A Bad Luck Life

“Run,” Grey’s mother shouted as she held off a shadow monster in the doorway to the children’s room. Her back was to the beast, and it was literally ripping her apart.

“Mama,” Stone, Grey’s little brother shouted running towards his mother. Grey grabbed him and picked him up.

“Run...get away from and...don’t look...back...Take Stone...and hurr-” the monster’s claw like hand ripped through her chest holding her heart in it’s hand. The children watched in horror as there mother’s heart was crushed and the blood splattered on them. Grey wasted no more time and went out the window with her brother in her arms. The child cried and wept but Grey stayed cold faced, she wanted to be strong for her little brother.

She ran until she could run no more and she sat down to rest. Stone clung to her still, weeping into her bosom, saying repetitively between sobs, “Mama...Papa...”

She stroked his hair and whispered, “It’ll be ok...” Though she knew, it wouldn’t... Her rest was short lived for she could hear the monster begin the pursuit. She didn’t know the forest she resided in, but she knew that she was going away from monster and their old home. She ran to the edge of the wood where there was a steep drop, though she didn’t know that and they went tumbling. Grey made her frame rigid so her brother would receive no damage and she would absorb it all.

“Sister get up! It’s coming,” he shouted once they reached the bottom. She wanted to get up, truly she did, but...the fall had rendered her useless. Nothing but her mouth would move, and the boy wept more. Lucky for her she was on her back and could see to the top of the slope, unlucky for her the monster was there. She could hear it groan as the day began to break, but it still had some strength left for the day and she had a horrible feeling of what it was planning.

It began to slide down towards them all the while she was yelling to her brother, “Run Stone! Please leave me, you have a chance! Get out of here!! Please!”

The boy shook his head and threw his body on hers. The beast jumped over their bodies and turned to face them. She looked at it, silently begging for it to take her and leave him but it grinned and drooled...and all hope was lost. “Good bye Grey...” he said as the beast ripped him off of her leaving cuts on her stomach. His shrieks, his cries, the look on his face as the shadow monster ripped him apart in the most painful ways, would stay with her till her dying day.

His blood on the lush green grass and her memory of him was all that was left. The monster looked at her with the promise on it’s blood stained teeth to be back for her that night. Now she had no one to be strong for so she wept. She cried and wailed, and could hardly wait till it came for her. There was nothing left in this life for her...only sadness. She could feel herself getting drowsy as her blood seeped from the cuts it had made on her stomach, and she gladly slipped into darkness.

Soon she could feel warm, smelly drops of something hit her face that jarred her out of unconsciousness. “You look like a real treat,” it said in a voice of a boar mixed with a toads.

“Do I? Well stop with the compliments and get this over with,” she growled and remembered what it did to her family.

“Oh? You can understand me? Well then, you’ll also be a rare treat! Not many can understand creatures like me, those eyes of yours will be the tastiest of all! I’ll take my time with you,” it lifted her and looked like it would start from the bottom and she wished she could knock herself out to ease the pain, but she couldn’t. It was about to take it’s first bite of her when it cried out with the shriek of a stuck pig. She slid from it’s hand getting cut up even more on it’s sharp claws. It’s life was over as a sword glowing with light was thrust through it’s skull. She couldn’t move, but the fall made her hit her head and a silhouetted form in the rising moon light was her last sight for a while.

She didn’t know how long it was till she opened her eyes again, only wishing for them to have been eternally closed. She looked around the room she was in. Such beauty she never knew from a room in a home, such comfort she never knew from a bed. She sat up with ease, it was obvious that she had been out long enough to heal. She sat against the headboard and looked around not wishing to get up. Before she knew what was happening an elderly woman walked in, once she saw her sitting up she gasped and rushed to her side.

“Oh my,” the woman gasped at the sight of Grey’s eyes. They barely had any color, a name to match her eyes. Grey looked away from her and the woman stuttered, “D-Did that happen when you were hurt?”

Grey shook her head ‘no’ still looking away from the old gal. “I,” she began to say but she couldn’t talk. All memory of that night came flowing back like a tsunami and it hit hard. She couldn’t control herself, all she could see was her family being murdered by that monster. She put her hands over her face and cried. She couldn’t hear a thing anymore, not the woman leaving, and not the little boy entering.

She may not have been able to hear anything but her sense of touch was just fine. A warm little hand touched her arm as she cried, she jumped and looked at the little thing. He smiled with a type of reassurance to her and climbed onto the bed with her. Her face held a shocked expression, he looked so like Stone, even his age looked close. “I am Prince Robert, I am 9 years old. What’s your name and why are you crying,” he asked touching her arm.

“You...you and Stone...the..same...” she grabbed the little prince and cried even more now. She held the boy to her bosom as she had to Stone when she ran with him, tipped her head back and cried out as it she were struck by some force. The boy didn’t reject her, but he comforted her. This went on for some time, until she got enough control to slow her tears.

