The Crimson Queen

3. Sorrow

With his back to him, the young King charged at Alice's attacker and pulled him back by the throat, before slamming him to the ground. Without a moment of hesitation Theodore stabbed the man repeatedly. How dare he!

"Watch out!" Alice screamed, and Theodore came back to his senses. He turned and swiftly ducked away from another attacker, before continuing to take another him down.

Rage was his spark and right now he was a flame.

How ungrateful, for his people to attack the future queen, he thought as he charged towards another one, before slicing his throat brutally. Blood splattered the path, they'd rode on peacefully just a few minutes ago.

And finally the fight came to an end when the surviving ambushed called to retreat. Many had lost their lives and Alice tried not to look down at the corpses. 

An enemy that screaming in pain, bleeding to death rung in their ears as the situation started to sink in. Out of breathe Parcival looked around checking if everyone had left, as he realized that they'd lost almost all of their men, but killed many many more of the thieves.

Parcival walked over to the man screaming in agony, before quickly slicing his throat, to end his suffering.

"Alice." He panted, "Were okay now." He smiled at her reassuringly. His sister had always been delicate, and all he wanted to do was reassure her. She smiled weakly at her brother, but something came flying.

An arrow pierced Parcival right through the chest as he hunched together and looked down at his chest.

Alice screamed out and ran to her brother who took one more step in her direction before gargling up blood, as he fell into his sisters arms. "That's for our Leader!" The bow wielding thief shouted before disappearing into the woods with the rest of them.

"NO!" She screamed as she turned the heavy body of her brother to his back. "Parcival! Someone help!" She screamed as her brothers eyes stared up to her in fear with tears in his eyes.

She turned her head but no one moved. "WHY ISNT ANYONE DOING ANYTHING?!" She shouted, but all the knights around her, only lowered their heads.

They knew well enough that the arrow through the chest was beyond saving, especially in the heart region.

Alice's eyes widened as she realized this. She looked down at her brother, making the tears that now streamed down her face fall upon her brothers cheeks. "No." She whispered.

But her brothers facial expression had changed. He looked calm and tired, as if he had now accepted his fate. "Ali,-" he coughed vigorously, splattering blood on Alice's cloak. "Stop," she cried.

Alice's arms burned from holding her brother up in her arms as she didn't want the arrow that had pierced him from the front to lodge back into his body.

She couldn't even feel her arms as the situation was to horrible for her to process. She was trying so very hard not to break into a thousand pieces as warm sticky tears ran down her face like a waterfall.

Theodore stood with the other knights. He didn't really think anything of Parcival, as they never really talked after all the crazy things that had happened and he knew that Parcival didn't want her to go back to Walzenor but he suffered. Seeing his Alice cry and being unable to comprehend the situation made his heart burn. Theodore walked to his bonded's side and gently placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. It was the only thing he could do without blowing his cover.

Alice didn't even notice. Her vision was to blurry from all the tears, as her brother still tried to form a sentence. His body felt heavier and heavier but he knew he had to tell her before it was to late. "Don't-" he gasped for air. Alice didn't want him to use his energy for this but she didn't know anything at the moment.

"Don't go back to him." Parcival croaked before his eyes seemed to turn matted and one final tear rolled down his cheek.

"No, No, No, Parcival please!" His sister begged and tried shaking him awake. "Don't you dare leave me here!" She shouted as she shook her brother over and over.

"Parcival, what about Emily?!" She asked as if he could still hear her. "Shes probably already given birth to your child. Don't you want to know if it's a boy or a girl?" She cried out, shaking him one last time before realizing that her brother wouldn't be answering anymore.

"You-you told me that you can't wait-to be a father-"

Theodore had gritted his teeth so hard, after Parcivals last request that the taste of iron filled his mouth. He knew what Parcival meant, and so did Alice.

But he also knew the feeling of loosing a loved one all to well, and if he could he would've done anything to take her pain away. He would've walked through hell and back if it meant that she wouldn't have to go through this right now.

"Princess," one of the other knights whispered, but Alice didn't listen, so he waited. She cried out loud as if she was trying to scream the pain away and tried to get him to open his eyes. She begged him repeatedly to come back to her, for minutes on end.

Theodore eventually kneeled down next to her never taking his hand off of her shoulder. Seeing Alice crumble, was making him ache.

The pain Alice felt had hurt more than anything she'd ever gone through before. The knight, that had spoken before had given Alice a piece of cloth to wipe her cheeks dry and she did, before she'd screamed out again and cried salty tears over her brother. He didn't deserve this.

He'd always been honorable and kind, he didn't deserve to die in the dirt on a path after they'd come so close to going back home and ending a war.

Her pain had consumed her in a way that, made her feel trapped at its mercy. Eventually the pain died down, and was slowly replaced by emptiness. An emptiness that seemed to devour her soul, piece by piece, bit by bit.