The Evil Queen

Chapter 1: Suprise

       "No", I whispered. "Please father." This couldn't be happening. I must be having a nightmare. This cant happen, not after how far I've come. My tears soak my raven, black hair, which is draped around my shoulders again today.

        A lot of people in my kingdom think it's preposterous that a princess should wear her hair down instead of braided around her head like an odd halo, but I don't care. I hate having it pinned up like that, it is very uncomfortable. My maid Prilly still wont tell me what she uses to pin it. Needles? Clothespins? I do not know. This is not the reason I do not style it though. My mother used to wear her hair down. I want to be exactly like her. Ever since she died when I was 12 I have tried to do everything to train myself to someday become as great a Queen as she was. However it seemed the more I became more like my mom, the more the people of my country grew to hate me. I remember inquiring Prilly about this once at age 14, up until I had convinced myself it was all in my head.

       "Its because you remind them of your mother", Prilly told me. "Look at that face, you look exactly like she did at that age. And they hear you spend most of your time studying and learning. Exactly what your mother did. You better watch out princess, that mind of yours could get you into a lot of trouble."

      "Is it bad to want to learn?" I had asked. "Is it not a good thing to try to sharpen your mind? How can they loathe me for doing so?"

      "I am only warning you to be careful your highness. No one wants a replacement for the Queen. Especially one as adored as your mother." Prilly told me. This only made me want to try harder to win the affection of my people and the affection of my father. I swore to myself that day that I would try as hard as I could to win everyone over as my mother so easily had. It is still extremely difficult because Prilly was right, my mother had been adored by all, especially me. Everything changed when she died. And everything was about to change again.

      "Please father no", I tried again.

      "Yes girl", he finally answered.

          "Please don't make me."

          "You will!" He thundered.

         "But I don't love him", and then it came out, I finally told the secret I had been trying to keep so hard for so long. "My heart belongs to another!" I blurted out.

         His face burned with anger. "What did you say?!" He shouted at me. I became silent. My head looked down, ashamed. "Who? When did this start?"

         "I, um a year ago....Jonathon."

         "Jonathon?"

         "One of your...knights...", I told him.

         His anger turned to rage. "You silly, foolish girl! You thought you could be in love with one of my knights and not have me find out?!" Then he started cursing at me. All the words I knew and even some that were new to me. When he finally stopped I apologized which only sent him into another fit of anger. When he finally seemed to have calmed down he said one more sentence before he left .

      "I shall not see your wretched face until the wedding in two weeks."