The Broken Ball; A Dark Academia Story

4

I'm not sure how long I laid dead. Could've been days. Could've been minutes.

I am however sure of the number of footsteps that walked towards me across the marble.

23 steps.

The owner of the 23 footsteps kneeled down beside me, and lifted my limp body so I sat partially up. My eyes were open, but I couldn't tell who held me. I could see, but at the same time I couldn't.

Whoever held me carried with them a large box. From it they pulled the first thing I could clearly see.

It was a red heart made of red ruby. And it was beating. The heart was pressed against my chest, and I let out a sudden gasp for air, shooting up.

Everything came crashing down on me. I could feel my body again. I could see everything around me, including Adrastos who had been the one holding me, his white coat splattered red. I could even smell those splatters. They smelled like heavy copper coins, almost like...oh.

I looked up into his pooling eyes, and I understood.

Adrastos was not poetry as he had once told me. He was melting gold that encases and burns the skin where a jewel once sat. And that gold was made of poetry and nightmares. Terrible, beautiful nightmares. And I was living in one.

"You stole my heart." I whispered.

He gave me a cocky smirk, "Don't worry, I'll be careful with it. I'll tell you a secret though, you've stolen mine too." He winked.

I shook my head, "No, Adrastos... you stole my heart."

His face fell, "I've given you a new one. You won't need the old one anymore. Not like I need it."

"You gave me my mother's blood stained heart." I whispered.

Adrastos took the box he'd taken my ruby heart from and pulled out beautiful jewels. A bib necklace of hanging ruby teardrops encased in gold crusted diamonds. Then there was the crown. Matching to the necklace, it made a full circle to sit perfectly on my head, pointed spikes with teardrop rubies in each.

"Cerelia, I did this for us. They were killing you, night by night. I saw you getting weaker and weaker. I couldn't stand it. But now you'll be the strongest here. We will rule this ball and turn monsters into men. This world will be beautiful, despite the ugly things we had to do to get here.

Adrastos held out a hand to me, "Be my queen."

I thought over what he'd said. Had they really been killing me? The dancing, the constant expectations and conformant. Had it all been... hurting me? The bleeding feet, the tiresome nights. Maybe Adrastos was... right.

I looked up to him. My ruby heart beat faster, pulling me towards him. I loved him with my old heart, that much was true. But this heart had been one he'd given me. It had been his before I ever loved him with it. So truly, what choice did I have? My ruby heart was his whether I agreed or not.

So I bowed my head, "My king."

The next thing I knew I was held in his arms, sweeping through the ballroom in a dark blue dress covered in gold designs. My ruby jewelry made me feel lighter, and the crown made me hold my head higher.

Adrastos twirled me around, my billowing skirts swirling around us like an angry sea. Around us, our subjects watched respectfully, masks broken before them in the ground. They were no longer monsters. Only men. Just people.

Adrastos dipped me low to kiss me, then pulled me up smiling. "Our kingdom, my queen."

"It's beautiful, my love." I smiled as he led me from the dance floor to our thrones. Immediately people flocked the dance floors to begin a new dance.

Where water once flowed from the fountains, dark wine poured out. You sat on your throne and I sat beside your feet, leaving mine empty.

"Tell me your wishes." Adrastos asked.

I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped. "I... can't. I don't have any."

Adrastos frowned, "Don't have wishes? But you're made of them."

"But... I'm not anymore." I said carefully. "I'm no longer candy made of the melodies I sang to you or the wishes I whispered. I'm... I am the ball."

"And what is the ball made of now?" Adrastos asked, his voice bitter.

I looked him in the eyes, placing a hand on his cheek, "You."

Adrastos looked taken aback for a moment. Then his gaze hardened. "Fine, then I will tell you all about your new self."

Then he began to whisper nightmares to me. Beautiful, ghoulish tales. I sobbed at the horrors he whispered. Of frozen mothers, drowned brothers, starving sisters. Of bloodied shoes and wicked hands.

Every tear I shed Adrastos kissed or brushed away, and continued to speak.

"I don't understand your nightmares." I sobbed. "This heart can't do it like my old heart could."

"Sing your music to me then."

"I can't."

"Then I will tell you my poetry."

And he began to speak his cooling poetry over me. Still, his words washed over me like a swift winter river. And I didn't understand.

"This heart can't hold your poetry." I whispered, interrupting him.

Adrastos stopped, and frowned. Almost subconsciously he touched his collar. That's when I really noticed it. A choker made from black chain, and in the center sat a small pink heart, slowly pulsing with light.

I smiled when I saw it, knowing it was once mine, but then laughed, "It's pink."

Adrastos looked surprised for a moment, then laughed, "Funny how the very color your hate was the one inside you all along."

"Oh, I don't... hate pink anymore." I said, trailing off as I realized it was true.

Adrastos looked troubled. But then I let out a raging laughter that filled the ballroom. You should have seen his face after that.

I couldn't help it. It was too terrible. How much I hated the thing I had till I lost it. Now I found myself loving it. It made me think to the Ball my parents ran. Where I was given everything I hated, and kept away from everything I loved. I was kept away from them, and for the first time I wondered if they were kept away from me as well. Adrastos was the one thing I loved that I wasn't kept away from, but now I looked around the beautiful ballroom ruled by a king with a stolen heart, and one a queen with one made of ruby.

I wondered if there had been a hidden wisdom to the law that had governed my life.

Adrastos took us back down to the dance floor, and soon enough we were spinning, our subjects flowing around us.

When we switched partners I smiled at a tall man who smiled back. "Hello. You are a wonderful dancer."

The man just smiled, not saying a word.

As did my next partner.

And the one after that.

When I finally returned to Adrastos, I frowned, "What did you do? The people... they can't speak."

"Oh, that. Cece, when they were monsters all their power came from their words. People don't get power. They take it or be taken from. I've taken theirs so now we hold the power."

"But... doesn't that make us the monsters now?"

Adrastos was quiet for a moment. Then nodded. "I guess it does." He brought me up, swinging me in the air.