HBHM (hiatus)

nine

picture: Abigailz1128

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Her mother squeezed her limp arms. It didn’t hurt, but it made her feel safe, like a protective layer, a bubble sealing her from outside dangers. But all bubbles pop; handle it with extra care, or it’ll shatter.

The woman wept, on her knees, clutching her daughter to her chest. “Please, don’t take her.”

But the man didn’t give in. “Give her to me now!” he demanded sharply.

Her eyes begged for mercy. “She’s only a child, General! Only six! Please, I’d do anything! Just don’t take my girl away . . . She’s all I have left . . .”

“I have my orders to follow. You have many things, and I’m certain a child is not what you need. Especially that one! She’ll only remind you of that wretched man; yet you still want to keep her? What has gotten into you?”

The woman pulled her daughter closer, tighter. “I fell in love,” she said, tears rimming her eyes, threatening to escape. “Is the pain and suffering you put me through not enough?You took away my husband’s, and you’ve already stolen mine. Evarose is everything I need; you are not getting my daughter.”

“Don’t be such a fool, my lady; this child does now, and will never, belong here! It is the king’s demand.”

“Please, General.”

Suddenly a man burst into the room. He was intimidatingly tall, even taller than the General himself. He had devious green eyes, knives that seem to kill every single thing it laid gaze upon. Sitting on his head was a crown that curled and glowed around his head like an angel’s halo.

The moment she saw him, Evarose hid, burying her head deep into her mother’s arms, whose protective shield of skin and bone grew warmer, tighter. The woman looked up at the new man, staring at him with cold, pleading eyes. “Vladimir,” she said.

The king smiled evilly, bowing to her, more of a sign of mockery than actual respect. His thick golden hair slipped free from the deathly grip of the crow, now hanging before his face like curtains. That didn’t make him look any less daunting.

“Say what you will, Vladimir, but I am never giving you what you want.”

“I see the reasonable method isn’t working. Perhaps this can change your mind.” Then he nodded to the guards behind the General, and they took a step forward.

The woman grew desperate. “You’re the king; you are free to pick any child, any person, you want from all over the kingdom. But why my daughter?Why Evarose?”

“You should be ecstatic that I have chosen her.”

“You chose her because of me,” she added, trying to buy some time. “You want me to suffer, yet you’ll torture my daughter instead! She’s the only one I have left, Vladimir. Please, please don’t take her away like you did with him. I beg of you, please.”

Vladimir pretended to consider this. “That’s not true; you have me, do you not?” Then with a motion of his finger, a guard charged forward and yanked the young girl out of her mother’s grasp.

Evarose screamed and fought as best as she could to be reunited back with her mother. Not these strangers. But she was only six; what possibly could she do to a trained castle soldier? But she cried and thrashed about nonetheless, arms outreached, reaching for her mother.