Warm... too warm...
I breath in hot air from the blanket surrounding me and struggle to move my face away from it. I stretched my arms out and let the cold air hit my skin as I feel my stomach tighten. I come more to my senses and feel that there is something else wrapped around me besides a blanket. I turn around carefully to not disturb whoever is next to me and see Zero laying here, his arm placed protectively over me.
I lay still and stare at his face as he continues to sleep. What happened? After Zalgo had taken my aura, I remember collapsing and being caught by something- or someone. Zero was mad at me yesterday for not doing what he wanted me to do to the prisoner, so he wouldn't have gotten over his anger so quickly. Still, he seems to want me to get used to the pace here in Zalgo's domain and become familiar with the 'family'. Midnight told me to go with the flow here and I would get along just fine, but this is all just so confusing. I can't tell if anyone is being honest with me or just using me.
I lift up my hand to try to push Zero away from me so that I can get up but he just brings me closer to him and rests his head right next to mine. My cheeks are burning and I'm pretty sure that it's red. Zero won't let me go no matter how hard I push away. He want's to play this game? Fine~
I come up with a brilliant way to mess with him and get my acting face on. I place my hand on his right cheek and rub it with my thumb. His eyes move a bit under his eyelids and eventually flutter open, lazily. I smile up at him and greet him with a 'good morning.'
He looked at you with a confused expression as you remove your hand from his face and continued your sneaky charade. "What? No good morning kiss? It's been three days since we had our ceremony and you still haven't gotten used to me yet?"
You made a pouty face and stared into his clear blue orbs. He continues to stare into your eyes, trying to remember the false information you gave him. "Are you feeling OK?" You ask him. His eyebrows scrunch up, seeing through your lies you told him. No, he's catching on! I have to think quick to make him more confused.
You push him over and climb on top of him, his arms still wrapped around you from not realizing he was still holding onto you. You lean down to him to where your hair acts like a curtain and conceals both of your faces an inch apart from each other. You can feel his uneasiness, but you push through and confuse him even more.
"You don't remember anything from the past few days, do you? Well long story short, Midnight discovered new powers and accidentally erased your memory. I was kind of hoping you still had pieces left but I guess not."
"What? Wait-" He finally responds to me, pulling me and himself up into a sitting position so that he can think straight, "You're telling me that I lost my memory?"
"Yes. What's the last thing you remember?" I ask him, cocking my head to the side, trying to act as innocent as possible while wrapping my arms around his neck. He removes his arms around me and puts them behind him to hold us both up in a sitting/reclined position.
"I remember bringing you to your room after my dad had almost killed you. I left you alone in the room until I heard you scream as I walked by your room and came in to check on you. You wouldn't calm down until I sat by you and rubbed your arms. I guess I fell asleep after staying over here for so long." He stares into my eyes to see if anything he said is ringing a bell.
I exaggerate my facial expressions as I say, "What!? That was two weeks ago! You really don't remember anything else?"
"No..." He says, believing me and looking down and my neck. His expression changes a bit and then looks back at me. "I missed our wedding and our wedding night?"
"Yes." I lie. This is so fun.
He removes one of my hands wrapped around his neck and stares at it before looking into my eyes. "If that is so, tell me everything that happened. Don't leave out a single detail."
"Umm.." I say, a bit embarrassed. Does he want to know about our fake wedding or the wedding night?
"Don't be shy. You said that our ceremony was three days ago, right? You should have no shame about what we did that day with me. I want to know everything. If I can't have it in my memories, then you can tell me and recreate it in my imagination." He leans in and presses himself more on me and grabs the clothes on my back and whispers in my ear, "Or we could just recreate it."
My body shivered. I didn't expect him to react this way to my joke. I'm not sure how I'm going to tell him that this is a joke. Just as I was thinking about exposing my lies, he flips us around to where he is now on top of me and places my hands on both sides of my head, his lips touching my ear. His slight laughter reverberating from my ear to my heart as it pounds twice as faster.
"Liar." His deep voice says in my ear. "Don't ever lie to me, you'll never get out alive."
I lay underneath him completely shocked and slightly embarrassed. After speaking, he moves his head down to my neck and kisses me a couple times. My shoulder rises to get his lips away from my, but he continues down to my shoulder and past my arm, to my left hand. He grasps my hand lightly and stops at a certain spot on my ring finger and his eyes shift to look at mine.
