The Cursed King

One.

(The names of towns and cities are made up by me and do not exist. Every person, place, or thing in this book is fictional and fictional only. I'm not going to use anything as my inspiration for this book and it is purely based on my imagination.)

Meraki

(v.) to do something with soul, creativity, or love; to leave a piece and essence of yourself in your work.

~•~

Let's start with the introduction, shall we?

Hello, I'm Aelia Grace. A small town girl working as a detective to catch criminals and make this world a better place. Everything about me screams average. My parents always told me to be average and so I lived my life with my head low. I never tried to stand out. I never tried things that were out of the ordinary. To me, the simple life was best suited.

And if it weren't for the hit and run case of my parents, I would have lived a fairly ordinary life. Might have continued my lineage and worked in the bakery my family has owned since generations.

That would have made me happy. But again, if my parents wouldn't have murdered and if the police haven't closed the case under pressure from the higher ups, I would have lived the life my parents have carved for me.

But here we are, living the life not any ordinary person gets to live.

~•~

"Detective Aelia," my co-worker/ annoyingly nosy and jealous co-worker popped his head into my office with his annoying fashion sense. He was wearing a tacky pink floral shirt with heat print all over it and mud brownish pants.

My nose scrunched in distaste at his choice.

I'm not a fashion guru but I know that what he is wearing can be registered as the worst fashion combination.

Not only does he sucks at fashion, but he is the worst detective in the whole department - the lapdog of the rich and powerful. Throw him some notes and he is willing to do anything, even if it includes setting a criminal free.

The type of detective I hate to the core.

"May I help you?" I slammed my laptop shut so he couldn't sneak a peek into what I'm working on. If he is here, that means one thing - he is here to sniff on what I am working on. That means he has been "provided" with the task given by "someone special."

"You don't have to stop your work for me. Continue what you are working on," he showed me his nasty smile. He probably thinks he looks "seductive" at the moment.

"No, I'm done with it already," I forced a smile, "nice shirt. Where did you get that uh- "unique" one?" I asked to distract his focus from my work.

He is someone who can easily be fooled with a few compliments.

His smile grew and plopped his ass on my desk.

"You remember I told you about my grandma who lives in the countryside? She visited the local beach near her town and brought it for me," he was excited to talk about the shirt he was wearing.

Should I tell him that he looks like a flamingo with the leg of an alligator? That would be too rude, right?

"You should visit the town my grandma lives in, it's full of wilderness, secluded and there are beaches nearby," he blabbered on and on about how beautiful the town her grandmother is.

Ding.

The bulb in the head twinkled.

Countryside with lots of wilderness that continues for miles. A town that is secluded and filled with dangerous roads that have mountains filled with forest on one side and the cliff on the other.

That sounds like a perfect place to escape to. A perfect place to hide. And a perfect place to dump the body in…

"s**t!" I cursed. Why did I not realize it before?

I called the police officer who was on the stakeout a few times but he didn't pick up.

Shit! f**k!

"Hello, this is Detective Aelia Grace. I need a backup team for the Elaine murder case. I cannot contact the undercover officer. I'm going down to the suspect's place myself. Send me the backup as soon as possible," I said through the call.

"Blake, I need to leave now. Please close the office door when you leave," I said to Blake who looked back at me with a dumbfounded expression.

"What?" I asked.

"You're working on Elaine's murder case? The case with twenty-seven victims of the same town? Girl, do you know how dangerous the killer is? He killed twenty-seven people and left no trace behind. Five of them were police officers and the rest were retired police officers. This shows how much the killer loathes the police. No one in the department was willing to take on the case for that reason and you took it?" He asked.

"Yes," I replied and motioned for him to exit the office so I could lock it behind me. I had forgotten for a moment that he is good at sniffing other people's work. Almost made a mistake in a rush.

"If you're so concerned about me, please call your close aides to provide me with backup and send 911, just in case," I smiled and rushed out of the building.

Getting into my car, I rushed to the address of the suspect. When I pulled up in the driveway, I saw the suspect driving away and the car with our stake-out police officer was parked near his house. I got down from the car and ran to the car of the police officer, only to find it empty.

A chill ran down my spine.

No! It can't be. There were two people. Two! A single man can not bring down two trained officers like that.

I ran back to my car and contacted the backup team.

"Hello, the suspect is running away and the two officers on the stakeout are missing. Contact more people for backup, the suspect is running towards his grandma's hometown."

