1 Part 1 - The Destroyed World

Chapter 1 – The Witch

The world outside the window was lush and green, a pure harmony of plant life and insects, despite the zombies and walking skeletons it was a beautiful landscape. Laia was standing at her bedroom window from within the castle. It was very early in the morning, though it did not matter to the undead. They did not require sleep, as such they had been patrolling non-stop. There was a soft knock on the door. "You may enter." She knew that it was time for her morning check-up, to make sure nothing had happened to her during in the last two hours from the last check. She had already changed out of nightgown into a dress. It reached all the way down to her feet and was pitch black, golden vines wrapped around it as if trying the strangle her like a constrictor. She couldn't remember where she got the dress, but she loved the design. Laia turned to the sound of the opening and the familiar skeletal face of her right-hand stepped in. The skeleton was ragged and old with scratches and dents all over it, its left eye socket was broken in a linear fashion, most likely the cause of death. She could not remember; he was one of her first creations. She stared at it for a few minutes, as if wanting something from it. It did not move besides some involuntary twitching that seemed to be a trait of the resurrected.

"Just another day in hell" She sighed but the skeleton did not reply. Laia walked past him and out the door. it bowed as she passed and quickly followed suit.

Laia sat on her throne, looking over her subjects. The dead were stationed as guards around throne room. There was only four of them in the throne room, six of them stood along the walls. The seventh was her right hand, standing right next her. They fit perfectly between columns that were further out. The columns were white as a base but each one had different decorations. The column closest to her on the left had black skeletons made from rock crawling towards the floor, they seemed to be pushing each other trying to get to an unknown target. The opposite of it, depicted angels of white of stone, slightly different shade to the column. They were also crawling but up towards the sealing, rather than fighting each like the dead, the angels seemed to have been cooperative. The second on the left had green trees, purple flowers, and other plant life along it. It has opposite had animals, all different sorts, carnivores, and herbivores all moving in circular motion up the column. In the centre, stood humans, standing in place.

The dead did not move, despite only six of them being in the room, there was countless of them throughout the castle and the world. Humans no longer existed. They had been destroyed by her undead. Laia was now the queen of the entire world, the undead were her loyal servants. The last of her kind. The last time she had seen the living was over hundred years ago by now. While her body had not aged, her hair had grown white and long. The world was conquered, and she could do with it as she wished.

"Dave!" she called out and within a few seconds a zombie came through the grand doors. The undead servants did not used to have names. After spending fifteen minutes trying to get the right skeleton to simply move out of the way of a nice breeze from the window, she decided they needed names. Though she did not name all of them, there were millions out there. Just the ones she kept in the castle.

The zombie bowed slightly, a deep and painful moan came from it. "Prepare the court." Laia said. Dave the zombie moaned once more before heading off. She gave Dave a few minutes before standing up. The skeleton beside her moved slightly, preparing the follow. "There is no need to come along, Callan." He stood there as if confused, his lower jaw repeatedly tapped against the upper. She turned away from him and headed out the door. Leaving Callan behind.

To shorten the day, she decided to have a game of stoolball. Hoping the time will fly by. She had changed out of her dress into some slacks and tunic, though she loved her dress, it was not suited to a game outside.

Whether meant to or not, the skeletons opponent team could not bring on themselves to win. She had tried to make competition with many, all with the same result. Her team was easily besting the others, whenever they were balled, they hit with unnatural strength and speed. When they balled, the other side always missed. Some may love to always win, but it was boring. The same.

'Why?' She asked herself. 'Why is it that even when I order them to go all out, they let me win?' Did she interwind something in her spell that made this happened. She couldn't remember. Her face scrunched up, a boiling feeling filling her. Before she knew it, the ball had left her hands, flying at one of the batters. It moved and it hit the wall. It turned back to her, but she was already heading out the doors. Its lower teeth rattled against the top. 'Clink, clank, clink'. "Yeah, yeah." She shouted back.

She walked back along the dirt path; the bugs seemed to cling to the undead that roamed around. Any that got near her seemed too instinctive flee. Laia sighed, she knew her memory was leaving her, not cause of age, no. Her spell she cast to keep her young wouldn't allow that. Her mind was rotting away like the undead around her, Laia concluded. Every day was the same, there was nothing stimulating, nothing fun, no one to really talk to. The dead bad made company. She does know however, when this emptiness in her heart started, when she found sleeping to be a way to pass the time and also found so difficult to sleep. That memory would never leave her.

The carved doors of the throne room opened; her servants pulled the massive doors open easily. She took over the castle when she first began her conquest, she is sure of that. The details around it are a little fuzzy. The zombie on the left let out a raspy moan as she passed, the skeleton on right's teeth rattle, Laia ignored them, expecting to see her to see Callan by the throne. But he was not, that was strange. "I told him to stay here, didn't I?" she mumbled to herself. In over a century, she had been staying here and he had never left the throne room unless to company her. "Where did he go?" She said to herself more than anything. The room filed with sound as the undead guards move forward, trying to answer her question. Rattles and moans echoing off the walls, they did not know who she addressed so they all answered.

"Shut up!" Laia shouted raising her hands into the air. The immediately quieten, unable to disobey. 'This is new' she thought to herself, she had started stroking her chin without noticing. She could feel herself getting jittery with excitement. New was good. When he gets back, she would command him to tell her where he went. 'Yes! Maybe he made a decision to do something that wasn't order, since I was unclear on what I wanted' Though that thought was quickly sniffed. After an over hundred years, none were aware. None were conscious, they did not decide anything. As she thought more, she felt the rush leaving her body "It's impossible that he had done anything new. He must have just gone to do some duties that I had forgotten about." As far she knew it never happened before, but it was more likely than a skeleton with no free will making the decision to move or do something new. Laia walked to her throne and collapsed onto it, with the excitement gone, her body now felt heavy. She draped her legs over one side and her arms and head over the other. Laia stared up to the ceiling, she could not escape the sinking feeling in her chest, "Why do I still hope for change?" she muttered to herself as she closed her eyes. She had only been awake for a little over an hour, yet she could feel herself falling asleep again.