A/N: I'M BACK! YAY!
And I've written some chapters for my two fanfics and the non-fanfic I've been working on. Yay!
Warning: Violence, gore, bloodshed, and some sexual themes.
I've been waiting a long time to write this chapter…heehee…
She stood, alone, and unaccompanied.
The room of the Sun and Moon was filled with dancers, a mass of them dressed in all manners of costumes dancing and singing and drinking and talking. She saw green frogs, roosters, beasts, birds, butterflies, monkeys, dragons, clowns, patterned dresses, angels and devils. These were some of the variety of themes that masqueraders wore.
He mask was glittery and bejeweled with ebony and rubies and fine feathers. She was the only one who was all red. And so she stood out amongst them as they danced and moved. The music was already starting to ring in her ears.
Sickened by the displays of contortionists and the bizarre sights around her she made her way to sit in a corner. To do that she had to go across the dance floor to that lovely dark seat by the abstract statue.
She was in the middle of the dancers when Prospero came up to her.
Soon she was swept up into the dance, the prince dancing her around. His brown hair was tied back into a ribbon, and wearing a fine blue hat. He moved her around with flowing blue robes and feathers. He was dressed as a sultan.
"A pleasure to see you again Virginia." Victor Prospero smiled.
She scowled at him. "A pleasure Victor."
Smirking he danced her around, holding her close to his body. Around the couple were the sweaty dancing bodies, the moving masses happy and ignorant.
"You know what's going to happen in a few hours?" Victor chuckled in her ear.
"What is it?" Virginia sighed.
"We're getting married tonight."
Her heart skipped a beat as he twirled her around and set her back into his arms, to slip a gold and blue ring on her finger, right above The Red Death's ring.
"You can't! You need my own consent!" She hissed.
"I do have your consent. When you were a little girl, you said, 'Of course I'll marry you.' And so, tonight you shall be princess and be my beloved wedded wife. And bedded, mind you…" His tongue was lecherous in her ear, licking and deceiving.
She had no plans on letting him do this! And this soon, on this night of all nights she was to be married to a vile man! Of all the sins in the world…this was what he had to commit. To commit forced marriage and rape.
He began laughing viciously, dancing her around in his own merriment. Now she wished to push him away and run, run out of this castle and face the night alone and finally succumb to the death she wanted. But no, he was strong and held her to him as they danced in the vulgar ways of the night.
As they danced, she saw red.
There in the crowd was a figure in white. He was wrapped in white linen, stained with blood and with a hood, making his face completely shrouded in shadow. He was bound together by red ribbons, as the figure shuffled along to the stairs. An amulet…that only the dead wear in their graves…was around his neck, rust colored with dried blood.
"Halt! How dare ye wear red?" Prospero called as he halted. The dancers kept dancing, those in the way of the figure moved and scowled at this foul guest. Who was he to wear red besides the lady?
Virginia paled as she stared at the daunting figure. The shambling one dressed as the dead moved up the golden stairs and into the first room.
"Come my lady! Let us catch that thing!" Prospero hissed and pulled her close, taking her by the arm as they followed the being.
She did not wish to, being taken with him as he tried to make his way through the crowd to follow the rude guest. The guest himself seemed t easily make his way through the crowds in the first rooms, past the fountains and food and musicians.
"Keep moving!" Prospero bellowed, trying to catch up to the figure. But the crowd, so happy and merry and drunk gave hardly a care as their own prince and future princess were almost smothered by the masses.
She had the most terrible feeling this guest was not human.
Through the gluttony of the orange, the deceit of white, the illusions of purple they went, keeping their eyes on the figure of death as he went to the last room. By now, the guests were curious and a bit frightened, and they soon made way for the prince and the few guards with him.
Virginia and Prospero went into the black room of lust. Guests filed in with their monocles and masks to amuse themselves. Guards with spears and swords came, bedecked in the adornments of revelry and watched, angry at this intruder who dressed like the deceased.
The intruder himself stood with his hunch-back turned. He faced the ebony clock, disturbing the lusting couples in the room to dress and shrink away from their pleasures.
