The Nameless Queen

This was a terrible idea

OK, so this part was accidentally published before but let just forget that ever happen. OK. 

The withered water that slithered off the street and found its way to the tunnel, drenching the small, petite child. She shivered against the brutal wind that muted her cries of sorrow and pain.

Tears and rain slid down her face and ate away the grime of the ally, clearing the paling face. Blood from puncture wounds in her face dribbled down her cheeks. Four on one side, one on the other. Nail marks. Her cries couldn't be heard by anyone else. The winter wind had at least given her the dignity to cry along.

What might have happened if someone had found her, cared for her, brought her back to life no one could say for sure, but It would have been better than her stone set fate. It would have been better than the crushing fist of cruelty, better than the sentence of living death. It would have been better if the world wasn't set on the destruction of every dream ever made. It would have been better if the Gods just left the strings to pull themselves.

But, no. No, they had to pluck and break the puppets strings until it was incapable of moving on its own. Until it was begging for death.

So the Gods gave. It gave the puppet girl death, but not the ones where you die. The ones where you live. Live your whole life with the devil whispering over your shoulder, telling you to take its job and kill. Kill until your hands bleed, until your knives drop, until your dream wither. Kill until your life breaks, and your soul dies, leaving nothing but darkness and unfeelable pain, clawing at your blooden heart, and eating at your sanity.

That's what the Gods gave the girl. Bait. Dangling it in front of her face, teasing her childish heart until it stopped and rotten. Until the relief of death was broken like all other dreams. Until the child became a monster. A monster that wore human skin. A monster that wore human skin and smiled. Smiled as her demons died, unable to evolve, to change to the growing hate then wormed its way into her body. Hate that eats at her mind because her heart has already stopped and on the inside has died.

Until she became jealous of her heart and its dead, broken soul. And its ability to die, while she was forced to live.

Maybe it was because the girl was stronger than anyone else. Maybe it was because the girl wouldn't crack and break like the others. Maybe it was because the girl was stubborn and refused to bow, but even in her broken state, she defied the Gods. She defiled the Gods by refusing to live because her life couldn't be called living. No, it was called surviving.

And Survive she did. Until she didn't. Until the toy broke, until the puppet tangled until the Gods shoved her over the edge. And how they laughed as she fell. And how they laughed as she couldn't move. Until she couldn't climb. Until she couldn't get up. Until all, she could do was stand up and scream. Until she was useless. Until she was broken. Like the dreams of death that haunted the living dead.

But the girl in the street didn't know that she would break. She didn't know she would beg for death. She would know until it was her time to break. Her time to die in the cruellest way possible.

She didn't know. She didn't know, she cried. Cried until her chest ached until her body trembled. She cried until all her tears were gone. Cried until her heart stopped and she died. Until the first stages of her living death began.

Because the Gods never let me cry again.

***

I sat up in bed, the dreams still wandering around my mind. The memory. I found my boots and cloak. This was a terrible idea. This was going to get me killed. But if it meant that no other children would have to go through what I did then it was good enough for me.

The mountain's rocks seemed determined to trip me up like they were telling me that this was a bad idea. Because it was, it was a very bad idea. But it was too late now.

I marched through the stone hallway until I reached the door. The door that I had slammed earlier today after swearing to never return. Fuck I was going to regret this later.

I threw open the door to reveal a very confused Adam staring in alarm at me.

"Okay," I said. "So this is how it's going to work fucko. I get to do the planning"

But Adam just stared at me in shock.