Baring My Soul

My Aerza

I never met Aerza after that. I tried to contact her, searched for her everywhere but couldn"t find her or maybe she didn"t want to be found.

After a year or so, in an effort to forget her, I started trying other things out, wild things. I used to drink too much and then hallucinate, just to see her again. I started to crave for more intimacy with women . For my people I was the same, the Fearless Tiger but at heart I knew the truth, I was a lost wanderer searching for home.

During one of my visits to Genovia (one of our neighbouring kingdoms) I went to a brothel. Genovia is known for it"s women. So, I booked for three nights and asked them to give me their best girls. As the night approached I went back to the brothel and entered my room. The room was dim, with a few oil lamps flickering and there was a sweet scent spread all around. The bed was perfectly made.There was something in the ambience of that room which made my heart skip a beat. I had not felt that lavender, rosewood scent in a long time. Everything in that room reminded me of her. As I looked around, a beautiful woman her face covered by a veil stood in one corner. I slowly traced her body with my eyes, her curves were just perfect, her eyes were deep and sad and the way I felt when I looked in them was something I had felt before. Maybe I was too drunk. As I approached towards her, I could see her body getting stiffened.

I filled the gap between us and reached to the nape of her neck. I gave a peck on her neck and felt her warmth. Her warmth, her scent, her hair reminded me of someone. Someone familiar. I quickly removed her veil and then and there I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest. I closed my eyes and then opened them again just to see her standing there, right in front of me, there she was my Aerza...my love...

"What are you doing here,Aerza?"

" I could ask you the same thing, Nichole."

I just held her tightly in my arms and felt her body against mine. Suddenly, I felt like something pierced my heart. The pain I felt was so much that I fell on the ground. It was her...I couldn"t believe it was her. She had put a dagger into my heart. She tore me apart, my heart, my soul. And there she was standing, wickedly smiling at me.

"Why?", it came out as a cry more than a question.

She moved closer to me, tears clouding her eyes.

"You think you are very brave and fearless. Well let me tell you, you are not. You are a coward. I had a perfect life, a perfect family, a loving husband until you entered our lives to ruin it. My husband,Arthur,was a common man. And what did you do? Huh!!!...killed him infront of my eyes just to fullfill your thirst for blood. You didn"t see me, but I did. Look at yourself now. There you are on the ground now with burden of the deaths of all people you have ever killed. All those ruthless killings will now haunt you in these last moments of yours. There you are the mighty King,Nicholas Edward II. This is what you deserve."

" But why...why did you save me if you had to kill me, why did you blossom love in my heart if you had to break it piece by piece with your hatred?"

" Because I wanted to do it myself. I wanted you to feel what I felt. I wanted vengeance."

I wanted all this to end. I wanted it to be a nightmare. I had loved her with all my heart and I still did. I was wrong all my life, I was cruel and merciless all my life and I knew that. But,for this one moment of my life I wanted to be good and kind. I wanted to have a normal life, a life with her. Oh...she hated me. And for the first time in forever I could clearly see it in her beautiful hazy eyes.

My body started to feel numb and the for the last time I looked at her and said," I love you,Aerza."

And then it all went dark.