Chapter three

Love,

I had no heart for it, he said,

Then it wasn't supposed to hurt,

But it did…


The flames that had razed the palace of Orleania were still hungry, trying to lick the skin of the heaven to quench their insatiable appetite. She stared intently at those flames; blocking all sounds around her, save for her master, as she curled her fingers into her palms.

At her back, Princess Caroline howled like an injured animal while her master's soft laugh belittled her for her pain.

When she had been newly enslaved, she used to wonder why her master was this way. Why was he so cruel, so heartless as to take enjoyment in someone else's suffering?

Now that she was old and partly tamed, she didn't waste her time on such foolish, naïve thoughts.

'Save your tears, Princess,' he master remarked amiably, 'you will need them once you wed me.'

And like wives before her, Princess Caroline would die by her master's hand once he consummated the marriage, and she would be the one who would be left to dump her body in the lake, change the sheets on his bed and search for another maiden for him.

The flames started making their way towards the town.

She knew he won't order her to extinguish them. He never did.

Why had she made her way on earth that cursed day? Now that years had gone by and her memories of that time were hazy at best, she wondered what madness had gripped her that she had been unable to see his true face, the monster that wore the human skin.

Her fingers itched as the orange inched closer and closer to the human settlement.

Was it not enough that he had extinguished the entire royal line of Orleania? Was it not enough that he would wed Caroline, beautiful, innocent Caroline and sully her with his seed? Was it not enough that he would get to taste her death, that her warm blood would run over the blade of his sword?

But then enough was never enough for her master, was it?

Absently, her fingers moved in swirling patterns and her hands away from her body. The flames started dying while she remained lost in her thoughts.

It was a sharp hit from the whip that brought her back.

Like it always did.

It didn't hurt like it had the very first time when her tender skin had been cut into ribbons, nor did she plead and beg like she once had.

She let herself fall on her knees, her head bowed in supplication.

'I deserve your wrath for my impertinence, master,' she whispered and closed her eyes for the hits that would follow.

It had become almost routine—her defiance of him to save few people that she could. She was under no illusion as to believe that she actually did manage to defy him when she went against his orders. They both knew that if he really wanted, he could make her kill those she tried to save against her will.

Princess Caroline's crying had ebbed to silent whimpers.

She closed her eyes and braced herself for her punishment.

There was no escaping her master…


Elena woke with a start. Sun was already on the verge of disappearing beneath the horizon, leaving the orange imprint on clouds that dotted the blue expanse of the sky.

Like the flames she had witnessed in her dreams.

She stretched to get rid of the stiffness in her bones and muscles. Her back felt sore.

Evening was slowly stealing away the sun, and now, she had no other option than to return. If she was late by even a minute, Jeremy would start looking for her.

Why was the old man not here even today?

He had invited her to visit him in the afternoons and she had been coming here regularly from last four days, but there was neither hide nor hair of him here.

Didn't he know how difficult it was to escape from trained eyes of your friends who kept tabs on you because your younger brother was a terror to deal with?

She started walking back, circling the pond, making sure not to stray too close to the stone edge. There was something about this pond that creeped her out. There was this malevolent aura that she always felt when she gazed at the still, glassy surface of the water.

She would never tell this to the old man when she met him again, but the pond, the tree that she often sat against, the narrow, barely there pathway that led her there—all of it scared her. She might not hear him anymore, but she felt his eyes on her person all the same.

Every second, every minute, no matter where she was, the hairs at the nape of her neck would always be standing up as if someone was staring at her.

As expected, when she looked around, there was no one.

Just like nobody but her had seen him in the mirrors.

The scent of honeysuckle and roses brought her out of her reverie. She was almost at the edge of the woods.

'Elena…' Someone whispered softly from behind, the voice familiar and terrifying.

She froze mid-step. He…he couldn't be here. She thought in bewilderment. She gazed at her wrist where the rope of red pearls shined in the barely there evening light.

Why was she hearing him again?

'Elena, have you missed me?'

'Go away,' she screamed, closing her eyes immediately, wrapping her arms around her as her knees gave away from beneath her and she fell on the forest floor.

'I've missed you.' His breath, she could feel it on her cheeks. Somehow, he was here.

He was here beside her.

