The air was cold; cold as the icy wastelands back home, I daresay. The floral bushes by the moors were all but withered under the dry weather. The meadows brushed against each other as the wind breezed through them. There wasn’t a sign of the sun. I stared at the benign sky listlessly as I moved my feet forward. I stepped on something rather slippery. To my concern, all the water was frozen solid—lakes, canals, ponds. It still felt quit real—and it was still warm and emitted vapors, hot vapors.

It was blood.

The grass was fresh. It wasn’t that old when I stepped on. Spears hung opposite to the ground, bodies limp on them, not a stain of blood wasted by their enemies. I felt badly nauseous and covered my mouth while the wet ground gave a foul odor of blood mixed with an evil scent. Bodies hung down, impaled from the spears, their blood already gone. The sound of flies buzzing echoed feebly around my feet as I continued my walk up the hill in front of me. As terrific as it got, I confined myself inside my own mind and began arguing with myself that, praying for the dead wasn’t going to bring them back…

My eyes widened on a sight I hadn’t even had a hunch of. Brutality at its mass, and especially for me, was this scene the most painful.

A limp body hung above on three spears, being impaled on her back, someone very familiar to me dunked her head downwards, dripping with a dark warm liquid. She wasn’t alive, and it scared me. My breathing turned ragged and my knees gave out. Trembling down, I covered my face with horror befalling on my eyes. I wanted to scream on the sight, but I couldn’t. Every nerve in my neck choked.

Michelle hung with her back impaled with spears soaked in blood. The spears held her body in mid air while protruding from the ground. Her body was lifeless, her face turned to a state of horror and her eyes bloodshot, blood gushing from every cut possible. She was dead. There was nothing I could do. Only to stare at the horrific sight that burned into my memory. With one silent gasp, I screamed aloud.

‘…hey,’

‘Hey!’ someone shouted. I zapped out of my shut eye and looked at the yeller. He stared down at me with a calm face. His eyes were cold, not dead. ‘You’re day-dreaming, are you?’ Hiro looked down at my face while I lay still on the halted cart. He stood there waiting for me outside the cart. Hesitantly, I drew myself from my self-delusions and jumped down on the dirt, rubbing my temples.

‘Let’s get moving, shall we?’ Hiro turned to an alley, and then I realized we were just outside the bustling crowded city of The Capital. Lights from the lanterns shone the path towards the main street, people walked in pairs up to the taverns nearby, ladies giggled and young men horsed around. It was so beautiful…

‘Hey!’ Hiro whispered rashly from the far corner of the alley, that his voice echoed up to the crevices. ‘Do you want to come with me, or do you want to spend the entire night staring at those happy doves?’ he did not show me anger, but a little hint of annoyance. Then, nodding towards the old alleyway, I stared on and started behind him. It was a dark place, which gave birth to an uneasy feeling in my mind. Something was happening; something very terrific and fiery. My mind tingled.

‘How much till we get close to the Queen’s palace?’ I began while pushing aside an old dahlia aside and turning towards yet another alley. Hiro said nothing, just focused on the road ahead. It was pointless for me to talk to him, knowing he spoke so little to lengthen the conversation between us. We continued down the alley, unknowingly what befell next…

‘Careful on passing the patrol… they are strict on guard at night.’ Hiro looked at me with the eyes of a partner, saying goodbye to his friend in a battlefield. Of course we had our own fights and things that we wanted to protect: he let go of my arm and turned the other way. ‘I hope you get what you want…’ and with a second rustle of the bush, he was gone. Gone like the wind.

I sneaked past the massive railing front gates. Looking at the guards patrolling, I didn’t see them any familiar than I had last time. Instead, they were more different. Where did they come from? Did they come from the capital? I didn’t know for sure. All I wanted now was to see Michelle. Past the guards and through the bushes, I reached the front door and creaked inside.

The room was dimly lit by the sun’s rays seeping through the frames of the door-windows. It had a golden simmer that felt warm on my skin. It made me feel like home. Shaking my head, I waved off the thoughts and headed upstairs on possible quite steady feet avoiding rash sounds. The floorboards under my feet gave a creak few little as I stepped forwards but with my lightest attempt to get closer to Michelle’s sleeping dorm. I swallowed hard, trying not to lose my sight and turned to knob, only to find it was already opened. I stepped inside.

With my highest amount of mustered confidence, I took the liberty of making so little of a sound from my mouth that only I could hear.

‘Miss Michelle?’ that was a cowardly voice, I daresay. There was a feeling of eeriness enveloping all over me which left me in a rather uneasy mood. ‘Miss Michelle…’ I began. That’s when a dark, yet shining figure leaped out of nowhere onto me, almost throwing me off my feet. I gasped suddenly and we fell with a thud to the ground. Coming to my senses, it felt quite a gentle touch of someone, like touching a feathery pillow. I willed to start, ‘Miss—’

‘Why?’ there was a soothing, yet mournful voice from the figure. There was no doubt in my mind that it was my mistress. ‘Why didn’t you come back…?’ she whimpered lightly, tightening her grip around my neck and shoulders.

‘Miss, listen to me… I’

‘I don’t want to hear any excuses! You absolute fool! Why did you not come with me? I was afraid… afraid that you might,’ she sobbed, and I tried touching her by the shoulders. She snapped my hand away, ‘Don’t touch me!’ I withdrew my hand and firmed myself.

