Survive

Prologue

Even when I was little I was told I couldn't run away from my problems. I laughed. My mother worked for a wealthy lord, I had no choice but to work with her as well, I served him his morning tea, dinner, and other things. My father had died one evening while working, my mother had cried and the lord oddly enough came to her and comforted her.

I thought this was strange. My mother told me that everything was strange, I didn't think that way, but I did think that what she said was strange. My mother would ask the lord many questions while they were in the kitchen together, he was "worried" that she would get sad and die. A question I heard often was, "What happened to my husband while you two were in the forest?" The same answer was given, but said differently, "His head was cut off my a knight of the heartington castle" I saw it as a filthy lie.

I knew he had cut of my father's head, I was in the forest that same day, they had gotten wood, when my fathers back was to the lord, he swung.

My father did not scream, the lord chuckled and said grimly, "off with his head," I screamed when I saw the color completely fade from my fathers face, his mouth a gap, his eyes staring at my frozen face. The lord saw me as I ran, but the hood I wore made me unrecognizable.

Now, I still live with the lord, my mother gone, died one night in her sleep, they doctor said it was natural causes and it was, she had died of a stroke. I clean for the lord while his early wife cooks, she insists on me staying since I have no where else to turn.

Until that fateful lovely night ended, the lord had to give me up, a boy of 13 years was sent off. I was put in metallic armor, fitted to my form. We walked in organized lines, road along side, all metallic faced. I was made to become a knight, we road horses, trained for hours.

It was amazing, I killed many knights who could not withstand me. The queen watched each man go down, there helmets falling off, and with slow grim words I repeated, "off with his head," their corpse would be buried far away, each day another dead. The wives and the families would hate me, the queen loved it, I soon was given a name, Heartwell.

I lived in a mad world, with a queen who would soon kill those who betrayed, lied, or stole from her. There was no dungeon cell to be throne into, just a graveyard. I was put at the head, I was at the queens side, and once I grew 18 the princess was put to rule. Now I stand at her side, as she continues to fall for my every whim, until she could not bear me to love another, but I could not stay with the princess, for her sister had won my heart.

But the queen envied her sister and would throw her out, ripping my heart out and would force me to love her, fall for her, do everything for her. I became just a puppet, but I knew, truly knew, that my heart belonged to princess Gwen of Icilian. a beautiful place.

But I continue to remain by the rotten queens side, to this very day. That's where my story begins.

•••

"Off with his head!" said the queen, her black roses swirling around her victim, I stepped forth my hand brushing against the petals, stepped before the poor man, I touch a thorn a thick black liquid spilling from the small wound in my finger, "off with his head my queen," I said slowly, stepped away.

The rose vines went around him like a snake, biting into his flesh and strangling him slowly, until the thorns sunk in slowly, tearing it completely around the bone, snapping it off, he was dead.

"What now my queen?" The queen looked at me with loving eyes, even though I could not return the same look, "Drink his blood, corrupt your heart, and bury him with the rest," she smiled, and with that, she was gone. I bent down to the dead man, taking his head and into a vile poured his blood, throwing it into the wagon once I was done.

I would then sink my snake like canine into the dead mans arm, draining him slowly, until nothing was left. My soul had blackened, my armor reflecting what I had become, but the scrolls would tell the kingdom that I would be freed by Guinevere.