"When we wed, you will gain a ring-like tattoo on your hand, as I will also. When that happens, we will have an unbreakable bond between us. I would have also created a small mark on your neck that would take at least a week to heal up that would give off a signal to anyone around you that you are taken by me." He explains to me. "If you're going to lie, make sure you have all the correct information."
"I'll keep that in mind for next time." I retort. "I did get you in the beginning though."
"You did, I won't lie about that. That's why I punished you." He says as his clear blue eyes sparkle.
"Punishment? You mean the small kisses on my neck?" You say while rolling your eyes.
"Did you want something more..." He leans in to where his lips are just barely grazing mine, "punishing?"
I become mesmerized by his blue eyes turning grey with a hint of red glowing though. I turn my head in time and he kisses my cheek instead. He laughs at my lousy attempt to escape him and gets off of me, rolling off of the bed and looking into the mirror. He fixes his hair and opens the door to leave, turning around to look at me one last time and giving me a smirk.
I get ready and head down for breakfast, avoiding eye contact from the black-haired, blue-eyed male across from me. Midnight seems very jumpy and excited for some reason and leaves the breakfast table early. Zalgo tells Zero his errands for the day and then directs their conversation to me.
"Y/N. You will go back up to your room and meet Midnight for a fitting." Zalgo tells me.
"Fitting?" I ask.
"Your wedding dress, what else?" He says.
I mentally facepalm. Of course that's what he meant...
Zero flashes me another smirk, most likely because of this morning's incident. I bow my head and leave the table to get ready for the days activities.
I meet up with Midnight and get everything done with the seamstress. Zero stops by when I am finished and sitting on my bed after a shower. I cannot leave after I am washed, per Zalgo's rules. Zero stops in front of me and gets on one knee, asking for my hand. I give him my left hand and he puts a ring on my finger. He slowly gets back on to his two feet and sits next to me, smiling.
"You're human, so I thought you'd like to wear an actual ring for a while." He tells me.
I look down at the sparkling ring and smile. It looks like it would cost thousands of dollars in the human world. Something about it seems odd though and you can't seem to place it.
Two days have passed by and all the events have been properly planned. Tonight is the pre-wedding ceremony to where we are holding an engagement ball. In two days we will have the wedding ceremony. This is happening really fast, but it has to happen sooner or later.
I feel stressed about something, and in return, made everyone else around me stressed. Zero had been getting upset at the little things that are going wrong and has been upset with me. I haven't gotten the chance to talk to him at all because of all the running around Zalgo is making him do before the ball tonight. I am getting into my purple dress and have maids surrounding me doing my hair and makeup. They all gawk at me as they see their finished work and send me out of the room. Midnight has been waiting for me after her own maids have dressed her. She is also wearing a purple ball gown, but it is much different from mine. We walk down the hallway together to the main entrance and she tells me that I have to wait for Zero before I can go in. She goes in before me and everyone in the party screams in awe for her. Shortly after, Zalgo comes by with Zero who seems flustered. I catch a couple sentences of their conversation as they get closer to me.
"-is the princess of a very wealthy king here and has long golden hair that can heal anything."
"-would be in best interest if she were to be the one you-" Zalgo says.
"-and just dispose of Y/N? Would it be right?" Zero says.
They notice my presence and abruptly stop talking and give me a half smile. Zalgo tells Zero that he will be opening the door for the princess. Zero nods and goes to follow him, but I stop him.
"What's going on? Aren't we supposed to go into the ball together?" I ask him.
"We uh.. We are but..." He looks preoccupied and looks behind him at his dad walking away, "I have to go greet a guest. Just go in without me." He tells me.
I get frustrated and scrutinize his actions. "This is our night and you are leaving me behind? For what? Another girl?"
He looks me dead in the eyes, knowing that I had heard his conversation. "Please understand, Y/N. I have to go."
"Fine." I simply say, turning around so that I can walk in by myself. This is our engagement party and I will be alone. It seems like he truly doesn't care for me after all. I thought that he actually did. Stupid me.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" He asks before hesitating to leave.
"Nope." Of course I am. "Actually-" I say, turning around to face him. I take off the ring he gave me and hold it out for him to take it. "Here. She'll want this, right?"
He gives me a confused expression, holding out his hand to take it, but not grabbing it. I instead let the ring drop from my palm and onto the floor, turning around to open the wide doors next to me.
I hear a gruff, "What?" from behind me and something tap my shoulders. The wide doors spread open and I put on a fake smile for the crowd and walk down the steps alone. Everyone is cheering at me and the cheers get louder as I am nearing the bottom of the steps. Loud footsteps sound from behind me and catch up next to me. Zero had run down to meet up next to me and walk at the same pace I am. Everyone seems to go mad with excitement with us together.