‘Do you still not wish to hear my reason?’ I gave her a weak smile while lying on the soft carpet. ‘It is fine by me if you don’t want to listen to my story. I am fine with you hating me after I abandoned you. I did deserve that.’ I gave a dry laugh to ease off the awkwardness that struck suddenly between the pair of us. She gazed down on my face, not saying anything, like an innocent animal which did not know of the world’s existence. ‘I am truly sorry, milady.’

‘How many times did I tell you… stop being so formal to me,’ she had a look that struck me, and moved me from inside. She was like a maiden pleading to gain her templar’s trusts, with a loving gesture. She seemed so beautiful. My heart raced inside my chest. Her face was extremely close to my face, I could tell she was trembling, blush obvious on her face. She looked at me helplessly, panting a little.

My body felt hot and I suddenly felt an urge to take off my bearings. She stroked my chest gently, unbuttoning it the very moment.

‘I missed you…’ she closed her eyelids which sacrificed a drop of tear shedding down her cheek. It pained me to see her like that. How must have she felt when I was gone. Of course I didn’t want her to worry about or wait for me. But… seeing her like that, I felt a sense of protection barrier onto us at the very second. I didn’t move.  She crept closer to my body, feeling up my legs.

‘Wait I can’t—‘

She shushed me with a kiss, her tongue rolling inside my mouth. With a sweet vacuum of her mouth, she made me hazy in a manner which compelled me to ease my grip on her shoulders, giving her the liberty to take the lead. I didn’t want to do this. But I had to put up with her trifles before she made any fuss about me abandoning her. That was true…

We embraced each other for a while. And before I knew it, we were ravaging each other’s insides while moaning in pleasure. I kissed her neck; she pushed me back with smothered looking face. She was very flustered. I looked at her face only to see her turn the other way.

‘Come,’ she pulled my neck gently towards her, kissing me deeply. I followed her lead. We went into each other’s heat, huffing, licking, inhaling each other’s smell. That’s when I first recognized her smell. With a hint of dry lavender, mixed with sweet lemon grass and a delicate smell of white lilies, she had the most alluring aura I had ever encountered. I touched her, feeling her in places, knowing her shape thoroughly feeling that I should protect her. However, I could not begin to predict as to what she felt about the current situation that upheld us both, that made us go forward. She was a Queen. A Queen among the demons; living alongside humans. They call it as the Underworld. If you would consider comparing our lives, we were different than most people in our own ways, in our own world. Our fates entwined in a certain point in time, in a certain place scarce of the words—heaven and hell. You could say it was a rip between spaces and time where no one existed except us; somehow connecting at the very moment.

While gently moving with her, I saw her in an unusual sight. I felt more compelled to entrap her in my clutches and to never let go. Somehow, she didn’t emit an aura of a delicate being. Instead, she reminded me of an animal in heat, waiting to ravish, waiting to be ravished. She blushed while looking at my face.

‘Don’t… stare too much. Idiot...’ She said in a vulnerably low voice. As if feeling a bit self conscious, her cheeks reddened. She covered her breasts and curled up a little. Not to lie to myself, she was so far the most beautiful thing I ever encountered in my life. I reluctantly removed her hands and began to lick. She moaned. My touches intensified as we reached levels beyond of pleasure. It was absolute bliss.

Morning came just as suddenly as everything else. The sunlight seeped through the glass window sill and hit my face, carrying a warm glow. I felt my body weak and unable to lift myself up. My clothes were gone, leaving my shirt on. A sense of an unknown satisfaction came over me. I was smiling… no, grinning all the way to the cheeks. Because I never smiled since my high school days, it was completely a new feeling for me. I felt relieved for some reason. I really did it with mistress. And here I was…

No… how could I forget? I am in bed with the mistress! Fear ran through my spine, giving me a chill out of the bones. But, the longer I looked at her face sleeping, the more I realized and knew about this little sweet lady who brought me into this world, to live out my life for a second time. My memories hadn’t been erased of the previous world. I suddenly wondered about my friends—how have they been? Were they fine? I shook and scratched my head.

Her face reminded of our first encounter. I was nearly dead after a car hit me hard. She appeared out of nowhere and brought me here with her. I was grateful to her for saving my life; thinking that I would return the favor someday. But, anything that has ever happened, was all about the mistress getting hurt… and me cowering into a corner, seeking help from somebody. I never deserved anything good… and yet here I was together with her in her bed. We even made love. All this seemed a distant vague dream to me. Was I really alive to witness this?

‘You are awake…’ she said almost in a whisper, tugging my shirt lightly. She was still covered with the warm bed sheet, white as the sun’s rays, white as milk. She gave me a weak smile. That made her too adorable. I turned my face the other way to hide my flushed cheeks. ‘Hmph!’ she giggled lightly.

I couldn’t help but smile at her reaction. I suddenly flinched…

‘I am truly sorry, miss! I didn’t mean to force you to do such a thing! Please consider it an accident. I apologize!’ I panicked, thinking wildly that she might do something to me and bowed down hard. But instead, she gave me a look of a gazelle lazing around. She was suddenly… elegant. She cupped her chin with her palms lying still, ‘You really are an air head you know that?’ she laughed. It was a sweet one. I gulped. ‘W-Well, if you would excuse me.’ I stated, and carefully slid down the bed with my shirt half-buttoned on.

‘Ah, come to think of it…’ she began from behind me, ‘can you bring me some tea? I am thirsty,’ she gave me a seductive stare.

‘Sure… as you wish milady.’ I nervously replied.

‘Of course you would! You made me like this!’ she laughed and giggled loudly and covered her face with the sheet. I could make out that she was obviously flustered. It made me happy.

And I was sure that from then on, I would never leave her side… ever.