Crimson Falling ------> A Queen Of Hearts // Red Riding Hood Retelling

𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙻𝙾𝙶𝚄𝙴

Hey guys!!! So quick note before I start, this book will be the first of my novels to be written in third person. Most of mine are written in first, so if you would rather read a book in first person my other books are available.

WARNING: THE PROLOGUE DOES NOT MAKE A LOT SENSE, NOR IS IT SUPPOSED TO. PLEASE DON'T JUDGE THE WHOLE BOOK ON THIS PROLOGUE!

Happy reading!

It was dark inside the never-ending hallway, winding for what seemed like forever. The putrid smell followed the grime and filth covering every little corner of that eternal hallway. No windows or doors were visible, and unlit torches covered every few steps, hanging in large metallic prisms against the wall. This particular corridor was off limits to even the guards and maids of the large castle. Those who entered were never heard from again.

For her, however, it did not matter. She scurried down the hallway, gasping for air as her quiet footsteps held so much volume in the empty space, and echoed loudly, making her feet sound like the hooves of a hundred horses.

In her hands, she grasped two items of great importance. In her left, the scrunched up fabric of willowing blue nightgown, so as not to trip over it as she ran, and descended lower and deeper into the confines of the palace. In her right hand, she held nothing but a small candle, barely lit, with it's egg-white wax dripping slowly as she ran, forming a path back the way she came.

The clamor her narrow white slippers caused, was heard from a distance, and the haggard gorger she had come for sensed the presence of royal blood approaching. The guards of the iron cage stood at the ready, some of the few five entrusted to guard the most heinous being in all the realm.

Their swords withdrawn, the knights in armor harboring the rust of generations of past men rushed into positions of defense, knowing full well that no one but the king should ever walk down this hallway. Surely no one would be so stupid to walk towards the person that could easily kill the entire kingdom if not for the confinement of their cell.

The woman running towards them, on the contrary, knew exactly what she was doing, for as she stepped into the light where they could finally see her, they bowed and muttered quick apologies.

"Your Majesty," one of the knight's barked in his gruff voice. "I apologise. We should have known it was you."

She considered this for a moment. There was no way they could have known it was she, causing all the commotion in the forbidden hall at this ungodly hour. She needed them, though, to leave her by herself with the gorger, for if they knew what she was about to ask, they would surely tell her husband, and she could not have that.

"Yes," she sniffed, her nose scrunching at the unpleasant smell of unwashed grease and month old food the prisoner had been given. "You should have. Next time recognize me and His Majesty before you point those shiny swords in our faces. Now leave, I must talk to the prisoner."

The knights looked at each other curiously. No one but the King was allowed to talk to this particular haggard. There was a reason she was in a separate prison then those gorger's in the dungeon. "But Your Majesty, we have specific instructions to not leave the prisoner." A different knight piped up, his voice an octave or two higher than the other one's.

"You idiots, I know this. But my darling husband has granted me permission to speak to the woman inside about an urgent matter. Now leave," she commanded in her stern voice, lying straight through the regal expression on her face.

The guards bowed once more, and then walked down the winding hallway, two of them staying for protection if Her Majesty so needed it, making sure not to listen into the conversation she was about to have.

A small window peering into the cell, big enough to slide a tray of food into, was what the King used to speak to the prisoner, and what Her Majesty herself was about to use. She approached the small hole in the wall, and peered inside, staring at the interior of the small jail. The entire thing was dark and she could barely see the silhouette of the haggard she had come to talk to.

"Well, well, well," a high-pitched voice spoke from the farthest corner of the cell. "If it isn't Her Majesty, come to visit little old me now have you?"

The Queen did not speak. Instead she motioned with her hand for the voice to move forward, into the light so she could see her.

The silhouette the voice belonged to stood, a massive hump on their back and a limp in their foot, as they hobbled over to the hole. The Queen held her breath so as not to gasp when the woman came into the light. Her hair was knotted and matted and a sickening shade of white, that looked nearly green in this lighting. The teeth of the old woman were either missing, or so rotted and eroded they were disgusting to look at. The skin was so wrinkly and old, the damn old gorger looked like she may fall apart in seconds, and the nails were so long and chipped that they may just have been longer than the Queen's own little finger.

The Queen shuddered as she spoke, "I have come to ask-"

"I know what you have come to ask," the woman broke in, and opened the one and only one of her working eyes, to reveal bloodshot veins and pus escaping it. "You want to know if what you overheard the King say is true."

She slowly lifted up her rotten old hands and stuck them through the small window through which they were conversing. The Queen tried to pull back, but it was too late, for the old woman had grabbed her face with such strength, that the Queen could barely twitch.

She braced herself for this gorger to end her life here and now, but instead felt the warm breath that smelled like the toilet buckets in the village that never got cleaned out, right on her face.

"My dear," the woman spoke, her eye peering at the petrified royal in front of her, "one day you will wind up in a cage, much like my own. But your cage, well, it will be much worse. This cage will be one in which this comfortable life you have known will be stripped from you, and your own daughter," at this the woman let go of the Queen's face with one hand, and instead put it onto the Queen's bulging belly, "will despise you, more than you could think possible. In this cage I will be on the outside, laughing at you, and haunting you until the last of your dying breath."

With this, the nimble old lady let go of the terrified Queen, and smiled a smile, so wicked, so horrid, that the queen nearly lost the supper she had last night. Her Majesty stood up, straightened her nightgown and turned away from the woman. She took a few steps, then paused. "And my husband?" she asked, fearing the answer.

"My dear," the old woman chuckled wickedly, "he will be the one to kill you."

At these words, the Queen quickly flung her hand up to meet the necklace she had on. The necklace her darling King had given her on their wedding day. She felt like falling apart, but instead did the only other thing that came to mind.

Without even turning to face the old woman, she waved her hand at the guards, and said simply, "kill her."

The horrific old woman just cackled and yelled to the Queen, who at this point had already started her walk back up the narrowing hallway, "Dear, you can kill me, you can do anything you want, you can say anything you want, but you will never outrun your future." And with this, the sound of a blade slicing through the woman's head echoed down the hall, music in the Queen's ears. And back in the cell, the woman's head lay on the ground, dismantled from her body, one last look of happiness portrayed on her face.