spellbound [taekook] ✓

thirteen: the truth

"But along with this beautiful gift, came a curse of sort for the royal family that the elf had warned our ancestor of. The firstborn of anyone in that lineage will be born with a gift so wicked and so evil, so purely evil. And with magic stronger than whoever was before them. The King didn't believe the elf who gave him all those powers for some reason and let his first daughter be born."

Now that's something Taehyung had never heard of before.

Zorock continued. "They showered her with love, hoping that keeping her in the light would avoid her from the dark. That wasn't the case when the princess began to use her gift for everything her father was against. At a point, she wanted to overthrow the King himself when he tried to stop her. The King had to lock her up in a dungeon far far away, until she had died of starvation. Her sister, who was the complete opposite of her, saw the terror that her sister had brought. Knowing of this curse, once she became queen, she killed her firstborn with her own hands."

Zorock paused to laugh. "Now if that isn't evil, I don't know what is. Anyways, from then on, that was the fate of everyone firstborn afterwards. No one in the kingdom knew, the queen or princess was hidden for those few months they were pregnant. Then came my wonderful father and mother, who's heart were just too big for their own good. They broke this wonderful tradition and decided to keep their first son."

"You," Taehyung said quietly, trying to process all of this.

"Then after a couple years came your father. Our parents raised us both equally, teaching us the same values and principles. Of course our personalities were different, but we never did a thing to bring our name to shame. My parents saw us both as their children, but the people in the palace who knew of the curse didn't. They forced my father into making Jaewon as the heir to the throne. But that wasn't enough, they wanted me gone. They pushed me to the side, talked bad of me, shunned me. They always addressed me as it or a monster, except for Namjoon and his brother.

"Namjoon and Jimin?"

Zorock nodded, showing a genuine smile for the first time. "They never believed in the curse, they even tried to stop those murders while they were there, but I guess they do now because of me."

"Is the curse real?" Taehyung asked seeing how Zorock came to a stop after that.

"What do you think? Just look at me Taehyung, look at me! It is. The dark magic resided within me all along. I gave in, I had too. It's the only way I'll get what I want."

"The throne?"

Zorock didn't answer that. "This is who I am, but I was pushed away for that. Then when my own family became scared of what I might become, they did too. I was controlling everything in me all because I knew I had my family by my side, I had their love. When that was gone to, why was I holding back?"

"What do you mean?"

"I wanted to be King, like my father. I watched him help all those people, earn their love, be admired. I wanted to be like him. I wanted to show how much of a good ruler I could be, but they took that chance away from me. Jaewon never wanted to be King! I did! You know what one of them said to me? They said the people would never love me if they knew of my curse."

"That's not true," Taehyung started, getting too immersed.

"It is! I was sick of trying to run away from this stupid curse. No one will love me as long as I have this curse etched on me, even the one person I thought would be by my side through everything. Everyone turned away from me, so I did too. They said I was a monster? Well then I am. I'll give them exactly what they said I would. I showed them what I was capable of! They should've never talked down on me!"