War Of The Winter King

Chapter 2: The Crown's Curse

When Simon saw his t-shirt, he let out an audible gasp.
"I think she means to tell me that this is her reading space" He quivered with so much excitement that he forgot to borrow a book and rushed out the library. His solemn face now in a lovesick smile.
After he finished packing away and had a meal, he found that he couldn't sleep. It was now 10pm, the stars were bright and burning furiously ahead in the night sky. What Simon didn't realise though, is that these stars burned brighter tonight because they wanted to give a sign of the future downfall of this land.
Simon was far too excited to sleep and after awhile of tossing and turning, he forgot to put on his glasses (he hardly needed them remember) and rushed to the library. Once he got there, he went on the seat with the t-shirt and eventually fell asleep on it (this is a 24 hour library).
.
The next morning he woke up to feel a warm embrace.
"Get off me!" he jumped out of his seat. Then he saw who it was.
"Betty..?!" His face lit up.
"Doctor Petrikov!" She giggled in happiness to see him again. It was a lovely reunion, and a smart thing of Betty to leave the tshirt there.
Betty's face suddenly dropped when she realised she forgot something. "Wait right here!" She shouted behind her as she ran out the library. "I'll be back!!!" and she was gone.
Simon binned his sweaty, grubby old t-shirt as it was no longer needed and awaited for Betty's return.
When she arrived she was fully dressed (Simon was still in his PJ's) and held a box in her hand. Unexpectedly, she got down on one knee and recited a little something she made:
"Before you knew me, I looked up to you
and now that I know you, I can't live without you
Simon Petrikov, the great Artifactologist
will you be mine? Even if we have only known for few nights?"
And here she opened the box, with a handmade ring that was clearly made last-minute and cheaply, but still had all the love in it. It was made with a big bolt, in which she stuck down her most precious jewels (torn off her other rings) all around it.
Simon gasped at the very sudden approach, but Betty is a very straight forward person and will do what she needs to now, rather than drag it out when she may not even see him again.
"Oh Betty, of course I will!" and he accepted the ring. "But shouldn't I have been the one to give you a ring?" he chuckled but still put it on anyways.
"Oh Petrikov!" She embraced him harder than she'd ever held anyone before. Now, engaging in a library is definitely last minute but neither of them seemed to care. Both were wild at spirit and disliked the formal way people had done things.
"So," Simon began "would you like to live with me? I have a big house" and Betty who had a small flat gladly agreed.
"I'll get packing immediately!" She cheered, walking out the library as if they hadn't just had all of that happen.
"Oh glob!" Simon clenched his hair. "I'm still in my pyjamas! And glasses-less!"
Simon dashed out immediately for home, changed into his most formal clothes and did a tidy of his house. The crown was left on the drawers out for display like many other of the artifacts he had found. But this one got special treatment for some strange reason...
A few hours later, a sharp ring of the doorbell sounded.
"Betty Betty Betty Betty!!" Ran the man in a hurry and opened the door for his life. There she was, the beautiful Betty Grof and with her, a few suitcases.
"Welcome, welcome!" Simon greeted her. This seemed out of character for such a formal man, but he was too excited to care. But then came a rush of panic.
"So how will this work? Do you want your own room? Or do we share a room? Because I haven't got a double bed! Or, or-"
"Shhh" Betty put her finger on his lips and smiled heartily. Simon turned red, flustered as well as humiliated.
"Don't worry Doctor Petrikov- I mean- should I call you Simon now?"
"Yes, please do" Simon calmed down at Betty's words.
"But for now," she huffed "would ya help me bring these suitcases up the steps?" Betty was already trying to carry one, but they were super heavy (she brang a lot of books) and both of them struggled to bring the suitcases in, one holding on either end. Simon was annoyed at this moment that he had a few steps to go up into his front door, but a few minutes later it was all in and the door was shut behind them.
From here on they began to talk about plans for the future, then they did their own things like a regular married couple would and planned to get the legal papers signed the next day.
That night, Betty slept on the couch and Simon in his own bed, passing the crown on display as he walked in his room. That night the stars burned brighter and he had a strange dream where a star spoke to him; "abandon it."
