Once long ago, there was a beautiful kingdom.
What made this particular kingdom special though was that it was quite isolated as it was located on a island far out on the ocean.
That meant that many of the people who lived there were fishermen and everyday they would take out their boats to fish in the plentiful but also sometimes rather treacherous ocean.

It was a rather simple kingdom but a happy one, whom enjoyed all the good things they had and spend plenty of time to develop art and other things of beauty.

Nothing though beat the castle which stood on the top off the cliff facing the ocean, at this castle lived their royal family. The King, the Queen and their son the prince.
Their castle was a marvel to behold, outside the walls where white and the glass windows would shine in many colors.
Inside the ballroom was adorned with many paintings and tapestries of great finesse.
Chandeliers made from gold and crystals, glass stained windows which were pieces of art in of themselves, cups and other china which was so delicate that their guests always got rather nervous to eat and drink from these items.
The kingdom took great pride in all their very talented and skilled artesans, and their works brought the kingdom many riches, though the royaly family always kept the most beautiful pieces of art for themselves and proudly displayed them at places where people could see and gaze upon the items splendor.

It was though widely agreed upon that nothing, nothing in the entire castle was to compare with the garden!
It was not easy to grow plants on such an island, and especially not right next to the coast, but somehow the royal family had managed it. Flowers in all the colors of the rainbow was to be found there, hyacinths, snowdrops, sunflowers, lily's and everything in between. Yet also among the flowers there was one which stood out. The great rose bush with all the dark red velvet roses on it.

These were the princes favorite flowers, every morning he would go on a morning walk and stop just to look at these wonderful roses. Eventually he asked the gardner how on earth such flowers could bloom at this place and the gardner taught the prince how to plant and take care of the flowers, and he would take it upon himself to look after these roses with his own hands, to always make sure they would grow strong and beautiful.

One day however tragedy stroke, the sea was indeed treacherous and the ship the king and queen had boarded to visit another kingdom was caught in a storm and sank to the ocean.

The prince did not have an easy time handling the death of his parents, he started to become gloomy and locked himself into his chambers, he refused to eat and didn't want to talk. Scared by the massive responsibility he now had to face.

That was when a young maid working for the palace caught his eye. The maid was beautiful, she had long flowing platin blond hair, delicate facial features, her lips were ruby red and somehow her words seemed so soothing. The maid would come to the prince's chambers and allow him to cry into her embrace as he talked about all his doubts and fears.

The maid would embrace the prince and kiss his tears away, then she would start to kiss his lips and whisper words of comfort into his ear.

Eventually though, the prince finally came over his depression and he had realized what a horrible mistake he had made, for he did not love this woman.
He looked at her but felt nothing, her words were sweet as honey but they were also empty. And so one day, the prince finally took it upon himself to tell the maid the truth. That it had been a mistake, that he would be glad to give her money to last her a life time if they could just forget about it.

The young woman however, did not take it well! She was furious, her anger so great that it even scared the prince.
And he had a good reason to be scared! For this woman was in fact a witch, she had fallen madly in love with the prince and could not tolerate the mere thought of sharing, let alone being cast out by the object of her desire.

And she came back with a vengeance, soon all kinds of disaster started to happen across the island kingdom. Fish that was caught turned out to be sick and uneatable, crops began to wilt and a eternal storm started to envelope the entire island.

"Admit that you love me!" The witch demanded of the prince as she stood un top of the cliff with the ocean beneath her, the heavy wind was grabbing her dress and the rain making her hair plaster to her face. "Say that you love me and I will undo all of it!"

"But I don't love you, why can't you just understand?" The Prince asked then hissed. "You have gone to far! Because of you my people is starving, I must exile you from this country!"

The witch hissed. "you can't exile me!"

"You are getting easy off!" The Prince exclaimed. "You can hereby consider yourself exiled! Take whatever money or jewels you want from the castle then leave!" he demanded. "LEAVE THIS KINGDOM! And if anyone sees you here by tomorrow they'll have the right to kill you. Now go!" he demanded.

And the witch screamed, as scream so loud that it compeated with the thunder and the prince had to cover his own ears.

"Mark my words!" The witch then shouted. "If I can't have you, NO ONE WILL!" she shouted then spread out her arms. "With the power of my own life, I shall put a curse on you and this entire kingdom!" she stated.

The princes eyes widened. "What are you?" he asked as the witch stepped backwards, now standing on the absolutely edge of the cliff.

"This land, will become a land of darkness and shadow. Its people nothing but shadows and their voices nothing but whispers in the wind! Not really alive but neither really dead." The witch stated. "You though will be the lord of this shadow land, a beast! A demon king fitting for this realm! You'll be alone at this place, your only company the echoes from the past, whispered by the people whom are now merely shadows. Your only salvation would be if a fair maiden would be able to look past your exterior and see you for who you are. BUT THE ONLY ONE ABLE TO DO THAT WOULD BE ME! FOR I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO EVER TRULY LOVED YOU!" she shouted. "See then when you have been alone for an eternity if you would still refuse my love?" she asked. "Don't worry, I shall be with you, as a whisper in your ear. I will never leave you, I will always be here. And you will realize, i'm the only one who ever loved you." she said as she had spread out her arms and walked backwards.

"HEY!" The prince shouted. "What are you doing?!"

And the witch smiled, then she stepped backwards and made herself fall into the depths below. "LET THE CURSE BEGIN!" she screamed as she fell and then laughed. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Gasping the prince ran for the edge and looked down, but all he could see were the rocks standing slightly above the water level and a dark substance spilling into the water… It had to be blood from the dead body. The woman had just killed herself! The prince gasped as he stepped backwards. "Madness." he breathed then stood up only for his eyes to widen as suddenly a black mist seemed to envelope the island. Wide-eyed he looked around as the black mist seemed to come rolling from all sides.

Frightened the prince stood up then had to back away to avoid the mist, but it still came for him, he tried to turn to run but the mist came from all the sides. With all his might the prince ran but there was no escaping it, finally he was trapped, no matter where he turned everything was covered in black and then suddenly his eyes widened as his heart made a loud beat and he screamed as he grabbed his head.

What took place then was to ungodly for words, clothes were being ripped, teethes grew out and became fangs, fingers became claws that were razor sharp and eyes became shining red as burning flames.

And every last little detail was excruciating. However, all that pain lasted only for a moment, what was to come was much worse.

Days, weeks, months, years, decades…. An eternity alone at this shadowy place where shadows whispered echoes of the past.

Soon a person would have to question if any of these voices were even real? If anything was! Everything was bleak and empty, there was no one.

Only one voice stood above the rest, a woman's voice whom would speak to him in a whisper. "Oh my dear love, you shall lack nothing. I'm giving you finery and foods, i'm letting you grow your flowers. Anything you ask and it shall be yours. Now we can be together forever. I can almost forgive you that you made me kill myself."

The beast had long since forgotten just who the voice belonged to or what the meaning was of this, there was only darkness and emptiness for him. This voice, was his only comfort.