Red

01. Preface

     The king paced before his tall leather armchair, his footsteps fervent with his never ending unease. The news of his wife beginning labor put him off to where he couldn't even fathom the thought of reading the mound of papers on his desk that desperately needed to be attended to. Suddenly, a young servant girl burst into his chambers, her warm brown eyes wide. The alarm on his face must have put her off. He would've got onto her and his guards who were to stop anyone outside his door had he not seen her pale face suddenly warp with painful grief. It struck him with instant fear. The room suddenly became ten degrees cooler as if even the space around him could sense the tension.

     "The queen— something has happened." Her voice wavered with worry as she told the King as best she could what the doctor had said. The baby was coming, but not fast enough. His Queen was losing too much blood too fast. It would ultimately end her life.

     With quick movements, the King, along with both of his silent guards, followed the young servant down the winding and narrow hallways of his kingdom to his wife's quarters. She had been bed-ridden for weeks awaiting the arrival of their first child, the heir to their throne. She had been due a few days ago, but only twelve hours ago had she begun the process of labor.

     Arriving before her chambers, the King could already hear her piercing cries of pain which even echoed out into the hallway. Worry clung to his body like heavy baggage and he rubbed against his arms as if he could shake it off into the still, musty air that surrounded them like a plague. The guards awaited his signal to open the doors, and he gathered as much strength as he could before waving them forward. Opening the double doors, the King could finally pin his eyes before his beloved laying in the bed. Her face was gaunt and drained of color, and her lips a blue hue as if stained by blueberries. Her usual enchanting blue eyes were stripped of their glowing color, and laid upon his in what looked to be pure misery. Stumbling to her side and ignoring the sharp protests of her doctors, he began to pray to the Lord, begging him not to take her life, but instead give them both the life of his Queen and their child.

      Whispers and soft cries of prayer filled the room as his wife began to scream in agony, her waves of contractions giving way to more blood. It filled her bed like a pool of water and stained the sheets the color of dark red.

     She was going to die before she could see her babe. The Lord was not going to answer his pleading prayers. But another, darker power would.

     A warm whisper brushed against the King's ear, and then another. The sweet murmurs filled the King with building hope as he looked to his dying wife and took her cold hand in his. They were the whispers of Darkness.

     But they were so gentle, so forgiving and animated the King knew it would save his wife, so he prayed to the Dark Lord. The One who could not only give his babe life, but his dying wife. The whispers that were inaudible began to become louder and louder, drowning out the others in the room and only for the ear of the desperate King.

     Give your daughter to the darkness. Give your daughter to the wolf. Let him feast upon her on her 18th birthday and take her and she and the Queen shall remain alive.

     The King, so desperate, pleaded to the Dark Lord. "Yes, yes, yes! Let my wife live!" His voice, so tender and deceived in his weakness, gave the lock and key to the hands of the Dark Lord and his demons and they palmed away his promise for eighteen long and forgetful years.

     The King did not remember his promise, and had soon enough forgot his promise that the moment his daughter gave her first gentle cry and her mother stumbled upon a breath of renewed life; the Dark Lord was only a moment's whisper to the King, there and gone without a trace.