Before she could say anything to him the door opened and in came a man about Grey’s age. Tall, with a gallant air about him. He screamed knight, but he had the face of little Robert. “Wesley,” the little boy cried out and jumped into, what seemed to be, his brother’s arms.

“Little Robert! I see our guest has awoken, after so long too! I’m glad,” he put the boy down on the bed and sat on the edge.

“She was about to tell me what happened! Weren’t you...uh..Miss,” he looked to her for the name.

“Grey,” she said simply with a cold air hanging on the word. She was under the same control that she had before it all happened. She didn’t want to loose that control so she began her story. “The town’s people drove us out because of me. They said my eyes, my being all together was unnatural and that we didn’t belong near them. My mother and father gladly left with my little bother and me to a cottage on the edge of town. We lived there for quite some time in happiness, but it was short lived. The town it’s self was attacked and there was no hope for us, the shadow monster got everyone but it only seemed to have wanted us...my brother and I. The night it attacked my parents kept it at bay but it took their lives, I escaped with my brother but it was too fast and I did not know the area. We tumbled down a slope, I took in all the pain hoping he would leave me and get away but he didn’t...” she had to stop. His shrieks echoed in her mind and she clapped her hands over her ears.

“You don’t have to go on,” Wesley said touching her shoulder.

She shook her head and gained her composure again, “The beast slid down the slope and my brother stayed with me. He tried to protect me and...it ripped him apart and devoured him...the day began to break so it left promising to come back for me...”

“I know the rest,” Wesley stated sadly.

“You do? How,” she asked with a questioning look in her nearly white irises.

“I saved you. It was I would killed the beast and brought you here,” he sounded so proud. Though horror dwelled on her face and shock. “What’s wrong? You don’t seemed-” Maybe if he had been expecting it he could have stopped her but maybe not. Her hand connected with his face very quickly, and the sound of her heavy breathing, trying to calm down, and the sound of the slap were all that was heard. Then another came, and another before he caught her hands.

“What do you think you’ve done!? Saved me?! Ha! You have condemned me to a lifetime of torment and pain!! I’ve had a pretty bad life, but my family, people who loved me, made it better. They made me keep going...and now I have nothing...nothing...” she was yelling up until her final words. Now she cried, and cried, and cried. Wesley took Robert and pushed him out the door.

Before Wesley exited he said a few final words, “I’m not going to apologize for saving you. I don’t really believe that you have nothing to live for...” She curled up into a ball and cried herself to sleep. She couldn’t stay asleep for very long, her growling stomach woke her. It was then she realized how long it must have been before she had something to eat. She meant to get up, thinking to look out the window at the sky. The faze of the moon would tell her how long it was, but as her stomach continued to growl she thought, ‘I could easily just toil away...I don’t need to eat...I don’t need to be alive...I shouldn’t have hit him for saving me. That was rude of me...’

She made the discussion to get up and look outside. There was barely any moon left, though it was still bright and gave light to the figure down below. She looked at it and recognized it was Wesley. She studied at how high her room was and thought, ‘I’ve jumped out of trees that were higher, I think...hmmm...’ She climbed out the window and down a little bit. She pushed herself off the wall forcefully and was flying. She reached the ground quickly and rolled to absorb the shock of the landing, all the while not making a sound. She watch for a few moments as he practiced sword strokes, and combinations. She walked up behind him and cleared her throat, he turned around and brought the sword centimeters from her skull. “I’m sorry I hit you,” she said after a while of them staring at each other.

A drop of sweat fell off his nose and he used the back of his hand to wipe some more away. “It’s alright, I understand,” he turned to continue his training.

Grey stepped around him and put her hands on his stopping him from lifting his sword. “It’s not alright...I can tell. Your eyes betray you, you have such nice eyes...such a deep blue. Your soul is the same though...” she reached out at him not touching anything to his eyes. He gave her a questioning glance. She smiled sadly, “I can’t see colors like everyone else..Most of the world is in gray to me. I see eye colors, and the colors of people’s souls. Your is a light blue on the outside which means you’re shy and a bright yellow/orange on the layer closest to you, meaning you are a very warm and caring.” As she spoke she touched the layers, and then her hand came to rest on his face, “Your eyes though...I know it’s not alright that I yelled at you and hit you for saving me. You feel as if you didn’t do what you were supposed to, because you know what it means to be chivalrous. You aim to please, and you don’t go against the will of a lady, am I right?”

He was amazed at how right she was, so stunned he couldn’t speak. He nodded and gained his voice back, “How do you know all this?” She smiled a bit and meant to go on but her stomach betrayed her and growled loudly. Wesley smiled and took her hand. He began to walk back towards the castle, “Why don’t we talk over a snack?” She nodded and suddenly felt so small, so childish, so weak, and she couldn’t tell why.