She felt certain, as the hooded man turned and looked at them that those red eyes were at her.
"No one is to wear the color of rouge, scarlet, red! None save my bride to be shall bear the color of The Red Death! My dear guest, surely you know that rule?" Prospero hissed and stepped forward.
The guest stood still.
"My fellow noble, you are asking death! You know how amusing it might be to see a man hang?" He laughed and the crowd giggled, snickering as they hoped to see an execution.
"Victor…don't provoke him…" Virginia pulled on Victor's sleeve. He ignored her quiet pleas. The figure still did not respond.
"Any last words before the dungeon accepts a prisoner?" Victor casually said as he strode to the figure, holding a knife he procured from his jacket.
It still did not move.
"Tomorrow you shall hang from the battlements, but first let us unmask you!" He cried.
He moved to swipe the knife across the face, the others watching with glee at the violence.
And that was then Virginia knew who this man was.
With a whirl of the robe, the figure snatched the hand of Prospero as he held his knife. The hand was long and spindly, covered with a tight red glove.
All gasped in horror at the sight of the assailant's face peeking out from the hood. A skull! A gruesome human skull!
Virginia would have run, but the crowd was a formidable wall that barred her path. She turned to see the figure cast off those bloodstained robes and stand in the glory of shining red light.
Dazzlement. Red. Blood.
Prospero had actually screamed in horror as he saw the towering Red Death stand and hold his hand tightly. Victor was shaking, his knife too as he saw him stare down at him.
The Red Death wore the finest clothing ever seen. Jewels and gold and fancy embroidery were on his all red clothing. His coat, his vest and shirt and the cravat and the fine pants and the tights and breeches and sash and cape and belt and shoes and jewelry and gloves and…all that was, was splendor. Royal red splendor, gold chains and black lace. Rings and diamonds, a skull brooch for his fancy neck scarf, his other hand pulling out a large red hat trimmed with gold and feathers and jewels. Setting it on his head, it enhanced his terrible face.
A mask of a fanged skull was upon him. His lips were red with black, his eyes piercing red, and his ears with hooped earrings of gold. His thick straight long hair was red and tied with a satin black ribbon.
He glared at her, glittering and standing in the glory of death as Prospero whimpered.
"No…"
"Guests of the masque…Welcome to the last dance." He spoke.
All screamed.
The people were in a made rush to escape the Seven Rooms. All ran in a stampede through the rooms, running in fear to get out. The Red Death, he was here!
Virginia was backing away, staring and shaking visibly.
"B-b-but…the d-d-doors…" Prospero whimpered.
"You little man…you
constantly think your ignorance and pitiful barricading will protect
your life. But unfortunately I am here to take your life, and make
another mine." He squeezed Prospero's hand harder, and the knife
dropped to the floor. A red mist was coming from his sleeve, and
enveloped the prince's hand!
"NO!" Prospero yelled. He was
infected!
He was dropped to the floor as The Red Death pulled from his hilt a glittering golden sword. Prospero immediately started running on his feet. Virginia was already running.
She heard laughter, vile laughter behind them. They were in the violet room running for their very lives from the fiend all believed would not come. But he came, he saw, he is here.
And there Virginia tripped as Prospero pushed her out of the way. She yelped, falling down as she saw Prospero run farther away.
"VICTOR!! HELP ME!" She screamed…but it was too late, for strong warm hands pulled her up around her waist and set her to her feet.
She would have welcomed the man who helped her up, but it was he, that fiend who pulled her close to his body in an embrace.
"Years have passed without you ever leaving my sight…" He hissed. She winced at the scent of roses and blood, his clawed fingers gripping her waist and stroking her golden hair.
"I hate you! I detest the sight, the feeling that you are always with me! Now you pounce and seek destruction! If I could I would kill you!" She brought her courage forth and looked at him in the eyes. He smiled.
"Let us see your attempts, my lady." The God of Blood kissed her hand before holding it, and then the Dance of Death began.
