How The Princess Rewrote Her Tragic Ending - Chapter 112

Neither Mama nor Sven upon his return were happy about what had just happened, while I sat crouched in a corner, wiping away tears.

“I know I told you to be snappy about it,” Mama hissed as she jabbed a finger into his abdomen, “but this was a little too impulsive, Hector.”

The man remained silent as he clenched his jaw. With the limit of my blurred vision, I looked at Sven, who seemed to be keeping himself together with a single thread, otherwise it looked like he was about to drop out cold at any moment.

“The whole house stinks like the dead!” Mama cried, jabbing a finger into Hector’s abdomen once, twice, thrice…

“Even the neighborhood,” Sven muttered as he leaned weakly against a wall.

Mama sighed, taking off her spectacles. “Who thought burning the bodies in my backyard would be a good idea? Can’t you feel the cold Frauwa winds? Didn’t you think even once the smoke and stank would spread along with the breeze? Dear God, what were you thinking? You pair of fools.”

Hector and Klyn lowered their faces with shame. But I could tell Mama was going to let them get away with it. After all, she was a caring woman, even if she came across as harsh sometimes.

“Now go get the remains cleaned up,” she said as she stonily looked both men in the eyes. “Or else I’ll  have your livers for dinner. Go on, get out of my sight.”

Hesitantly, Klyn and Hector exited from the scene and I knew it wouldn’t be long before Mama would turn to me.

“Now, what’s going on with you?” she asked, turning to me. See? I was right. “You’re a mess!”

I wiped my cheeks with my sleeve and tried to stop sobbing, but the waterworks kept on coming. Mama and Sven looked upon my crouching body with a sad look (pity?) in their eyes.

“I-I-I saw it!” I cried eventually. “Mama, he lit them! He lit them… I saw them burn, and-and-and-”

“Hush!” Mama put a hand up and I paused, sobbing. “I know. Go up and wash your face. You too, Sven.”

“I’m fine.”

“I never asked. Both of you, go get yourselves washed and come back when you feel like you’re feeling better.” She sighed. “I’m going to take a nap. None of you disturb me.”As Mama turned to my room, she remembered something and then turned back to us. “And tell Hector and Klyn to get the f*ck out of my house.”

With that, she disappeared.

There was a moment of silence before Sven came up to me and kneeled down.

“Get off the floor,” he said as he tugged on my arm. “It’s not such a big deal. Many dead people get burned everyday across the world, so let’s not shed tears about men you barely even knew.”

I gaped at him and snatched my arm away from him.

“How can you be so insensitive about it?” I whispered angrily as new tears flowed down my cheeks. “They were once alive, too! For goodness’ sake, get away from me!”

I pushed him away and stood to my feet before making my way upstairs. I had hoped he would stop me and at least apologize, but all my hopes were in vain as he never even followed me up the stairs.

Broken, I slammed the door to my room behind me and slid down against it as my legs gave way. I bawled in my lap as pictures of Sidmund and his pals’ burning bodies flashed through my mind. Indeed, it had been the worst sight I had yet witnessed, and I so wished it would be the very last of its kind.

I wondered how Hector and Klyn would be feeling right now. I know how deeply Hector felt about Sidmund and his other friends, so he must have been feeling even worse than my thoughts. Klyn, on the other hand, had mostly been expressionless the whole time, so one would think he was indifferent about the whole ordeal.

But the tight clenching of his fists and jaw never went unnoticed by me as his pals turned to ash.

Sniffing, I crawled into bed and instantly, I fell into a deep, dark nightmare.

It was a familiar setting. I found myself looking at a dark palace corridor similar to the one I took walks in, but there was an eerie feeling here.

It rained outside, and the windows thundered loudly as they clashed against the strong spells of wind. Strange shadows were casted along the palace walls, but despite the constant roaring of thunder, the corridor was in a state of tranquility.

