The Vampire Prince's Beloved

A Special Family Meal

"Mrs Lily . . ."

Lily opened her eyes slowly on hearing her name. She turned her face slowly in the direction where the voice came from. She could see the head of a male figure wearing a black cap on his head, looking through the window in the door of her cell room.

"Mrs Lily, the people you requested for your special meal, have arrived. We have come to take you to them." the prison warder informed.

His face disappeared from the window in the door and the sound of keys rattling was heard behind the door as the prison warder unlocked the door.

Lily hissed as she brought herself to a sitting position. Looking through the window on the wall, she could tell that it was still morning despite the sun that had risen to the sky. She had fallen into a short nap while waiting for her family members to arrive but that was enough time for her memory to haunt her with an unpleasant dream. Yet again, she had dreamt of the day she saw Mr Barry dead in his house.

Of course, that traumatizing day she was taken in as a suspect, was only the beginning of her misery. She had tried to bury that memory but her mind kept pulling a fast one on her.

Lily winced at the sharp pain she felt around her neck from sleeping on the flatbed in the room. Actually, it wasn't sufficient to be called a bed but a flat foam – almost as flat as a slice of bread – laid upon a hard concrete slab. Lily actually felt like she was lying on the bare hard concrete slab every night. Each morning was characterised by terrible body aches.

The lock behind the door was unlocked and the door was gently pushed open. Two middle-aged men walked in and stood some distance from Lily. One had a heavy light brown moustache sitting on his lips while the other had a clean shave. The one with a moustache was visibly older than the other man who had a clean shave. They were both in their blue and black prison warder uniforms.

"Stand up and give me your hands," the warder with a huge moustache said, bringing out a handcuff from his pocket.

Lily snapped her neck and stood up, ignoring the pain all over her body. She stretched forth her hands and the cuffs were locked around her wrist. The two prison warders led her out of her cell room. Another warder was waiting for them outside the cell room. Immediately they came out, he joined them in escorting Lily to meet her guest.

They were taking Lily to the death watch chamber, where she would have her special meal with her family. Even though it was an opportunity to spend a few hours with her family, the event was more of a sad reminder that she was never going to see them again after that day.

Actually, another name for the "special meal" was called "last meal" because it was the last meal a prisoner on death row would eat with anyone they chose, before going for execution. The use of "special" to replace "last" was a way of making it sound a bit pleasurable. Lily was sharing hers with her family and at least, that brought some sort of comfort to her.

"Turn to the left," one of Lily's escorts, directed.

Lily did as she was instructed and turned to the left and continued walking. A sigh left her lips as the thought of her execution began to cloud her mind. The thoughts were accompanied by a pressing sour feeling at the bottom of her tummy. Sour enough for it to change the taste in her mouth. Her dark green eyes kept staring at the floor as she kept moving silently. There was a lot of trafficking going on in her head

After Lily was arrested as a suspect in Barry's murder, she was taken to the station for questioning. The case got more serious when the dagger used to murder Barry was found in the parcel that Lily was gifted by the security man in Barry's name.

All Lily's explanation of how she was gifted the box, fell on deaf ears because surprisingly, the only person the street CCTV camera captured entering Barry's compound was Lily. This was because Barry's gate was not within the CCTV coverage. Scanning the parcel for fingerprints was not helpful to Lily because the guy who handed her the parcel was on gloves. The wrapping paper only had Lily's handprints. She couldn't even describe the face of who handed her the box because his face was well covered.

Whoever killed Barry had been a professional who perfectly left no trace of himself.

"Stop!" the clean-shaved prison warder's voice brought Lily back from her reverie. "We have gotten to the death chamber"

The heavy-moustached man brought out his bunch of keys to uncuff Lily.

Lily lifted her eyes from the floor –where she had buried them all through the walk– and looked in front of her. There was a steel door which had half of its structure fixed with thick see-through glass. Looking through the glass, Lily could see Dan, her husband and Ella, her best friend. They were seated and waiting patiently for her in the death watch chamber.

On sighting Dan, clips from her wedding flashed through her mind. Marrying Dan had been the best decision Lily felt she had ever taken in her life. She had never regretted marrying him for a second. Even though he had not been financially buoyant before they got together, it had never been a problem to their union because they loved each other so much.

Tonnes of compassion welled up in her heart for herself who was going to be executed unjustly and for Dan, who the cruel system was turning into a widower at a young age.

"You have only three hours to eat your meal with your guests," the third prison warder spoke after the handcuff was taken off Lily's hands. His voice was as cold as his looks.

