The last days of the queen of hearts

                         

 

The day started out like any other. With an attack from the royal guard.

“Come on guys. Hurry up!” called Brad as he grabbed his sword.

“Coming!” a voice called as a woman appeared next to him directly followed by a man on his other side.

“Rebecca! You said that your magic would hide us through the night!” said the man.

“Yeah… and it did! It concealed us through the night. I never said anything about in the morning!” the woman, Rebecca, said defensively as she and the man rose to claim their weapons.

“Not this again,” muttered Brad. The soldiers, no doubt sent by the queen herself, were almost to their base.

“Bradley Wilson,” said the leading soldier in a formal voice, “either yield to her majesty the queen willingly or we will be forced to… well you know by now what we will forced to do…”

“Yeah yeah we’ve been over this.” said Rebecca said rolling her eyes.

“Well I have a message for the queen,” Brad replied ignoring Rebecca. He raised his scimitar sword. “I hate being called Bradley,” he said as he swung nearly decapitating the soldier’s head.

With that a battle erupted. Rebecca stood at the highest point of the base and fired shurikens, with precise accuracy, at the invading troops while Brad took on the commander head-on.

“Grayson cover me!” Brad shouted.

“On it,” Grayson replied as he instantly appeared at Brad’s side. Together, Brad and Grayson took on the commander and his generals until, finally, the commander gave in.

“Retreat!” yelled the commander to his remaining troops. The soldiers scrambled to their feet and ran as Rebecca fired the last of her shurikens.

“Well… that went well.” said Grayson breaking the silence.

“Sure…” said Rebecca in her usual sarcastic tone.

“Do you remember the whole reason this thing started? With the queen?” Brad asked no one in particular.

“Of course,” said Rebecca, “the queen is madly in love with you… totally normal reason for all this...” she said gesturing towards the direction of the retreating royal guard. They all thought back to how this problem started in the first place.

Chloe Wells always wanted love. Her father died just before she was born and her mother abandoned her the second she was. She was left on the doorstep of a rich merchant who made her his servant. She grew up working for him her whole life alongside his son, Eric. While working Eric, she fell in love with him, and eventually became hopelessly obsessed with him. Unfortunately for her the gesture was not returned, as Eric was arranged to marry one of the princesses.

Years past until finally it was the day of Eric’s wedding. At this point Chloe’s obsession with Eric was nearly to the point of insanity. She started to see things. Hear voices. Her desperate craving for love made her do crazy things. Dangerous things. Until one day she decided she couldn’t stand it anymore. If she couldn’t have the love of her life no one could. She made a plan to murder the princess and the entire royal family… and then she did.

 

She snuck into the room where the royal family and shot them all. What she did not realize at the time was that Eric was in the room as well as the royal family and while she was mindlessly shooting the royals, she accidently shot and killed Eric as well. Driven by the grief of killing her love she vowed that someday she would get the happiness and love that she  deserved. From that moment Chloe Wells took on the name “The queen of hearts” and became the queen, claiming that the royal family had left the entire kingdom and army to her. The royal family being dead and no one else left to lead, the most citizens gladly accepted her as their leader. Those who didn’t were killed or mysteriously disappeared.

Through a series of circumstances the queen met Brad who she, of course, fell for. Brad, who had no intention of having anything to do with the queen, had been on the run ever since.

wea“Anyway,” said Brad breaking the silence, “Today I plan to end this once and for all. Mark my words the queen will fall and it will be by my hand.”

 

                                                     Three hours later     

Brad, Rebecca, and Grayson managed to take out the first wave of the imperial guards  and were about to infiltrate the palace.

“Are you sure that this is really necessary?” Rebecca asked throwing a shuriken.

“Who’s side are you on anyway?” Brad replied annoyed. Rebecca rolled her eyes.

“Yours duh. I just think that this is a pointless attack.”

“I agree,” said Grayson, “Why exactly are we rushing into this battle?”

“Because I am tired of running” Brad answered.

“So because you are tired of running we are ALL gonna die… yay…” said Rebecca. Brad stopped.  

“You know, if you guys don’t want to do this you don’t have to.” he said.

“Please, like you could survive without us.” said Grayson.

    “I cannot believe I am saying this but I agree.” said Rebecca. “You won’t admit it but you can’t do it without us.”

    “Shhh.” said Brad.

    “Don’t you…- ”

    “Shh... I’m serious.” Brad said in a hushed voice. They were clocked by magic and were nearly to the throne room where, according to an inside source. the queen was supposed to be.

“What is it ?” Grayson said in the same hushed tone. Brad pointed at the room across the hall. It had the royal crest on it. Cautiously the three of them crept towards the door, trying ever so much to avoid the guards on both sides of the door. “Okay so how exactly are we going to get inside?”

“You two go. I will cause a diversion.” replied Rebecca. Carefully she removed the cloaking spell, and attached a bomb to one of her shurikens.

Finally one of the guards noticed her. “Hey who are-” with great haste Rebecca fired her shuriken at the opposite end of the hall. It exploded, causing a fire, and within moments the entire east hall erupted in flames. Three of the guards rushed towards the fire, two of them went into the throne room, but one of them started chasing Rebecca. Instinctively she ran in the opposite direction of the Brad and Grayson, but didn’t get far before she was captured.

At this point the cloaking spell that had made Brad and Grayson invisible had worn off. Brad nudged Grayson as the both of them walked into the throne room. Inside were many drapes and tapestries showing the Queen and the dead royal family. One in particular showed Eric and the princess that he was supposed to marry, only the part with the princess was ripped and parts of her were charred as if the queen had tried and failed to burn it.

“Well if it isn’t my Bradley,” said the queen appearing out of nowhere. The look in her eye was of sheer insanity. Brad glared at her with pure hatred.

“You.” he said with a sneer. He let out a battle cry and charged at her. Just as he was about to strike her, he was stopped by a guard. Struggling he called out to Grayson only to find that he was captured by another guard.

“No. No! NO!” Brad yelled finally losing the grip of the soldier. He ran towards the queen, with all his fury, unsheathing his sword. In that one second the world stood still. In that one moment in time, the balance between good and evil shifted. In that point of time it was made clear that nothing is truly good and nothing is truly evil. It is only what we define it.  But sometimes because of circumstances our definitions change. You might think of this as one of those circumstances or you might not. The decision is up to you. In that moment, Bradley Wilson, someone who had a bright future full of possibility became a murder. Because in that moment Brad killed the queen.

 

                                               One day later

“Well congratulations Brad. you're officially a murderer.” said Rebecca.

“Yeah, yeah but it is not like you are not.” he replied. Rebecca rolled her eyes.

“What do we do now?” asked Grayson.

“Now? well I don’t know. Just go where destiny is calling.” Brad replied as they all walked out of there hiding place. Into the great beyond. Into the midnight.