The Nutcracker Bleeds
Chapter Six:
…So Long as Children are Innocent and Heartless
1
Anne barreled into the throne room, ignoring all who tried to stop her or yelled at her along the way. She fell to her hands and knees before the throne, gasping and clinging to the floor as if it would lend her strength. She’d made it back first – before the possessed puppet that had tried to kill her. At least she would get to tell her side of the story initially.
This is madness…
“Lady Sovereign,” Anne breathed respectfully, bowing so low that she was nearly lying on the floor.
Despite Anne’s abrupt intrusion, the Lady nodded that this be allowed. The feathers were swept away and Olivia was revealed – only Anne wasn’t looking, too busy with a degree of groveling that she hated herself for. Her life and freedom were on the line, however; she wasn’t too proud.
“You have what I’ve asked for?” the girl queried, no doubt peering down her nose at the filth before her.
“Yes.”
She offered up the cat’s eye without hesitation, and one of Olivia’s servants took it from her hands and rushed it to the ruler. Anne continued to stare at the floor, trying to manage her breath. She’d finally steadied it to a rhythmic pant.
Olivia reached out for the relic in anticipation, embracing it, but when her fingers ran over the warm glass, her smile fell.
“What is this?”
Anne raised her head at the sound of the inquiry, confused as to why Olivia had any question about the gift. Not only that, the tone of the girl’s voice was a bit disgusted.
“It’s what you asked for,” Anne informed her, drowning in the mysterious confusion that had seeped into the room.
Olivia rolled the marble in her hands appraisingly. She shook her head.
“This isn’t what I asked for.”
“Yes, it is,” Anne insisted, her eyes narrowing.
Had the wretched girl actually forgotten what she’d requested of her? Perhaps Theodore the bear hadn’t marked it down?
“No,” the Lady said, firmly and loudly. “This is a marble. I asked you for the cat’s eye.”
Anne was shocked to silence. She couldn’t move, and for a moment she didn’t breathe. Olivia had actually expected her to cut out the cat’s eye? Duchess’s eye?
YOU ARE READING
The Nutcracker Bleeds (PUBLISHED 2017)
GysA horrific retelling of the Nutcracker story. On Christmas Eve in 1905, a household in London finds itself under a centuries-old curse when a strange new toy is brought into the house. A young nanny named Anne is immersed in the horrific world of he...
