The King's Maiden

The devil is real. And he’s not a little red man with horns and a tail. He is beautiful, and that's because he is a fallen angel and he used to be God's favorite. Actually, the devil can be anyone. He can be two different people, different ages, different appearances all at once. I know all this because I’ve met him— I have met two, unfortunately. The devil came in form of two powerful Kings.They were beautiful. They were charming. They were loving and they were alluring. They were all those things until I saw their other side. It was never my intention to cross paths with the devil. I was only a naïve nineteen year old, living a life that circulated around fame and money. Then, out of the blue, the devil came for me, or should I call him The King— which is a name he prefers to be addressed as. He showed up on a calm evening, and turned my entire life upside down; he turned it into a disaster. He put me under his spell, making me fall deeper and deeper into his sinful charm. Then

[ IN WHICH SHE WIELDS A KNIFE ]A breathy sigh leaves my lips once I push open the door to the bathroom. Inside, I let my shoulders drop. I lean over the sink, my head bent down as I breathe in and breathe out harshly. I tuck my brown curly hair out of my face, putting the strands behind my ear. Slowly, I raise my head back up. I stare into the mirror. The florescent white lights in the ceiling makes my caramel skin glow; a symbol that I'm living a healthy and wealthy life. I’ve come a long way. Now, I’m rich, and I’m at the top— where I’ve always wanted to be. A small smile breaks out on my lips. “For a nineteen year old orphan you sure made the world spin,” I say to my reflection. Suddenly, the door to the bathroom bursts open. I spin around to see the tall, young man with long red hair saunter in, a huge smile on his face. “Nobi—” Before he says anything, I interject. “Luca, leave.” He lifts his hands in surrender. “Oh, no, Nobi, there’s no need to be hostile.” He brushes a ha

[ IN WHICH SHE PLOTS HER ESCAPE ]I have heard stories of famous personalities being held at gunpoint. About how they’ve been robbed, and even how they’ve gotten kidnapped for ransom. While telling these traumatic stories, they associated the situations with feelings of fear and panic. However, I can’t describe what I’m feeling. I don’t know if I’m scared or if I’m panicked. Because I feel something else. I feel calm— I feel at home. This world isn't my world. It is different from the luxurious world I live in. While in the Gala dinner event, it was evening, and the day was only going to get darker, but right now, the sky's as bright as ever, like we had teleported through time into the next morning. And this lets me know that I have indeed crossed a barrier that separates worlds. In this world, there are no moving vehicles, no tarred roads or even streetlights anywhere. There is no electricity. Nothing modern about the place I have been brought into. It is like time has been revers

[ IN WHICH SHE THROWS UP ]I lift my head back up, wiping the remnants of my puke. Breathing heavily, I lean against a tree as I wait for the world to stop spinning. I can feel his burning stare in the silence, so I tuck my curls behind my ears to get a better view of the shirtless young man with wings. He still hasn’t said anything. He’s just standing there, observing me from head to toe like some museum artifact. And I do the same. The man in front of me appears as though he has been crafted out of a fairy tale. However, he’s not the hero in the fairy tale, but the devious villain. The villain that has everyone in chokehold with his mere presence. His sword that has black smoke swirling around it is no longer in sight. It's like it disappeared the moment he set foot on the ground. I scrutinize the man with white, flawless skin. His hair is dark as the sky above us; dark, wavy strands are sat on top of his head, giving the right proportions to his sharp and square jaw. Something ab

[ IN WHICH SHE ASKS FOR MUSIC ]The thick walls of the mansion echoes with screams. It echoes violently with the screams of my abductors — Jacqueline and Atlas. After I left the forest with the King, we got to the mansion in no time, where I had to fight the intense urge to puke for the third time. He then ordered for his maids to escort me back to my chambers, where I got dressed in a fresh set of clothing, and was given supper. But before I parted ways with the King, I heard him call for Jacqueline and Atlas. The two followed him into a red room by a corner.And ever since then, the two have been letting out clamorous and ear-splitting screams. It's been two hours, and they still haven't stopped. My heart skips a beat at the sudden knock on the door. Sighing in distress, I call the person in. The door carefully opens up, revealing who's behind it. It's the tall, lanky man from earlier. The one who walked in with dozens of dresses on clothe hangers. He still hasn't told me his nam