Overhead the night sky was alight with colorful pops and loud explosions that left sparkling glitters dancing through the heavens. The denizens of the world below were gasping and exclaiming with delight at the dazzling sight above. Stood in the far back of the large crowd was the reason behind the grand display—a hero and his partner heroine, their eyes seeming to gaze far beyond the colorful eruptions lighting up the midnight sky. And sure, there was happiness and pride welling up somewhere in the depths of their battle-weary souls… but sadly they were hung up well before reaching those depths where proud joy bubbled ferociously. His eyes broke away from the overhead display and glanced sideways to his ally—to his untold dismay, she wasn’t looking back. It appeared that his hidden fear was starting to become an awful reality.

            Finally her eyes broke gaze from the sky and for a half of a second, hers locked glance with his. But it was a very quick moment that dissipated before he could even acknowledge her momentary visage with a smile. He blinked twice—once involuntarily and again just to check that maybe he’d missed something—and inhaled deeply, preparing to speak. But that deep inhale seemed to burn and hurt severely. He knew that what was about to transpire would not be the celebration that any hero ever expects to be a part of. For a moment his mind wandered back through years of time and mental pages of memories and history, trying to figure out where that accursed fatal flaw had been missed. His mind was overwhelmed and he was secretly terrified, causing him to make a most awkward and strangled noise when he exhaled.

            “You should get that looked at,” her voice shattered the bubble of silence that had encased them, gently bantering and jabbing at him while showing such concern for him. Even when they were in the depths of combat, they’d always found a way to make light of their strife. He looked up at her—her eyes, while showing a melancholy sympathy, seemed to be icy orbs of stone that crushed his heart beneath their empty stare.

            “It’s fine,” he gently replied, his voice sounding a lot louder in his mind than it actually came out from his lips. He thought he had sounded firm, steady, and unwavering… the truth was, his voice had come out in a trembling, boyish whimper that bordered the brink of tears. How strange that his perception had fallen that far off when it came to his own behaviors. He began to drown in his own thoughts when this familiar warmth seemed to cup around the side of his face. The faintest scent of her drifted along the air with the lovely warmth, and his eyes instinctively rose to meet this extremely comforting and still somewhat intoxicating sensation that began to permeate his soul.

            “You never did take good care of yourself,” her voice chided. He closed his eyes to listen… her words always so loving; the cadence of her speech beautiful and melodious to his ears. He had a tendency to accidentally become lost in the harmony that was her talk—drifting aimlessly in a verbal sea of intriguing words, tantalizing sentences, and, of course, the symphony that was her voice. Even when she was at her angriest, he could still listen to her go on forever. When he was weary and longed for comfort, he used her stories as sweet lullabies that granted him the most pleasant of dreams and the most refreshing of sleeps. He had become lost again, for she brought him around once more. “Promise me you’ll get it looked at.”

            His eyes slowly opened, restoring him to the sickening nightmare that was trying to unfold around him. “I will,” he replied despondently. He couldn’t help but look at her and go back to their glory days. Things used to be so incredibly wonderful not long ago.

            Life had become a grand adventure with her. As the fascination of the mysteries around her became constant normalcy that he found remained exciting and addictive, the drive to know more about her grew within him. He’d unwittingly become an explorer of the strangest, most amazing world that ever would he travel through—the land of love. And while together they made their way through insane obstacles and overcame the greatest of evil beasts, this wild world of chaos and crises became the home he loved to call his own. Even cornered with strength depleting and body screaming for any reprieve—even death—he would still rise to his feet and easily fell whatever monster was threatening the queen of his kingdom. She was his queen and he was but her lowly guardian… and it was all worth it when, in the middle of the night, he would randomly wake from slumber to find her body tucked against his, his arm draped ever protectively across her. This was his life and this was his world, and it became all he knew and loved.

            But something terrible invaded his beloved kingdom—a foul plague that managed to pass the strongest fortresses and guards, seeping its frightful way into the very heart of his domain. His beautiful queen became poisoned with a nastiness beyond any horrid curse he’d ever seen while battling alongside her. Her eyes, warm and bright with loving happiness, had turned dark and cold with murky clouds of irritability and short temperament. The smile that oft lived on her lips turned downwards and her face became marred with a frown that left him sickeningly chilled to the bone when she turned it upon him. He asked his queen what had made her suddenly so ill, but the voice that sang magnificent lyrics of optimistic joy had become a harpy’s screech tainted with harsh words that dug into his ears like long, painful nails. He searched long and hard for an antidote with which to fix his lovely queen, but as the days became weeks, it was as if there was no cure for this most hideously evil disease. And worse—it had appeared to become contagious.

            He had faced his most powerful nemesis yet, and in the end had managed to bring the monster down. He stood over the fallen creature victoriously, about to strike the final blow that would make this awful thing regret ever challenging him when his eyes widened with the utmost horror—beneath his feet was his beloved queen. His eyes came up and his terrified stare was met by the eyes of another man. This man’s eyes twinkled darkly, if only for a second, and his face distorted into a most malicious smirk.

            You shouldn’t leave a job unfinished. Take down the wicked queen and take your place as the rightful king. The man’s voice breezed through his ears. At first the voice seemed unrecognizable, as his ears had become so corroded by the screams of his queen that he often struggled to hear with clarity, but then he made the horrifying realization—That voice was his own. The strange man sneering at him with such disgusting malice was his own form.

