14 Chapter 14

It was the same dream again. This time in a different setting. She was wearing a plain gown, hair down, thin face, handcuffed, fragile body, and crouching on the floor. There's no spark in her usual face. She was gloomy leaning against the cold wall.

Her shoulders were slumped and her eyes cast down in a mournful gaze. Her mouth was set in a straight line. The sound of the rattling of rats running around like they own the place under the moon inside the cold jail wall. The Elizebeth inside the dream looked so lonely with nothing but sorrow in her eyes.

She never experienced grief this bad before. The years she was living previously weren't this devastated. This was a downright tragedy. Even though she didn't understand, deep down inside her heart, she knew what was going to happen to her. She was inside the jail, counting for her day to come. Under the moonlight and the cold wall, she was sitting there, tiredly, blinking her red eyes.

It was a pitiful sight. Suddenly, every memory played like a song in her head, repeating itself for what seemed an eternity. She was lost mostly because she had lost a big part of herself. She wasn't the cheerful old her anymore. She couldn't get that part back, the spark was all gone. Even if she wanted it back so badly as if her life depended on it but it was all gone, vanished in thin air. No people around her, no sun heating her skin, no clear ground to path her way.

It was bleak inside here. Nothing but the darkness. The lonely soul was no more. It was completely inky. Her heart beating slowly. She was withering inside the darkness surrounding her whole existence to the ghost. Silently begging someone to take her pain away.

Amid her thought, someone in the cloak strode towards her jail. With the fire torch in his hand, he stopped abruptly in front of her jail. Elizabeth helplessly cocked her head to see the person before her eyes widened and he got up hastily without caring the blood on her clothes dirtied her whole hands.

"YOU!!!" She shouted. Her croaky voice escaped her body echoing inside the space that was occupied by her alone.

"Hah!" The foreign man smiled, nothing visible but his lips and chin. Folded his arms over the ripped chest. "Queen Elizebeth." Greeting the man with a scowl. His voice dripped with contempt and disdain. She could feel the sharp gaze under the cloak.

"You killed my husband!" She shouted crazily. Her whole body trembled.

"You should have told me the truth back there. No one should die this way if you did~!" The spiteful man said merrily in his mocking tone.

Elizebeth's eyes were so unkind. Tried to kill the man with her vision. She couldn't believe the man. He would do the same even if she told the truth. She couldn't bring herself to believe the man; the man radiated such untrustworthiness, it filled Elizebeth with an odd suspicion. And the feeling was true in the end. The man was a liar. Killing all the royal family without wasting any. Even her stupid husband.

Stupid husband?

"No, I don't. It's the same. You will kill them, regardless." She spat bravely even her life hanging with a thin thread. She didn't care anymore.

The evil man nodded slowly, rubbed his chin. "True. The royal family is my lost case." He didn't deny her.

"The result is still the same." She slumped on the floor. She had grieved so many times. Her life was destroyed in a single day. It's bleak in front.

"No, it's not." The man pulled down his cloak from covering his face and the handsome man, black hair, dark eyes, tanned skin. Toned body and tall looked at him like a beast looking at his rabbit. "You still can save your family for very the least."

She looked up, her heartbeat picking its pace. What did he mean? "What do you mean, you demon?"

The man scoffed, flickered his fingers without looking in any direction except her. The waiting was always only for a second as the soldiers brought like a dead body covered by the white sheet. Looking at the size of the corpse, she felt nauseous. She felt it her bone, something foreboding under the sheet. She could not look at it but her eyes trained on it wordlessly.

"Want to know who's under here?" The smirked of the man traveling in his words. Prickling her ears.

She however hastily shook her head. Her heart told her it was a bad idea.

The man's smile widened big enough and almost reached his ears. It seemed taunting her feelings brought pleasure to the man like a sicko. "Pull the cover. Let her meet him for the last time before we burn the body." Ordered the man.

"Yes, my lord." The soldiers followed his order and pulled the cover from the corpse foot and the pale face slowly revealed the corpse's body.