I cut the phone and concentrated on driving. I sped up the car to the maximum limit so I could catch up to the suspect. Soon enough, I could see his car.

The suspect sped up his car too.

We soon exited the town and touched the beeline of the forest. After half an hour, we exited the forest area and entered the mountain area.

I could see the backup team catching up to me from the side view. Seeing two police cars behind me reassured me in some ways. If the killer could take on two trained officers then I'm just a piece of cake for him. I know my abilities. I have brains. I could solve almost any murder case but I could not save my ass in hand-to-hand combat, or with a gun.

I know how to shoot but I lack the will to shoot. I just could not bring myself to shoot. And it's my biggest flaw.

Come, my child. A voice tingled in my ears.

As if in a trance, my eyes moved from the road to the moon. It was a full moon, its brightness calling out to me.

Come to me, my dear child. The same voice whispered. The voice was different from anything I have ever heard. It was eerie and healing at the same time. It was hard to find the correct word to describe it.

Come, my dear child. The more I looked at the moon, the more it felt like it was calling me. And lost in a trance, I realized too late that I strayed off the road. As my car fell into the endless pit, I jerked in surprise.

Come to me. The voice rang in my ears. Getting louder by the second.

"Stop it," I screamed. I desperately fought with the seatbelt. My hands shook with anxiety. Finally, the seatbelt was undone. I immediately opened the car door and jumped, praying to God that I at least drop into the river so I can survive.

I closed my eyes and waited for my body to either drop into the water stream or get spattered onto the rock in a million little pieces. But what graced my body was an intense pull before my body landed on the soft grass.

Wait, grass?

I opened my eyes to brightly glowing flowers. They were big and ethereal. I have never landed my eyes on anything so beautiful before.

In awe, I got up and looked around me. It was an endless sea of glowing flowers and what lay ahead of it was a broken castle.

My child. The voice from before rang in my ears once again.

That damn voice is the reason I almost lost my life.

That's when I realized something. That the cliff I fell from is known to be the deadliest cliff. It has a river on the bottom and surrounding the river are big rocks. That was why I was sure my chances to live were slim.

So, if what lies in the deep valley is rocks and water, how did I end up in front of a castle, with flowers that do not exist anywhere on earth? And what was that pull that I faced all of a sudden? It sure as hell wasn't gravity.

It was like my body was traveling from one dimension to another.

Growl.

A growl from the castle broke the chain of my thoughts.

I flinched. I can't fight humans to save my life and there is an animal around me? The growl was deep and dangerous. I somehow survived falling down the cliff and now I'm going to become a kebab… would the animal even cook me? That would have me like a steak!

I quickly backed away and started running in the opposite direction of the castle. Almost immediately, the animal roared and then I heard it. The sound of paws hitting the ground.

By the sound of the paws, I could tell the animal had to be the size of an elephant.

Dear Gods, why was my life spared when I was going to die moments later?

Was it spared so I could see these beautiful flowers before my soul could say goodbye to my body? Is that it?

The footsteps neared me and I made the mistake to turn around to look at what was chasing me, only to lay my eyes upon a creature I'd never seen, never heard about. A wolf with a body of a man, with razor-sharp teeth and claws bigger and more dangerous than any weapon. And he was enormous.

I squealed like a frightened deer. My legs twisted and I fell on my ass.

The wolf… the man? Whatever the f**k it was, roared as he jumped at me.

I closed my eyes and whimpered. His paws landed near my head with a thud. My heart leaped out of my chest and I whimpered even more.

When the hit never came, I opened my eyes. The creature was huffing and looking at me.

My eyes wide opened, in both fear and curiosity. Now that he was right in front of me, I could see a lot more resemblance to a human in him.

The beast growled when it saw me looking over him.

Okay, so he is offended that I'm looking at it. Of course, I would be offended too if people would stare at me like I'm a strange creature. It is quite offendable. Of course, it is.

I should stop rambling and think of a way to survive.

"Stop thinking. Your thoughts are giving me a headache," the creature growled at me in a human voice. It wasn't humanly per say. It was a combination of the voices of an animal and a human. What's more shocking is that it spoke!

"He speaks," I squeaked, almost shitting my pants. Brain, think of something. Think about getting out of this situation.

But what can I even do? I could not take on any criminal on my own, how am I to win with this enormous beast? Did I ever go hunting?

I don't think so? No, I never did. I should have accepted the offer my coworker gave me to attend hunting classes with her.

"Stop thinking, I said," it growled again and it sounded angry.

~•~