Chocolate Flap Jacks

Revolution!

I sat in the room of the Queen’s palace waiting for one of my generals to arrive. I sat straight up, the stretch from my past pregnancy still showing but not as much as it had a few months ago. I sighed as the Queen, King, and my General, General Jason, entered the room.

General Jason sat beside me. “How are you today, Kinder?”

“I am well. Thank you General.”

“We never gave this man any ranking so what do you mean by calling him General?” King Howard asked.

“No beating around the bush. We are only here today to give you a choice. You can step down voluntarily and live on what you can carry when you leave my house or we can remove you… forcefully…” I threatened without saying what was truly meant. I had no problems with sending this family of blood lusters to their graves and would even dispatch them myself if needed.

“How dare you, you insolent girl!” The Queen set her hand over her heart. “You order us to surrender? What is this? The French revolution?”

“He’s on our side. So are Canada and America and Germany. However, you’re already powerless,” I said. “Our new laws and government have been active for two months now.”

“This is an outrage!” The King pounded his fist on the arm of his chair. “You have no right to be doing this. This is a betrayal.”

I stood silently for a moment. “No, Howard, the betrayal has not happened on my part, only yours. You two betrayed our country years ago by taking the throne instead of set up a proper and unbiased government as you’re father promised.” I pointed at them. “You can either be removed now or we can remove you at a later time.”

“Neither will happen and you will not be leaving this house again!” the Queen stood so she was face to face with me. Being taller than me had worked for her in the past because I was afraid but now I was standing for my people and they all had confidence enough on their own to stand up to this woman.

I looked up into her face. “I don’t live here anymore… not while you’re here.” I looked back at the General. “General Jason. Let’s go.”

He stood. “Yes, ma’am.”

A sudden sting was place across my face that made my eyes water. “I said you’re not leaving,” Mary said.

“Yes, Mary, I am. Goodbye.” I pushed past her causing her to fall back into her chair. I swept from the room with General Jason behind me.

“What now?” he asked as we walked down the hall.

“They have refused to surrender. We go with Italy.” I kept my head high even though the sting of my cheek told me there was a red mark on my cheek. “Let’s report.”

*time skip*

I stepped out of the horse dawn buggy in the black day-maid dress I had been given. I set my hand on the gun hidden in the folds of the skirt. This would be our one and only strike which is shy I had insisted on doing it myself.

They say everyone has a bullet with their name written on it. For some it’s a knife, some it’s a disease, for some it’s an accident, and for some – like the royal family in the manor I was about to enter – an actual bullet. First the King, then Queen, and then the prince. I stepped up to the door and entered just as the light was turned off in their bedroom for the night.

I slipped slowly and silently through the halls as I prepared myself for having to off the family. I stepped into the bedroom and the heels of my boots clicked against the hardwood of their bedroom floor.

The queen sat up at the sound of my heels. “Howard, I think there’s someone in here.” Her eyes scanned the room before falling on me as a slightly darker space in the room. I heard her breath as it caught in her throat.

I stood still, my breathing steady. I stepped closer. This would’ve been easier if she had been asleep but she was now awake and afraid. With one hand, I turned on the light. “You couldn’t just stay asleep, could you?” I felt a tear roll down my face but it wasn’t remorse. I felt no remorse after what this family had put me though for years. It was anger. Anger at these two. Anger for myself. Anger for my people. Angry for my future. Angry for my past. Just pure, raw anger. There was no sorrow in my mind, no remorse, no fear, just nothing. I slowly set my arm at my side again and stepped forward, my hand grabbing hold of the gun in my skirt. My skirt fell away from my hand as;mlk I pulled out the gun and set my hands even with each other, parallel to my body.

“Kinder? You were sent to do your own dirty work? How… unrefined,” she said as Howard sat up in bed.

I smiled. “Yes… So you’ve said before...” My voice rang with the confidence and anger of every person in my country. “But I actually volunteered for this job. You just had to sit up, didn’t you? You had to make this harder.”

“You can’t do it,” she taunted as she stood from her bed.

“Don’t!” My voice rang through the room as I walked forward. “Don’t ever tell me what to do again. This is my life. My country. My future! I have waited a long time for this.” I lifted the gun even with her head. “Any last words?”

“You little b***h!” she screamed. “You don’t have the f*****g guts!”

“Yes.” I pulled the trigger on my silenced pistol. “I do.” I turned the gun on Howard.

He put his hands up as he climbed out of his bed. “Now, Kinder, I have always treated you well, didn’t I?”

“’Well?’ Treated me ‘well?’” I laughed loudly. “That is what you considered to be ‘well?’” I lifted the skirt of the dress to show the light marks that nearly blanketed my skin. “This is what your ‘well’ did to me! You’ve beat me, terrorized me, and even r***d me. Then you go and teach that little boy to be just like you! I remember when he was a sweet little boy. You’ve ruined more than just my life!” I dropped the dress and leveled my gun again. “I am but death come to collect what is mine. What are your last words?”

“I never did anything you didn’t like or else you couldn’t have cum.”

