Description: All Jesse ever wanted was to be loved by her father, but he harbours a strong disdain towards her. She was considered bad luck after her mother died from an illness that she caught after giving birth to her. When he plans to assassinate her, she escapes from her castle in order to seek asylum. However, she may not be finding the sanctuary she hopes for in the wilderness of the outside world.
After all, her existence is a crime, and such a crime is punishable by death. Can she hope to avoid such a fate, or is there no possible way to escape?
Contains: Horror, adventure, abusive adults, and madness in general.
Inspired by: Genealogy Of Red, White and Black.
Revenant Girl
Chapter 0—Miracle Child
A Queen looked out from her window at the castle. There she prayed to God for a child. Hair as black as ebony, lips red as blood and skin white as snow. It was her only wish.
Sure enough, a beautiful baby was born soon after. Just like the queen wished for, the child had hair as black as ebony, lips red as blood and skin white as snow. She couldn't have been happier.
However, wishes came with a price. In exchange for the miracle child, the queen was cursed with a grave illness.
Despite that, the Queen did not care. She loved her child more than anything, and would do anything to protect her.
The King was not pleased to know that his queen came down with an illness after childbirth. He looked at his daughter with disdain and shook his head.
"A curse. She's a curse." He said gravely.
The Queen shook her head. "No, she's a miracle. Our miracle."
…
Jesse walked through the dark stone hallway leading to the King's chambers. He was supposed to be there ages ago! She waited for a whole fifteen minutes, but when he did not show up, she decided to personally pick him up herself.
It was surprising to know that he was late. He was never late for her death anniversary, and in fact he would sometimes show up early. He would not arrange any meetings or attend any gatherings on her death anniversary. When he was not present at her grave at nine o'clock sharp, she knew that something was wrong.
"Daddy?" Jesse called out as she knocked on the grand double doors. There was shuffling of feet and the small clatter of objects, and the doors opened. It was not the King.
"Axel?" Jesse questioned, raising a brow.
The servant flinched slightly at the sight of her, but regained his composure shortly after. "Your Highness, I apologise for startling you. I'll be on my way." With that, he turned and left as abruptly as he came.
(Weird…) Jesse thought as she gingerly stepped in. She barely even took a second step when a towering figure stood in her way.
"Daddy?"
"You're in my way."
"Sorry…" Jesse mumbled as she stepped aside.
Without saying anything, he shut the doors and walked on ahead, a bouquet of wildflowers in his hand.
"Are those for mommy?" Jesse asked as she caught up with her father.
"Tch, of course. Why do you think I would be holding flowers for?" He scoffed, not bothering to make eye contact with her.
A long silence hung over the two as they made their way to the castle graveyards, a private graveyard where royals and important nobles were buried. At the very back where flowers were planted in abundance, was the grave of the late Queen. Fanciful statues of angels watched over the grave and a small fountain was situated at the right, where birds came to have a drink. They had a minute of silence, before they presented their gifts. Jesse gave a ruby necklace that she had the royal jeweller make.
"Mommy, I found your ruby that you lost so many years ago. I remember that you were very upset and you rejected the new one that was bought. I found it hidden in a rose bush in the garden, and I decided to turn it into a necklace so that you can wear it with you and won't lose it again! I hope you're happy, mommy."
The Queen had lost her prized ruby many years ago, and she had spent months trying to search for it. She even ordered all of the servants to search the entire castle for the jewel, but to no avail. Jesse had heard her mother crying over the loss of the ruby. The ruby wasn't bigger than her fist, so it wasn't too valuable. But she wondered why the ruby was so precious to her that no other bigger or shinier jewel could replace it.
Jesse curtseyed out of respect and left, giving her father the privacy he wanted. It was a tradition they had. Every anniversary, Jesse would offer her gift and say whatever she wanted to say first before she left to allow her father to have some alone time with her mother.
As she stepped out of the graveyard, a miniature pink figure came running towards her and stopped at her feet. It looked up to her with pleading eyes while lifting its forelegs.
Jesse giggled as she scooped up the animal and tickled its belly. It squealed and squirmed under her hold. She then placed the pig back on the ground. "Reuben! You cutie! How are you doing?"
Reuben oinked and jumped in delight.
"Aww, that's so sweet!"
"Oink!"
"Hehehe, I found mommy's ruby hiding in a rose bush in the garden, and I had the royal jeweller make it into a necklace. That way, mommy won't lose it ever again."
Reuben started running towards the back window of the castle and pointed his head at it. "Oink!"
"Huh? Oh no, I can't possibly do that! Daddy doesn't like animals in his castle! If he finds out we'll be in big trouble!"
Dejected, Reuben bowed his head and poked at the ground with his forelegs.
Jesse took pity on him and gave in. "Alright. I'll bring my basket and you can hide inside. Just don't make any noise, okay?"
The pig squealed happily.
