(written in 2019 ☠) crown of blood

Koati’s face started to hurt from smiling, but she tried not to move. “Mom, I can’t smile any longer.” Juneii looked slightly at Koati while trying to keep her own posture perfect.

“The painting shouldn’t take much longer,” Juneii said glancing at Lurenn, her sister, and Kura, her niece. They all looked miserable and had been standing there for over 2 hours while a painter drew their royal family portrait. The kingdom of Ahr was sort of like an unofficial Matriarchy. Juneii was the ‘queen’, and Koati was the heir to the throne. Lurenn was second-in-command to Juneii, and Kura would be Koati’s second-in-command when they were older. Children were usually adopted into the family, keeping it strictly female. It’s not clear how this happened, but most of Ahr’s history had been led by females.

“All done!” The painter called. Kura immediately dropped her smile and trotted off to her room. The rest of them went over to see how it turned out. Juneii gasped with joy.

“It’s so perfect! Thank you, Soleil.” Juneii said kindly. The painter bowed in appreciation

“You're welcome, your Majesty.”

Koati couldn’t help but notice Kura’s sad excuse for a smile in the painting. When they were younger, Koati and Koati were best friends, but Kura was recently being more blank, more unreadable, more strange.

Later that day, everyone had retreated to their rooms to enjoy the rest of the night. Koati was looking out her window, thinking about being queen one day. Kura might have been older than her, but she would be a great second-in-command. The moon was full and lit her room to a pale blue. Wolves were coming out from their houses and enjoying this light that only came every couple of weeks. Koati wondered what life would’ve been like if she lived down there sometimes. She would make friends, explore the world, but then again, she would have to make her life by hand, without the close support of servants in the palace. It was close to midnight, and she knew no one would mind if she stepped outside her room for a bit. She needed a friend right now, and the only friend she had was Kura.

Koati cautiously knocked on Kura’s door, and when there was no response, she cracked open the door to see Kura doing the same thing she had been doing, looking out at the village, maybe wondering the same thing, too. Koati walked over by the window and looked out with her.

“Do you ever think that all of those people hate you?” Kura said in a quiet voice.

“Hate me? Why?”

“Like, do you ever wonder that they have this powerful grudge against you but they have no power to do anything about it?” Kura suggested as Koati looked at her.

“Kura is... Is something wrong?” Kura threw herself away from the window and hopped onto her bed. Koati slowly joined her. Kura was looking away, sharp breaths coming from her nose and she bit down on her lip. She was crying. Kura never cried. Koati placed a paw on Kura’s and waited for her to calm down.

“They hate me, Koati. They hate me.”

“If they do, they have some mental issues.” Koati gave Kura a sad smile, but Kura’s face was still plastic as usual. A mask to hide her true feelings. After a while, Kura continued,

“You remember last year when I said that I wish I could be queen? Apparently, that was some extremely offensive thing to everyone. One sentence ruined my whole life.”

“But what if you just ignored it? It can’t hurt you if you don’t want it to.”

“Ignore it? You want me to IGNORE the headlines of news that are STILL talking about how I might be HUNG for saying something a whole YEAR AGO?” Koati hated it when Kura yelled. Her voice was loud and commanding, and being honest, Kura might’ve made a better heir than Koati, but that was a bad mindset to have for leading a country. Koati genuinely didn’t remember Kura ever saying that she wanted to be queen, but apparently, the public did. Koati thought this was all a bit dramatic for a simple statement, but then again, words can’t be taken back.

Later that night, Koati left Kura to go to bed. The village had once again fallen quiet, and the moon was still reflecting off of the ocean in the distance. She thought that maybe Kura wasn’t ignoring her after all, and maybe she had been ignoring Kura herself. She felt bad now, never seeing the bad parts of other people’s lives, and trying to make her own life a perfect fairy tale.

Sunlight spilled into the palace as the sun climbed over the horizon. Koati lifted herself from her bed and tried to let her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness. It was a boring Saturday, and she’d be roaming the empty halls looking for something to do, usually, she’d have something: some official signing of some official law, but this was her day off. When she’d rather be doing the tedious homework her mother gave her, Koati was scratching the back of her mind to find something entertaining.

When breakfast stumbled around, she was the first to sit down in the dining hall. Her mother had come unusually late, and Lurenn and Kura hadn’t even shown up. Koati felt bad for Kura. Her reputation was always on thin ice, and this ice had cracked in several areas, maybe she just needed a day to think. This didn’t explain why Lurenn was missing though. Koati and her mother ended up eating without them. Koati didn’t want to think about her cousin, but that’s all she could do. Kura never showed any emotion, but last night she finally spilled her feelings for Koati. Everything felt off, and Koati couldn’t finish her food. She needed to see what was wrong with Kura.

Koati was plodding down the hall on her way to Kura’s room when she heard a powerful bang and shouting coming from the room. She cautiously paced over to the door and pushed it open. Kura was standing in the middle of the room with a furious expression. She was breathing painfully and a trace of blood was on her claws. Koati was horrified when she saw Lurenn laying against the wall underneath a large dent, obviously dead. Kura looked shocked to see Koati standing in the doorway, but not exactly mad. Koati couldn’t think. She whipped around and streaked for the front door. She needed to tell someone. She was in her house with a murderer. As Koati started to make it past the entrance gardens, Kura threw her claws into Koati’s back. She screeched but Kura covered her mouth quickly.

“You dirty rat, you’re going to pay for this.” Koati couldn’t move. This wasn’t Kura, where was the cousin she met last night? The one who was sharing her feelings after 5 years of keeping them in?

Kura shoved Koati into the building, quickly trying to make sure no one would see. Kura was holding Koati by her scruff and was moving quickly. They went down several flights of stairs until they were in the tornado safety room. Koati had tears in her eyes as the adrenaline faded and the pain suddenly kicked in.

“Why? Why did you do that?” Koati coughed in between sobs. Kura didn’t answer, she just slammed the door shut. Koati could hear her walking back up the stairs.

No. This can’t be how my life ends, unnoticed in an old cellar just waiting to starve or die from blood loss. Koati couldn’t do anything but cry. She was so helpless, her mother would never know, and Kura would make up some phony lie about what happened.

Minutes turned to hours, hours to days.

Not even one more speck of light before her life went dark forever.