Then a small child came over the thick red carpet, his face contorted in fear. His heavy breaths mingled with the thunder as he seemingly escaped from something…or someone. Not far behind him, a man matching the Emperor came running with heavy steps, his sword drawn out and aiming wildly in the night.

“You can’t escape from me, boy!”

The boy in question, who was barely visible even under the constant flashing from the thunder, made his way through the corridors without a pause, breathing heavily as he did so. The stout man refused to give up despite the little boy being small and mousy, and he followed the boy’s light footsteps till no end.

The boy turned a corner where flaming torches lit the way, and for a moment, I caught a glimpse of the little boy’s purple hair and tan skin.

“Dead end,” the boy hissed to himself, looking for a way out of the trapped corridor. As a last resort, he went and hid behind a long curtain just in time as the paunchy man turned the corner with his sword out in front of him.

“Oh, are you playing now?” the man laughed. I struggled to see his face, as it was hidden by a constant shadow. What was this? Was this dream a continuation of the one I had had on my first night at the palace?

The boy didn’t make a single movement as he still hid behind the heavy curtain.

Smugly, the man walked heavily over the carpet below his feet, looking both ways, trying to determine where his prey was hidden.

“Get out, boy~” he sang and then cackled evilly. “You’re going nowhere tonight.  Nowhere but up. Hahaha!” When the boy didn’t show up, still, the man growled, “I’m gonna count to three, you little rascal. If you don’t show yourself by then, you’ll regret it. Do you hear me!?”

The boy didn’t reply.

Chuckling, the man started his countdown as he slowly made his way through the long corridor. “1…” He slid a large vase off of a table with hsi sword, and it came crashing down in a shattered heap.

The boy flinched at the sound, but quickly maintained his composure.

“2…” The man, with his sword, flicked a large picture frame off of the wall which fell to the floor and dismantled with a crash.

I watched anxiously as the last digit left the man’s mouth.

“3!” The man burst out laughing. “You’ve made a big mistake.”

The boy must’ve known his time was coming to an end because he quickly got to unlatching the window behind him. The latch gave a eerie creak as it gave way and the man scoffed as he heard it, turning to the curtained window.

“Not too smart, are we?” he muttered as he prepared to gouge his sword into the curtain. “Prepare to die.”

Just a split second before the sword’s blade tore through the thickness of the curtain, the boy jumped out of the window. The blade killed no one.

“You idiot!” the man shrieked as he pulled the curtains aside and looked down the window and into the rain. “This is the third floor!”

And indeed, it was. The boy had risked his life by jumping out of a third storey window, just to escape a blade. The man looked out, trying to locate the boy, but to no avail. He had either died or had already made his way out.

“Sh*t!”

Quickly, he turned around and made his way down stairs, not stopping the chase.

“Oh, I’ll kill you, you little bastard,” the man bellowed as he paused to catch his breath, still having a long way before he could emerge into the gardens and go after the boy. “I’ll kill you even if it means I’ll have to chase you across the world!”

But even though he claims it, the man knew that he had lost the little boy forever. The boy who had witnessed his greatest sin. The boy who had seen his parents die at his hands.

“Arghhhh!” the man screamed into the night.

…

I awoke with a start, sweat dripping down my forehead. My breath was heavy as I sat up in bed, trying to organize my scattered thoughts.

But the only thing running through my mind was my nightmare.

“What in the name of God was that?” I wheezed as I put a hand over my heart, trying to calm myself down. Was that what I think it was?

Vividly, the picture of the boy’s face appeared in my mind. He had purple ahir and tan skin so like someone I knew… But who was it?

Reynard’s face flashed through my mind.

“No way,” I hissed as I shook it off. There’s no way that was Reynard. Reynard didn’t have purple hair. His hair had always been black… But then I remembered when we met this morning.

He had been wearing a headscarf. But why? It was the first time he had done it, and of course I found it strange. When asked, he had casually shrugged it off as if it was no big deal.

But then what was that purple patch of hair I saw this morning?