He waves to a few people near us and we reach the end of the steps, going down the red carpet. He grasps my left hand with his right so that he could hold my hand, but I clasp my hands together at the front and look forward. Once we reach the end, people started to flock to Zero and I, but I managed to escape in time to find Midnight.
"Hey! You're entrance was beautiful and elegant, but what happened with Zero that made him fall behind?" Midnight asks.
"Oh, he came with me? I didn't notice." I say nonchalantly, avoiding her eyes. "I thought he'd be fraternizing with a blonde princess."
She looks up at me with curious eyes, "But, Y/N, you are also a princess and have H/C hair. Are.... are you jealous?"
"W-What? No, of course not! I just overheard a conversation between Zalgo and Zero saying how they are going to dispose of me for that other girl with the magic hair." I tell her. She seems to be confused at my accusation and looks in my eyes. I look away and accidentally lock eyes with the last person I wanted to see. Zero is staring at me with eyes that seem to be screaming for me to take him away from the group of people talking to him. I look away to the other side of me and see a guy walking toward me.
"Hello gorgeous. You're the new future queen, right?" He slyly smiles at me with a sick grin, "How about you celebrate your last days of freedom with me tonight?"
"Gross." I wince at his lame flirtation. I turn around to walk away and give Midnight a glace but get turned around by the guy grabbing my wrist.
"Don't you dare ignore me, princess. I am a wealthy backer for Zalgo and his plans, so I am to be given anything I ask for." He says. I open my mouth to say a rude comeback but feel a tight arm snake around my waist and push be back onto a hard surface.
"What's going on here?" Zero speaks from behind me with authority and innocence combined. Little did I know that his eyes took on a red appearance when he spoke. "You are not trying to take my bride before I do, are you? Because, if you are," His arms tighten more around me to where he had pulled me to his side, slightly angled behind him so that he is facing the strange guy chest on. "I will have to take care of you myself."
Zero is calm, cool, and collected on the inside, but I have been with him long enough to tell that on the inside he is fuming. I never took him as the protective type until now.
The other guy said "No" in protest to the accusation Zero put on him and left us. No longer wanting be to by Zero's side I turned to Midnight but she was gone. I spin around to see if I could find her before Zero spoke up and tried to talk.
"Why did you storm off like that?" He asks me.
"Oh, I don't know.. Maybe it's because you are going to inevitably dump me for the other chick Zalgo wants." I say with disgust in my voice.
He looks hurt and tries to take my hands in his. I clasp my hands together behind me and look him dead in the eyes. "Don't try to deny it. Leave me alone for the rest of the night."
"But-" He tries to speak. I cut him off by spinning off my feet and into the crowd of people dancing, losing him from my sight of vision and walk through. I keep getting bumped of my way to the opposite side of the room, losing my balance a couple of times and end up in the arms of some stranger dancing. He smiles at me knowingly and twists me around, making me dance with him.
The night goes on with dancing before someone announces that the princesses and prince must come up to the stage. I stay put in the middle of the crowd as both of them get on the center of the stage. Their eyes scan the crowd for me, Midnight's eyes are worried while Zero's eyes are frustrated. He eventually spots me and I get teleported to his side. Everyone claps for all of us as Zero sneaks his hand on mine and pulls it close to his body.
He takes out the ring I had dropped in front of him earlier and gets down on one knee again. The crowd 'Oooooh's' and 'ahhhhhh's' as he does this. I glare at him for making a scene but he ignores it. He places the ring back on my finger and kisses the top of my hand. He leans in to my ear and whispers, "Your aura is making you act angry at me."
I whisper back with a more threatening tone, "So now you're blaming ME? Screw you!" I take the ring off once again and the crowd goes silent. I look at them and throw the ring to the audience and they scream to grab it. Once person in the madness shoots their hand out and snatches it and looks at me with their piercing green eyes. It is a golden blonde girl who slyly smiled at me and put the ring on her finger, moving her attention to Zero and giving him a loving smile. I look over to Zero who is smirking at her and feel sick to my stomach. I walk across the stage and head to the small steps and out of the room. I get passed the guards who are telling me to stop, but I walk to my room instead. The hallways are still hard to memorize, but I know the more routine paths to my room, dining room, and library.
