Rosalind - Amby Awards 2023 TOP PICK

7- Every Angel. Every Beast.

Lord Caspian lay in his bed but sleep would not come. He thought of his son in the next room, the boy's soft, white flesh, the pulsing beat in his neck, the rise and fall of Troy's chest and the blood...all that blood that must be moving through the boy's veins. Caspian drew in a sharp breath as an unholy hunger stirred inside him. The hunger began in his belly before moving all through him.

Next to him, his beloved wife slumbered. Calla's right arm was crossed over her chest. Caspian watched her breathe momentarily, then reached over and placed Calla's left hand over her right. Even in death, you would be divine. Caspian did not flinch from any of his thoughts, on the contrary, they delighted him if only for one dark moment. When a spark of pink flashed outside the window, Caspian recoiled from his morbid thoughts. With logic returning, the lord reached over to put Calla's arm delicately against her side where she no longer resembled a corpse ready to be taken to the funeral pyre. Caspian turned his gaze to the window. He looked at what was left of the dark before day-break came to claim it.

The night flickered spasmodically. A flash of thunder illuminated the darkness making Caspian turn his head away abruptly from the window. The shock of the brightness made his eyes ache. As he blinked the pain away, a cluster of little blue spiders skittered over the pane frosting the glass wherever their skeletal legs touched.

When Caspian lifted his head back to the window, the spiders were gone. Ice crystals began to grow on the glass, forming into indescribable shapes before Caspian's gaze.

The lord pulled the covers off his lithe frame and rose. He was clad in black, loose-fitting nightwear and his feet were bare. Caspian shivered when he stepped on the foreign sensation of the ice-cold floor of his bed chambers which until now had always been warm.

He walked to the window and reached up to the glass. The sting of cold meeting the fire burning under his skin made Caspian flinch. He saw the ice crystals inching away from the warmth on his palm, but as though the crystals suddenly changed their mind they quickly returned and crawled towards the lord's skin where they bit and tore into soft flesh. The feeling was beyond burning, it was beyond any sensation the lord had ever known. The cold crept up his arm, it moved to one shoulder before making its way over Caspian's chest where it sought the man's heart. Goosebumps formed on Caspian's body pulling at his once smooth skin into sharp angry points till a thousand or more bumps turned scaly and terrifying.

When Calla opened her eyes and saw her husband's terrifying transformation she screamed. Caspian barely heard her. The lady sounded as though she was far, far away, in another land, in another place, in another time.

Calla bolted out of bed, her shrill howling sounded like an animal in pain. She tried to reach for her husband but when she touched the icicles forming on his body she jolted back in pain. The shards of ice protruding from Caspian's upper-body were sharp as nails. Calla looked at her hands which dripped with blood. Droplets of red trickled down Calla's fingers and pooled by her bare feet. She called to Caspian. Cried to God. Begged whoever could hear her for help.

The black nightwear fell from Caspian's body like ashes falling from charred wood. His pale skin turned bone white and reptilian. Long nails grew turning as transparent as the icicles outside. Caspian's blond hair went silver, fine as spun silk. His blue eyes turned even bluer until they resembled the compact ice of a glacier.

The door of their bedchambers bolted open. Agnes ran in with Felix the male servant upon hearing their mistress' screams echoing all through the manor. The pair stopped dead in their tracks when they saw their master shifting into change. Calla fell into Agnes' arms, begging Felix to help her husband. When Felix called to the lord and reached for him, the ashes at Caspian's feet turned into flurries and flew onto Felix, covering him from head to toe in dark soot. Felix coughed violently, ash creeping down his throat. The manservant tried to draw in breath but there was no oxygen between the fragments of ash. Felix fell onto the floor heavily then stopped moving altogether.

Pandemonium engulfed the room. Agnes wanted to run to Felix but for fear of having Calla faint, she held onto her mistress instead. Wide-eyed Agnes watched Felix lay there, statue-esque.

Amidst the chaos, Enid ran into the room with tears streaking her face. "The young lord, my lady!" Enid's frantic tone shook Calla out of her own sobbing. Lady Calla looked at the young maid.

"My son?" The lady's voice cracked. She could not fathom anything happening to her boy, too.

Enid's hand flew to her heart. The girl's legs trembled. "A wolf, my lady," Enid fell to her knees.

Agnes held onto to Calla. The older handmaid winced as her mistress dug her nails into the maid's arms.

"Where is my boy?" Calla screamed, her face turning a sickening shade of pale.

Enid winced, her breath coming out with great difficulty. "A wolf in his bed --" Enid opened her mouth to speak again, nothing came out save a garbled sound. The young maid fell to the floor and did not stir.

Both maid and mistress held onto each other for dear life.

Calla turned to Caspian, her face drenched in tears. "My son," she whispered painfully, "my lord."

Caspian was on all fours, his head arched up to his wife yet his eyes were hollow shells. A beast was now where a man once stood. His skin glowed as the first rays of sunlight fell upon him.

The ashes swirled and enveloped the room as the blue spiders outside gnawed at the stems of the last few colourful flowers in the lord and lady's garden. Calla and Agnes dropped to the floor like rag dolls as the first flakes of snow began to fall.

Caspian let out a pained wail as his wife's eyes closed and her chest stopped its rhythmic rise and fall. My angel!

The old witch Serabeth's voice ghosted across the room. "May your days be riddled with longing and each moment painted black. You deserve Hell." A deep cackle echoed. "May any joy left turn into ashes in your mouth."

The creature that was now Lord Caspian cried in anguish, cried for revenge. Down the hall, the lone howling of a wolf echoed. Then everything fell silent, every man, every angel, every beast.

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