A Queen and Her Kings

If Walls could Talk within this House of Cards

Cassandra awoke in a black abyss. Slowly blinking her eyes open, the redheaded girl realized she was already standing up, much to her confusion. She also noticed that she was still in her now dirty dress shirt and trousers, as well as still clutching Excalibur.

"Talk about deja vu... ", she mumbled as she looked about. She frowned.

"Where the hell am I now?", she asked herself, before taking a few steps around the area, and recalling her and Grumpy's mindscape conversation, which in turn reminded her of her promise to the late dwarf. She would have to make sure she kept it sometime in the near future.

After a few moments, she began to hear a voice resound throughout the endless darkness.

"Happy birthday, Riddle!", a high, fake sounding voice exclaimed in a very faux-happy tone. Cassandra jumped at the voice, before she cringed at the sound. It had to be the most annoying voice she had ever heard come from what she assumed was a grown woman, and it was almost as bad as Crowley's. Then, the black around her suddenly disappeared and was replaced with what appeared to be a dinning room.

It wasn't like the open-air dining room of the compound, filled with warmth and laughter, or the ornate but equally welcoming indoor dining room they used for guests; it was cold and overly formal. The long wooden table was set perfectly with typical English formal settings, as well as fine silver and china, even the many places where no one would sit. The many rectangle windows were open to let natural light illuminate the place, and many expensive looking paintings hung on the maroon walls. Vases and sculptures sat on small tables scattered about the room along the walls, and there wasn't a speck of dust in sight, not even in the air. In short, it didn't look lived in.

Then, there were the two figures at the very head of the table, a few yards away from where Cassandra stood at the side of the table. One was the woman she assumed the annoying voice belonged to, and the other was a child, about seven or eight. Both had red hair, and both wore formal clothing. The woman wore a large floor-length red dress, which matched her tight looking red bun, while the boy wore a white dress shirt, a black blazer, black trousers, and a black bow around his neck. From what the woman had said, this was supposed to be a happy occasion, but the look on the boy's face said otherwise.

He looked uncomfortable, like his bow was slowly choking him and he was hyper aware of every moment of it. A frown was on his lips and his tiny eyebrows were furrowed. His hands were folded in his lap, and he avoided all eye contact with the woman, who stood beside him with a plastic smile on her face. The woman spoke once more.

"This year's birthday cake is a lower-sugar recipe made with nuts to help promote brain function, enjoy!", the woman declared, gesturing to a small, rather lackluster birthday cake with nothing but white icing on it. Cassandra frowned at the sorry excuse for a cake.

Her birthday cakes had always been as grand as they were delicious, made by the combined efforts of her mother, Marcel and later Yue and Eiji, as well her favorite bakery, owned by one Harper Lee. Harper was an ex-confederate soldier and slave who an old vampire friend of Katherine's had turned after he was left to die on the battlefield. He was such a sweet man, and had a knack for making concoctions as sweet as he was. Her Dad had gifted him a bakery when he discovered this, and it became one of the best bakeries in the south. He had given her and her family his services for free ever since.

They came in bright colors and vibrant flavors, and they always had a theme; mardi gras, dragons, and ironically enough, occasionally vampires. They were teared in order to feed all the guests; friends of her and the family from all over, local covens and werewolf packs who would come to pay their respects, even normal humans who knew nothing of what hid in the night and simply wanted to wish the kind girl who shopped at their stores or occasionally helped with menial work a happy birthday. And since her birthday was on Halloween, the party was always a costume party filled with dancing and singing. It was a day filled with love, and Cassandra always looked forward to her birthdays, every little aspect of them.