The Real Villian

Year: 4055; Day: 272

{Song of the chapter: Even in My Dreams, I Can't Win - Bad Suns}

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I sat cross-legged with a loose, overly large shirt pooling around my body. "Okay, but what about this: Silvea asks you out. Yes or no?"

"Hmm," my brother's low voice came from the floor next to my bed. "Nah. I think deep down she's nice, but she acts so rude."

"Fair enough. Your turn."

"Umm," he brooded. "You have the option to not be Queen anymore. Yes or no?"

I thought over it for a moment. The idea was tempting, definitely. "That depends-- did my queen-ness never happen, or do I quit now?"

"Hm." He thought it over for a moment. "You quit now."

"No," I quickly said. "As stressful as it is, I do have hopes for this place." My voice grew into a dazed thoughtfulness.

My brother's head peeked from my bedside. His eyebrows were high in suprise. "Really?"

A sparking grin widened into a full smile. "Yes! I like being in a position of change, otherwise I clearly wouldn't have sacrifice what I did for it."

His dark eyebrows furrowed together, but a grin lit his face as well. "Fair enough," my brother said.

"Okay, my turn," I told him. He straightened his form. "You can move to another City. Yes or no?"

"Nah," he mused. "They're all the same, just with a few different colors."

"Fair enough," I said with a grin, only slightly mocking him. He rolled his dark, yet still impossibly bright eyes.

His hand reached across the bed and nudged my arm. "Don't you have a job to do, Queen?"

My lips tilted downwards. I heaved a long sigh, all comfort and happiness quickly fading. "I guess I should get on with that."

There was a soft poof as Javi slumped into his makeshift bed. Draping my legs over the bedside, I stepped towards the door, only after a quick glance towards my brother. His face was sluggish against a pillow. The kid's already asleep, I realized in amazement.

Shaking my head and biting back a smile, I opened the door to my office and stepped in.

The smell was the first thing I noticed. The room had a strong fetor of rust, metallic.

Then-- red against a blue and white spectacle was the next thing I noticed.

My heart was dropping at expeditive speeds as my eyes caught... him.

A body, though one could hardly call it a body with the state it was in, laying across the floor. A dark pool of blood surrounded it-- along with horrifyingly various chunks of the person themselves.

Against my own will, I stepped closer to the corpse. The chest was gouged open, the clothes were in shreds. Everything on the body was in pieces. They weren't even recognizable, only far too damaged. I gulped. My pulse was thundering, and I was feeling quite light-headed.

The overwhelming abrupt abhorrence was slowly starting to fade, and my sense were coming back to me. A small note on the body's laid nicely, neatly. They had left a piece of undamaged, smooth skin for the note to rest on. Repulse plunged in my stomach, making its way into my gut.

My breaths were ragged. In order to get the note, I'd have to step in the blood.

Pull yourself together, Kara. It's just some blood.