With great ballroom mastery he was dancing her through the rooms. Helpless in the arms of a powerful figure she was trying to control her fear from making her whimper too much. They danced like they were made to dance together, as one…one voluptuous couple in the sparkling colors of the scarlet and the rouge.
Many strayed behind, and immediately ran at their approaches in the rooms. The singing in the white was drowned out; the greed of the green was quenched; the gluttony of the orange was stopped; the foolishness of the purple was banished; the deceit of the blue was answered with the herald of death at their door.
She never thought she would be dancing with him. Never thought that this being, this man, this thing would come and seem to…care for her again. She expected to maybe die, or to rough handled but no…he held her gentle, he moved her like silk, and his velvety purrs were like soft clouds that caressed her ear.
From the few contours of his face she could see, she knew that under that mask was the face of a lover.
Her lips tingled as they danced at the top of the stairs. They missed his warm touch, his tongue that would send her careening into the depths of passion…that felt good.
He stopped, and she looked out to the hall of the Sun and Moon.
Blood had already painted the ceiling.
The corvine demons of Decay surrounded the hundred guests. All down the stairs was screaming and chaos! The demons gathered the guests together, having a partner each and moved to dancing. Soon, Virginia saw, the people were helpless in their claws as they danced them around in a crude fashion. But it was a dance the victims were forced to do. Men and women, even children were being danced by the horde.
"My gods…" She whispered.
"A dance of death, their last night living and tainting the earth." The Red Death whispered amongst the din of screams and caws of men and demon. Already she saw the mist surround the room, creeping along on the dance floor almost touching the people.
Prospero stood pale as bone at the bottom of the stairs. He looked at the violent proceedings around him, shaking and staring.
The Decay themselves, bird faced and toothed licked the faces of the despairing people. They had their hats, their cloaks of black and gray, their clawed hands and the feathers and crow feet as they hungered for their flesh. The sweat, the blood, the taste of copper in their hungry maws, and feeling of ripping and tearing…they needed the signal first.
The Darkness themselves appeared on the sides. All seven of them stood, quiet, standing as the mayhem ensued around them. They watched The Red Death stand and hold his pay; the new queen.
"God of Blood…the masque…is perfect." A shadow rasped behind her.
She turned with a yelp of surprise. There was a Darkness to the side of them.
"Indeed my lord. The world will be ours tonight, and tonight shall we become betrothed…" He pulled her harder against his side in a possessive grip.
"Betrothed? No…please…" Marriage? To her? No, please not marriage!
"Indeed my love we shall be wed and you will become…queen…and goddess…my love at last…" He purred in her ear and fingered the ring on her hand. She quickly moved her hand from his grasp, wishing that he had never put that ring on. Now it was a symbol at how she was claimed.
A tear came down her cheek; now she was to marry him instead of Victor.
Victor currently had run, running through the masses of people but the Decay were pushing him back. Soon, poked and pointed by their claws and the hissing beaks he was kneeling, staring and whimpering in a state of shock.
He received the biggest wake up call of his entire life.
"No! Let them go! Don't!" He screamed but the demons paid no heed, taking liberty to kick him into the light. The candles of the hall were out save a few…the rest shone and created shadows within the little light. The rest was darkness enhanced with only the glitter from the masks of the terrified and the gowns of the cowards.
"Too late, Prince of Fools!" The Red Death bellowed. Victor turned up towards him, pulling his brown hair and falling to his knees.
The god pulled his sword out again, moving down the stairs. He let go of Virginia as he strode down the stairs, watching his weak prey beg, seemingly cry out for mercy.
She stood, transfixed and afraid and watched the demon, the coward, and the dancing crowd of screams and struggles move in a whirl of darkness.
"Oh Heaven…oh Hell…gods of light…prevail…set us free…stop him…save me…" Victor sobbed. A man who was so strong, so renowned for his valor and courage and the power of the law…was helpless at his feet. Deceived by his own doing. Let himself and the rest of his own court fall prey to death.
The Red Death stood on the steps basking in the glory of horror. A being so dressed in exuberant finery, so young his features, so strong and tall and menacing at the same time was here to kill.
He sniffed the air, already tasting the plague.