"Leave Betty? No, I could never!" and he woke up. But the stars didn't mean Betty, else they would've said 'her'.
It was a fresh morning, summer drawring to an end.
Now I won't get into detail about their love story, as nothing out of the ordinary happened except for weird dreams every now and then.
But a few months later, a war was announced. A terrifying war, going by the name of 'mushroom war'. Simon and Betty evacuated to live in the sewers, packing necessaries. Thankfully, they brang water purifiers this time but sewer water was too bogged up to be purified. Simon also packed the crown, because it was worth so much that "when the war is over I can sell it and we can get enough money to live, so long as we don't waste it and get a job again".
Every now and then, the couple would have to raid a store for food, and once their stock ran out they'd have to again. Luckily, it rained alot as the nuclear bombs caused the air to be hot which caused evaporation, so water was not a problem. The nuclear bombs being used were low grade, so it did not contaminate the ground and sky but only the people right next to where it exploded.
Simon and Betty lived in these sewers for a few weeks, with only the comfort of each other, when they had found a little girl crying in an exploded sewer pipe. She was unharmed but something happened to upset her, and her name was Marceline. Both her parents had abandoned her, and Betty and Simon took her in as their daughter. They loved little Marcy dearly. Each day, the world around them fell apart more and more until they could no longer find any human survivors. Everyone was a mindless, freaky, mutated zombie. These zombies trashed the world above them and turned it into a wasteland, it wasn't the bombs that trashed it. Life was hard, but one day Marceline asked Simon why he never wore the crown before.
"Hmm, I never thought of that before, my little cupcake" admitted Simon. But he put it on to please Marceline.
As he did so, something terrifying happened. He became a blue, terrifying ice wizard who started laughing wildly and shooting ice beams. In a panic, Betty threw the crown off his head and the man was now rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache.
"What happened? Why are you staring at me like that?" Sure, they had a few scars here and there from zombies but nothing too bad, unless his WAS really that bad?
Marceline burst into tears and Betty held her close. Simon sat there terrified on why they seemed so scared of him. Then Betty explained what happened.
"It's that crown I tell you, it's cursed! Please Simon, promise me you won't put it on again" Betty was pleading.
Simon Silently put the crown back into his bag. He felt grave that he had become.. whatever that thing was, and even after it was off he had the faintest tint of blue in his skin. Simon made up to the others, and they continued their life in the ruins as usual but one thing was different now. Simon didn't remember what happened when he wore the crown, but he remembered the power it held, and every now and then it seemed as if it were calling out for him, begging for it to be worn again. Simon ignored these but it caused him to act a little more strangely, he was always tired and more grumpy, and had a slower reaction time. They didn't know what kept him from having a good night's sleep, but they assumed it was the whole situation of the war, because it's really easy to loose it in a world where you're the only 3 humans left (Marceline was half human, the other half vampire).
Fortunately, it was easy for them to ignore the tint in Simon's skin as Marceline had blueish-greyish skin herself. She was 6 and had short, straight black hair which came a little under her ears. She had the average build of a child and was unable to control any vampire powers yet.
On another exceedingly long day, their food supply ran out again. The little family were constantly moving around in the sewers, never able to stay in one place incase zombies tracked them down. They came across a huge burst pipe which was big another to walk out of without ducking and when they hesitantly left the pipe, among the dead ground which was just a muddy waste, with green zombie blood in a few spaces (these stupid zombies sometimes attacked each other) and black blots (from where there were explosions) was a high mountainous path, on the very top was a shop.
"What smart person would build a shop on the edge of a cliff?" Simon chuckled.
"Maybe it was solid ground before but after bombs exploded, it was turned into a sort of cliff?" suggested Betty.
"You're right. You're always so smart, princess" Simon kissed her cheek and Marceline was in-between them holding each of their hands. When getting food stock, the family usually go together. I know it's hard to carry all your bags with you, when they could easily leave it behind in the tunnels with someone on watch but they were afraid that if they seperate, they may never see each other again (zombie attack).
Winter was now beginning and the air was frosty and thin, you could feel that it'd begin to snow very soon. As they clambered up the hill, Marceline was suffering the most from the climb. Her bones were stiff and she was growing a nasty cough. Betty and Simon worriedly patted her back and let her take rests here and there, comforting her with the thought of warm soup (they recognised this as a soup shop from the huge yet worn billboard with a picture of soup).
