Love And Trauma

Hector sat on the floor, watching the Queen's hand drip blood all the way down the floor. Her dress was now stained with her own blood.

"Your highness." He said in a whisper, as if he was scared. He wasn't just scared truly, he was terrified. The look in Adrian's eyes when he had tried to swing thay sword at him was something he was sure he would never forget. Something he was sure he didn't want to see.

"You have seen enough for the day, Hector." The Queen removed the veil from her face and dropped it on the floor. Her eyes were glassy with the tears she refused to let drop down her cheeks, and her lips just slightly parted. It was painful. It had to be.

"I am sorry. It is all my fault. I am sorry, your highness."

She turned away from him and quietly walked away, doing nothing about her bleeding hand.

Hector came to his senses and stood up, then ran to the door. "The Queen is injured. The physician. Please get the physician."

The doorman sighed before walking away, as Hector went back to her room, then went to the dressing room. Her room alone was larger than the entire servant's quarters, and he found it a bit difficult to navigate through .

"Your highness? Your highness?" No answer. "I will wait here. The royal physician will be here very soon. Please come out."

Still nothing. He sat on the floor, waiting for hee to come around. Waiting for her to at least answer.

The Queen looked at her hand. The blood had started to dry up now, but she felt dizzy. When she stood in front of her mirror, her normally rosy complexion was now deathly pale. She closed her eyes tightly as the memoroes frim that night came back, causing her knees to weakness.

"It's time to end your reign." She heard the leader of the masked men who invaded the palace at midnight say, and her mother pressed her two hands tighter over her face.

It had been just another night in the palace, with her being tucked in by her mother's nanny, Mrs. Margaret. She had slept off after a rather boring story of a princess who she found to be nothing like herself, but was woke up violently by her mother.

"Come with me." Her mother, Elegant Queen Leonah said. The stern tone she used, didn't even let her protest and she ran after her mother. She knew, with the little knowledge of her mother she had as an 8 year old, she knew something had to be terribly wrong. Her mother never ran and took excruciatingly slow and graceful steps. But tonight, even with the darkness, she was running, her breath unsteady.

If shehad known those series of breaths would be some of the last, she would have paid more attention to their rhythm.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps just as they passed her father's chambers, and her mother pulled her in, into a secret room in his chambers.

She heard everything. But saw nothing. Her mother's quiet sobs and labored breathing. Her dad's ambitious threats. Then his painful groans. She could not help yelling when she heard his scream, and her mother had hurrieldy caught off a piece of her father's robe, then covered her face with it.

"As long as...as long as they don't know your face, they don't know you. Not your name, not your features. Elvira. Run far away till things quiet down here, then return and claim your kingdom." She would never forget the look on her mother's face as she kissed her forehead tenderly.

"But it..it belongs to father does it not? What if father? What of you?"

Her mother smiled, even with the tears violently rolling down her cheeks. It was the most beautiful, and the saddest.

She had run that day, run with Mrs. Margaret, who had testified to her identity as the late Royal Couple's only daughter, securing the throne on her return as the masked queen, whose nane had been lost and forgotten, just like her parents. The throne which now felt like thorns. Especially with Hector.

She sat in front of the mirror, her body going weak. She may have lost too nuch blood, but the pain was more in her heart than anywhere else.

"Your highness? The royal physician is here." Hector called outside and she turned to the direction of his voice. What would he think if her now? Even she had been shocked by the protective instinct thag had pushed her to step between him and Adrian's sword. In that one moment, she knew she was not doing it fir her oride. She was doing it for him.

She stood up, grabbing the edge of the mirror as she did, then walked slowly, waves of dizziness that racked her body causing her to stop several times. She managed to get to the door and unbolted it. She never did get to open it herself, as she fell to the floor woth a heavy thud.

"Her royal highness opened it." The physician who had started to grow worried said, a smile spreading his slightly cracked lips. Hector nodded, his face not reflecting the physician's happiness.

"What is wrong? Let us enter."

Hector shook his head. "Wait here. I am her royal highness's handmaiden, so I will bring her royal highness to you."

The physician looked slightly irritated, but he backed away and left Hector in the corridor.

He opened the door, but it refused to move further after opening up just enough for him to go in.

He walked in slowly, then stopped as he saw the Queen's body on the floor, her eyes closed.

"Your highness!" He said in a hushed whisper as he carried her, then took her to the small makeshift bed.

She was immobile, and he got her veil and closed it around her face before calling the physician.

The palace, and all the things it came with, the Queen and alk the things she came with were things he could let go of. He realized as he watched the physician use acupuncture on her, then proceed to sow the wound.

She had been extremely sincere with him, but he was not what she needed. She was not what he needed either. So he would take the opportunity to leave.

The contest was in five days already, and he had to leave now before the Queen gained consciousness. That way, he wouldn't feel guilty about what he would be repaying her kindness with. He still felt it now, but it would be considerably easier for him when he wasn't looking into her eyes.