I yawn and peer outside the frosted windows, gazing upon the empty landscape, whispering its secrets into the air.

Placing my pale hands upon the window, its freezing touch burns my fingers and jerks them away, betrayed by its beauty. I place my fingers on my tinted crimson red lips, and scowl, letting the tundra outside keep its secrets.

Nothing is left inside the carriage to keep me busy.

I’ve braided my long black hair, undone it, then re-braided it, fidgeting about in the back, settling even deeper into my large, white, fur coat, and I decided it's time to say something.

“I’m hungry sir,” I tell the driver.

The golden and brown curtain dividing the front and back of the carriage is drawn and my bodyguard, Dante, checks on me. He’s dressed in his official black and red armor, and I can see his sword poking through the side of the curtain, about to fall over to my side.

“Aren’t you hot in that thing,” I ask.

“Aren’t you, dressed in that fancy rug,” Dante replies, mocking my coat.

“I’ll have you know I can have your head for that, as the future wife of Imperator Seth,” I giggle.

“Ah yes, another man with many rugs draped over his body masquerading as clothing. I fear that we may all die of a fashion emergency instead of another drought or war.”

I smile and try to hold in my snorts, as the carriage enters a foggy forest, and Dante continues to mock every noble from the Wailing Coast to the Soundless Seas.

“Lady Dyteria gave birth again,” I say, trying my hardest to be modest.

One must be modest, after all, to set an example for the future lords and ladies I shall preside over.

“Yes, and her husband needs to be pried off of her, the poor thing,” Dante sighed. “She makes more litters than a canine.”

I turn red at the thought of Lady Dyteria and her husband latching onto each other like dogs, and Dante continues his foul-mouthed jokes as the carriage bumbles through the dark. As Dante starts to make another joke about Lady Dyteria, the carriage comes to a sudden halt and he goes on alert.

Bringing his index finger to his mouth, he signals to me don’t make a sound, and I nod furiously and clasp my hands over my mouth.

Dante’s red eyes flicker back and forth around the carriage, he closes the drapes and then leaves to investigate.

I shiver, hot and somehow cold as all is quiet.

The screaming begins.

I’ve heard the screams of the animals when I had the displeasure of walking past the servant’s quarters as they struck the animals, but it was always a fast death, never meaningless.

This was senseless, his screams were long, and my curiosity overpowered my fear when I looked out the frosted window.

My fingertips burned, my head pulsed, and I was so ashamed because I was so hungry, terribly hungry.

My mouth salivated when I saw the driver pulled apart. Two masked men in large, white fur coats with mud on them, rubbed along their bodies to camouflage into the forest tore his ligaments apart.

They used ropes and pulled slowly, communicating with each other when to do so, spreading him thin like margarine. It was slow, pain was the intention. When his screams died down, I realized I was now screaming, that I was now next, and foolishly, I did the last thing anyone should do.

I ran.

I pushed open the heavy door, tumbled out the carriage, and laid on the forest floor in surprise because now it was almost daybreak, time had gotten away from us.

“Dante,” I screamed.

I couldn’t find him anywhere, and I struggled to stand, pushed by the wind, and now, pulled by the two masked men.

They smelled horrid.

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They smelled like dirt, and sweat, and something sweet and strong, and I was still hungry salivating while I cried, being carried deeper into the forest, my body trembling too afraid to fight back.

They laughed, tying me to a tree near the edge of a cliff facing eastward and they mocked me, saying, ‘they were told to make it slow.’

They left me there to die, tied to the tree, and I didn’t cry, I held my head high and I cursed them all with my final and last breath.

“I swear upon my mother’s grave I will split you open.”

I whispered these words to myself, refusing to cry, but my body still shook, because I was afraid.

I finally cried when the fog cleared, and in the distance, I could see Imperator Seth’s estate, my future home, and I knew he had done this. He had tricked me, taken my hand in marriage, only to kill me, the last of my line.

“I’ll kill you,” I screamed.

Screaming, cursing, kicking, spitting on the graves of their mothers, I know I looked crazy, but in one’s last moments, instinct kicks in.

While my final moments were approaching, dying of thirst, the sun rising off the horizon, I cried harder, staining my coat with red tears for a monster had found me.

He is filthy, tall, with bright hair, wearing the suit of a man, standing on two legs. His ears are so small, his eyes are so big, their colors so dull. He’s pretending to be regal with real rugs draped around his body, dirty and with mismatching patterns, sewn together into a jacket.

He says nothing, looks at the horizon, and I know he is here to watch me die.

“Who hurt you?”

I look at the monster, shocked that he can speak the tongue of man, and I make noises at him to scare him away, hissing, barking, anything. I would rather starve or burn than be torn apart.

He watches me with his filthy, dull eyes and takes out a small knife.

It’s time for him to eat.

“Make it quick,” I screamed.

He dashed toward me and I screamed, stiff, and he...set me free. My skin crawls when he takes my hand, his flesh on fire, and he drags me into the woods, faster than any animal I have seen.

The monster slows down when he notices I cannot keep up, and he picks me up, ignoring my screams.

“Put me down! Put me down or else my husband will get you!”

The monster laughed, carrying me through the woods, and I pushed back against him harder. He must be taking me deep into the woods, off to return me to the masked men, or to eat me whole, or to make me his monster bride.

Instead, he brings me to a large, metal prison.

Various pieces of colored metal are hammered together, and the front has a viewing pane. Two wheels are on the bottom, made of more strange material.

The smelly monster swings the door open to the prison pushes me and traps us inside.

The prison has a bed.

It has plenty of books littering the ground, a small plant, fruits, and a seat at the front of the viewing pane. I looked around the metal prison and realized this is his cave.

He has brought me back to fornicate.

The monster slowly undresses his rugs, and I prepare to see his strange fur...but instead, there is none. He has skin, like mine, but hairier, and dirtier. He wears the same clothes as I and when he takes off, I realize he is no danger.

This monster is a man, but he does not look like any man I have seen.

“Hi, my name is Ray. Sorry about earlier…”

I ignore him and push as far as I can away from the windows, but he’s too friendly. Even his shirt is friendly, big and yellow, with a nice smile drawn on it, in some strange language I can’t read.

While he clumsily moves around the small cave, I push down the curtains, make it as dark as possible, and The Ray turns to look at me, watching my every move, and suddenly he doesn’t look happy.

“Who tied you to that tree,” he asks. “Are you a monster?”

“You are,” I screamed.

“No, I’m—”

I push him, and he trips back, falling onto the ground and he stays still. I gasped, covered my hands with my mouth, and he sat up, grumpy, bleeding from his mouth.

“You made me bite on my tongue,” he grumbled.

I say nothing, take off my coat, and feel my face go warm, my body all over, and I don’t know what's happening. I keep pulling at the collar of my dress, the small cave is too hot, but I can’t take off anymore, I can’t take the room off.

“You smell really good,” I mumble.

I take a few steps toward him, and his big, dull eyes now get small, very small, and I open my mouth, shuddering, moaning because I’m so hungry. Something pushes out of my mouth, poking the bottom of my lips, and somehow, I know the food is ready.

“I have never, ever, smelled anything that good,” I rasped. “I want you.”

The Ray says nothing, but turns red and makes a strange noise in his throat.

I got down onto the floor next to him, and something loud rattled in my head, a sound familiar but strange, louder and louder the closer I was to his body. My face close to his face, I paused, inhaled, and shuddered.

The Ray takes the initiative, as any monster would, pressing his wet mouth against mine, and it is the sweetest kiss I have ever had until this very day.