I close the door to my room and drop down onto my bed, closing my eyes that are starting to water from the hatred for the blonde girl that is trying to steal my spot. I know I might have over-reacted a little with the ring, but it looked like they had already planned for her to have it in the end. This only begs the question as to how long are they going to keep me before disposing of me?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I wake up in my clothes from last night and decide to change. Once done, I stay in my room no matter how many times maids and guards knock on my door. Finally after two hours, Midnight unlocks the door to my room and enters without knocking. She stays silent as she struts over to me and raises her hand to slap me across the face.
"WHAT THE HE-" I scream.
"What have you DONE? You gave away the ring to the other girl! He gave you that ring to represent his love for you. Do you know what you just did by giving it to her!!??" She yells at me.
"I don't really care." I lie. Of course I care, but I don't want to admit to being wrong.
"That ring has a spell on it so that whoever wore it he will have get married to. It was for YOU so you two could be properly wed, but now SHE has it!" Midnight is practically screaming at me now.
She twists around and grabs my hand to take me downstairs for breakfast. "You need to talk to him, and FAST. If you two don't make up by tomorrow afternoon, you will not be married to him and will be executed."
"What!?" I exclaim to her. She glares at me and we enter the dining room. I sit next to her like I usually do, across from Zero who is looking down at his food. We all eat in silence and Midnight keeps kicking me from under the table to say something to him.
I look up to see him staring at his empty plate, taking his last bite of his omelet. Zalgo takes his leave to do 'business' and Midnight kicks me hard. "Ouch!" I yell out and glare at her. Her eyes are closed as she munches on her food and pretends like nothing happened. Zero raises his head up and glances at me, our eyes meeting for a second before he averts his eyes back to his plate. I let a big sigh and get his attention again.
"Zero.." I say in a small voice. He looks at me with his clear blue eyes again, watching and listening to me expectantly. "I'm... I'm sorry."
I look down at my empty plate and wait for his response. It seemed like ages until he finally said something back to me.
His voice was laced with malice. "Sorry doesn't bring back the ring. Didn't you also say to stay away from you last night? I'll do you a better one, how about you never speak to me from this point on?"
He gets up from the table and leaves me and Midnight alone. Midnight's face pales as she stares at her fork. Without being able to cope with his harsh words, I make my leave back to my room, planning to never go out of it. I accidentally get near Zero's path to his room and overhear and see Zero next to the blonde girl from last night. He is facepalming and she opens her arms up to embrace him.
I turn around and gasp. Now I really know they are going to get together instead of me.
"I'll be in your fathers office getting everything in order for the wedding. Bye Bye~" She says.
They walk away from each other and I could have sworn he had also sighed.
The rest of the day continued with him ignoring me and avoiding me when I was forced to leave my room to eat and get some fresh exercise outside. Midnight keeps looking at me with solemn eyes and avoiding me also for a reason unknowing. The night ends with tears on a pillow and messy H/C hair spread across my bed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It is almost the afternoon before the wedding and I haven't even tried on the dress. I guess this means that I'm not the one getting married...
I hear a knock on my door and a familiar voice call my name to request permission into my room. I let Midnight enter in, needing a friend at a time like this. She looks at me with sad eyes and demands for me to get dressed. Zalgo had told her to bring me into the ballroom where he had to have a chat with me. I know exactly where this is going..
We head down to the ballroom, Midnight not saying a word to me all the way down. The silence is killing me and I feel terrible. Why had all of this gone so wrong? Sure I was forced into this marriage and hated Zero from the start, but I had grown to like him enough to go through with the proposal. Now it feels like it is being taken from me, slipping through my fingers.
We enter in through the main doors and I see Zalgo chatting with Zero and the Blonde girl, laughing. I avert my eyes when Zero turns his head, not wanting to make any unnecessary eye contact. I stood in front of everyone and waited for Zalgo to talk. Zero instead spoke up and directed everyone's attention toward me.
"Y/N." He says shakily, "A wedding must be held tomorrow. I will marry whomever is wearing the ring and right now, Elizabeth is wearing it. So, Y/N..." I close my eyes and wait for his next words.
*CRASH*
Half the ballroom is destroyed and Slenderman and his creepypastas are sliding through the whole in the wall. Slenderman stands before me and holds his hand out for me to take. He is still a few steps away for me to take it, so my mind goes on overdrive on who's side I am on. I have lived at the Slendermansion for longer, but I had more 'family' here. Midnight and I were close and I was starting for Zero. Zalgo was a pain, but he was bearable. There was so many secrets hidden here that I wanted to find it out. At the Slendermansion I would be depressed..
