Poisoned in Red

23:00

          "Scott!"
          The moonlit snowdrifts piled against palace walls, the windows bright and gaping. It's battlements glistened with ice in the crystal cold air, their ragged outlines blending into the rocks behind. Scott looked up from the pile of paperwork he finished after two continuous sleepless nights, from his wife barging into the office without prior notice. "Two more cases of a missing child was reported just now."

          He rose from his seat and walked over to her, embracing her in a gentle hug. "I told you to leave the investigating to our men, Ashera. You need to rest."

          "I can't just relax when you haven't slept in nearly sixty hours, my king. It's been five months since our children has been going missing and we have no leads—"

          "It is your job to take care of your body for our unborn child, as it is mine to care for my people," said Scott, caressing her plumped stomach.

           She sighed. "It just breaks my heart that we can't do anything for the families."

          "I know," he whispered.

           A knock on the door broke the serenity in the room, startling the queen. One of the royal patrollers barged in and reported, "Sire, there's been a—"

          "I'm aware of the extra cases. Anything else?"

          The man froze on the spot. "One of the residents of West Chepe has reported a foul odor coming from an isolated cottage near the palace borders. A woman in her twenties seems to be living alone but she wouldn't let us in without a warrant."

          Scott was silent, deep in thought. His attention shifted to his wife for a second before he told her, "Go to bed, Ashera. I'll be there too, in a bit."

          She nodded and exited without a word.

          Once she was out, he told the guard, "Take me to the cottage."

〰️

          A chilly haze of rain alighted on his skin as they approached West Chepe. It began falling in crazy chaotic drops, the gusting wind carrying them in wild vortices one moment and in diagonal sheets the next.

          "It's right around the corner, sire!" the royal guard yelled over the sound of the pouring rain.

          When they arrived in front of the cottage doorstep, Scott felt a strange feeling of familiarity creep up his bones. He disregarded the faint chill and got off the carriage, as the rain calmed down since earlier. The guard lifted the hook attached to the wooden door, knocking on it twice.

          No one answered. The sound of the wind rustling the trees was probably too loud. Instead of knocking on the hook, the guard started banging on the door. "Hello! Anyone home?"

          A shriek pierced the air over the sound of the downpour. Alert, the two men grabbed the doorknob and realized it was locked. Prince Scott hit himself against the door and the guard followed, the impact of the clash kicking it down after a few tries. It all happened in a flash. The moment they stepped into the cottage, the earthy smell of the rain was overlapped with a pungent scent of sickly-sweet filth.

          Scott felt lightheaded from the sudden wave of nostalgia that overwhelmed him. He didn't know the source of the sensation but the scenery of the white interiors that didn't seem to match the furnitures lined with gold, brought back cryptic glimpses of memories. Through squinted eyes from the pain at the back of his head, he saw a shadowy figure laying on the golden couch for a moment. One blink and she was gone, with only one word remaining on his mind: Sky.