Finding Once Upon A TimeBy Em Mae

People think that the phrase, “Once Upon a Time,” immediately makes the story into a fictional love story including princes and princesses fighting dragons to have their ‘happily ever after’. However, ‘Once Upon a Time’ is very much real and there is not a single ‘happily ever after’ in the real world. People may be asking ‘How are you credible?’ Well, let me tell you: My name is Veronica Barclay, I am sixth in line to become queen, of course, that is after my father dies. Things are not ‘happily ever after’, especially where I come from, I come from the land of Rockenberg.

I suppose I might as well write this story in the way that you unroyal swine may understand. Therefore, let us start off with ‘Once Upon a Time.’ Once upon a time, kingdoms battled for the beautiful land that is now called Rockenberg. The land was filled with magic, not fake magic (like fairies and unicorns), but an earthly magic that allowed people to connect with each other, similar to telepathy. There was no physical source of the magic, no diamond, no special flower. It’s almost like the soil beneath our feet allowed us patience and communication - it may have worked as a guide. 

This was one-hundred thirty-seven years ago. Now, my father is king with eight sons and daughters - me, being the sixth in line. Don’t you worry, I will become queen soon, very soon. According to my book, I should be the fifth in line, but men do not concern such things. You could say that my two younger brothers ‘skipped me in the royal line’. My father believes that the kingdom is better off being ruled by a king rather than a queen. Obviously, this is quite absurd, but I will get them back for their wrongdoing. 

I already explained that there was a certain magic to the kingdom. I was wrong when I explained it as similar to telepathy. Allow me to start over, every citizen in the kingdom of Rockenberg has an advanced mind. Typically, the citizens have advanced healing spiritual powers, a few are partial geniuses. The royal family is more advanced, my father has advanced intelligence, that helps him with his battle strategies, one of my sisters is a master-manipulator my other sister has a mental connection with all kinds of animals. All of my brothers lead after my father with advanced intelligence. My advanced power is the power to control people’s emotions.  

My family is extremely paranoid. Every member has no loyalty to one another. This means that it will be easy for me to overthrow the men in my family. There is only one way for me to become queen, I think it is quite apparent. All of the men in line for the king must die. I will never be suspected, for I am but a woman, I am incompetent in their opinion.

Nobody can truly grasp the amount of evil I plan to do to them. It is for the kingdom’s well-being I suppose, so for better or for worse, I will follow through with my plan. My father has no queen, so I do not worry about her suspicions. 

My father drinks a glass of white wine every night with dinner. We eat in the grand hall with all of my siblings around, so it is the perfect place to make a scene. Just before everyone enters the grand hall for dinner, I ground up some Hemlock leaves and place them in my father’s wine chalice. Later that evening, my father took a big swig of white wine and hemlock, having him die right before our eyes. Immediately, the blame goes to Herald, the first in line. Herald points his finger at all of my brothers, secluding me and my sisters. I allow myself to have a tad bit too much fun by making all of the men feel rage. It was really quite the scene but the real party has not started yet. 

Eventually, they execute Herald in suspicions of him poisoning my father, leaving Jayse, the second in line to be king. One day, Jayse leaves the castle to make a speech to a clan of peasants. He does not have the knowledge that I have hired one peasant with one-thousand pounds to brutally kill Jayse while he speaks, this will make quite the public statement.  

I only have three men to deal with left, so I rinse and repeat.  My brother Charlie, third in line, is now king. I poison him with Hemlock once more, by grounding leaves and putting them in his drink chalice. He drinks, he dies. Now my two brothers left fight for the place of the king. Each one believing that the other has poisoned Charlie. Sam, fifth in line, has been brutally murdered by Ron, my brother fourth in line. When Ron killed Sam, I force him to bear a great amount of guilt for my brother’s death, leading him to commit suicide on the balcony, three nights after Sam was killed. 

Now that is how I have become queen. It is surely not a ‘happily ever after’, but this is real life we must not have our expectations too high. Let me tie you back to reality, there are no fairies, there is no dragon, and there is only tragedy. You must only avenge for yourself, this is my ‘Once Upon a Time,’ my real world.