chapter six

Skhemarriah!...

The whisper came again, low and menacing. A slow threat over the princess's life for the fifth time since she visited the blood hearth. If she knew about it's curse she would have never entertained the thought of having it's power. The memory of the trip to the hearth made bowel raise up her throat. The nauseous feeling followed her into her en-suite bathroom causing her to barely make it to the toilet. Her sickness had alarmed the entire kingdom because her kind rarely got ill and according to the doctors her condition was incurable.

The very smell that exalted from her vomit was enough to inform you of how quickly she was dying; and she was indeed close to death. Her hand maids were at her sides immediately helping her back to her bed and laying her down softly. The princess had not even a bit to eat since she returned and those around her could see how fast her life was running out. Their pitying eyes disgusted her so much that even without strength to speak she found a way to inform them of how displeasing their stars where.

She glared at them long enough for them to feel her displeasure and they relented and left her alone. As they did her dear brother entered her chambers looking every bit like his arrogant self.

"Oh looks like my dear sisters attitude hasn't dissipated at all? Or maybe it's the stench of death that has driven your hand maids away from you?" He chuckled, the sound of his voice mad her insides boil them more. He'd always loved shoving his great achievements in her face and now his shoving his health in her face too. If only she knew it would eventually come down to this she wouldn't have gotten herself involved in the dangerous game of power. She fell for it again and this time it's claiming her life.

She shut her eyes not willing to look at him. His bare presence enraged her. He was not her much and it was time that she realized that his always going to be on top. Who was she kidding? She's female and females can't be heroes in their cursed land.

"What do you want?" Skhemarriah asked, forcing her voice out and ignoring the pain.

" Oh would you look at that, she speaks", he cackled. "Well I just wanted to see how losing looks like and tell you what I really wanted to do".

"You see you were always so stupid and I knew it would be easy to full you into entering that cursed house and touch that hearth. All I really wanted was the power you would bring to me after but that didn't go well now did it.

Soooo, I'm going to use you to my advantage and move forward with my plan". Skhemarriah's eyes narrowed as she tried to understand what he meant by taking advantage of her in her state. Was he going to finish her off by eating her heart? Or worse feed her to the kingdom? Everything she thought of didn't make any sense until he cleared up everything in just one simple sentence.

"I'll will save your life but you have to take the blame of what I'm about to do". He took out syringe from one of his coat hidden pockets and a twenty-one gauge injection. The liquid in the syringe was clear and it shimmered when light hit it at a clear angle. She wasn't given anymore time to process her brothers intentions when he stabbed her neck with the needle and pressed the liquid into her system. She let out a scream which was more of a gargle than anything else, just like he anticipated she would. Blood trickled out of her neck slowly, coating her white linen in crimson. Her air supply was cut off and she passed out.

~

When she awoke she was surrounded by darkness and the pungent smell of blood. Checking herself for any injuries she found non but that didn't explain the smell of death that surrounded her. Though on the plus side she felt stronger than she had in the past two weeks. Pulling herself up she noticed that she was on the floor instead of her bed. She shrugged of the suspicion and walked towards her bedside to turn the lights on. Her body felt oddly bigger than before and her footsteps were louder than usual, the sense of wrongness only grow at the realization but she wasn't up to thinking about it at that moment. She had to get cleaned up and go thank her brother for saving her life,even if that was an admission to defeat she wasn't going to stoop to his level again.

When she finally found the lamp she wonder why it was in a different position than before and soon her questions were answered. Well the thing about light is that it makes everything the darkness made invisible, visible and it cleared all manner of confusion. Though this confusion was something skhemarriah would have liked to keep because it's clarification brought about a sense of horrifying tragedy.

For not only was she not in her room, no. She was standing in a pool of blood and there on the bed where the mutilated bodies of an old couple, not just any old couple. But they were the bodies of her beloved parents.

Now she understood exactly what her brother meant. Oh how very evil of him indeed.