Nobody Wins -- Short Story

+ Nobody Wins +

Before the world turned dark, the prince that ruled the light stayed confined to the inner walls of his palace. His parents, the King and Queen, were terribly overbearing and couldn't stand the thought of anything landing even the ghost of a touch on their son. They kept him hidden from his people along with the rest of the world out of fear that they would be signing off on his death. Not many knew what the prince looked like, how he spoke, or even how he conducted himself.

However, there was one singular person who made it their job to know the whereabouts of the prince at any given second, know if he uttered a word to someone else, and especially kept track of anything that made him seem weak. This wasn't hard, of course, because the prince had not acquired a skill that would aid him in combat. He was an avid reader, a beautiful poet, and skilled with the art of trimming his garden, but nothing else. He had never been in war, never sparred with another man, and absolutely had never trained as the captain of an army.

Adrian, the prince of the darkness relished in these details, often calling him a princess instead of a prince. He would scoff and say, "what is a prince who can't decapitate a foe with a single swipe of a blade? A princess, that's what" and then he would give a small laugh to himself and continue wandering around his own fortress. He never gave much mind to the small blonde, until it was announced that soon enough, the prince of the light would be crowned and take over all of the kingdoms, including the one that belonged to Adrian. He threw his table, his eyes turning red and without control, his fangs elongated ready to sink themselves into anything, anyone, who dared take away his empire.

Swiftly he made his way down corridor after corridor, on a mission to find his most trusted advisor, the general that led his group of misfits nicknamed the dark army. He burst through the door, letting it clash to the ground. His chest heaved up and down in anger as he stormed past the soldiers, pushing some out of the way. When he came to the meeting table, he found just who he was looking for and slammed his hands down on the table, his eyes holding an evil twinkle as his lips pulled up in the cruelest of smirks. "I need a favor, something...despicable" he spoke with a tone that could only be described as venomous. The general peered up at him and quickly wore the same smirk as the prince, "of course, anything for you". He lifted his hands from the table, and began to leave but turned around only to speak one last time, "I want the prince that captivates the light dead..he'll take everything from me. I know you'll do your best to please me...sister" and with that he was off.

The King and Queen never believed that the prince would fall into any sort of danger given that he was inside the castle all of his life. Nobody, they thought, could hurt the prince when nobody knew what he looked like. That's why they let him leave, but only for a moment. He wanted to go and buy himself some new flowers for his most prized possession, his garden and of course, he wanted to go alone. His parents only obliged on the fact that it would soon be his 18th birthday and he needed to be outside and meet the people at least once and this to them qualified the prince enough to rule the whole kingdom in only a few simple months. It swiftly became dusk and the Queen sat on the ledge of the front window, waiting for her son to come back. The King came up behind her and spoke softly, "He'll be fine, we sent someone out to watch what he's doing. Nobody but the guard knows who he is". The Queen turned to look at her husband, "It's dusk Killian..you of all people know what's about to come out. We can't have the vampires coming into contact-"

"They won't"

"And if they do?"

"They won't. Adrian promised."

"Like he's really one to be trusted?"

The King sat down and took his wife's smaller hand in his own. "His kingdom means everything to him Eliyah. He wouldn't risk it...". It then dawned on the King that Adrian's promise meant nothing if the announcement of Abner's crowning got to him. Eliyah noticed the panic present on the face of the King and spoke, "What's wrong Killian? Is something happening?" She grasped his shoulder with her hands and waited for him to look at her. She finally turned his head, but all he said was, "We need to get Abner back here now" and with these words, the King and Queen were rushing to get into the royal carriage.