Four years have flown by since the days of the “Bloodfest.” I was now twenty-two and fully developed as a grown woman. Father still looked the same even though four good years had flown by. He changed a lot though. He was happier and he spoke to me more, which I was deeply excited about. It was as if our former king was the whole reason why my father was so depressed. Well, that wouldn’t really make sense but I am glad my father is looking better.

I sat on my window seat and glanced out the window, staring at the new castle that was placed onto the old one. Our kingdom was taken over by a new king that had two daughters, one son, and one step-son. The new king was very kind and sweet but I always felt uneasy around his daughter. Mikacellia (Mi-kel-e-a). She was always flirting with me and she would always make it seem as if her and I were a thing. I won’t lie, she is beautiful but she just doesn’t make my heart skip a beat like that beast did.

My heart sting when I thought of the beast. I clutched the front of my dress as I began gasping for air. The pain in my chest increased as I gasped for more air. I fell onto my knees as the pain began to slowly subside. 

“What the hell was that?!”

My yelling caught the attention of my personal maid, Silfi. She swung open my bedroom door and rushed towards my side. 

“M’lady! What’s wrong?”

I wanted to answer her but as soon as I opened up my mouth, my vision disappeared and I lost consciousness.

I woke up in a different room that clearly wasn’t my own. It was dark, the walls were a dark red, it resembled dried blood, and the curtains were ripped and faded. Everything was a complete mess except for the bed. The bed was in amazing shape and it still had its velvety glow. Which was weird due to the fact that everything in this room was in complete shreds and everything besides the bed was losing its color.

I swung the covers off my bed as my bare feet touched the cold pavement floor. I made slow movements around the room as I watched my surroundings. My breath began to shake as I felt as if I was being watched. I made it towards the door before swinging the door open. I opened the door to only see darkness. I took a step into the darkness only to fall down a hole.

I screamed as I fell down into the darkness. A familiar pair of red eyes appeared in the darkness. The eyes surrounded me and sent glares into my soul.

‘Monster..’

‘Monster!’

I panicked as that day of the beast replayed into my head. The set of red eyes were soon placed onto a black silhouette. The silhouette swung closer to me and raised my head up with its finger.

‘You’re the true monster Kara....Not me…’

Princess Kein’s face appeared through the silhouette as I watched her eyes with a shocked expression. She wrapped her hands around my throat as she began to choke me.

‘Monster,’ was all she chanted as she strangled the life out of me.

‘Monster! You’re a monster!’

‘She is nothing but a beast!’

The voices spiraling around in my head fused with Princess Kein’s voice as I cried from the lack of air coming into my lungs. Princess Kein was crying as well but she wasn’t crying tears, she was crying blood, but she was smiling. She was gaining satisfaction from this. 

“Y-You monster! Burn in hell…!” Was all I could muster out of my throat.

Her grip tightened as her smile faded away and her eyes went fully black.

“I’m not the monster! YOU’RE the monster! I protected you! Saved you! Comforted you! YET, you saw me as a beast! Nothing more than a fucking monster! AM I A MONSTER, KARA?! No...I’m not the monster in this story...This time....The monster...Is…-”

She leaned in towards my ear as I finally gave up my last breath.

“You..”

That’s when I shot up gasping for air. I looked around and saw Silfi, the maids, butlers, and my father with the royal physician looking at me. They all bursted into tears as they all rushed over and hugged me.

“I-It was all a d-dream…”

I looked at my hands to see them shaking with fear as I felt my throat. I quickly got off my bed and went to my mirror to see bandages wrapped around my throat. I looked at Silfi as she finally calmed down from her crying session. She seemed to have noticed what I was going to ask but my father beat her to it.

“Kara, my sweet daughter, why did you try to kill yourself?! Silfi told me that you blacked out out of nowhere and in a flash you wrapped your hands around your throat and began to strangle yourself to the point that your face was turning purple. Silfi was trying to pull your hands away from your neck but you wouldn’t budge until a couple minutes later you finally let go. Please Kara! If there is anything wrong just tell me! I can’t afford to lose you just like how I lost your mother!”

My father’s words pierced my heart like knives as I bit my lip, holding back tears. I honestly wanted to tell him what had happened but I knew better than to just start yelling off saying that the missing or dead princess was trying to kill me. He would’ve thought I was grieving about something or that I was going insane. 

I walked towards my father’s tall figure and hugged him tightly as I buried my face into his shirt. He let out a sigh of relief as he hugged me back, rubbing his hands in a circular motion on the center of my back. I knew he was choking back his tears as he was hugging me because he wanted to be strong but I didn’t want that. I honestly didn’t care about him crying. The only thing that was really bothering me was Princess Kein. No one knows anything about her. She came out into the world one night for her coming-of-age ceremony but that was the last time anyone has ever seen her. No one knew about her being a shifter until one of the princesses I knew spreaded the word around as if it was the great plague. No one wanted a rude shifter as their future queen, not even me! So once they sealed off the gates towards the castle, that’s when the people found out that they couldn’t survive without the king and his money. My father wasn’t giving out a single dime to anyone because he wanted to care for me and only me. Yet, when the people went to finally ‘accept’ the princess, the King was found dead, and his daughter was missing. The people lost their minds and destroyed the kingdom. They destroyed their own town and homes as if it was nothing but a piece of junk that was blocking their way from money.

Society doesn’t exist without money. This society is nothing without the King’s money. So the people stormed into the kingdom and destroyed it all, leaving nothing but rubble. When a new ruler arrived, it was as if our original kingdom was nothing but a mere fairytale. Yet, no one knew what happened towards the King’s child. Some say she killed her father and ran, others say she stabbed her heart and killed herself, and the biggest one I heard is that she ran away to hide from the people but she was planning to return with an army of dragons and warriors to take back her rightful claim to the throne.

“What a bunch of bullshit...”