he darkly says. "Make sure you behave."

From behind me a figure brushed aside us heading towards the door against the cemented wall. The rusty door pries open with a loud groaning squeak, Dominic steps from my view and I stare into a dark room.

A gun nudged me from behind and I stepped forwards, instantly engulfed by the overwhelming stench of mold. A small room. A mini cabin like my old one back in Adelheid's estate. Sewn silks of spiderwebbed homes on the tall corners, decaying wood with a ceiling ready to cave in.

"Home fit for the prince of darkness." Came a voice from behind me, whilst I scan the lonely, dampened mattress of white sheets and a single pillow. A small desk aside the bed, and a single window that leads to the field, and a shower sprinkler.

Two figures grab me from behind, throwing me face down on the mattress, a hard knee is pressed to my bruised spine and I grit my teeth. The cuffs slowly unhooking from my wrist slice away the skin, leaving a searing burn it its wake.

"Let's get one thing clear-" his voice drawls "You're going keep away from the King. And keep away from his wife -" In the midst of his taunting he suddenly paused. "Actually, I don't blame you, I'd shoot a whole empire down if I was getting to defile that pussy."

Hot silver against my wrist, blood leaks from the open gashes, but he only goes slower, tantalizingly slow.

He pressed down harder, irritating a bone as he leaned down to whisper. "Be a good mutt. Or don't, either way, you'll be seeing me a lot more pretty soon."

The cuffs released; my wrists were free, I arose on instinct from the mattress. Fire dancing in my eyes, my glare keen on him soaking in his dark threat. Guns aiming at me in all directions once again as he chuckles before instructing them to lower their weapons.

"Hold your fire boys." he wagged a hand in lowering motion, "This mutt wouldn't be that stupid now." he winks. Sharply whistling to the men to leave, heading back out towards the car, secluding him and I. Our glare equal, holding a dark promise, one that will end with a gruesome blood bath as the silence longed.

"I'll be back soon." he finally says. "Behave now princess."

***

I tilt my head back under the coursing stream of a warm shower. Grime, dirt, mud and blood free from my pores. Wounds cleansing under the douche, my hair soaking in moisture -- It invigorates me.

The thrill of me cleansing after so long, my hands roaming around my body, tenderly running my fingers over the purplish bruise, even down to my deep toned v line. The struggling pipe flow from mildly hot before it cools to a relaxing chill, my lips parting and my tongue relishing the crystal clear taste of a warm bath.

Outside, in the breeze, I stand out, naked -- far from the castle view.

***

A towel wrapped lowly around my waist. Finally cleansed and fresh I stride towards my now new room, rummaging over everything last year and what is to come on this new journey of mine. And how it was Gunter knew deep details. It is only when I am near the front door do I discover my door partially opened.

A scent. A kryptonite that beckoned itself in my veins. Sweet honey and caramelized candy, the tendrils of the aroma pulled me closer like fresh baked goods and as the door groans to an open. In all green and glimmer, my eyes trail up, chest drumming away, and my veins burn to the sight of her.

"My Queen."

She lifts her head to look up to me, eyes still cold as ice as her chest heaves.

My brows knitted, I'm cautious not to scare her too bad, but the heat searing through me left the ends of my fingers unconsciously jerking.

"Stop right there." she commanded to me, stiffening her posture. I realized only than I was stepping closer unwittingly. "I'm not staying long." she throws her gaze up and around, analyzing the room as if there were stories she could recall, written by the past. "This room ... this room used to be my safe space. A clubhouse I could hide in whenever you or Patrick wasn't around."

I gaze deeply at her expressions, unblinking as the pacing in my chest grows more rapid. Closed in, and dark, only us and a bed. Hot blood surges throughout my nerves when my eyes stealthily glided over to the window aside of us, as she spoke away. And redirected it back her. A short distance. Out on the open for anyone to view if someone were to be in my room. It only had me questioning, did she see me, naked?

"But those days are over."

I release a choppy breath. Guilt crashing in on me. I zoned out the minute she spoke, Fuck me. Though I did not miss much.

"And now here you are, back to the very home you caused so much destruction to. In the room that used to bring me immense comfort when I was younger. My safe space, tranquility, the one place I could run to just for a reset, is now tainted by a monster."

I'm gutted deep.

"I could finally face it now -" she continued. "I could finally look at you in the eyes, and not want crumble anymore. The pain in me still blisters." Flakes of tears fall down her eyes. Ice cold glare melting by the heat of sorrow. And she begun to step in closer to me, closely enough where my lips are near her forehead. "All I want to know is why? why did you come back and do this and took Patricik from me. Why did you break ... us. "

I curl my lips. Affected by her dripping tears.

"Say something." she growls. "Tell me right now why!" her small fist hit my chest. "How could you do this! How could you prove Gunter right! How could you throw away our friendship." She begun to sob. Flaring her arms to get at me with every small strike.

My arms wrapping around her, holding her slumping body steady.

"Tiana." I exhale. Digging my fingers into her soft curls. Warm tears fall on my naked chest sharply. A heavenly scent of pomegranate engulfing me. Now that I had her, I couldn't let go, my body wouldn't let me. Allowing her the peace to sob out into my shoulders. Warm beads trickling down my chest.

"Forgiv-"

"Forgive you!?" she pushed back, catching me off guard. "You want me to forgive you after what you have done? The nerve." her leaking eyes burning red. "You have no shame. No remorse for anything you have done, and you ask for me to forgive you?"

I only realized than how selfish it sounded being spoken aloud. Reminded that she is in the dark about the task, never knew this was a set plan to have taken motion right after the wedding. She didn't know. All she saw was me. Holding the gun. The way Gunter set it up.

And as her eyes distastefully scrutinize my appearance, a realization of my own, set its course. But I wasn't ready for what she said next.

In a low broken tone, she says. "My husband should have ended you after all."

An invisible ache gnawed deep in me, as if it were tearing in two.

"Stay. Away. From. Me. The little boy I knew died; I will forever miss him. You're a monster. And I never want to speak to you again. You're still my guard, that is all between us, from this day forwards, whatever it was that happened or even slightly transpired between us, burn that memory and there will never be another."

Fresh tears brimmed her eyes whole, but she strides from my view before they could fall, brushing alongside my frame.

I could only stare at the spot she stood seconds ago, her aroma still lingering in the pitiful atmosphere.

'Turn to her.' A voice screamed. 'Turn around and embrace her.' I fight the urge, digging my nails into the rough skin of my palms, teeth breaking through my tongue. This emotion in me screams, never before have I experienced such an emotion I nearly succumbed to.

Her heels clop furthest in the distance, nearing the door. I give in, angling my head back to try and find her frame, my lips parting as I extend out a hand. But I was too late.

I only catch a small glimpse of her retreating backside. She stole the light with her as the groaning door came to a clicking close, secluding me alone with me and darkness. Leaving me to fade in black.