'Foolish girl, how naïve are you? Do you think trinkets and charms can keep me away?' he sibilated. 'Do you think you can be saved from me?'

'Please, go away. Go away!'

'How beautiful you sound, my dear! I have not seen or heard anyone begging as prettily as you in almost thousand years. Won't you open your eyes for me?'

'Please, please…'

'Little bird!' the voice came from a distance, and Elena wasn't sure if she was actually hearing it or it was just in her head.

'Farewell for now, my love,' he said sweetly. 'Your savior is here.'

'Little bird, why are you lying on the ground?' Hands shook her; they pulled her away from the earth to a solid chest clad in smooth fabric that smelt of honeysuckle and roses.

'Little bird?' her hooded savior prompted.

'I waited for you,' she said softly. 'I waited for you…'

She would be embarrassed when she came to her senses, but for now, she cried. Loudly and carelessly, letting out the sobs that somehow felt cathartic.

'So, you did, little bird. Why did you?' he asked after some time, when her sobs had died and the tears that had wet her cheeks were wiped away roughly by hasty palms. 'You could've stopped coming after the first afternoon when I didn't show up.' He held her hand as she stood up on her legs that still shook slightly. He dusted off the soil and leaves clinging on the folded sleeves of her shirt.

'I wanted to talk,' she answered in a small voice as he made her turn around to check for soil stains.

'You don't have friends?'

'They don't know how to talk to me,' she replied sadly. 'They are always careful lest they trigger my hallucinations or seizures.'

'I am not the kind you befriend, little bird,' he said, dropping his hands that were about to pluck a dead leaf from her hair. 'The last woman who thought of me as her friend, I took out her heart and kept it in a glass jar on my bedside.'

She stared at the hood that hid his face and she didn't know if he was kidding or not.

'Did she die?' she asked hesitantly as she took a step away from him.

'No, she didn't. She didn't know how to die,' he murmured absently.

Elena laughed awkwardly to fill the silence that had started to take a sinister edge.

'I will die,' she said suddenly and he turned his covered face in her direction.

'Pardon?'

'If you take out my heart, I will die. A side effect of being human, I am afraid. So, friends?' She didn't know what she was doing and she didn't care. She had started to hear him again. It was a matter of time before she was carted off to an asylum this time around, so she might as well befriend a could be psychopath before being locked up.

What's the worse that could happen?

'You met me five days ago and we talked for about five minutes. We are strangers, little bird,' he pointed out patiently.

'So? We can get to know each other,' she said mulishly.

'Well, people might argue that the behavior you are displaying right now is pretty much indicative of your imminent lunacy.'

'I know I am going crazy. Better to befriend someone who won't mind my lunacy, don't you think?'

She turned to walk out of the woods.

'You might regret your impudence, little bird. I might decide that I want to keep your heart on my bedside,' he whispered softly.

He didn't sound old. Was he really aged and ugly beneath his hood?

'Then so be it,' she replied with finality before crossing the edge that divided the woods from Mystic Falls. 'I will be back tomorrow,' she hollered without turning back, continuing on towards the road that led to home…


Elijah wasn't looking when he stepped inside the water.

The girl, she bothered him.

She should've run away. She shouldn't have wiped her tears and held a conversation with him. Was she so stupid? Did she have no self-preservation?

He had deliberately told her about conking out hearts from chests and she had tried to befriend him in return.

She shared her face.

His hood kept her from looking at his face, and it also kept him from staring at hers. Her face made him angry.

It made him ache.

Elena's eyes were just like hers had been in the beginning, before he had stripped her of her innocence.

Would Elena also look like the way she had in the end?

Pale faced and dead eyed?

His feet stepped over a skull and the crunch brought him back from the edge of his anger.

He looked down and sure enough, the head of his fourth queen was no more than bone fragments. One day, Elena's bones would also gleam silver beneath the water of this pond if he had his way.

He didn't know why the thought unsettled him.

Was it because Elena reminded him of her?

Or was it because he was starting to pity the girl?

Pity! What good came from feeling pity for a woman?


So, this update has been due for so long that I don't think anyone's gonna read it. But here it is anyway. I have no excuses. I will not abandon this story. I will finish it, no matter how long it takes me.

Thank you for your love. TVfan72, I am sorry, I am late. I will try not to be in the future.