Disclaimer: No characters and no plot before this point is mine, it is Frank Stockton's.

A/N: hey everybody....back for more? amazing. lol. well, anyway....this chapter will probably be pretty sad/angsty.....because i'm in a kind of sad/angsty mood so.....beware.....lol. and it's also gonna definitely live up to the PG-13 rating so.....beware again. lol. and review...keep the chapters coming!

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Aftermath

Noushzad felt empty. He felt void of hope that things could ever be fixed. He felt as if he had been drained of all signs of life, and he was merely a shell. He sat quietly on the bed in the room that the king had provided for him and his new wife for the night. What an incredible joke. The levels of irony were almost endless. The father of the woman he loved had given him a room with his new wife, just down the hall from where Gelareh slept. The reason that he was with his new wife was because the father of the woman he loved had put him on trial for loving his daughter, and had found him innocent, and the price of 'innocence' was worse than any punishment for being guilty could ever be. His new wife, Mahrokh, was in the other room, trying to make herself more beautiful for him, even though he would never look at her and think that she was beautiful. She was attractive, yes, but not beautiful. Not like Gelareh.

And how perfect her name was! Mahrokh, whose face is beautiful, like the moon. How completely fitting. The moon, whose luminance would be nothing, is nothing, without the light of the sun. It's beams only a reflection of the radiance that shines upon the world during the day. That was the kind of beauty that Mahrokh had. Her features were perfect, one could say. But more like a reflection of real beauty than a source. Compared to Gelareh, Mahrokh had higher cheekbones, but they looked hollow and uncaring. Mahrokh had huge eyes, but they held none of the perfection, luminance, fierceness and mystery that Gelareh's did. The woman he would always love.

If only that were wrong! If only the moment that he had known of her betrayal all of his feelings had left him. But they hadn't. And so he was doomed to live a pained existence, knowing what he didn't have.

There was a sound of footsteps from the next room. Noushzad looked up, and there she was. With her hair cascading around her face, making her eyes seem even more cold. There was the villainous wretch who had ruined his life, without even knowing it. But, how could he think of her as such if she didn't know of the havoc she had caused? How could he really hate her? Who could he really hate, except for the king?

"Hello."

~***~

Gelareh thrashed in her bed, the silk sheets and soft mattress not bringing her any comfort. She writhed in guilt, hating herself more than she ever had. Why did she ever do that? Why did she ever send him to the tiger? Why couldn't she have just let him marry the woman, Mahrokh?

Well that was a simple question. She knew why. She knew that she couldn't bear to see him with someone other than herself. She was being territorial and she knew it. She was trying to avoid this. This agony of wondering what was going on in a room two hundred yards away with Noushzad and that woman. Well now she had to live with it anyway. And she also had to live with the fact that she was going to let herself watch him torn to pieces by the claws of a beast.

What was happening to her? Only a few months ago she could have sent a gardener's son to the tiger without missing a beat. No, a few months ago she wouldn't have cared one way or the other. His safety or his death wouldn't have made one ounce of difference to her ability to sleep.

Suddenly, a thought came over her. It wasn't a new thought, but it had the same effect every time. She stopped thrashing and lay still in the bed, making the least amount of noise as possible. She slowly lifted the blankets off of her and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She tiptoed to the door, the floor cold on her bare feet, and pressed her ear to the door. She'd done the same thing at least three times in the past two hours. She was hoping to hear some sound, some hint of the goings on in that room. It was completely irrational, because even if she was outside of her room she wouldn't be able to hear anything from two hundred yards away.

She did it anyway.

~***~

"Hello, Noushzad, my husband," she replied. Her voice was pleasant, calming, even if it didn't have that rich musical tone to it.

He smiled slightly, if only to comfort her. Why he thought she would need comforting, he didn't know. "I feel awkward. I don't know what to say to you. I never imagined that I would meet my wife on my wedding night," said Noushzad, hesitating.

A slow smile crept over her lips that sent chills up his spine, not pleasantly, either. The look in her eyes changed. She had a sense of purpose about her now, that she hadn't before. She began to walk over to him, taking all the time that she possibly could to swing her hips seductively, and stood in front of him for a second, before sitting down. He did not have one inch to spare between her body and his own.

Softly, almost in a whisper, she said, "Then don't say anything."

She closed her eyes and she looked as different from Gelareh that anyone could ever look. And then she kissed him. Noushzad didn't really kiss her back. He felt that her lips were soft, and that she was certainly experienced.

Realizing that she wasn't being kissed back, Mahrokh pulled away and looked at him, slightly confused. It looked as if that was the way that her face ought to look, uncertain and emotionless.

"So, I guess I can give up on the idea of a blushing bride?"

She only kissed him again.

And all that he could do was kiss her back.

~***~

Gelareh stood in front of her mirror. She stared at her grim reflection in the dark, with deeper shadows framing her eyes, and wondered what he had ever seen in her. She looked at her profile and then she put her hair up, and then she brushed it. She saw herself in every pose that she could possibly imagine.

She came to a conclusion. There was no way that Noushzad had ever really loved her. What was there to love? Did he love the hollow look in her eyes? Or did he love her too-small breasts? Or maybe he loved her heart. Ha! The heart which would have left him to die! What a thing to love.

A sigh escaped Gelareh's lips. What a tragic love story this was. Like those in the scrolls. Except instead of some terrible outside force keeping them apart, it was one of the lovers herself.

There was a knock at the door. Gelareh's eyes snapped back into focus. "I'll be right there!" She walked quickly to the trunk where her robe lay and put it on over her flimsy nightgown and went to the door. She opened it, and her father was there.

"King Sadri," she aknowledged, bowing her head slightly. This act of respect was an opposite to the complete rage that flared within her at the sight of his face. This man, who was the other factor in the marriage of Noushzad.

"Let's not be so formal, daughter. May I come in?"

"Father, it is very late, and I would like to go back to sleep very soon. Could you possibly just tell me what you have to say out here?" she asked, with a hint of malice in her voice.

"Don't take that tone with me, Gelareh. I may be your father, but I am still the king, and you will not speak to me in such a manner."

"Yes, father," she said, even though she was thinking, I thought we were staying informal. "Come in." King Sadri stepped inside and shut the door. Once he was in, though he didn't seem to know what to do with himself. He stood awkwardly, looking more like a guilty little boy than a king.

"Gelareh, you know that I am deeply dissapointed in you," he said, without much conviction; without meeting her eyes. "But you also must know that I am sorry. I know how hard this is for you."

Like hell you know.

"And, well, I came here to tell you that I am sorry for what you had to go through today, even though I'm not sorry for what I did. I just need you to know that I love you."

The look softened in his eyes, and Gelareh could almost forgive him. Almost.

~***~

Mahrohk's kisses were wild and passionate, even though Noushzad felt no such passion. They sank into the act as if they had both been wanting this for months. Nothing was gentle, and he knew that he would never have gentle again. Not ever. Not with this woman. Silently, a few lone tears made their way down his cheeks, though Mahrokh didn't notice.

She pulled back breifly, without opening her eyes. "I love you," she said, even though he knew the words had no meaning.

~***~

Gelareh's and Noushzad's lips both uttered 'I love you too in the same instant, though the ears that they were meant for would never hear them.

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A/N: Ah.....so sad. lol.....anyway.......i hope you liked the chapter.....even if it wasn't very happy. And if you liked it or not.....REVIEW! Because I need 'em to keep goin.