This is it. Today is the day I have to marry Zero.
Such conflicting feelings I have... Do I like him? Is this a weird Stockholm syndrome I have? Should I have run away with Slender or did I make the right choice to stay here? Does Zero actually care for me, or is it just another façade?
A maid is helping me get into my wedding dress and another is fixing my hair. Once I was ready, I was told to go straight to a certain hallway but instead lock myself in the closet. My aura is coming back again. This is the worst possible time ever to get sick and angry!
I crouch near a corner in this dark closet and close my eyes shut tight, hoping that I can calm myself down for at least a few moments. Zero is expecting me soon and I must not keep him waiting. As if right on cue, I hear a maid with her heels clicking toward the closet and the door opening. A flash of light surrounds me before darkness consumes the room once more. The clicking of heels leaves my room and shuts the door.
"What's wrong?" Zero speaks up from above me. The maid must have went out and got him and led him in here.
"My aura again. Ugh I wish there was a way just to get rid of it permanently!" I start to yell through clenched teeth.
"But if you didn't have your aura, you wouldn't be with me." He says, his voice coming closer to me. I open my eyes and lift my head up to try to see him in this darkness, but can't. He might be able to see perfectly though.
I stay silent to his comment and bring my knees closer to my chest. An arm wraps around me and pulls me into a warm chest. I feel my aura getting more agitated by the second and I clench my fists together, not wanting to lash out at Zero.
"You know, Midnight has told me multiple times that I can take your aura from you and make you sane longer. I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but we can figure that out together." He says while bringing me closer to him.
He plants a small kiss on my cheek and gets up from his spot, leaving me alone again on the ground. His hand finds mine and pulls me up and out of the closet, leading us to the door leaving my bedroom. For some reason, I don't feel as bad anymore. Is it possible that the kiss he gave me took it away?
The wedding took almost the whole day with every aspect planned out in detail by Zero himself and a few of his consultants. It was a little weird and the ceremony consisted of us having to drink "the blood of our enemies" but whatever.
We had to wait until everyone had left the mansion before we could leave the party room, so that we weren't rude to our guests. Once the last person left, Zero took me into his arms and went straight into my room. I thought that he was planning to do the usual thing that happens on wedding nights... but he just told me to get changed into something comfortable. I comply and go into my closet, picking out a simple grey dress that brushes my knees. I walk out and meet up with him standing by my door in the hallway. He takes my hand in his and leads me in front of his door and pauses.
"Y/N," he addresses me slowly, "you don't know much about this kingdom, but I will teach you everything. The first thing is that every male's bedroom is the most private room in the house. No one is allowed in their rooms without explicit permission, not even maids and butlers are allowed in. This is no exception with my room."
"So, I'm not allowed in?" I question him.
"No. You will be the very first person allowed to enter." He says, staring into my eyes. "Thing is, you won't be allowed to leave until the sun rises."
"Another force field in this damn house, huh?" I say sarcastically and roll my eyes. He laughs at my statement and turns the knob. "My dad sure picks 'em." He says, referring to me. I 'tch' at his comment and enter the rather large and lavish room.
Cautiously I walk toward the middle of the room where there lies a red carpet. His room is a light grey with hints of red everywhere in even the smallest of items. The carpet, clock, bed sheets, curtains, and even small cute slippers by his bed are blood red. The bed is massive and looks like it could fit five people. He notices me evaluating his room and gives me a moment to take in the new surrounding.
There is a door that looks to lead to a bathroom and a closet next to it. Half of the room is a mini library with a small desk with scattered journals and books on it. Zero traces my line of sight and walks over to the desk, picking up a small book. I curiously walk to him to get a peak at what he is holding. Thinking that he is going to talk to me about it, I stand next to him. Zero glances at me and then opens the top left drawer and places it in there.
"What was that?" I ask him.
"Nothing important. Now, come over here." He directs my attention to a red and black loveseat by the windowsill. I follow but couldn't help to look back at the drawer that he put the little book in. Is he hiding something?
As we both sit down he takes both my hands and looks into my eyes. "Y/N. Like I told you, you cannot leave this room until morning, so I hope you do not try to leave."
"What happens if I do?" I ask him. He looks over to the door and sighs.
"It's a barrier, so you will just be pushed back." His hands grasp mine a little tighter as he looks back at me.
"Y/N, do you love me?"
This was such a sudden question. We are married, but I have never confirmed if I had any real feeling for him. He was always a little hard to figure out. Either he was giving me the cold shoulder, tricking me, or being super nice. I end up staring at him, not able to answer. He doesn't seem to like my silence as his face doesn't change. Strangely though, his eyes showed a twinkle of red before it disappeared in his ocean blue eyes. "Do you not love me?" he asks once again, this time his voice sounds strained.
His hands are tightening around my own and I wince a bit from the pressure. His blue eyes are slowly being tainted by specs of red as he stares into my eyes. With this amount of pressure on my hands now, I don't think I can take any more before he starts to break bones. "Y-yes." I tell him in hopes that he will release my hands.
"Yes you do not love me?" He asks with distrust in his voice. My hands are becoming numb and tears start to prick my eyes.
"No- I mean yes I love you." I quickly respond. Just as I get my last word out, he releases his painful grasp on my hands and smiles at me. His eyes return to their normal blue tone leaving no trace of red. His hands travel up to my head and cups my face.