Lily rubbed her wrists – where she was handcuffed – with her palm while the second prison guard opened the door to the death watch room. She stood in front of the doorway for a short while, reminding herself of the promise she had made earlier that morning: not to ruin her last moments with her family, by crying. She blinked her dark green eyes, put up a smile and walked into the death watch chamber.

Despite the milk colour paints used on the walls, the death watch chamber still had a dull look. The room was empty and had nothing in it except the four steel chairs that surrounded a big round steel table. The chairs were not the regular conventional chairs. They were joined to the single centre stand of the table, such that the chairs couldn't be lifted without the table.

Dan and Ella occupied two of the steel chairs while the other two were empty. On the table was a family-sized pepperoni pizza box and three bottles of coke Lily which Lily had requested for the special meal.

Ella was staring blankly at the walls with so much emptiness in her eyes. Even though she knew that Lily had walked in, she couldn't bring herself to look Lily in the face. Her face was pale with no makeup and her eyes were bloodshot red. It was obvious that she had been crying for some time. Her golden blonde hair was left uncombed and tattered. Her deep dark blue dress also said a lot about how she felt inside.

Lily sat on the chair opposite Ella and tried to brighten the room with her smile. She greeted in a calm voice "Hi, Ella."

"Hi, Lily," Ella replied in a shaky voice.

Ella held her mouth to suppress the cry she had been holding from letting loose. She sniffed and wiped the stubborn tear drop that escaped from her eyes. She still didn't take her eyes off the wall.

Lily and Ella were more like sisters to one another. Since the day Lily's parents had brought Ella –a poor homeless five years old orphan roaming aimlessly and hopelessly around the town– into their home, the two girls got fond of one another and got tightly bonded best friends as they grew.

When Lily's parents died in the fatal accident, Lily became the only family that Ella had left. Little wonder why Ella was looking like a shadow of herself. The pain of losing Lily in the next twenty-four hours was too much for her to bear.

Lily turned to Dan, her husband, who was matching Lily's smile with his. He was dressed in nice dark-blue plain trousers and a light blue short-sleeved shirt that wrapped around his biceps almost tightly. Although he was nicely dressed and had his pain covered with a smile the moment he saw Lily, Lily could still read through him and see his agony.

He looked tired, confused, restless and uneasy. Since the day Lily was arrested, he had been working tirelessly to vindicate her. When their family lawyer fell critically ill at the time Lily was charged to court, he made sure to get another senior advocate to defend her. Even now that Lily was about to be executed, she knew that he had not yet given up his goal of getting her out of there. He was working round the clock to see that come to pass.

"Hey, darling," Lily said and pecked Dan on the lips. "I have missed you." She threw her arms around him and hugged him.

"I have missed you too, my love," Dan said as she released him from her embrace. He held her hands in his, looked into her eyes and assured her, "Don't worry, Lily. I am going to get you out of here."

His voice was lacking faith but his hazel eyes shone flames of resilience. Lily smiled again at him and squeezed his hands. She knew the man she was married to was never going to back down even though all odds were against him. She felt lucky to have him as her husband.

Lily turned again to Ella, who was already sobbing silently. She stood up and walked up to Ella for a hug. Immediately Lily held Ella in her embrace, Ella began to weep profusely. it was like the hug permitted her to release the cry she had been tucking in. Before Lily knew it, she broke the promise she had made to herself and joined Ella in crying. Dan stood up and hugged the two of them in an attempt to console them but in no time, he was weeping also.

After some moments of heartfelt crying by the three of them, they pull themselves together and release one another from the embrace. Lily and Dan returned to their seat while Ella was still struggling with her tears.

Lily wiped her eyes with the back of her palm and sniffed as she sat. Her face was already red and sweaty. She revived her smile and said, "We were given three hours to enjoy this meal together. I know how much we enjoy pepperoni pizza, so I requested it. Let us not spend the little time we have to be together, crying and weeping." She placed her hands on the table and stretched them towards Dan and Ella. "Please?"

Dan locked his fingers with Lily's. He smiled and gave her an agreeing nod. They both turned to Ella waiting for her to agree to what Lily said. Lily stared at Ella with pleading eyes. Ella slowly placed her hand in Lily's hand and Lily squeezed it a little. The smile on Lily's face broadened and Ella managed to return the smile.

Lily knew that Ella would still break their little agreement and weep before the end of the meal but it was okay that Ella had gotten hold of herself for now.

Lily released her hands from theirs, picked two slices of pizza in both hands and handed over each to Dan and Ella. "Here, have this."

It was going to be the weirdest meal the family had ever had together but Lily was grateful she could even have such opportunity before she was executed.