People of all ages and ranks were screaming as they became infected. In a half hour they would finally die…here, together, in one horrible dance, their bodies eaten and defiled by their dancing captors.
"Sing!" The god spoke. The Decay answered, screeching towards the heavens as they cut and nipped their mortals who screamed in pain.
The Red Death then was satisfied.
"See them Victor? It was all your own doing…" He chuckled and smirked. Victor stared at the sword muttering words of comfort. "You gathered them here under imaginary walls, convincing that they would be safe! But when the plague came here, you would know that at least they and you would die in comfort…while you married and become King!"
Virginia listened intently.
"But you see…you cannot become king." The Red Death had a vicious gleam in his eye. "Because the prophecy…says you cannot."
"I CAN!" Victor trembled as he yelped. "She is the last! And the last king died in the desert 100 years ago!"
The Red Death paused, letting a chilling wind whistle through to ruffle his cape. There was no smirk here. There was only the idea of bloodshed.
"He lived in the desert. The Darkness, the demons from the world came and saith, "Thou wish eternal life, and thou shalt have if ye cleanse the world and reclaim thy throne." And so the king lived. The king who was banished there by his own father, who was beaten and abused and finally cast out and scarred on the face by his father's sword! He was dragged out, left for dead into the night while his younger brother Zasper Prospero became the ruler!"
The fiend paused. He licked his lips over his teeth that sharpened. Victor whimpered and clutched at his robes as the touch of plague licked his clothes.
"And the king came back, with a prophecy. All stunned and the ruling family that was and shall always be, the Prosperos, made sure history never knew that it was they who cast out their own son, who had dared to be different. The priests of the gods of Light and Darkness however heard the prophecy be made, and it was their divine rule to make sure that the rulers forever…till the last of the Mauchdoms and the real king come…that there would only be a Prince to rule."
"M-my own f-family…d-did that?" Victor could not believe that hundreds of years ago his own had banished away their own son, and created this havoc…
"Not surprising is it?" The demon leaned down like a crouching beast. Prospero trembled back. "You were all fools, whether vile, foul, wicked, terrible, stupid, bloodthirsty, perverted, or devious. It was a shame…" He paused.
"…that I am a Prospero."
The creature rose up to his feet, standing tall, and standing in the midst of destruction as Victor screamed his last!
Virginia felt faint, but she wouldn't be weak. She heard that beast, that thing of evil say he was a Prospero! And now she saw Victor scream even more, as the plague was in his body and now blood poured from his face.
The Red Death Prospero ascended the stairs, smiling and laughing. Laughing in triumph as he came to the shivering Virginia, pulling her by her arm to his side.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!" She wailed and started to struggle but it was no use. The beast was strong, was no more a man, and was a god…
He ignored her.
"My royal court, I am King Alexander Millicent vas PROSPERO! The son of King Albert vas Prospero and Queen Vanessa Prospero, formerly a Duchess of Mauchdom! I am the lost king who has returned with revenge!" He roared with triumph. Guests being danced around, dizzy and already bleeding were paled by his words.
"You all are filthy! The entire humanity is filthy and rotten! The Darkness have given me the power to cleanse this world…this land, for me to rule without YOUR insufferable persons being IN IT! I have plagued you to kill and have no mercy! A new world shall be born from the true king and queen, and you all…shall…die…" His words turned into a low growl.
Victor wept in a puddle of his own blood.
The Red Death, Alexander, turned to his beloved.
"Tonight we shall spawn a new generation of people. Tonight we shall be immortal…tonight the gods of yours will be known as truly dead." He said in a gentle tone.
"You can't…kill everyone…please don't…" She whimpered.
"Tonight the monarchy, tomorrow the last of the peasants. And tonight…" He purred as he bent down to her face. "Tonight my love…what I have always dreamed of…"
His lips were dangerously close. Her heart was beating, the mist all around…
"The plague!" She cried. She didn't want to die, not now!
"See my love? It does not affect you. It touches you, it holds you…but you are the cure, you are invincible, your blood is so pure and healthy. You, my love, are the only one in the world who is invincible to my disease."
