Are you ready? A short story by Marrow
- Locked due to inactivity on Jul 31, '20 3:54am
Thread Topic: Are you ready? A short story by Marrow
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Title: are you ready?
Themes: love, death.
Are you ready?” My dearest friend asked me, looking amused. They had taken a seat at the edge of her dresser, long hair spread wildly. They fixed their eyes on to hers. They were her closest companion.
“ No” She answered honestly as she moved to gaze out onto the beach. “ I want to see all the things I never could...is there a way dear one?” She ask them. They stand up and shrug. They pull out the dreaded list and spread it out to show me. It’s stained with tears.
There in bold is her name. Princess Sempronia.
“ If your name is on the list, I must take a soul back with me...but I suppose for you I could overlook whose soul I take.” They answer, tone serious for once. All she had ever wanted was to explore, but that had only become possible once she had been removed from her prison. It wasn’t fair. She had three days before her time was up. There was so much she wanted to do, so much she wanted to experience.
“...If...If someone died in my place...I would...have more time?” The princess inquires. She shakes as she considers what she is about to do. She truly is a monster isn’t she? Was her father right to have her locked away her entire life. Did she belong in a cage. Strong hands were on her shoulder.
They bent down to press a kiss to her cheek.
“you would take their remaining years as your own. Sempronia, you deserve this. Please...You would be coming to my realm for the rest of eternity. It’s...cold there, there are no flowers, there is nothing for you in that world. I wish to keep you alive for as long as you need.” They plead with her.
Sempronia smiles at them, though it’s shaky, and her cheeks quickly grow wet as they comfort her.
Three days later, Sempronia awoke from her sleep, with forty years left, and her fathers only surviving child. She pulls on the white gloves her dear friend had gifted to her. They covered her scarlet stained hands. She had forty years, all to herself. The first thing she wished to do was go to the sea.
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“ Are you ready yet?” They asked curiously as they watched her from their position crouching in the floor. They had always been an anomaly, but she’d understood it. They weren’t exactly human after all. They finally stood and walked over to her throne. They gently cupped her cheek. They had both gotten older, but neither had aged.
“Not yet. “ Sempronia responded hesitantly. “My kingdom has entered into a war, with Beltra. They wish...they wish to take over and rob the world of its natural magic.” She explains. “ my people have nobody to trust and so...I am needed still, even if that means I most commit such an atrocity once more,”
They nodded. “ I guessed as much. Last time you sacrificed two and ended up with forty more years...so perhaps you should use more this time? Like I said, I wish to keep you from joining me in Te’vid for as long as I possibly can.” They reminded her as they perched on the thrones arm. “ ...you remember what to do right?”
“...how could I forget?” She chuckles gently. It’s an awful kind of laugh, one that’s being used to cover for how she really feels. They understand. They know her too well. They offer her a smile. Their gaze is loving, sometimes she worries she’s taken advantage of the love that they share.
Sempronia awakens the next morning, with a lifespan of a hundred more years. She has to stick around to ensure her kingdom survives, and of course the families who she robbed will be taken care of for years to come. She pulls on her gloves and stands. They were gone, and she missed them. They could only ever see each other when Death had occurred, or was on the near horizon. Their only contact these days was through the letters she burned in the fire place.
If there was one good thing that her end promised, it was to spend eternity at their side.
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“Will I be ready soon?” The witch asked the reaper. Sempronia looked at the floor. At the wall. Anywhere other than the sacrificial stone, where the young maiden lay, waiting for her life to be stolen . The war had been ended. Ten years prior, she had conquered her enemy.
A monster they had called her, and she was unsure at the time if it had even been a lie. She had her doubts that it was. Yet, she still wasn’t ready to give up, despite how much she longed to just fall into eternal sleep, where she could be with the one she loved for the rest of eternity, until the final star had burnt out,
There was danger at every corner. Her people, her ‘children’ could be at risk without her and her magic.
They walked over to her side, and kissed her cheek. Sempronia smiled softly, yet could not feel any joy at the action. Her lover walks back to the area she’s avoiding glancing at.
“ I’m unsure” They answered her sadly. They stood by the young maiden, curiously, “ Her name is Aoife and she has a life span of one hundred and twenty years.” They tell her as they gently brush the maidens hair from her face.
Sempronia wishes they would scream at her to give in, to die already but they don’t. They want her to live forever.
She doesn’t want to.
Does she?
“ please.” A small voice begs. “ I don’t want to die.” The girl says softly. The queen walks to her side. She is a child, a small and innocent being. A natural born mage just like the immortal herself. The girl had been sold by her own father. They were similar, the difference was this child has no one willing to save her.
“...You outdo have been a great mage...and I am the cause of your early demise, and I am so so sorry for that little one...but I- I am not ready to go.” Sempronia said trying to keep her emotions in check. “ I’m so so sorry.” She said gently stroking the girls cheek.
“...you feel such pain...it’s sad.” The maiden mumbles and the queen nods.
They suddenly stood straight. “ ...there’s...someone coming.” They warned. “ I will deal with him.” They promise her,
“ please! Please! If it’s my brother don’t kill him! I’ll die! I’ll die, just please, please my queen don’t kill Aleron.” The child begs, and the queen stops in her tracks.
She was wrong.
Someone was coming for the child.
What had she become?
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“Am I ready to die?” The queen repeated the question the knight had asked earlier in a soft voice as he held her in his arms, sword plunged deep into her abdomen. The young man didn’t seem happy to have to kill her. She understood how. She had seen so much. Her kingdom was safe in his hands, and her ‘children’ were well loved in the hands of Aoife. They would rule together, and they would not stray into the selfish path. She barley knew these children, yet she felt like she owed them everything.
She could trust them.
The knight nods gently, he looks at her with the gaze a child may look at his dying mother. “As ready as one can ever be.” The queen answered as she looked last the young knight and towards her love.
At the end, death was cold, yet she welcomed it, and them with open arms. The children were at her side at the end. The sword was long gong from her abdomen. The knight held her hand while the maiden held her close. She promised to watch over them, and protect them as much as she could once she became a resident of Te’vid. Sempronia began to feel numb, as she began to fade quickly.
They knelt by her, beside Aoife, they kissed her, on the lips for the first time.
Then they were gone.
Finally, she was free. -
did you really just threaten someone with rape and physical abuse for being gay and then ask for an apology? the cognitive dissonance required to sincerely say such a thing is astounding tbh
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the threatening comment got deleted thank god
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( OwO)
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No one said anything about your story so I want you to know that I read it and it was phenomenal <3
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I loved yours as well!
X3
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