Ella the Erratic went out for a morning stroll in her garden and was angry.

Her guests had their party, left blood all over the garden, and she could not comprehend how there was so much of it, in one small area. None of it seemed to go past an invisible line, none of it touching the walls of the castle itself.

“This will not do.”

She wiped her little brown flats off on the doormat as she entered Akershus, smoothed out her black skirt and mauve chiffon blouse, off to find someone to clean another mess. It was eerily quiet, the guests are long gone, and she was happy to be rid of them, because they did not even bring her gifts as they used to, and she found it quite rude.

Walking down the marble halls, she opened a room hoping to find any remaining staff to clean something, and instead, she saw her son.

“Oh, good morning Aksel, how are you?”

“I’m very good, had the best sleep of my life, actually,” Aksel replied.

“Did you, now?”

“Yes, and when I woke up, I remembered something important!”

Aksel got up from the daybed and pulled at his brown hair, and his mother found it so amusing that he kept touching his arms and face as if he were still a child.

“Sit still and tell me what you remembered,” Ella commanded. “Are you a child?”

Aksel went sour and he admonished her.

“I am not. I recalled that I need a wife.”

Ella had a long sigh of relief and sighed, crossed over the bearskin rug, and sat on the day bed, ecstatic at the news.

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“Thank goodness, I was worried you were, well, of a different persuasion.”

“What do you mean?”

“That you like men.”

“It is all the same to me, but only a woman can give me a son, so a woman it is,” Aksel answered.

Ella the Erratic was now put off by his candid demeanor and was worried. He was dressed very differently as well, wearing a red sweater vest, a white shirt, and slacks. Aksel always dressed casually, and Ella had to beg him to at least look professional when in front of the public eye.

So Ella did what she liked to call The Test.

Everyone thought Ella was crazy because sometimes she would stare at people, and they would stare back, and she would not blink until they blinked, but she did it to make sure, to know who was human and who was not, because she did not trust anyone except the man who tasted her food, Jakob, her son, her hairdresser, and herself.

Ella stared at Aksel, and she counted, and her eyes burned, and Aksel said nothing back, he smiled, waiting for her reply, but she said nothing, because he did not blink, and she knew that it was not her son.

The man who was not her son could smell her fear and grabbed her arm, as she tried to leave the room, and it was apparent that she was not leaving.

“I need a wife,” he repeated.

“I, I cannot be yours, you are my son, ” Ella whimpered.

“You already know this is a lie.”

“I cannot even give you what you want, a son, I’m too old,” Ella pleaded. “I can’t be with you!”

“Fine. I understand.”

The monster piloting her son’s body left the room, and she crumpled to the floor, Jakob’s debt paid in full.