Chapter Thirty-Four
FLORIAN
Red was all he could see. Blood was what he craved for. She was what he had lusted for. Whatever she did, whatever spell she had cast him under in the flurry of wind and petals, for the first time in his life he felt his heart pitter patter for a useless thin princess that he was in a set chase. He actually saw himself somehow marrying her, they would have had beautiful children, she was just what she needed to fulfill the grand picture; but she just had to keep running her mouth and ruin it. She had put him on such a high, making him out to be more than what he was, saying he could be good, great even! He believed her, through her words he believed that he could have been a great king. Kindness? Ha! What had kindness ever done to him? It never got him what he wanted. No, using force had gotten him what he wanted. He was more familiar with force, brutality even. He had been taught by his own parents through brutality. What kindness had ever been shown to him?
Not only did she build him up and set his heart aflame for her, but she dared to say she wasn't a liar and called him one! The gall of the little wench would cost her greatly. Not only would he carve out her heart for the Queen, but he would have his way with her. They were deep enough in the forest within the valley that no one, not even the winds would hear her scream. He would make her regret her words, her choice, to choose Adam over him. He for the smallest fraction of a second wanted to give her a second chance, hesitated on wanting to kill her. That was his only kindness he would have ever shown her; but she had to go and run her mouth and ruin it. He could have her. He must have her. He would have her, with or without her wanting so.
She ran faster than what he originally credited her to do, but he would catch her. He always caught his prey. Florian in his chase threw rocks that he scooped up at her, finding bigger and sharper ones at her. He was aiming for her feet and knees but kept hitting her back instead. She hadn't slowed down, and only kept pushing herself despite tripping over tree roots. He almost laughed at her efforts, perhaps he had, he was very far from himself and could only see the red of passion running away from him. Finally he picked up a good weighted rock. He threw it. It flung in the air. It caught her ankle at the same time it caught in a raised tree root. With a small cry she tumbled to the ground, her gray cloak flurrying about her and falling away from her. Good, one less thing to have to worry about in removing the heart.
She pushed herself up onto her elbows, her hand still clutching that small bouquet of flowers. Florian slowly approached her. "You know, I meant what I said." He laughed, mostly at himself. "I was willing to change for you. I, Prince Florian of Franca, was willing to change for a stupid princess like you!"
He kicked her as hard as he could in the side and carried the foot out to her elbow. She fell back on the ground, arm holding her side while the other still held tight to the flowers. He looked down at her and found himself really enjoying that pained look on her face. Oh how he couldn't wait to inflict more on her.
"Time fixes things." He rambled. "Time fixed things with my parents; it would have fixed things between us." He kicked and half stomped on her arm that held tightly to the flowers. She cried out in pain and he relished the sound of her pained cries. Yes, he would very much enjoy having her before cutting her heart out.
"It would never have fixed things for us." She argued and pushed herself up on her elbows again. "Never."
"Oh, and why is that?" He tried to sound hurt, and somewhere deep within him there was a chance that he was. But he would not hurt the same way she was hurting.
"I never could have loved you." For once those brown eyes that were full of innocence and kindness were finally full of anger, and perhaps hate, but also sadness. He enjoyed the look on her face, the fire in her eyes, the defiance that would tumble greatly once he had conquered her.
"Oh, what?" He laughed, feeling maniac. He just couldn't help himself, he was having too much fun. "Is it your precious Adam that kept you from loving me?"
"I tried to love you." The anger and hate vanished and sadness and pity, oh how he hated pity, replaced it. "I really, really did. You were just. . . Just. . ."
"Too handsome?"
"Too mean." He faltered and glared down at her. "I thought that if I were nicer to you that somehow, someway you would have –"
"What, changed?" He scoffed with another manic laugh. "For you?"
"I think I could have, in time, I think I would have grown to truly love you. . ." As much as he wanted to call her a liar, spit in her face, continue to beat on her, there was something far too sincere for his liking that told him she was telling the truth. Not that it mattered now, anyways, he still had a job to do. "But after this. . . no, I never could have come to love you without fearing for my life."
"Shut up." He kicked her again and she went rolling around in the dirt. She gasped for air as she rolled onto her back. He looked down at her, she was covered in dirt and she already had a bit of blood from her mouth already. Wow, was she really that fragile? She was going to be a lot of fun to enjoy breaking, though he would have to be quick because it looked as though she would break fast. He bent down and pulled her up by her hair. This time she did not cry out in pain, but he could see the pleading and begging look in her eyes for mercy. "If it's taken you this long to fear for your life, you're going to wish you had never met me."
"I-" She croaked in pain. "I already do!"
Much to his surprise she was able to kick him hard in his nether regions. It was just hard enough to make him drop her for a second as he buckled over. It felt as though one of them had burst open and was ready to fall out of its sac and drag the other with it. He would not be down for long, though, the dagger dangling at his hip reminded him of that. He had been down just long enough for her to get away. Not that it bothered him, he enjoyed the chase of a good hunt, and now he had more reasons to be determined in finding her.
