The Queen of the Abyss

I thought I’d feel different. I thought I’d feel victorious, sitting in the ruins of my rage. A second ago all I felt was anger, pure fury at my circumstances and what was taken from me. With everything said and done, all I feel now is empty.

The person responsible is now dead and the one person I want to go back home to is gone forever. So what did I really fix? I killed the person who killed my mother and I still feel nothing. Everything and everyone around me fears me. No one wants to talk to me. No one bothers to check on the villain who messed up their lives.

And why would they? I’ve taken everything away from them. Their homes, some of their family members, all I’ve left them with is the clothes on their backs and scraps to pull together, if they even have that.

I look down at my once black hands and see my fingertips returning back to their normal color and my eyes feel more focused. I can see what I’ve done now. I can see the damage my rampage has caused. I can see the massacre of bodies and blood on me and around me and I still feel nothing.

To top it all off, to put the cherry on the shittiest cake, they’re all mine now. Every single body I’ve killed belongs to me until the end of time and there’s nothing I can do about it. Well, that’s not true, I can force them to go to rest but I won’t. I will need protection.

I don’t want the people of Cruceron to hate me, more importantly, I don’t want my mother to hate me. I didn’t kill her, so her bones don’t belong to me. If her bones weren’t burned to ash, I would’ve laid her to rest. I would’ve made her resting place somewhere far away, blissfully undisturbed and near the ocean, her favorite place.

The thought of her scattered ashes being in a trash can somewhere brings the tips of my fingers back to black, my fury reigniting.

I don’t care if the people of Cruceron hate me. They stood by while my mother was being burned alive and they’ve done nothing. So I took away something they loved too, their king and their guards who plagued this town for far too long. They’re lucky I don’t want to rule this damned place. I just want what was mine, but no one can come back from the dead.

With my mother gone, I have nothing to do but look forward to death and deal with the consequences of my reaction. I will use the bones of their king however I please and no one will do anything to stop me. For far too long I’ve been dormant and now this world has seen what I can truly do.

I just wish it didn’t have to come to this. I wish my mother was still alive. I’m starting to lose focus in my vision and I’m trying hard not to let my magic overcome me again. With my blackened fingertips I raise the body of the king and make him stand in front of me. With a sway of my fingers, the largest organ of the human body has left him and I decimate his no longer viable organs so he’s left standing bare in front of me with just the bones supporting himself.

“You will be mine to command. You do nothing without my confirmation.” His skull nods at me and I keep eye contact with him but all I can see is the ruins behind him. I make him kneel by my side and I do to the hundreds of others what I just did to him.

My legion of bones surrounds me and I stand to rule over them all, “You all now belong to me. I am your king now. You will live with me until I decide you’re all no longer useful.” They all stand in vertical lines of formation and they all nod their skulls at me. “You will all build me a kingdom and I shall be the one to oversee everything.” I lift my hands and the bastard kneeling besides me starts to stand on his feet.

My eyes start to blur with unshed tears as I see how the rest of my life is to be played out. I didn’t want this for myself. I didn’t want to be the ruler of the dead or to be the most hated person in the world, but the Universe never gives more than what one can handle.

“Viva Valeria.” My army of bones repeats after me and I don’t feel any sort of satisfaction. After I’ve given their orders, they all walk back with me to the house my mother was taken from. My childhood home no longer gives me a calm feeling but instead a heartache that pains my chest. My mother is not in there reading a book by the fire with a coffee next to her. She’s now thrown away somewhere carelessly being handled and uncared for, somewhere I can’t find.

Soon, we’ve all reached the broken down cottage surrounded by tall trees and nothing but land for miles and the sense of defeat comes over me. I come to the debilitating realization that nothing I do will bring back the one person I love and miss the most.

I blink and years go by and the only thing that changes is my surroundings. I now reside in a blackstone castle built by the dead and sit on a black throne made of obsidian as I watch them all go about building new weapons of defense in case a threat arises.

They’ve all built smaller homes of stone around me for themselves, although the dead don't sleep, I don’t want them in here when I do, so they live surrounding me in their own places of residence. The trees have grown taller, the woods more densely packed with plants they’ve all grown.

The only place in the palace that hasn’t changed is my mother’s library. I made sure that no one was to touch that room. It still smells like her and I’d like to preserve that as much as possible. Her books, her favorite chair, even her favorite and empty coffee mug still sits on her wooden table next to the book she was reading last.

As I oversee everything and am now accustomed to the life I’ve been given, the emptiness inside hasn’t changed. Inside, I’m still a little girl who wants her mother’s warm embrace. On the outside, I must be the fearless bitch they’ve all made me out to be.

So here I will stay, my revenge already taken and I feel no different for it. The man responsible is now mine to command and I will never see my mother again. I’ve done my worst and now I must pay for it.