My Wonderful Second Life

Chapter 77- A Red Queen and an Ashamed Prince

Amelia walked in red, knives ready and her senses heightened. Unlucky for her, the amount of little pigs had diminished faster than she had hoped for and faster than what her own blood demanded.

A deep and strident howl took her, not by surprise, but by happiness, and she ran to where it had come from. Only to find an enormous beast of the blackest midnight fur, high as three men stacked on top of each, surrounded by several little piggies.

They tried to strike the beast's thick neck with long swords, never managing more than cuts on the legs that gushed blood into the floor of the square. Amelia opened her lips, letting the metallic smell intoxicate her once more. Her tongue felt the sharpness of her teeth growing while she walked undetected to the preoccupied little piggies, intending to end their misery.

She sang, "A little piggie crushed under the teeth of the big bad wolf..." one down.

"He cried and cried..." Another fell, his eyes becoming hollow.

"More and more..." and another, his hand trying to grab his falling head.

"While the teeth of the wolf grew in red, and a glorious smile appeared on his lips as his feast went on."

She danced, and she sang and she killed. They did not have a chance, nor they could have avoided her. They had not expected her. Whatever she was.

The beast looked as if mesmerized while she killed every little piggie, except one. She watched as the piggie, with his last strength, pulled a whistle from his neck, his hands trembling with the effort. Before he passed out from the enormous loss of blood, he whistled.

And Amelia cooed. Her crooked smile was as frightfully bright as a butcher's room.

More piggies.

A rustling noise took her from her ecstasy. The wolf was shaking off a net from his fur, making it fall soundly into the ground. The wounds in him called for her. Clamored for her knives and he tensed, sensing her interest.

When he growled in warning, she made herself stop. She took pleasure in his fear, in his apprehension of her. But she took control, for the first time since she let herself go. She restrained herself long enough to tell the beast. "Go find your master. The rest of the pigs are mine."

She did not recognize the voice coming from her. It was primal and as much inhuman as the beast in front of her. Perhaps even worse. The hoarseness of it told her that the restraint would not last, something the beast knew as well.

He took some steps back, and she turned furiously at him. His growling grew deeper while her smile turned daunter. "Something happens to my friend. It is you and your piggie master I will go after next."

Her words were but a whisper, yet the truth in them was enough to caution the beast, who continued to retreat and bare his canines. His eyes were trained on her, even when she turned away to listen to the rumbling noise coming close to them.

As Amelia sensed him living, her blood boiled in excitement at what was to come. She licked her knives in anticipation, taking in the blood that helped stoke her delirium. She aimed the first piggy that came her way, cutting his head off and causing a beautiful and swift waterfall of blood to emerge out of his open veins.

Then she walked, ready for her fun to continue.

***

Prince Francis ran without awaiting the others. He knew the fastest way to his mother's palace, having used the route whenever his father cut the time they spent together. What once seemed so quick now was turning into a drawn-out affair with no end in sight.