In My Possession

Chapter 10- Stories

Edited version as of 2/16/13

The queen looked like something out of a fairytale, especially with the sunlight streaming in making the dust motes swirl around her. She was staring at a painting that hung on the wall; An oil of a young girl with blond wavy hair. It was actually a disturbing picture because the girl's stare was cold. There was no smile or warmth on her face. It didn't seem like she was angry, but dead. The queen had perfect posture, shoulders back, head up with her hands settled in her lap. She turned to look at me with the same dead look and I shivered.

"It's tradition for the current queen to speak with her successor, to tell her why she's here." Her tone was flat but her voice was beautiful; soft, lilting and faintly musical. Something told me she had once been a singer.

"I know why I'm here. I’m going to take some tests and then go on some dates with some rude-sorry but its true-boys.” I said, edging around the room to my desk. Her eyes followed me.

"Perhaps. But do you know how this started? No one really knows how anything begins I guess. Most things are too blurred and confusing to remember or record. But I'm going to tell you a story that has been passed down from generation to generation, starting with her." She nodded at the painting of the girl.

"Umm, should I get some paper and pen? To write it down? Because I have a horrible memory."

"I assure you that you will never forget this." Her voice foreboding, she patted the space next to her and I reluctantly sat next her, the soft mattress giving in under me and causing me to almost slide off and onto my butt. 

"Her name was Emily May and she was sixteen when she first met David Harrison, the crown prince of Adamar." She began her eyes looking back to the painting.

"As you can see she was very beautiful and David was a selfish man who coveted anything of beauty. He started courting her, showering her with flowers, jewelry and romantic poems read by moonlight. But Emily already had a lover, Benjamin was his name, and at first tried to resist his gifts. But David was persistent and very charismatic and Benjamin was quickly forgotten. Soon David introduced to his parents and his two younger brothers.

"His brothers, John and Peter, adored her and she was quickly accepted as part of the family. But Benjamin was still there, lurking in the forest by her new home. Benjamin and Emily had been sorcerers, wielders of magic. And Benjamin used his knowledge to curse her, making it so she and any daughter of hers could never be with the one she loved, just like him. When he first told her this she laughed.

"'I'm already betrothed to the one I love Ben' but he just grinned and waited. And after a year Emily came back into the forest, sobbing about how she had fallen in love with David's brother, John.

'Take it back, Ben.' She pleaded.

'Come back to me and I will make things right' He said, taking her hands in his. But Emily had already seen the real him and spat on his feet refusing to ever speak to him again. She went along and married David and had two sons and got pregnant with her third. But when she delivered him she was weak and it was rumored throughout out the kingdom that she would die.

"Benjamin was distraught and came to see her one last time at her bedside.

‘You killed me Benjamin. Your love has killed me.’ She said with a hysterical laugh. Benjamin was miserable and still very much in love with her and so together in her last days they looked into dark sorcery and found a way for her to live on in a way. The day after the queen died but on that same day a newborn girl was found in the forest. Benjamin raised her as his own and when the time came presented her to the King as the rightful heir to the throne, the Queen’s daughter.

"The king, David, Emily's husband, insisted that he had never had a daughter but Benjamin explained that this was no regular offspring born of flesh and blood, but one of magic and earth. King David was outraged but conceded to test the child to see if she possessed the great magic her mother had. She passed the test with flying colors and was declared David's heir. She, like her mother, picked one of the boys to be king but fell in love with another. 

"And so it went. Generation down, every time the son's came across a girl who they recognized as their queen, always from one city. They would test her and then one of them would marry her and together they ruled the kingdom.”

We sat in silence after she finished her tale.

"Are you trying to say I'm not real?" I said, convinced the Queen was crazy. She smoothed down her silky dress and tilted her head at me in an appraising way.

"You're as real as me; we were not born the regular way Cambrea. Tell me, did you ever know your parents?"  I didn't respond, my legs were starting to get numb in their awkward position.  So I was an orphan, that didn't prove anything.

"And you think we're wizards?" I said, sarcastically. The queen pursed her lips and clasped her hands together in her lap looking at me with what I thought was disdain.

"Sorcerers and how else would we be able to pass the test?"

"I haven't taken the test yet but you're kinda freaking me out. Why would I need magic to pass it?" The queen smiled creepily pretending to lock her lips. I started to feel something cold inside of me, something that wanted to run away from this mad woman.

I jumped off the bed, pacing the room and trying not look at her but also scared to look away in case she disappeared. Illogical I know, but despite my dubious position I still felt like this woman lived in a different place then I did, a place where magic maybe wasn’t so crazy.

"Is this a joke?" I checked the room for corners, a smile tugging at my lips. "Is this to get me back because I threw my lunch at Nathan and Caleb?" She laughed, a cold and humorless laugh that cut me to my core.

"You threw your lunch at them? I guess I'm can't judge, I brought my snake to meet Robert when I was tested..."

I was really starting to get wierded out; she was emotionless, cold and brazen.

"You'll understand better after you take the test." She patted my hand as I paced by. I instinctively recoiled from her touch than grew worried that I had offended her but she just looked at me with distant amusement.

"You know I still think they made a mistake, I'm really not queen material." I protested, throwing my hands up in defense and backing a little toward the bathroom. I suddenly wanted to be behind a locked door; needed a barrier to hide behind so I could think.

"Neither was I." She said simply. And to my relief, she got up to leave.

"I'll leave you to wonder whether or not I'm insane." She closed the door behind her and I slumped onto my bed, curling away from the spot where she sat, it was unnaturally cold as though she didn’t have any body heat.

I needed to get out of this crazy house. Right when I was starting to feel comfortable with the idea of being royalty and excited about living here, the psycho queen had to come and be creepy. Maybe she was pulling a prank on me, she couldn’t be telling the truth, unless she was mentally off and thought it was true. If it was true…I was grossed out. I know, not the emotion to be expected. But then if I was related to Queen Victoria then marrying one her son’s would be like incest. Nasty.