Two Tudor Thieves

Anne Boleyn

"I was trying to do what was good for everyone! What was good for me!" Anne tried to justify her actions.

"Good for you." The Author smiled sadly, "Good for you?" Her smile turned hard, her eyes met Annes and the young queen could see that they were filled with anger and– and fear, "Is this really what's good for you? Destroying this whole world and yourself with it? All for you, well I hope you're happy now. Yeah, I hope you are happy now that you've hurt your cause forever, I hope you think you're clever. I'm not even going to ask what you were trying to write, because none of that matters now. Now, now we might all die."

"But how was I supposed to know?" Anne looked to the other queens for help but they were just as scared and confused as her.

"I couldn't tell you the rules!" The Author started pacing, "I couldn't, it's against the Fictional Characters code. And now you've gone and broken that code! No one has ever done that before!"

"Then why are you so scared? Everything could be fine!"

The Author turned to stare Anne in the eyes, "I can feel myself slipping from this world, Anne." She took a breath, "I don't know what's going to happen next. I can't leave without risk of getting stuck between the pages, I can't do anything!"

The Author hated not knowing, she hated that feeling of fear and helplessness. She couldn't do anything about the world closing, she couldn't do anything to save the queens. So she turned to anger, to finding someone to blame, and that someone happened to be Anne.

"So," The Author stared Anne down, "you found a place where the grass is greener and you jumped the fence to the other side. Is it good? Are they giving you a world I could never provide?" She glared at Anne, "Well I hope you're proud of your big decision. Yeah, I hope it's all that you want and more. Now you're free from the agonizing life you were living before." The Author gestured at the book, which was now blank, the rose on the cover fading, "And you say what you need to say so that you get to walk away." Sarcasm laced her voice, "It would kill you to have to stay trapped when you've got something new."

Anne could feel herself slowly realizing the significance of what she had done. The way The Author spoke was clue enough, "Well I'm sorry I had it rough–"

"And I'm sorry I'm not enough." The young writer cut Anne off, "Thank God they rescued you. So you got what you always wanted and your dream come true. Good for you, good for you, you, you. Got a taste of a life so perfect so you did what you had to do. Good for you. Good for you." The Author looked at the quill that lay broken on a table, "Does it cross your mind to be slightly sorry? Do you even care that you might be wrong? Was it fun?
Well, I hope you had a blast while you dragged me along." Anne looked at Kitty, who hung her head, "Well, I guess if I'm not of use go ahead, you can cut me loose." The Author was fuming now, "Go ahead now, I won't mind. I'll shut my mouth and I'll let you go. Is that good for you? Would that be good for you, you, you? I'll just sit back while you run the show is that good for you? Would that be good for you, you, you?"

Anne backed up, she made a mistake, she tried to block out The Authors words but they still cut her like a knife, All I need is some time to think, Anne thought as she put her head in her hands, But the boat is about to sink. I can't erase what I wrote in ink, tell me how could you change the story. All the words that I can't take back like a train coming off the track. 'Cause the rails and my bones all crack. I've got to find a way to stop it, stop it! Just let me out!

"So you got what you always wanted." The Author didnt let up, "So you got your dream come true good for you. Good for you, you, you. Got a taste of a life so perfect now you say that you're someone new. Good for you. Good for you. Good for you. Good for you." She stepped back and Anne looked up as The Author started to fade, "So you got what you always wanted."

"CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?!?" Anne yelled she had lost it now and The Author knew that.

"No. I can't do anything. I'm fading, Anne." The Author looked around at the other queens, a kind of pity in her eyes, "I can't help you anymore." She sighed, "Sometimes, you have to take survival upon yourselves. What will you do when the shadows come? When you can't turn away from the darkness ahead." She stared Anne in the eyes, not faltering for a second, "Time has looked at your face and time never forgets, but what time hasn't done is remember you all as individuals. History sees you as King Henry The Eighth's wives and that's it."

The Author looked at Cath, "The first wife, the wife who married her dead husband's brother." She looked at Anne, "Someone who was beheaded, that's all your remembered for, your death, because in the end, if we don't change it, that's what our legacy is. And Jane, history bearly remembers you, you had no problems nothing was wrong, and humanity only focuses on the bad moments, they're going to remember the girl with a gruesome death before they remember the devoted housewife." The Author looked at Anna next, "Rejected for your looks, a golddigger is what history has named you. You got a good deal off of the marriage, but they still found a problem with it. And Kitty," The Author gave the pink queen a sad smile, "Shamed for being abused and mistreated. You have that way of talking that says everything is fine, but the way you hold yourself, the way you walk, and the way you look at the world says something different," The Author put a hand on Kitty's cheek, "you remind me so much of my younger sister, you two would have been best friends."

She turned away, "Cathy, you are the survivor, the one who outlived him and did something with your life. You fought the cruelty of this world, but if you asked someone on the street they wouldn't know your name." She pressed the gold and blue quill into Cathy's hand, "Change that, rewrite your story. Don't let them forget you, forge your name in fire, write your legacy in ink. Don't let them name you something you're not, don't let them assume, make something out of the cards the universe has dealt you."

The Author was slipping even more now, disappearing into a cloud of purple glitter. She didnt have long, she knew that, but there was one more thing she needed to say before she went. "We're all stories in the end, just make it a good one, eh?" She gave the queens a sad smile, "Because one day we'll all disappear, but where we go when do remains one of life's greatest mysteries."

And with that, she was gone, pushed out of this crumbling world. Leaving Anne and the other Queens to wonder what would happen next.