I look over to Zago who is watching me to see who I would choose. Zero is looking at me with desperate eyes with a hint of worry and fear in it. Slenderman speaks up to hurry my decision, "Y/N, come! You must leave now before their guards come and take us away!"
I take one last look at Midnight and Zero. I could have sword I seen his hand turn into a fist and twitch as I turn away from them and walk to Slenderman. I hold out my hand to grasp his, but I stop right before touching him. My force field activated and sent a purple power throughout the room, making a transparent purple wall between me and the other creepypastas. Slenderman looks around his entrapment and looks back at me with betrayal. I look down at my hands in disbelief. This is not what I was mentally wanting to do, but perhaps this is what my heard wanted?
Guards pile in just in time to take them away. I back up from the force field I had created and close my eyes. I took in a deep breath and before I could grasp what had just happened, a hand was placed on my shoulder and spinning me around, arms thrown around my figure and holding me tight. My face is buried in the clothes of a chest that holds a familiar scent. I instantly relax and look up to see who was hugging me.
Zero lets go of me and smiles. "This was all a test to see if you would be loyal to our kingdom, no matter what happens. We got Slender to help us out, they will not be hurt." He says with a huge smile now, "Elizabeth is a friend of ours and had also been a part of this big trick. You will not be disposed as you thought, Y/N."
I stare into his eyes which are blue mixed with streaks of grey. This was all a trick? I passed their test?
"WHAT!?" Midnight yells from behind me. "WHY THE HELL WASN'T I INFORMED ABOUT THIS!?"
"Oh, sorry my dear. You're a bad actress, so we wanted you to act like you would if this was real. More genuine." Zalgo comforts her.
"Oh.. Okay Sorry, I just need to ask who DA FUQ DO YOU THINK YOU ARE FATHER? RULER OF AN EVIL KINGDOM? I'M THE EVIL PRINCESS ON HER PERIOD."
Zero tightens his arms around me, completely ignoring the chaos forming behind us. "Can you ever forgive me? This is all my father's plan, so I really had no say."
"ALL I ASK IS TO BE TOLD ABOUT POTENTIAL LIFE THREATENING EVENTS BEING TWISTED. I COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING STUPID DURING THIS TIME AND COULD HAVE HURT MYSELF OR OTHERS!"Midnight is heard in the background.
I stare into his eyes and reply with a small 'yes'. "But, could you tell me what that conversation with you and Zalgo was in the hallway?"
"Oh.... Um..." He says nervously, "Well- Elizabeth is a prospective business partner that can replace that other guy that tried to flirt with you last night. We were discussing her usefulness in our kingdom and as for you being disposed.. We were talking about taking away your... memories." He says.
"AND WERE YOU EVEN THINKING ABOUT HOW I COULD HAVE SNAPPED THAT GIRL'S NECK? OHHHHHHHH YOU'RE GOING TO PAY DEARLY FATHER!" Midnight continues to rage.
"Memories? Why?" I ask.
"Well, we want you to be completely dedicated to this kingdom, so we wanted to take your human world memories away so you are solely focused on me.... I-I mean.. us... The kingdom..." He responds. I nod in understanding what he is trying to tell me.
The blonde girl looks disgusted at Midnight's words and backs up. She looks over to me very quickly and flashes a sorry smile and waves at us, backing away to the back doors and leaving. Zero takes this time to steal a kiss on my cheek and hugs me once more.
"Honey, this isn't a big deal-" Zalgo is backed up into a corner.
"da.... fuq..... you.... I...." Midnight is at a loss for words for once in her life. "I honestly feel like murdering someone... In this room... But as a lady, I will go to the human world and pick a guy who looks exactly like your human form and murder him.. then his family.. then I'm going to burn his neighbor's house down... then look his last name up in the phone book and kill everyone with the same last name and burn their neighbor's houses down." She trails off as she leaves the room with a blank expression on her face.
"Let me escort you to dinner tonight. Just the two of us." Zero asks me. I nod my head and agree. "You're dress for tomorrow is already made and you will try it on before dinner, then we will spend time for dinner, then off to bed for beauty sleep."
"Oh, so you're calling me ugly without sleep?" I say with a sarcastic grin.
"Who said you needed it? I'm talking about dad. He looks rough." Zero says with a worried face and turns to look at Zalgo who is deadpanning right now.
"Where did I go wrong?" Were Zalgo's last words before we left together, hand in hand.
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A/N: Catch the reference to Mr. Sark? ;)
Sorry I haven't uploaded recently! All of my work is done on Quotev so I kinda maybe sorta forgot to upload it on to here...
OH WELL HERE YA GO