"You can run, Snow White." He bellowed, hearing his own voice echo through the forest. "Run as fast as you can! I will find you! And when I do, I'm going to enjoy ripping out your heart!"
He stood still to listen to any rustling of leaves, branches, the breaking off twigs or anything else of that sort. There was something off to his right moving away from him. He smirked as he took that as his mark and began the chase again.
"I hear you, Snow White." He called, chasing after the rustling noises. He was gaining on her, he could see the breakage of the high grass as she made her path ahead of him. "I'm coming for you!"
He noticed that up ahead was a clearing and that he would be able to catch her then. He sprinted, making himself move faster, and reached the clearing. However, much to his dismay, there was no Snow White and instead a female boar stomping and getting ready to charge. Its fur bristled and it snorted at him.
"Oh, you wanna go too?" He laughed at the boar. "Then let's have it!"
He screamed as he charged at the boar, the boar squealed as it too charged him. All he could see was red; all he felt was lust; and he craved blood. He felt crazed, as if killing Snow White had possessed him and demanded that it must be done else his existence meant nothing. She had said she would never love him far too many times for his liking. If he couldn't have the fairest maiden in all the Realm, then no one else could; especially not Adam.
SNOW WHITE
"You can run, Snow White." She heard Prince Florian bellow and how she wished she could just become invisible again. "Run as fast as you can! I will find you! And when I do, I'm going to enjoy ripping out your heart!"
Running. Running. Have to keep running. Don't stop.
She kept running. She had to, if she stopped she would be killed. She should have known better than to have allowed herself to be alone with Prince Florian! Frederick had warned her! She only had herself to blame and only herself to save now.
"Adam." The tears leaked from her eyes as she ran, she didn't stop them and only clutched the flowers tighter in her hand. "Adam, where are you?"
Running. Running. Don't stop running, or he'll get you.
She had never been to this forest before, she had never been to this valley before, and she was surely lost. She didn't care, being lost at least would keep her safe and away from the tormentors of her life.
"Help." She croaked as she ran blindly, wildly through the forest. "Adam, help!"
Deep, deeper and into the deepest parts of the darkest forest. The trees grew higher, there were scary faces carved into the trees. The sky began to disappear, it was tangled in the high black branches. The wind whispered many dark secrets, secrets that betrayed her fear and only terrified her more. Leaves and tall grass brushed past her, it felt like insects crawling on her arms. She had to resist the scream that flew to her throat; she didn't want to give her position away. Prince Florian was after her and she had to keep quiet.
The tears blurred her vision and she tripped over a raised tree root and went tumbling down a steep hill until she landed in the swamp. Her whole head went under, and she gasped for air as soon as she surfaced. She hated the dark darkness. She was terrified of the dark, even at eighteen she still had to sleep with a candle on for fear of the things of her nightmares coming out to eat her. Darkness was all around her, she was swimming, half drowning in the darkness. She struggled to swim to the shore, but she did, she lost a shoe too, but she would not let that stop her.
Run, run, run as fast as you can, don't be caught or you'll be a dead woman.
She kept going and going running and running until she finally saw the smallest glimpse of sun! The tiniest bit of light! She ran even faster to the light. As soon as she reached it the darkness left her and though she was cold she was growing warmer. She paused for the smallest second to catch her breath. Her lungs had screamed at her, her throat burned, her eyes were flooded with tears. Her ribs hurt, the worst needle prickling, knife stabbing pain feeling was back. The two evil men before in her life had left plenty of scars before and the pain in her ribs had only reminded her of that. She was trapped, trapped in a world that hated her, wanted to get rid of her! She wasn't sure what she had done, but oh was she sorry for it. She would do anything to be forgiven and not to be hated by everything and everyone so much as she had.
"Adam." She fell to her knees, her hand holding her face. "Adam, where are you?"
"Aw, the wee princess still wants her prince, does she?" Her head snapped up in utter horror as Prince Florian stood on a ledge, hands and dagger covered in blood. Her blood froze at the sight of him, and only chilled her to the bone as he let out a terrible murderous laugh.
"Adam . . ." Her entire being shook, shivering from the cold, out of fear. Oh how she should not have run into the light.
"Still calling for him?" He tutted and a crazed look rested in his eyes, the ominous shadow looming behind him ready to devour her. "Hate to break it to you princess, but he's not coming."
He jumped down from the ledge and landed in a few puddles from the swamp. He walked slowly towards her, raising that dagger.
"You know, I was going to enjoy myself with you, show you what it would have been like to have been with me." He smiled like a lunatic. "But I think I'd rather enjoy myself in spite that you still love that fake prince, and that he will never have you."
"P-Please don't." She shook her head, tears falling as her fear was already exposed.
"It'll be quick." He laughed as though that would reassure her. "That I promise you."
Author's Note:
Thank you for reading, I hope you're enjoying the story!
A short chapter after a long one, just to build up the tension, I assure you. Please continue to read and leave me reviews and send me messages. They fill me with joy and make me very happy to write a very successful story that has provided so much entertainment for so many of you.
Thanks for coming along the journey with me, stay tuned for more!
Ko-fi/SarahtheWriter