When they came up to the hill, Betty was getting ready to stock her bag up with food. The shop was half falling apart, holes in the walls and burns on the floors. A few ceiling tiles and wooden frames were hanging, about to drop off.
But then the worst possible thing happened, zombies followed them up at a faster pace than expected. They were cornered on the cliff, on the left side was the shop and on the right, exposed cliff that if you were pushed down, would fall to your death.
Panic arose from all 3 as they were in a vulnerable position with their heavy backpacks restraining them and no weapons on them that they could reach in time (buried at the bottom of a huge backpack). All had thought hope was lost, that their battle would finally end in vain. But that's when Simon heard it, the crown, calling out to him. It had stories of great power that could freeze nations with. Suddenly that annoyed part of Simon awoke again, the whispering of this crown really made his blood boil. But this anger was now directed at the zombies which were approaching at a dangerously quick pace. Simon reached into his bag, and if by magic the crown was in the top of his bag (he always kept it at the bottom) and put on the crown. At once he became the terrifying blue wizard, with bright, light blue skin, a huge shaggy white beard and bushy white eyebrows, as well as icy blue eyes. He had a long pointed nose and terribly sharp claws- and as the power rushed through his vains, his horrible beard parted into two halves and started flapping like a bird's wings. Simon rose into the sky and started laughing manicly, shooting ice from his hands in all directions (Betty and Marceline had to take cover behind him, which was now close to the bare edge of the cliff). Simon froze all the zombies and then it started to snow. The blood red rubies on his crown glowing in full power.
Suddenly, Betty jumped from behind him and grabbed the crown. At once, Simon fell to the ground but he had only half become himself again. His glasses smashed on the floor as he dropped. Betty held the crown behind him, he turned to stare at her. His nose still long and pointy, his hands still claws, and his beard still long and white. Then the crown began calling out to him again. It made him angry. So angry. But this time, the anger was at Betty, the captor of the crown.
"YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD NEVER WEAR THE DAMN CROWN AGAIN, AND NOW LOOK AT YOU!" Betty screamed, obviously in the way you'd shout at a loved one if they did something foolish to hurt themself. She held onto the crown tight, trying to squeeze it to possibly break it, but as you know gold is heavy and she struggled to hold it at all. The crown's whispering became desperate and Simon started to go insane.
"GIVE IT BACK, BETTY" He roared.
"NO! YOU'LL LOOSE YOURSELF TO IT FOREVER. I'M NOT LETTING YOU GO, I CAN'T LOOSE YOU" Tears were now streaming down her wet, pink cheeks. Simon drew nearer.
"Why are you so controlling? Why do you always take the lead in every situation as if you own me?" His voice now fell to a deep growling.
"Simon, I've been the one protecting you the whole time, don't you remember? I'm sorry if I take the lead too often but it's because fate pushes me in that position!"
"PAH, protect? I was the one who saved your life back there!" Sure Simon loved Betty, but the crown was screaming for him and as he was half taken over by the ice, he in turn loved the crown too. And Betty was taking it away from him.
As they were fighting, Marceline was slowly backing away, too terrified to make a sound. And then Simon jumped on Betty and began to strangle her, until her eyes rolled back and she finally gave way. Simon took the crown in victory and wore it. For a moment he regretted what he did to Betty, but then he saw Marceline backing away until she dropped off the edge, a scream was heard and then a crack of bones.
Now Simon only had a drop of humanity in him as the crown took to work contaminating his mind and blood, but he saw his little girl Marceline die. He wept, for he had lost his lover AND (adopted) daughter. And he blamed Betty for her death, that's how he came to despise her. The ice wizard flew somewhere far away from that place and his hatred for Betty never died down, and he always had an aching in his heart for poor Marceline. He would've missed Betty if he didn't blame her for Marcie's death (it was actually his fault). And when he was finally lost to the crown, he always had an aching in his heart for Marcie and a hating for Betty but couldn't remember who he mourned.

[word count discluding extras: 2784]

[more book-like version here]