And so, Jesse was entrusted on a very dangerous mission of smuggling her pig to her chambers. She had to pass the never ending swarm of servants and guards, trying her best to act normal and praying that Reuben would not blow his cover. When they finally arrived at her chamber, she landed on the floor in a tired heap and the animal leaped out of the basket in glee. It then proceeded to take in his new surroundings with much enthusiasm.
While Reuben was exploring the bedroom, Jesse sat herself on a chair and started studying. She was supposed to read up on the history of the Order Of The Stone for a test the day after. If she failed the test, her tutor would not be happy.
After two hours of nonstop reading and memorising, it was already lunchtime. Jesse gently reminded Reuben to behave and to not leave the room at all costs, before heading to the dining hall.
The private dining hall that was reserved for the King and his family was the size of a football field, with many torches latched onto the walls with a giant chandelier to boot. Up to this day, Jesse had a feeling that the massive chandelier would give way and crush her while she was eating.
There her father was at the end of the ridiculously long table, silently eating his meal. She took her seat at the other end and settled into her meal. As usual, both parties did not exchange any words and solely focusing on their current tasks.
Once upon a time, the hall used to be a lively place. Her mother and father would often pass sarcastic remarks to one another while discussing about the day's events. If they were in a good mood, they would make many jokes that filled the hall with laughter. But with her mother gone, her father never smiled anymore. His temper also worsened.
Jesse had never really seen her father blow his top, except for that one time where she eavesdropped on her parent's heated argument one night. She had a nightmare and wanted to sleep with her mommy and daddy in hopes of chasing the nightmare out of her mind. However, after hearing their violent argument that included shouting, screaming, cursing, smashing and hurling of objects, she reconsidered her decision. Moments later her father stormed out of the chamber, fuming. Her mother remained. She paced up and down, muttering a string of curses and hurled something through the doors after yelling, "Stupid thing!" Jesse picked it up and realised it was her favourite ruby, which somehow got lost a few days later.
Jesse could vividly remember the days following her mother's funeral. He became extremely demanding and unreasonable, yelling at the servants whenever they did something that displeased him. She had heard that the servants whom had displeased the king were executed at the Death Bowl. It may have been true, as she recognised the few servants who sparked her father's temper and seemingly disappeared from existence the next day.
His temper had somewhat calmed down slightly as the years passed, but it still was pretty bad. What if she tried talking to him now? He didn't seem to be in the mood to talk, but then again there was no way he would bear to execute his daughter.
"...Daddy?" Jesse spoke tentatively.
He showed no signs of having heard her. She tried again, louder this time. "Daddy?" Still no response. "Uhhmm… dad? Can I… speak to you for a moment?"
It seemed that he did not even acknowledge his daughter's existence, until he paused from his meal and looked up with a blank expression. "What? Spit it out—I don't have all day."
(Finally!) "I was just wondering… if we could chat for a while. I would like to know more about… politics."
He snorted. "Oh puh-leze. Never in my lifetime have I ever seen you interested in anything but politics. Why the hell do you even wanna talk about that shit anyway? I never even liked it in the first place. I'm sick and tired of tolerating stuck up ministers and nobles. So shut up for the rest of the day, okay?" He then took a few last bites of his meal before walking out coldly, leaving Jesse alone with her lunch, silence and her thoughts.
…
"...and with the famed finishing blow from Gabriel, the Ender Dragon was defeated and the Order emerged victorious!"
"Yay!" Jesse exclaimed as she waved a wooden sword above her head. "Take that, Ender Dragon!"
The Queen giggled as she placed down the closed book on her lap. "Alright Jesse, story time's over, time for bed."
Jesse whined and slumped her shoulders. "Awww, can you read another one? I want you to tell me that story when dad blew up your contraption!"
The Queen shook her head in amusement. "I thought I told you that yesterday. I bet he did that on purpose, that scoundrel. He knows how fragile redstone is. Anyway, I gave him a beating and sentenced him to sleeping in the guest room, while I sorted out my work."
Jesse giggled.
"Now, I think it's time for you to go to bed." At this, Jesse obeyed and tucked herself under the velvet covers of her king sized bed. Her mother gave a goodnight kiss, turned off the lights and gently closed the door.
Jesse sighed as she picked up a picture frame containing her mother's picture. She looked absolutely beautiful in her satin red and orange gown, while her hair was silky and glowed under the lighting. Her father had ordered every single photograph and portrait of her mother destroyed after her death. Jesse had taken great care to hide the last remaining photo of her so as to not forget her face.
"Mommy… why did you have to go? We were so happy back then. If you never left, perhaps all those poor servants could have lived, and daddy would still be smiling. Why…?"
The howl of chilling wind and Reuben's light snores were her only response.
Yay, I finally got my MCSM fanfic published! And royalty AU is my favourite genre of fanfiction. There will be hints of canon here and there, don't worry!
Tip: FemJesse's parents are canon characters from the game. I won't be surprised if you managed to guess who; I gave out a few obvious hints. I wanted to keep their identity a secret until later, but oh well.
