Ellias'POV
They said that silence couldrepresent a lot of things.
It could mean happiness, aswhen an individual's heart was overwhelmed with bliss that wordsweren't enough to describe what he felt.
It could mean melancholy, aswhen the outrage was insufficient to express one's sorrow and pain.
Silence could also meanoverwhelming fear, as when one's body couldn't even dare to speak outof fear in his life.
I looked at the figures thatwere kneeling in front of me. Some of them had their bodies shakingwhile the others' backs were covered with sweat. All of them were sosilent as they carefully touched their foreheads on the ground.
All of them looked like...ants.
Inside my heart, a desireslowly crept in. These little things who were in front of me...wouldn't they crush by just a lift of my finger?
Their lives were soinsignificant. I could play with them however I wanted.
The feeling in my hearttraveled throughout my body. My eyes turned cold as I gently tappedthe arms of my throne.
The ants in front of me musthave realized that I already decided on their fates as the shaking oftheir bodies intensified.
"Last night in mysleep, I saw thousands of red flowers blooming in my courtyard."
"How beautiful it was, Ithought." My soft voice traveled across all four corners of thecourt.
I slightly squinted my eyesand lazily leaned my head as I watched my subject's hearts go intodisarray.
"I want to see thisview again."
This was an ominousstatement. The corners of my lips lifted as I saw their tremblingbodies in front of me. It seemed as if... death was looming aroundthem, waiting for its scytheto fall.
"Come. Paint everycorner of my court with red." I softly smiled as I sentencedeveryone to their deaths.
Immediately, rows and rowsof men in armor entered the court and drew their swords against thepeople who were kneeling. In just a manner of seconds, horrifyingscreams of terror resounded throughout the big hall.
I couldn't help but start tolaugh. This magnificent scene was very amusing!
"Cu--cut! CUT! CUT!!!"
A loud shout distracted mythoughts. I blinked and looked at the director who stood up from hischair as he tried to stop the scene. His face was full of excitementas if he just saw a spectacular scene.
Slowly, the actors woke upfrom their acting. Some of them were having a hard time returning toreality as fear and terror still emanated from their faces.
I stood up from the throneand started to walk at the side of the set. I saw how one actorstumbled on his feet as he hurriedly went out of my way.
I felt countless eyescaressing my body as I crossed the hall to get to my designatedresting place. I know that they wanted to approach me to start aconversation. However, I never had the urge of talking with others.In a way, I kept my distance with everyone even though socializingwas one big factor in my choice of employment.
I was an actor.
It was not my intent tostart acting. However, acting was the first thing that made mefeel... alive.
You see, I couldn't feelemotion.
When I was young, I sawother kids laugh when they were happy and cry when they were sad.Oftentimes, I saw them easily get excited about little things.
Unfortunately, I couldn'trelate to them.
I said thank you when theothers were nice to me. Likewise, I distanced myself from theindividuals who didn't have any good intentions. I knew how I shouldreact and I could mostly analyze how they treated me.
However, that ended there.
Once, I found out that achild who was my roommate in the orphanage took my personalbelongings and threw them in the garbage bin. I treated the boy as myfriend. But, I neither felt sadness nor disappointment when I sawwhat he did. I didn't even feel a slight hatred towards him.
I always knew that I wasdifferent from the others. I thought that I might just have slowemotional intelligence compared to them. However, several years havealready passed and I remain the same.
Things turned differentlywhen I went to university. One time, there was a play that I neededto see as an educational requirement. The night when I saw the play,one classmate called me to ask whether I remembered a line of themale lead. I always had superior memory retention and I couldperfectly remember the said line. So I mindlessly started recitingthe line.
The male lead of that playhad a terrible life. He was born from a poor family and struggledmost of his life. Still, he remained optimistic about life. Despitepoverty, he met the love of his life and married her. Unfortunately,one night, his wife was killed by a robber when she was on her wayhome. That was when he lost all the optimism and sanity that remainedin his heart. He started roaming the streets in search of his deadwife, to find her and to protect her. From then on, he was made knownto the community as the crazy homeless guy.
"Don't be scared of thedarkness, my love. Nothing can hurt you. Nothing can cause you pain.In this small alley, I will be waiting to protect you. Cruel fatesand lives which gave us only torment, I will chase them away! Sodon't be scared of the darkness, my love!"
At that time, I feltsomething stirred inside my heart as I recited the line.
Was it pain?
The pain of losing someone,and the pain of being unable to protect the one that you love?
I was unaware of it, but myvoice echoed the feelings of pain and torment as I was reciting theline. After I finished, my classmate was speechless before heendlessly praised how good my voice acting was and how it broughttears on his eyes.
From then on, I triedacting. Amazingly, I learned that I could feel the emotions ofcharacters that I was portraying. I could feel their happiness, theiranger. I experienced their feeling of helplessness and excitement.For the first time in my life, I felt that I was living. Thus, I heldinto acting. This continued until I arrived at where I am right now.
It was probably thatthe others appreciated the way I acted because they gave me numerousawards. Just after a few months, I started to receive offers fromwell-known directors and producers.
I was aware that I becamepopular. Everywhere I went, people wanted to start a conversationwith me. However, I never felt the urge to talk to anyone of them.
I took a seat at mydesignated chair and grabbed a water bottle given by a crew member.At this time, most of the other actors and actresses already returnedto reality and snapped out of their roles.
"Excuse me, Ellias. I gotsomething that I need to discuss with you." I heard a sheepishvoice and turned my head to see the director clearing his throat.
I put down my water bottleand looked at the director without expression.
"Yes?"
"It's like this. Thescreenwriter of the film produced another set of scripts and theproducers loved it." The director started to say and his eyessurveyed my face. He must have been trying to figure out my reactionto this. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't find out anything.
"In the changed script,you will have an empress who is supposed to rule with you. *Ahem* Inother words, you will have a love interest."
A love interest?
Love. I read love storiesand saw movies about love before. However, I didn't feel likestudying such emotion. Thus, I have yet to accept any role whichinvolves a love interest.
I saw the director gulped.He must have had a lot of contemplation before he asked me. I wasknown to be very picky about the roles that I play. Moreover, I couldeasily pull out of his film if they unilaterally changed the rolethat I agreed to play.
I stared at my water bottlefor a couple of seconds and didn't say anything.
Love... was a complicatedfeeling as it involved varied emotions. As I've read before, lovecould be coupled with happiness. It could also be coupled withsadness.
Maybe I should give it atry.
"Alright. I temporarilyagree. Send me the script first." I slowly told the director asI looked at his shaking hands.