34. Laments of Souls
The darkness prevailed everywhere around the room. The echo of a girl's cry filled the entire room. The brightness from an insufficient very small source helped to look at the major details of the darkroom.
The blood-stained chains were handcuffed to the wrist which was preoccupied with untreated scars which happened along before. The legs were tightly knotted with merciless iron chains.
The face that radiated the flawless moon, now stained with tears, the beautiful eyes were covered by darkness lacking out of life which emerged between her knees, fully covered with dirt applied hairs. The lips were dried out of shouting.
The shining skin of the girl now was sickled to her bones out of depleted food. Further, the room was filled with the stingy smell of hell from an unknown source. The girl was sitting in the middle of the room with chains tied all over her body including her neck and she extended her fingers in the gesture of begging and left out a nerve-trembling feeble voice, “SAVE ME”.
"Axe...!"
Karen woke from his sleep with a scream calling Akshara. His scream was loud enough to wake his sleeping mother in the next room. Before Yadivah, his mother could reach his room; a few servants and maids were gathered in front of Karen’s room and were gossiping about the tantrum thrown by their Beta Prince.
Yadivah adjusted her throat to alert the servants and maids; they moved aside to leave their queen her way. Yadivah eyed them and soon they vanished from that place.
When Yadivah opened the room of Karen, she saw her miserable son scared of his bad dream and he was screaming like a maniac repeatedly calling Akshara’s name. Though irritated on hearing the human name from his son’s mouth, Yadivah worried about his son’s condition.
She extended her hands to touch Karen’s head; Karen clutched his mother and cried like a small boy. Apart from rockfish nature, her heart melted when Karen cried. She rubbed his back in care, "Calm down Karen. I got you. Relax. You are dreaming my son."
Karen hugged his mother even more tightly to ease his fear and calmed his tremble and like a mad man he rolled his tongue to utter, “Axe is in danger. I must protect her. I failed to protect her. It's my entire fault. I must have taken good care of her. Axe! Please forgive me.”
Yadivah consoled her son initially but he turned deaf ears to her son’s jabber, later she busted in anger, "Karen, why do you worry for that human girl. She is gone. Accept the fate, my dear son. She would have been died by this time. So stop thinking about her."
Karen nodded negatively in his tight hold of his mother and hoped to his life to see his love again lively.
Karen pledged his mother, "Mom, I will surely find her and make her my wife. And I will safeguard her with all my life. And I won’t allow anyone to harm her. I love her from the bottom of my heart".
Yadivah flared with anger on witnessing his son’s stupor, pushed him away loosening his hold and slapped him hard on his face, "Damn you, I don’t ever expect to give birth to this kind of jerky man. I won’t allow you to marry her even if she is found alive. I will kill her with my bare hands and would rip her off with my claws."
Karen shouted a big NO at his mother and found a different woman in his mother’s body. He even thought that his mother was possessed by some evil spirits since she served the black witch Nicoria.
Yadivah continued ignoring her son’s questioning reaction on his face, "What do you think of your mother. Am I looking like a fool, to blindly follow your father for these many years? What do you think? Did I walk all the paths that lead to the throne with the bed of roses? (She rolled her eyes to express her true nature to his son) NEVER... I didn't just throw the thorns away from my paths; I destroyed the thorns in the path to my Throne.”
Karen looked puzzled to hear his mother’s evil tone but he found his throat was empty without words and just listened to his mother and his mother continued, "In the past, I know your father is going to cheat on me just for a freaky human earlier. So I cleared my way to get your father in my hold."
Karen quickly interrupted his mother’s gibberish, "Mom, what do you mean? What did you do?”
Yadivah ignored Karen’s question and asked in a stern voice, “I want you to forget the human and marry the daughter of Delta to extend our territory. What do you say?”
Karen looked even more nonplussed to see his mother differently and nodded negatively, “Mom, You sound different… alike you are possessed by some phantoms. Can you hear me?”
Yadivah replied with horrific laughter along with an evil look, “Oh Karen, You don’t even have a chance to look at your mother’s true face. What do you think? I simply married your father and readily titled as Luna… Hah, my life wasn’t that simple as you think, my son.”
Karen rose to ask his mother, “Mom! Tell me how did you clear your way to getting my dad and Throne?”
Yadivah stepped a little forward and suddenly turned back to look at his son with an evil smirk on her face, "What do you expect your mother to do when her husband would be taken away by low-level humans?"
Karen stammered in shock, "Mom, don't tell me y-you d-did kk-kill, anyone..."
Yadivah laughed evilly and disclosed the past truth to her son in a casual tone, "Yes, I did. I washed my hands with the drops of blood of many innocent souls. I tricked many and cogitated numerous plans to become Luna."
"Mom, it's not fair for you."
Yadivah replied, "Err... It seems I didn't teach you well. (She turned her head here and there in frustration and suddenly clutched Karen’s lower jaw) Now listen to me my dear son, everything is fair in love and war... I did it for my love."
Karen asked her in seethed voice while trying to loosen her grip, "But how your life relates to Axe. Why does it bother you whenever I say I love her?"