"See for yourself your own mistakes." The man whispered in low, yet the very words resonated inside her heart like a bullet hitting her nonstop because what she saw was what she didn't expect.

It was the familiar pale face, black hair, shut eyes, wearing the family soldier's attire. She knew the face too well. They grew together. Her flesh and blood. Her own brother. Kyle.

"No. NO!!!!!" She shouted. Scrambled towards the dead body. Only the jail bar kept them away from each other. Her hands tried to grab the air in the hope it could make the distance between them shrinking. "Brother. Brother. Brother!! Brother Kyle!!!!!" The angry tears cleansed her red cheeks. Countless droplets falling like waterfalls. Bitter. Unforgiving. Pain. All of it agitated her even more.

"HAHAHAHA. It's your present." The man crouched down, the same level as her.

"Why? Why?! Why??!!"

"You ask for it." The man mused to himself and Elizebeth pressed her lips together. "I told you. It's your loss not working with me." The mocking tone changed abruptly. The merry face changed with seriousness. His face tightened as he looked deeper inside her eyes.

Elizebeth felt a cold sweat form at the base of her skull and spread a shiver down her spine as she wondered why it was their fault to get slaughtered like this. "They are not at fault."

The man bit his lips sexily as she looked hungrily at her. He breathed too close to her disliking but she let him be as long as she could become closer to her dead brother. "It is their fault." It earned Elizebeth an angry stare which the man deemed sexy.

"Wha- what?"

His voice trailed off and he took a breath slowly, his breath quivering with rage. "It's their fault for having a wonderful sister like you. This man wouldn't let me have you so I killed him." He said in austere. "He's against us." He then cracked a smile and his eyes gradually dilated.

Elizebeth found herself holding her breath as she listened, genuinely frightened by the seething anger the man exuded. His anger was unreasonable but his words fuelled with hatred that couldn't even seem to control. Elizebeth took a step back and tried to run away from the man yet the man caught her thin hand.

"Where are you going, my queen?" His eyes flashed furiously at her. "You must satisfy your hungry husband don't you think, my queen?" The smile he showed brought a nightmare in her sleep. Every single day in the future.

"... zy… you are crazy." She choked on her breath, tried to peel the big and rough hand off her in panic.

"Shh, my queen. Your brother is sleeping. We shouldn't wake him up." His face was full of madness, shivering her whole body for the second. She shook her head while streams of tears fell faster than before. She was scared. She was terrified. Anyone, help her. Please.

"No one can save you, my queen. You are mine forever." The man stated without a second of hesitation as if he could read her mind.

"No. No. Let me go. Let me go!!!"

The madness changed into sorrow in a split second. His eyes flashing to her as if she was the one responsible for the switch of the feeling. The man gripped her hand even tighter than before as if he was afraid she would slip away from his hand.

"No. Not again. I would not let you slip away from my hand again. You will be mine. Forever. And ever. We will have a good future ahead. I will kiss you every day. I will make sure you will be mine forever. Even means locking you inside the cell for eternity. Even means the world has forgotten about you. You are mine from today onwards, Elizebeth. You are mine."

Elizebeth shivered. The words were too evil. Too much. When he forcefully brought her hand to his face, feeling the cold skin against hers, she couldn't help but feel disgusted. She groaned outwardly but the man soon brought her hand to his lips and kissed the hand slowly as if he was savoring every inch of her palm, fingers, and backhand. As if she was so precious for him.

"No…" Elizebeth sobbing soon. The feeling was too overwhelming. She could not afford to rejoice to receive the heartfelt confession when the one who was responsible for exterminating the royal and killing her brother was the same man who confessed to her. Her brother was gone forever and she was trapped forever.

"You are mine." The dry voice hitting the wall, traveling through the air, echoing between the wall and empty space. Almost killed her inside.

And Elizebeth could only cry loudly. Surrender to her faith in front of her dead brother.