The Other Queen

Chapter 6

Bethilda

I tried my hardest not to cry after waking up from a deep slumber. It was like waking up from a long nightmare; the longest that I had since the day my mother died.

I got up from where I laid. Feeling dizzy, I started to open my eyes, squinted by the bright light surrounding me. As I adjusted my sight to my surroundings, I smelt the fresh scent of the grass tickling my palms. It felt wet and cold.

Suddenly, I heard a faint melody in the distance. A bubbly string melody like someone was playing the harp.

I stopped breathing for a while. Am I already dead? Where am I? Is this what they called the afterlife? I asked myself.

I began to stand up and looked everywhere. I am standing in the middle of an endless field. I couldn't see anything other than the green grass around me. No trees or bushes around. The sky seemed to be dark and the surroundings were dim. The clouds rolled swiftly as if the days were running to catch eternity.

I saw huge lightning across the clouded skies but couldn't hear a single sound coming from it. Sometimes, simultaneous thunders appeared but didn't make any sound at all. The harp melody still lingers in my head, unfading and untiring to hear. It did not give me an overwhelming emotion. I just stood there listening and observing the sky, like my emotions faded away with the wind.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" A voice suddenly said from behind me. I jumped in surprise.

I gasped and slowly turned around to see who it was. I flinched slowly as soon as I saw her familiar face. Her smile is unfading. It was still that same old smile she gave me for the past years I tried to forget.

My brows quiver in resentment. The only memory I have with her is the memory I didn't want to see. A nightmare I didn't want to come every night that I sleep.

She smiled at me and lowered her gaze. "I know you're still angry at me. I wouldn't dare to explain. What I did was despicable..." she said.

"Why wouldn't you explain? Don't you think it's fair to just stay quiet about it? How could you smile like that and tell me you wouldn't dare to explain?" I utterly talked back. My tears suddenly fell from my eyes. I couldn't get a hold of it anymore. I just couldn't make myself as strong as I was in front of other people. I wanted my mother to see how badly I was internally and emotionally bleeding because of her. I wanted her to feel how lonely I have become to such an extent that I would imagine her appear in front of me in a dream as if this is real. As if my mind wanted to face my fears.

My mother weakly smiled and caressed my cheek. "I did everything I could to protect you. I know you wouldn't understand. It was best for you to resent me rather than be hurt with the truth," she uttered.

I cried. Tears started to stream endlessly down my cheeks. "How could you leave me like this? Didn't you know how miserable I've become? Didn't you watch over me? Are you that numb, huh?"

I was surprised. She suddenly moved closer and hugged me tightly. My tears were halted for a moment. I couldn't feel her warmth anymore. Her skin was just like how I had last seen her, but her warmth faded away as though I'm being embraced by the wind.

I waited for her to say something but instead, she just caressed my back trying to console me for all of the years I was left abandoned.

"Always remember my Bethilda, I never abandoned you. I am always with you. You know that in your heart..." she whispered in my ear. She broke off the embrace and faced me once again. She pointed at my chest and I automatically looked at it myself.

I was surprised when I saw something there. It was a necklace with a water drop-shaped pendant colored in bright blue. The pendant is like the color of the sea, as the water inside seemed to stream endlessly.

I returned my gaze to my mother but I was surprised to find the horizon empty of her presence. She disappeared, again.

I tried to search for her from left to right. I ran in circles, but I couldn't see any trace of her.

I began to cry and knelt down to the grass. My shoulders were slumped. My voice was getting louder and louder as I suddenly came back mourning for her again. All the pain I went through when she left me suddenly came back as though she died again before my eyes. How I hated her for leaving me, but how could I ever stop loving her when she's still lingering in my heart and head?

****

"Beth..."

I woke up and squinted as the sunlight invaded my sight. I tried as hard as I could to adjust to the brightness of the place. As I was recovering, I saw someone looking at me. I creased my forehead. The image was still blurry but I waited for my sight to come back.

"Beth..." a man's voice asked. It was from someone I might know but I just couldn't seem to remember who it was or what's his name. My sight still was adjusting.

Little by little, his face was getting clearer now. His hair is gold in color, wavy, soft, and shoulder-length. He showed a bright clear cerulean pair of eyes. I creased my brows more as soon as I determined his familiarity. "W-who are you?" she asked him.

Suddenly, the man's eyes showed resentment and anger. The next thing I knew, I was choking to death.

I tried to gasp for air while trying to hold his cold hands strangling my neck. I tried to open my mouth, gasp for air, and try to say something but not a word was formed by my mouth. I could feel my blood rushing through my veins about to come out any minute.

