auction - nearly headless nick and resolutions - give a ghost a backstory
240 words, by gdocs
"How did you die?"
The question, for him, is usually a simple answer. He was hit in the neck forty-five times. How could he have survived?
Of course, though, there is a longer story. There's always a longer story…
…
The princess was coming to town. That was the big news in Nicholas' village. There was never any other news, so something big like the princess was circulated around and around until weeks after it actually happened.
And today was the day.
Screw the princess, Nicholas thought. Everyone thought that she was some sort of saint but Nicholas wasn't so enchanted by her pretty exterior. Yes, she was beautiful – even he couldn't deny that – but she was also responsible for their small village being so poor; the royals had stopped buying any produce from the village, inspired by the princess saying their fruit was rotten.
Nicholas, however, remembered how it ruined his family's business; nobody else could afford the amount of produce they needed to sell. Now that Nicholas was a young man, he could actually go the parade the princess was in.
He waited in the streets for a glimpse all day, and by the time he could see the princess, he was feeling reckless from anger and tiredness.
So he spat at her feet.
Quick as a flash, guard seized him, but he didn't care. The princess was able to see that not everybody worshiped her.