CHAPTER 1: It Hurts…
Elarion Kingdom
Year 561
*****
In a vast hall, adorned with ancient festive decorations, as if a grand celebration had once taken place, a lone woman sat at its center dressed in an ancient ceremonial wedding gown.
Blood dripped from her chest, soaking through the wedding gown as she cradled a lifeless man whose heart had been pierced by an arrow.
Despite the blank, soulless expression on her face and the pale pallor of her lips, her soft and delicate beauty remained unmistakable; elegant, enchanting, almost unreal.
Her long, voluminous curls cascaded down her shoulders and back like a waterfall.
All around her, the lifeless bodies strewn across the vast hall served as a chilling backdrop, one that made her eerie beauty stand out even more.
The cold wind brushed the red silk decorations in the hall, enhancing the eerie atmosphere; creepy and terrifying.
Though her face showed a blank expression, her mind was a fumbling mess; disoriented and lost.
“ Why… why does it hurt so much?”
“ Why… why did you block that arrow for me, brother? why?”
Her voice cracked as she clutched the lifeless man's cooling body.
Due to grief, she was unaware that the thoughts she believed were silent, were actually spilling from her lips.
“ I'm sorry… please don't leave me, Brother.”
“ I'm lost… I don't know how to live without you.” A sob tore through her throat as her trembling fingers brushed the lifeless man pale cheeks.
“ Take me with you…Please. I don't want to be alone without you, brother.”
“ Why did you leave me behind?”
“ You promised… you promised we would never leave each other, you said we were each other's only family.”
“But… why? why did you break that promise?”
Her voice dissolved into a fragile whisper. Excruciating pain pierced her heart as her tears streamed down her hollow eyes, shoulder trembling violently.
“ I'm all alone now… no one to love me, no one to care for me.”
“ I regret it… I regret forcing my love on him, Brother.”
“ I should have listened to you… I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry.”
Wahhh…
Lost in a spiral of grief, Ivy Laurent tightened her trembling arms around the lifeless man;her beloved brother, King Austin Laurent Vance of Elarion Kingdom as tears slid endlessly down her eyes.
His blood soaked through her ceremonial gown, as if binding them in one final, tragic embrace.
It was she who had failed to protect Austin!
She had failed her mother in protecting Austin!