"Your Highness! Your Highness! Stop this instance! O, lord of Derevia, help up!" A voice of another man interrupted.

The man in front of me was still strangling me, unminding the presence of others like he was unashamed of what he's doing.

I coughed and coughed but he's still gripping my neck. I tried my best to reach out my hand to his face. I touched his cheek with my trembling hands. My sight is getting blurry again.

A tear fell from my eyes. Suddenly, the man loosened his tight grip on my neck. My sight slowly came back. I saw how the man's expression changed from anger to amusement. He was just staring at me while I shed tears.

I coughed and gasped for air. I held my chest and heaved heavy inhalation. I just thought I was going to die. All I did was just cry silently, holding my chest.

It felt funny. I thought of dying many times and it never bothered me at all if someone will try to end my life or I die all by myself. The moment my mother left me, death was never a question. I happily wanted to end everything right there and then. But when someone unfamiliar came to kill me, I just felt frightened by the fact that I would literally die at the hands of someone I didn't know.

"Your Highness! Goodness... are you alright?" The other man's voice butted in. He knelt in front of me wearing his thick blue coat. His hair is grey and curled. His appearance is about 45 years old. He has wrinkles and laugh lines. His worried face gently focused on me.

"W-where am I?" I whispered.

He bowed his head to me. "You're in the field outside the castle, Your Highness. You suddenly went out here for a walk. I came all the way here to look for you!"

"Could you leave us for a moment, Francois?"

I turned to see the golden-haired man who spoke again beside me.

His aura is beginning to darken as his face dimmed while lowering his gaze to me. He's still wearing that amused face of his but his anger took over again.

I swallowed a lump in my throat. Is he going to kill me again?

"B-but Your Highness, you have shown your violence again! If the Sixth finds out that you're hurting her again--" The old man's words came to a halt when the other man spoke again.

"Should I kill you now?" The man showed his sword to the former.

I saw how frightened the old man was and bowed his head to me. "My apologies, Your Highness! My apologies! Please spare me my life. Just this moment will I leave you behind. I will be back, Princess!" he uttered, then stood up. He ran away and never took a glance back at me.

I hurried to stand up. I was about to run away when I felt a sudden pain in my back. My eyes widened in surprise and automatically knelt. I felt that my blood was already streaming down my back up to my thighs. I hitched my breath and tried to scream in pain internally.

Suddenly, the golden-haired man showed up in front of me. He was walking from right behind me and faced me with his anger. He forwarded his sword and let it touch my neck.

I gulped. To be honest, I wanted to stop fearing my life. Should I let him kill me, then?

I looked at him with my trembling body. My tears were still falling.

He smirked. Amusement was still in his eyes. "It's the first time I saw you tremble in fear, Beth. Are you pulling up an act right now? Do you seriously think I will fall for this trap?" he asked.

I smiled weakly. "I don't know what you're saying, but if my death would mean to make others happy, that would be nice." I laughed. "This is weird... you know my name but here I am, losing my life and still trying to figure out where the hell I met you before. I seriously don't know you and I'm going to lose this life to you," I said while crying.

He scoffed. "And now you're pretending that you don't know me?" He removed the sword away from my neck and changed his stance into a fighting position. "Why don't you show me your strength and fight for your life?"

I smiled at him. "Please, let me die..."

He stopped for a moment. His eyes showed shock and bewilderment.

I sighed. "By the way, I still didn't catch anything you and the other guy were saying. Where are we anyway?" I asked.

"Stop fooling around, Elizabeth! Get up and fight back!" He shouted. He slashed his sword in front of me.

I flinched, tightly shutting my eyes while hearing my blood dripping out of my skin. I opened my eyes again and saw my arm bleeding. I didn't move. I returned my gaze to him.

He showed his amusement towards me. "Why are you doing this? This is not you!" he angrily said.

I just smiled at him. I was about to say something when suddenly, my sight became blurry again.

The memory of my mother in an endless field suddenly filled my head. My chest was bombarded with fast heartbeats. I remembered how she embraced me and left me with a necklace.

I lowered my gaze to my chest and saw that I was literally wearing the same necklace she gave me inside that weird dream. Does this mean it's real? I did meet her a while ago? How did it happen?

So many questions flooded my mind. I was still hearing the man's angry voice but slowly it was being drowned in my ears until everything was inaudible. I felt my body collapse to the ground and slowly lose everything to darkness.

-to-be-continued-