The Deathly Nothing

Chapter 9

Demonic but angelic at the same time. Eyes that were beautifully deadly as they fluttered down to me. The Queen adjusted her position in the throne slowly as she watched me like a cunning black cat, tempted to play with me in her claws. A spider who had spun me into her web- a trap she had constructed perfectly. I wanted to run to her but away from her all at once. Infested upon the skin of her arms were streaks of what looked like black paint. Branches that grew around her wrists plastered permantley to her skin.

Upon her slim body a dress of pure midnight with silver sequins dotted through it's fine layers as if they were stars plucked from the sky. Narrow shoulders that looked delicate but strong as her posture was tall and straight. It looked as soft as silk, the hair that swept down to just below her chest- black like a raven's finest feathers. Thick, bushy eyebrows rose upon her sharp face as I stared up to her, encaptured in her presence.

Power simply radiated from her body, thrumming through the air finding me, feeling me. I felt caressed by her without the touch of her hand, without the touch of anything. I could see her and only her as my chest heaved, my body and mind were completley mezmerised. Unlike the woman upon the steps, the Queen was no offspring of darkness nor friend of it, she was darkness itself. A soul of shadows where no light had ever flickered, no warmth had ever settled within her. Cold and dark, a heart that did not seem to beat, empty in it's cage. A heart not fuelled by blood but by gloom and misery.

We were frozen in greeting, my eyes did not wonder and my mind did not think, I could only feel her. Her lips parted as she narrowed her eyes but they did not appear malicious in that small moment they only seemed... simple. No storms ravaged within them when she peered down at me, they were dark but that was all. Of course darkness is a force feared in many, including myself. However the eyes of the Queen did not fill me with complete fear, yes I felt intimidated as she sat there but as I looked into them I saw a young woman who blinked back at me from the shadows that clung to her flesh.

"My Queen," the woman upon the stairs announced, with a small bow before turning to glance at me. "We found him upon the moorland in the company of a Quiet Terror. Of course I killed it within moments of arriving before hearing his...story," she spoke quickly with her arms crossed. I believed she was restraining her wrath that yanked on a chain in the pit of her stomach as she looked to me. I shifted my weight from one foot to another in the silence of the room.

The gathering of people didn't seem to dare mutter a word as they only watched behind the guards. Like an anxious crowd waiting for a concert to begin. "If you ask me, he is here to wreck havoc upon our world it was only a matter of time until his kind wanted more, his King sent him here I just know-

"Enough Rudylin," ordered the Queen as she continued to stare at me, her eyes burning into my skin. The woman I now knew to be refered to as Rudylin clenched her fists but nodded to her leader before walking down the steps swiftly to stand against a wall nearby. "Begin," she continued, lifting her hand to brush her fingers against eachother.

"Begin what exactly?" I replied quietly, wiping a hand over my face. The layers of crusted blood and filth had been itching at my skin for hours now, it was almost unbearable.

The Queen smirked a little as she leant forwards on her throne as if she was ready to pounce, "Your story."

"I have no story, your majesty," I replied awkwardly, looking away from her persistent gaze and instead at my feet.

"Everyone has a story stranger, including myself but of course that is for me to know and for nobody to find out," she elaborated with a face that seemed eager, "perks of being an evil Queen of darkness, you see. Unfortunately for you that's not the case, as you have landed somewhere you are not meant to be, meaning you most definatley have a story to tell. So if you will, it'll be much easier to recall the details if you are not being strangled or tortured. Of course more options are available if you desire a more horrific method of inflicting pain," she went on, her face had converted to a deathly state. I could almost feel my own becoming whiter as I swallowed feeling speechless. Speechless at the very worst time. "Now start talking if you please."