“Pulling my curl doesn’t make me like it.” I pulled the trigger. “Now the child.”

I made my way slowly down the hall to the bed room of the once kind little boy. I opened the door but didn’t find the sleeping little boy I had expected. Instead I found a child crying in the darkest corner of the room. “Prince Lane… is that you?”

“Kinder?” The shadow that was the child moved its head towards my voice.

I flipped the light on. The overhead illuminated the small bleeding scars produced by a whip. I had fled without realizing who was next in their path of terror. The child was a year older and a year more traumatized than before. I dropped to my knees beside the boy and began using the black dress to wipe away blood. “It’s okay Lane. They can’t bother you anymore.” I wrapped the boy in my arms.

He flinched as something cold touched our arms. “K-Kinder…”

I threw the gun. “Don’t worry. Just know, you’re no longer a prince.”

“I wanna go with you kinder!” He cried into my shoulder. “You escaped. Take me with you!”

I squeezed the short ten year old tight in my arms. “Don’t worry, Lane. We’re going to keep you safe from those monsters now.”

“We? Who else is here?”

I picked up the small boy. “We need to go.”

“Kinder? Who else is here? Are we in danger?”

I made my way out of the room without a single word and clicked my way down the marble hall in the most direct route to the door. I broke into an awkward run with the child on my hips as we stepped into the court yard. I could hear the sound of gun fire on both sides and wondered how it had been so silent inside the house. I rushed for the carriage and placed Lane in it.

Francis drew up the reins in his hands. “Who’s this? I thought the plan was to get rid of the royal family!”

“This is Lane. I s your house or Germany’s closer? We need to get to one or the other right now.”

“Germany’s house would be closer.”

I climbed up into the carriage and wrapped myself around the small boy. “Then drive. Get us out of here.”

“I thought you were going to join the fighting?”

“I said drive!” I yelled at France with the strength of my country. He started towards Germany’s as fast as the horses would go. As he drove I felt small cuts in my fingers. They felt like nothing more than paper cuts but I could tell this was the worst of all the skirmishes that our military and the hired hands had ever had but it would be the last. The last time any of this fighting ever happened. The hired weapons would raid the house of its riches long before I came back to it once they found that the King and Queen were dead.

France pulled on the reins to stop the carriage in front of Germany’s house. “Here we are.”

I jumped down from the carriage and grabbed the boy from the seat. I ran with him into the house. I rushed past Prussia and entered my old room.

Prussia had followed. “Vat are you doing, little zister?”

I set the boy on the bed. “Big brother I need you to tend to this boy and then get him to sleep. He may fight as he has gone through something very brutal. Please, be very careful with him.”

“You haffe mein avezome vord, lil’ zis!” He opened a drawer where I used to keep my first aid kit to find it still there. I had those things everywhere. He sat on the bed with the boy. “Hi zere, little one. I’m Prussia put you can call me Gilbert.” He pulled a small bird from his pocket. “Zis is Gilbird Jr. und he vants to pe your friend. Vill you pe his?”

Lane took the little stuffed bird with a smile up at Prussia. “Hi there, Gilbird Jr. I’m Lane and I could use a friend right now.”

Gilbert looked back at me. “I kot zis.”

“Thank you so much, Big Brother. I have to go help my people.” I turned to the door. “I’ll be back soon Lane.” I waved at them. “I promise.” I ran out the door and climbed into the buggy. “Drive France. We gotta get back and help my people.”

*time skip*

I looked around at the c*****e around me in a painful horror. With every soldier I saw or heard fall another cut was blown to my fingers and they were soon dripping with red. It didn’t matter which side they were on, I felt the soldier fall. I had to do something. I rushed back into the house for my gun which I had left in the boy’s room. I reached the room at the same time as Germany. “Big Brother! Why are you in here?”

“You didn’t choin zee fight zo I zought zomething might haffe habened. Vere vere you?”

“I had something to take care of. The King and Queen are gone. We’ve got to stop the fighting.” I rushed into the room and took up my gun, smearing the silver metal with the red liquid dripping from my fingers. I pulled a white pillow case off one of the pillows. “I think I know how but you won’t like it, Brother Germany.”

“You’re not koing to zurrenter, are you?”

“Just follow and you’ll see.” I ran from the room, loaded gun in my hand. I found the outside air to be crisp and refreshing even with the smell of blood floating on the wind. I moved quickly up to the old decorative fountain and raised my gun. I emptied the clip of my .9mm into the air and the shooting stopped. I waved the pillow case over my head as people gathered around me. I draped my arm once I had every soldier’s attention. I threw the flag down. “The King and Queen are dead!” A murmur went through the crowd that quickly turned into a loud roar of cheering from my army. “Feel free to loot the house in payment for your services to a king and then go home. Germanic!” A murmur of confusion swept the crowd but those who knew the code word knew it meant we’d succeeded and the war was over. Each of my soldiers would receive a bit of the royal’s fortune and go back to their lives with medals of Valor, a low medal but still an award for war time efforts that would benefit families in years to come.