The Darkness of My Heart
Growing up I loved hearing stories of the Bengals. The Bengals were a powerful race of human like creatures that possessed magic and could turn into animals. Over a thousand years ago they had conquered all the lands of Arcane. Though humans became their lesser, they treated humans with respect and protected them during war. Things drastically changed two hundred years ago when a strange blood disease killed most of the females Bengals. The Bengal king became desperate. His people were dying and those who didn't die; did not have mates to reproduce with. It was then when he was informed that some humans had a genetic mutation that allowed them to mate with the Bengal species. This news thrilled the King and soon after, he made in mandatory that every town put forth all of their young females that were of age and not claimed. The King and his generals would go each of the towns in his land and take all of the women with the gene mutation back to the palace. The Bengals' acute sense of smell allowed them to smell the difference in the females.
Growing up, every child knew of the Bengal's power and the ceremonies in each town. My first memory of the Bengals was when I was five. I was fascinated by their strong horses and large wooden carriages as they rode into my town. Young girls from neighboring houses were lined up, many were smiling, but a few also had gloomy faces. King Cardone stepped off his horse and landed gracefully on the ground. A smirk adorned his face and he radiated of power. Followed closely behind him was the young prince of only twelve years, the young prince watched his father in slight awe as he walked past the young girls. As he past the girls a second time, he simply pointed towards some of them and then towards a large carriage at the end of group. Five girls left in total. I recognized none but one of them, a shy girl who followed her father everywhere. Before entering the carriage, she turned and gave her father a sad smile. At that moment she knew she would never see her father again. That was the hardest part for these girls, it was an honor to be taken to the palace to become a wife of a Bengal, but they had to leave their entire family behind. I turned my head back to the young prince. By this point he had a look of boredom of his face and he smiled when he saw that they were leaving.
Two years later like clockwork, the King, prince and entourage returned. Only three girls left that year. Another two years past, I was now nine and the prince was sixteen. Even though I was still young I looked at the prince with a new found awe. He had grown up immensely, from the awkward fourteen year old, to the handsome sixteen year old. Nine girls left that year; I remember the King had a large grin on his face as he saw how many new girls he had acquired.
As I got older I knew more and more of the girls that left. I had even been friendly with a few of them. When I was thirteen, a sixteen-year-old named Molly was taken. For four weeks after her older brother cried his eyes out; he knew he would never see his little sister grow up. Three days before my fifteenth birthday, our town received the news of King Cardone's death. His son Endymoin, now twenty-two ascended to the thrown. People all over Arcane were happy because they felt that great things would come from Endymoin's power, I believed it too. Well I believed it until he came to our town for the normal ceremony. My older sister, Mina, who was now eighteen and eligible, you are considered to be of age at seventeen, stood in line with the rest of the girls. Mina was excited for the arrival of King Endymoin and the possibility to be taken to the palace. I had been nervous all day and my nerves were only heightened as the King paced in front of the girls like his father used to do. I found them so similar, sometimes it was scary. My heart stopped as I saw the King lift his finger and signal to Mina to go towards the carriage. No! I couldn't let my one and only sister, my best friend be taken away from me. I ran towards her screaming, I tried to reach her, but was stopped suddenly before I could. I thrashed in my capture's arms, but they were much too strong for me. Slowly I calmed down and turned around in their arms and came face to face with deep steel blue eyes. I gasped knowing whose arms I was in.
I stilled suddenly when the King bent down towards my neck and inhaled deeply. Soon a deep smirk developed on his lips. I was terrified and helpless. Suddenly our town's leader pushed through the crowd that had developed.
"Your majesty! She is only fifteen, you know the rules; girls cannot be taken until they are seventeen. You can't have her yet, not yet!" By this point the town's leader had made her way to Endymoin and Serenity. She held her arms out to receive Serenity but Endymoin wouldn't let her go. He only held on tighter to her, a dark look in his eyes. He then suddenly and quickly leaned down to nip at her neck, just hard enough to break the skin but not enough to cause Serenity a lot of pain.
"Now hear this. This girl here is now claimed by me. I will return in two years time to take her back with me. She is off limits to all and if I find out that anyone touched or harmed her, there will be hell to pay." Endymoin looked down at Serenity who couldn't decide whether to be scared out of her mind or to be awed by what was happening. "Two years my kitten, just two years." He then leaned forward to place a small light kiss on her lips, he then pulled away and eased Serenity into the town leader's arms. He back away and with an animal's grace he quickly made his was back to his carriage and entered it without a look back to the stunned town's people behind him. Within a moments noticed the train of horses and carriages left to return back to the castle at the top of the hill.
"Serenity, darling, are you alright?" Serenity stared off at the ever traveling carriages, they rounded a corner and were soon out of sight, but she continued to stare in a trance. "Serenity, are you alright?" The leader repeated again. She gently shook the shoulder of the younger girl trying to get her to respond. Eventually Serenity looked up and then headed towards her father.
"I am sorry Daddy. In one day you lose both of your daughters. What will you do when I am gone? You will be by yourself. I can't let that happen to you, I just can't." Serenity continued walking, leaving her speechless town behind her, she just entered her house and went up to her room to write in her diary.
"Dear Diary, today my world has turned upside down and I am not quite sure how to react to it. Should I be scared that in two years I will taken from my home and away from the life I know? Or should I be happy and excited? I would most likely be able to see Mina again and Endymoin is very powerful. He is a well respected leader and that probably means he would treat me well. He is already very protective of me." Serenity fingered the mark that was now forming on her collar bone. "Two years, he will be coming back in two years."