"That's nice to hear." He says with a newfound happiness. "In this case, I can finally mark you now."
I remember him telling me before that he would create a tattoo of a ring on my finger when I tried to trick him one morning. I wonder how this is supposed to work? He rubs my cheek with his thumb before telling me to close my eyes as he also grabs my left hand in his. I shut my eyes and feel his breath by my hair. "I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt. Please know that this must be done and it will be over before you know it." I slightly open my eyes to ask him what he was talking about but he swiftly kisses me on the lips. I shut my eyes once more as he trails kisses down my jaw and on my neck. Once he reaches the crook of my neck, he seems to stay there. Not a second to waste, he hastily bites down. I let out a small scream from the pain and feel my toes scrunch up.
Using my free right hand, I quickly place it on Zero's back and grab at his clothes, silently telling him to stop. I try to catch my breath as he remains his tight hold on me. He releases me after a couple seconds of pain and lightly taps my face to gain my attention. I look at him and see him looking at something black travelling out of the spot he created on my neck. A black wavy line with fumes coming off of it, like black fire, curls around my skin and moves down my left arm and onto my left hand. Zero lets go and watches as the black line circles around my ring finger and creates a band. Soon, it breaks and forms small swirls and lightly glows.
"This is your ring I told you about. It's way better than the fake one Elizabeth has. This one you can't take off and get rid of me so easily~" He says with a slight smirk playing on his lips. I look down in embarrassment from throwing his ring before. He lightly taps his left ring finger on my ring and part of it travels up to his finger, replicating my ring on his finger.
He gets up and retrieves the tiny book he hid earlier and gave it to me to open. It had a bunch of pictures inside of which was of him and his family. They all seemed so happy: him, Zalgo, Midnight, and their mother. He stops on a particular picture of his mom and takes it out of the book. "She's not dead you know."
"What?" I ask in surprise.
"She's in the basement. All the times my father left to do some 'business', he was actually trying to find a cure for my mother's sickness. After she had two children, it was too much for her and her health declined. This is why we have the two children rule, because my father could not have more so he didn't want anyone else to have more."
"I'm so sorry. Are you not allowed to see her?" I asked him.
"No. He doesn't allow anyone but himself to see her. He's gotten so much worse in ruling this kingdom and has messed with my head so much. I honestly thought that the best way to rule over our kingdom was with force and fear. But," He says looking into my eyes and dropping the picture, "After being with you, I know that is the wrong thing to do. Please forgive me for being that way to you."
"No need to apologize, as long as everything is good now." I reassure him. He tilts his head and puts his forehead on mine.
"Thank you. I promise I'll be a much better leader than my father." He smiles and kisses me.
"I promise, with you by my side I will never end up like my father. I will love you and will never stray from being good."
We spend the rest of the night talking about random things that came into our brains and fall asleep together on his bed.
___________________________________________________________________________
His alarm goes off at 3:00am and he lazily gets up and leaves his room. I slowly open my eyes and try to look for his shadow in this dark room. Eventually he comes back in and sits back onto the bed.
"What did you do?" I ask him. I can barely make out his form coming closer to me and holds out a green vile to me. "What is this?"
"Drink it, please. It will be better if you don't ask questions." He tells me. I still cannot make out any facial features on him, but I can hear his desperate tone. I reach out and grab the strange liquid and smell it. It's smell fell short to a cow's anus.
"Wtf is this?" I ask him again. He sighs and pleads with me again.
"Drink it now or I'll have to... Just please drink it." He tells me once more. I smell it once more, a bad decision on my part, and half gag from the scent. He can't be serious...
Zero takes the vile out of my hand and drinks it himself. I stare at him as he lowers the glass and sets it down on the bed and stares at me. I cock my head to the side, bewildered that he would drink it himself if he was adamant on me drinking it. His arms quickly hold my head into place as he swiftly places his lips on mine and forces the liquid into my mouth. I still refused to swallow it and he pinches my nose so I had no choice but to swallow. He pushes me down onto the bed and kept his position until I swallowed it. Once I choked it down, he apologized but kept his position on me.
"It's a memory potion. You will soon lose all of your memories except for the ones you made when you were here." he explains to me. Why did he do this? I thought he only wanted to take away my human memories, not all of them!
"What!?" I'm completely speechless at this kind of act. Wait, what if this is a practical joke like the one I pulled on him before? "You're just fooling around, aren't you?"
"No, I'm afraid not dear." He says sympathetically. His hand rubs my head and I smack it away. "I knew you'd be upset now, but trust me, we will live much better this way."
"What the hell are you talking about? Are you sleep walking and talking? This isn't what I want!" I yell at him, trying to throw him off me.
"Just a few more seconds, please don't try to struggle." He whispers in my ear, holding me down to where I cannot move an inch. My mind is starting to feel hazy and it's getting harder to stay focused on anything. Zero raises his head to where we stare into each others eyes. The last thing I see is red sparkles in his eyes.
He was cold.
He was nice.
He was demanding.
He was sweet.
He was protective obsessive.
He hated her.
He loved her too much.
He destroyed her mind if it strayed from him.
"I promise, with you by my side I will never end up like my father. I will love you and will never stray from being good."
He lied.