The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 2

 It's cold, so cold, and so dim. I just woke up and I'm already over it, over consciences, done with life. The white, wore silk of the old nightgown doesn't smell like her anymore, and I'm not sure I could handle it if it did. Begrudging, I pull myself up in the coffin, stretching up to click on the single lightbulb above, my eyes adjusting slowly. When was it that it started to hurt so much to move, take so much breath away, I slip out and make contact with the cold dusty stone of the floor, stinging my already pallid feet, stepping up and tracing Eleven's neck, but though he shutters under my touch, blindfolded by a red ribbon, he doesn't feel warm enough.

"Must I go out today?" I ask, "Can I not sleep, aren't you hungry for more?"

"Go Mortemine, it will do you good." He replies, the smooth ridges of his voice southing my ears. "Perhaps Illy shall return today, and you might be able to get real sleep, maybe even something entertaining might happen. You must go."

"How many can I eat?" I ask, a sigh escaping my lips.

"I thought you were fasting for Illy." He replied, but I stepped away. I was, but at the sight of the girl that guards the door of my tomb, I decide differently.

"Child, answer me, what is your name?" I asked, and I can see her shake under my words, making me smile. She's not a child really, just a skinny girl, petite in stature, and timid in nature.

"Olivia," She replies, too fearful to turn around. Her voice trembles like the trees in the winds of a storm, and a jolt possesses her each time my soft steps echo through the stone chamber.

"Do you have a mother Olivia?" I ask, she almost darts away into the darkness as I speak, but awed by authority, she stays paralyzed, like a lamb awaiting a tiger.

"Yes, your majesty." She replies.

"What gives her the audacity, sweet little Olivia, to have for herself what is kept from her Queen?" I can see her sputter over the words, searching for sense, beseeching it, in the dark, cold chamber of the Queen's tomb, she fishes for her life in the uncertain waters of the world.

"I don't know my Queen," She finally spits out, tense as a board.

"Then I'll have to tell you, won't I." I reach her now, pressing myself up against her back and bending over her, to breath on her neck. "Do you know why she is permitted to have the daughter that is held from me? Because she is swine, and you are as well, only because you are such pitiful and helpless creatures, are you granted such senseless and blind joys." I bit down on her thin neck, the brown skin puncturing and black curls giving way to me as the deep red of her sweet blood flowed from the wound. I felt her weaken beneath me, limply, tensely, waiting for my release.

I gulped down the precious fluid, letting it pour over my chin and drip upon her uniform, the plight of my hunger, was complete. Never had I been so hungry as when I kissed my wretched beloved her final goodbye. "Master, you must stop now, else you kill her." I heard Eleven say sweetly in the background, and though I would have liked to crunch down harder upon her slender neck, and suck every last drop of blood from her draining body, I gave in and released. She gasped but I had taken too much, and she slumped to the floor in a faint, unconscious.

"Are you happy Eleven, even though your Master is not?" I asked, spinning round to gaze upon his figure as it hung beside my empty coffin.

"I know my Master, and know she would be even less so if she had not ceased."

"Auspicious slave, what am I to do with you?" I muttered to myself, slipping the pair of keys from around my neck and inserting the silver into the door. There were two, one silver, for my tomb, one gold, for my library, both engraved with the initials, M. C. Of course I didn't really mean what I said to Eleven, as if I didn't like him as I did, I would have killed him long ago, it was simply a saying. I often say I'll kill him just before I die, as I don't wish to live without him and but would hate \more to miss the opportunity to kill him. The lock yielded with a metallic click, and I swung the door open, blinking to adjust to the bright light of the windowed hall. "Relax," I say to the maids in the hall. "I didn't kill her this time, though she might not stand for a while."

Perhaps Illy shall arrive today, then I shall finally have my peace.