She was the cure.
She tried to turn towards the dying people but her demon lover ensnared her lips into a kiss, holding her head as she was smothered under his clothing, his cape around her trembling frightened body.
He broke away and raised his golden sword. The royal seal of the Prosperos was on it…but it wasn't blue.
"After my father died…any color to do with red was banished! My hair was red, so were my fathers! It was always red! But my younger brother tainted the bloodline and created the color Blue and Green as the noble colors. Blue for cowards, Green for evil. And Red for truth, justice, and…the banished brother." Alexander spoke.
Victor looked up, weakly getting into a kneeling position.
"Mercy…" He rasped.
Alexander smiled.
"Vengeance…is mine, scum. Tomorrow there will be a world bathed in the blood. Tonight your halls, which were in fact my halls, will be painted with blood! And like a flood it shall stain the carpets, and the armor dripping with it and the paintings of your family destroyed. My father and mother, and those before shall be glorified." Alexander spoke.
"And in the bed of the king which you expected to spend the night in, since you thought you WOULD be a king tonight…" Alexander grimaced…and to Virginia's horror saw him smile.
"In MY bed…I shall bed the queen. And you will be dead. And she will be MINE!"
"M-mer-r-rcy-y-y…"
"All the monarchy have become corrupt. And for that they will die."
He threw the sword…and it impaled Victor to the floor through the head.
And all Hell broke loose.
The Seven Darkness watched as the Decay started to rip and eat the people. Virginia was held close to Alexander, crying as she was forced to watch the most grisly scene in the entire history of death and war.
Their macabre dancers turned upon them like dogs. Men were being pinned to the ground, their heads being gnawed off. Their bodies were being ripped open as they thrashed and screamed, the creatures devouring their living organs and ripping off their legs. Children screamed shrilly as the younger corvine dancers grasped spears and weapons, chasing them around the bloodbath and impaling them in their young demonic sport…feasting on the young children's skulls and the delicacies they held. The musicians were stampeded and the Decay stabbed them with their beaks. The women…oh the women, their fate was terrible as they lay on bodies of their dead husbands and brothers or against the golden walls as the Decay clambered unto them, biting and lapping at their blood as they were raped and stripped to pale bloody flesh. Some were even being eaten, alive, as they were molested by demons. Some were already dead. Some were even too young to even know what was happening to their breasts and bodies. They watched old men and women being skinned alive, hanging from the chandeliers and dripping blood like rain.
All this the king and duchess watched.
The door to the rest of the castle was open. As it burst open and the Decay went about to paint the castle with blood, the ebony clock chimed the 12th hour.
The blood bath was dying down. Some people were still alive, Virginia saw. Four men bleeding were running out the doors, two women mostly stripped naked, and a child ran out. She saw that the mass of the demons let them, and after a pause they flapped and ran after them, screeching and cawing and holding limbs to smear on the walls.
One of the men had already fallen. Four of the demons leapt unto him and pinned him down, while the fifth started to peck his eyes out…
One of the women hid behind some tapestries and the horde had passed by. But two others stayed behind and caught her. Right on the spot she screamed as one ripped her dress off in one swipe, and the other already was in between her legs humping furiously and screeching like a banshee…
The child was too late. About ten of the Decay came back with pieces of the child's body and started smearing the walls with the flesh and blood.
Virginia saw all of this. She saw everything.
She was feeling very, very sick.
"They will come back after they chase them down. The will gather the bodies and paint the castle and 'ornament' them with their flesh and bones. The women of course will remain mostly intact for their pleasure in the next few days before the bed and the dead body start to pollute." Alexander said calmly.
She couldn't say anything. She was horrified and disgusted beyond belief! She saw people being murdered and eaten alive and tortured and killed and raped…
"Please…take me away…" She breathed. The scent of blood was clouding her senses…
"This way my lady. You will be better very soon…"
A/N: WARNED YA!
Well, the next chapter has…SEX…coughcough…just to warn you folks in case you don't want to read. Course I'm sure you can stomach it if you survived this bloodbath chapter I just wrote.
Shoys.