Short Horror Stories

The prince and the blind man

Once upon a time there was a kingdom where war roamed for centuries. There was lots of death and destruction, poverty and starvation. When you needed to go to the palace, you first had to enter the ruins around the dark building. The ruins of villages and cities, no plants could be found there, not even weeds creeping through the small cracks of broken homes.

The people whom used to live in those ruins never got any help from their protectors, the nobility. For the dead the ruins were their grave, their final resting place where they could never sleep.

Decrepit streets and broken down houses where only the lost souls would wander. The living that still could draw breath had long abandoned the place.

You see, the palace was not a place where one would like to go. They said a tyrant of a king lived there with his beyond evil staff and family. If one entered this place, they would never return.

Brave knights had tried to stop the aristocratic family, but all had failed.

It seemed as if the world around it did not like any of it either, the time of day didn't matter, it was eternally dark and grey. There was never snow in the winter nor sun during summer.

This everlasting war was one of great destruction, endlessly eating more and more away from the world and its people. From the plants and even the animals.

Everlasting fire, everlasting pain, everlasting hate, everlasting war.

In the dark palace there lived the king's son, the king used to have more kids and a wife, but they were long gone. Dead before they could even see the dark skies that cover the land in perpetual shadow.

But this story is not about the king, well perhaps a little, but no more than that. This story is about the prince, his only surviving child.

The boy, no older than 13 was meant to take over after his father would come to pass and become the new tyrant as his father before him and his father before him.

All just to keep this grudge going on forever.

The prince lived almost completely alone, isolated in this cold palace, his father was always too busy with war.

There were the servants whom educated the boy in warmaking. There was no time for him to really be a child, but neither was that luxury for any other kids who lived close to the never-ending war zones.

The prince learned how to reign over the land without kindness.

He learned how to behave, but not how to help another in need.

Maybe you see the child as one rather horrible if you had met him, but remember that he was very lonely. He had no friends, he was too important for that. No hobbies, because of having no time. He had no free-time, because he had to learn everything as fast as possible. To learn how to become just like his predecessors.

One day when the king was far away for war, the prince sat alone in the throne room. In the chimney there crackled a small flame that was no warmer than the ice-cold floor.

The prince looked up from his studies to let his gaze wander throughout the room, he wasn't allowed to get distracted, he knew that very well. But now that the servants were busy, he just couldn't help himself.