Take Me To Heaven

Twisted Tales

* * *

The first time they meet, it is on a battlefield.

She has heard of him before, the great warrior Shang, the man that was capable of killing ten men at once with a flick of his sword. But she had never met him face-to-face until now.

He's angry when he sees her robes, that a little thing like her had managed to hold a place in his Herculean army, and she's angrier, because she's seen that looks so many times. That diminishing glare She was being underestimated.

A monster must be destroyed.

And she will prove her worth.

When she tore through one hundred and seventy pounds of human flesh with a sword so like his own, in a way so effortless you would think she had grown up in the arenas of war, his lips were bare of words for he could not comprehend what he had just witnessed.

(And when they had brought an end to the massacre and bloodshed, when they marched back to their kingdoms with victory in their blood and solitude in their hearts, they exchanged soft glances between themselves and honeyed words and sharp responses, and a hint of love.)

Years later, they fought a thing-a creature that should not exist, a creature that was the tactician and not.

And then she sacrifices herself, drenched in blood, and tears fall from his face into the soup as he lies, his hands growing still

* * *

The sixtieth time they meet, it is in a palace.

She is shy, hiding behind her mother and step sisters, and he doesn't want to be there, doesn't want to be married to her.

But as the sky shifts to darkness, she is somehow in his arms and they're dancing to the rhythm of his heart beat.

Until she whispers an apology, turns, disappears.

She takes his heart with her and leaves nothing but empty promises and a single glass slipper.

* * *

The millionth time they meet, it is in another world, a galaxy so far away.

The girl with the brown hair is distant, her mind a jumble of brilliant pieces and thoughts that he wants nothing more than to unravel and understand.

He would burn down kingdoms for her, destroy worlds just to capture a second of her attention.

But he is a creature of darkness who has scars deeper than the ocean. A curse that could not be uplifted. An abomination that wasn't capable of such human emotions.

A beast.

What could a thing like himself ever offer her?

* * *