Always Be Forever

Chapter 22: Bellafonte

1100, BCE, September 15

"Ben Oxford, can I speak with you?"

I asked once I was finished speaking with Alex and we headed back to the throne room. Ben was no longer there that I had let out without thinking, "Esmè where did you go?" "Where would she take him?" Alex had asked me. There was one thing that I wanted to tell him, but I figured it would be best that I don't. It's that after we were brought back I had met someone, a doppelganger of Ben, and had two kids with him. So I technically had 5 kids: Elaine, Mary Margret, Whiskers, Juliet, and Diamond. I forget the guys' name, but it's been awhile since I've seen him. "Esmè?" I had asked, rushing up the stairs to where the bedrooms were, with my cape flying behind me. The stairs were on the left side of the throne - as if I were sitting in it - and they headed up to the chambers. I have my own chambers, along with Esmè's up there. There's one chamber that I leave vacant, because it still has the bloodstain from when I killed Patrick. Mulan comes at night, while Patrick is in the dungeon where he belongs. That's when I heard Esmè from her bedroom. She has Ben in there with her, yet I wanted him. I want both Alex and Ben so badly, that my sexual craving has not gone away. It's been awhile since I've had sex with Mulan and the doppelganger of Ben, that I think that if I have sex with them I'll get close enough to having the same pleasure as I would with Mulan. I hear a door being opened in Esmè's room, and I burst through the door to reveal Esmè pushing Ben off of her balcony. Her balcony was as high as a turret on a castle, and someone could easily die if they jumped off. I turn her around, and I notice that there are gold hoops around the irises in her eyes. She's in a trance. "Erica," I whisper to myself before I jump off of the balcony after Ben. My robe flies off, and leather pants show up instead of the skirt, and black sleeves show up on my arms so it's a shirt instead of the leotard. Flying towards the ground to catch Ben, I use a burst of energy and I get up to him in time. Catching him before hitting the ground, I flew him up. "What the hell was that?" He had asked me when he realized that I was carrying him in the air. "I saved you, that's what," I tell him before I flew him back to Alex and let him free on the balcony. "Where are you going?" Alex had asked in shock from seeing me fly off the balcony and that I was still in the air. "I have something to care of," I had told them before flying off towards Erica's castle.

The clouds around me were getting dark and were starting to thunder. I could tell that I was getting close. It was then a strike of lightning had hit lake Maggiore, which was just on the outskirts of the city Milan, where Erica was residing for the time being. I really hope that Erica is recovering, but I doubt it if she's putting trances on people, my people. I fly back, from the lightning strike, and I'm able to pull myself back up before hitting the water and having my legs turn into the mermaid form they turn into when I hit water. Pulling myself back up, the winds were getting faster and thicker, and I knew what I was going to get myself into: a hurricane over land with no vast body of water in sight. Standing there in the air, right at the edge of the hurricane, I realize that Erica has left me no choice. Putting my right hand up that has my wedding ring from when Mulan and I got married; I point it to the hurricane. Raising my other hand, I face my palm towards the hurricane at an angle to the ring. My magic starts working when I see a bright light emitting from the ring, and then eventually takes out the hurricane. The light is so bright; I turn around as I see the light taking out the hurricane. After the light had faded, I flew into town to see Erica's castle torn down and her lying on the ground, covered in the rubble. She's wearing her blood-red gown, and the only thing I could see was her red high heel shoe sticking out from underneath a piece of stone and her hands on the other sides from the stone.

Her fingers were still moving, and she was able to move the stone off of her as I stepped back. Pushing the stone off of her body, she had to fix her glasses and quickly fixed the crack down the lenses with her hand. Standing up as I had flown back, still far enough for me to see her and her to see me; she yelled out, "This is war!" That was when I had flown off and tried heading back to my castle in the Swiss Alps, but Erica had caught up with me. Shooting a strike of lightning at me, I landed in the lake Maggiore and I turned into my mermaid form, white shells and a white tail. Trying to regain my consciousness, Erica had dove right into the water after me, turning into her mermaid form, red shells and a red tail. I had woken up, and swam right after her with my fists ready to fight her. She had brought her fists behind her and went up to the surface, with me following. "Why do you keep putting trances on those who I care about, even your descendants?" I had asked her right away. "Why else do you think I do this? This is just how I've been. Why do you think my tail turns red? Why do you think I'm able to control death?" She had asked me, getting all the words out in one breath. "I really don't know," I had told her, looking down at the river that separated the two of us. "The old me died a long time ago," she had started. "It was hard enough to create the Strapple family tree," she had told me before she swam off and headed back to the edge of the river. "I want Mulan back," I had told her before she got to land. "Okay," she told me, turning around, and then had walked onto land, turning back into her human form with legs. The river had started to turn red with blood, and I raised my hands above my head, and I shot out of the river, dry and not in my mermaid form. Turning around, my dress turned white, and I headed back to my castle, where Ben and Alex were waiting for me.