Apocalypse | BTS ✓

19

The crown feels heavy on Reine's head as she stands above her people.

Everyone is staring at her, but she frowns when she sees nothing but despair in the eyes of those with their gazes locked on her. The crowd is looking to her from the balcony she is standing on as she greets the villagers for the first time as their Queen, but it doesn't feel right to her. Something feels off about the whole thing - almost like she isn't supposed to be here at all.

"I am going to bring light to this kingdom," Reine says in a loud, commanding voice so even those on the outskirts of the crowd can hear her. She smiles at them as she tries to shake the unsettling feeling in her gut, but she can only focus on the despair darkening the eyes of her people. They all stare at her, their eyes swimming with unshed tears as they watch her every move.

She grows increasingly nervous, wondering what she can say to erase the tears from their faces. She can see it in every pair of hollow, hungry eyes as they watch her, waiting for the moment when she crushes their spirits as her predecessors did.

"I will be better for you," she tries to say as the first yell of anger sounds in the crowd. Her words are lost as they all collectively scream at her - words of hatred, loathing and disgust pour from the lips of the weary as they grow restless of the picture of perfection looking upon them from her everlasting place above those who are nothing more than skin and bone.

They did not come to welcome the Queen into her reign; they came to end it before it began.

"They cannot reach you," a familiar voice sounds from behind Reine, and she turns to see her mother and father standing behind her, covered in blood as their empty, emotionless eyes stare at her without seeing her. "You are far above them. You are untouchable. You are perfect."

Reine shakes her head, feeling the tears falling onto her cheeks. She tries to wipe them away, but realizes a moment too late that her own hands are covered in blood, so all she does is smear the red liquid across her face as the tears continue to fall and mix with the blood of her family.

"Blood is on your hands too, dear," Reine's mother says in a calm voice. "You wear the crown, and you also carry the burden."

"This was not me," she says in horror, staring at her hands. "The fault is not mine. You two destroyed the spirits of the villagers, and the rebels slaughtered you in front of me."

"You carry our name," her father says, smiling kindly at her. "You wear the same crown your mother wore as she watched people starve to death by her own hands."

"The rebels came to kill you as well," her mother continues. "They wanted to end your reign before you had a chance to create further ruin. We were killed as a bonus; we paid with our lives for protecting you. Do you not realize? You were the target that day. Not us."

"All of this," another voice sounds as Claire walks with an arrow sticking out of her chest, blood trickling onto her dress and changing the color from light pink to dark red. "All of this is going to fall to ruin because of you. Everything comes back to you."

"No," Reine says, shaking her head in denial. "That cannot be. I did my best. I have always done my best."

"Such as now?" the former Queen says, tilting her head slightly. "You ran away from your duties as Queen because you fell into the temptation of the boxes, as your father and I fell into the temptation of greed. You think you are unlike us, but you are our daughter. You are following right in our footsteps, as you never wished to do."

"It is your fate for you to fail," the former King says, nodding his head. "You cannot prosper. You will not."

A sob escapes Reine's throat as the three most important people in her life voice out the thoughts that have been swimming inside the darkest corners of her mind.