Daughter of Darkness (AHS: Apocalypse)

Ch. 13 - Forbidden Fruit

"Mom?"

"Elijah, do not associate yourself with that family," she said with nervous spite.

"Why not?" he asked, "we are their loyal subjects!"

"Loyal to a fault," Mallory said, "please, don't."

"But..." he said, almost like a little kid wanting to do something. "Princess Melanie, she likes me. She lets me call her Princess Melanie without all of the formalities. In fact, I more than like her."

Mallory shook her head, taking her son's hand: "please, Elijah! Please! If you know what's good for you, do NOT get involved with that family. The King can and will kill you, and I will be killed too just for saving you."

Elijah felt heartbroken; the thought of not ever seeing Melanie again was enough to make him feel this way. He felt tears forming in his icy eyes, but he wiped them away subtly, so his mother would not notice his display of emotions.

"But... I would die for her if I had to," he said quietly. "Not just because I'm a loyal subject, but because I would do anything for her."

"It's not worth your life, Elijah," she told him. "Please, promise me you won't see her again."

"But..."

"No 'buts'", she said as she shook her head.

"I can't make that promise. I love her," he said ardently. "I am her eternal slave..."

Mallory found no use arguing with him: as we all are, she thought to herself as she silently ate and looked down at her food, paying her son zero attention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Melanie got up to the suite she shared with her family rather quickly, changing her clothes before hopping into the bathtub. She pulled all of her golden curls up in a clip and sat down in the hot water. She was in a state of utter euphoria, but what if her father were to notice she was gone all night? This wasn't like the old world, where a man felt shame if his daughter was deflowered before marriage. This was a satanic utopia, the complete antithesis of what once was. This was a place where revelries of all kinds were welcomed during regal celebrations – drinking and dining in excess, group sexual liaisons, dancing until your shins got splints. That aside, the lives of the subjects in Regnum Infernale were relatively good with the same hedonistic pleasures, and the royals, her family, were even equal to their people to an extent. They did not live in some grandiose stone palace with hundreds of rooms and stained-glass windows – they lived in a compound like everyone else, but their suite was distinguished by the size, capacity, and contents within. Their clothing, higher quality than their subjects, was also a distinguishing factor aside from their presences alone. It brought a whole new meaning to what a 'small world' was, because everyone knew who the King, Queen and Princess were.

She dried off and got dressed in a black satin button-up blouse with black, full-length culotte-style pants with a tie belt. On her feet were flat black boots with buckles, and her golden hair was up still in the clip from her bath. Inspired by her father's eye makeup, she put on a light red shade on the inner corner of her eye socket, shading from her tear duct to the inside of her eyebrow. The rest of her makeup she did as usual – light pink blush on her defined cheekbones, and a light gloss on her lips. When she walked out of her bedroom from getting ready for the day and began to smell fruit in the hallway. She was led to the kitchen, where Miriam smiled back at her.

"Good morning," she said jovially. "Your father has been looking for you. You look sharp."

"Uh..." Melanie turned her eyes from her grandmother down to the table, where her father turned around and looked at his daughter. He raised his eyebrows at her, noticing his style of red shadow being worn by her.