            His body shuddered and quaked in a very disturbed state of distraught and he fell away from his dying queen, the weapon in his hand becoming now a thing of unfathomable evil. In his anguished rage, he kicked it away and screamed at it to remain at a distance. He cursed the inanimate thing as though it could have possessed him and shouted terrifying threats until he strangled for oxygen and began to hyperventilate in a panic. He swallowed a rising lump in his throat, shut his eyes tight, and shook his head furiously as though he could shake the very memory out of his head. It was then that he made the worst choice he ever could have made for the sake of his kingdom and his queen—he summoned up the demon that commanded his temporary traipse into evil intents, and he made with this demon a deal.

            The queen was spared from death and her mind was warped so that any memory of this travesty of an affair never remained with her. But in return, he was instructed to remain at a distance and he was required to do many a task for the demonic keeper of his dark secret—blackmailed to do terrible and sickening things to keep his queen from knowing just what had occurred. He was never allowed to tell her why his demeanor had shifted, and he was unaware that the demon had not removed the last toxins of the curse from his tainted soul. These remaining poisons traveled through his veins, seeped into the fibers of his being, and infected his soul. His heart was so ravaged by the remnants that it forgot how to express affection, instead beating in a slow, lifeless rhythm that spoke of nothing but a need to work.

            She had eventually begun to question his rationale and his change in personality—and in some twisted sense of protection, he replied by snapping back angrily and keeping her away from the truth. The very same person that used to bring him such peace and solace was now the one person he couldn’t turn to. It was agonizing and torturous—he wished she would look into his eyes and hear his untold pleas, and every instance that she failed to do just that left him feeling resentful and betrayed. How could she do this to him after all he’d done for her? How could she be so careless as to not understand his pain? How could she be so selfish as to only enquire about his well-being when it was troubling her? She wasn’t stupid… But how could she be so ignorant?

            “Please do,” a voice broke through the playback of events that rolled on in his mind. He shuddered a bit and found himself looking into the eyes of his downtrodden queen.

            “Okay,” he simply said. As her hand fell away from his face, the cold air of the night felt almost like it burned. His heart leapt into his throat, and his eyes began to burn, sting, and grow blurry. He inhaled sharply again, as though once more to speak, but his breath again strangled him as it held in his chest.

            “Good,” she said, the faintest trace of a smile audible in her otherwise fading voice. Through his blurred vision, he saw her form distorting as she began to back away and disappear into the night. “I guess one day I’ll see you. Take care of yourself, okay?”

            His body became rigid and unmoving, his eyes forced to stare at his shaking feet as he attempted to answer back. But his voice had abandoned him and he couldn’t say a word. The air around him wrapped around him like an icy serpent, squeezing him with a cold and empty embrace. He suddenly felt as though he was standing alone and when his eyes glanced up for a moment, he blinked and the scary realization became true.

            He was stood in the remains of his kingdom, the land barrens and its citizens dead. The castle to which he had called home was splintered into large chunks of debris that littered the now brown grass that used to be his favorite garden. The trees were leaning or bent severely towards the ground as though heavy beneath their misery—some had been so unable to withstand their sorrows that they had simply snapped in half and collapsed upon themselves. The sky above him was cloudless and a strange brownish grey; a breeze that sailed by felt as gentle as it did empty. His whole kingdom had withered away into nothing. He looked to the chunks of stone and marble that used to be the castle and he saw a small hand protruding from beneath the blocks. He raced over to the hand and began hurling away the scattered debris. But he shouldn’t have done so, for he uncovered the final resting place of his fallen queen.

            You killed her, you did. A voice echoed through the dead landscape as he crumpled to the ground and held the mangled, destroyed body of his precious queen against himself. She was so limp, her body so broken—he could feel the extent of the wounds. He looked at her lifeless face and nearly vomited at the realization that she was, in fact, no longer of his world. As he collapsed atop her, his eyes saw his demonic keeper standing a few paces away.

            You thought you could make a deal with someone like me, but you neglected one detail: When I collect repayment, I also collect on interest. The demon held up its hand and a wispy pink heart hovered above its palm. Instead of being the committed, devoted man that your queen required, you thought it wise to hide your misgivings from her. Your decision, dear boy, was evil in itself, and it was the worst misdeed of them all—For now you see, you crushed your queen beneath the false walls of happiness you tried to build around her, and forever she is dead. The demon clutched its hand around the wispy heart and it turned into dust that gently floated to the earth. The heartbroken boy began to shout for the demon to come back, but it had already vanished into thin air, leaving him with nothing but his kingdom of lies and the murder of his beautiful queen forever bestowed upon his name.

            When he blinked again, he heard the happy shouts of people around him as a burst of pink and red exploded overhead. His eyes, now bleeding profusely with their remorse and pain, looked up at this lone firework, which had erupted outward in the shape of a heart. The audience was abuzz with excitement and joy at the sight, but he watched with a nauseous anguish as the pink and red contrails glittered down to the earth, fading away into oblivion just before they hit the ground. He looked to his side, but she was already gone from sight. His right hand was somewhat outstretched towards the distance into which she had walked away, but he slowly lowered it to his side and closed his weeping eyes tight. While the world around him seemed to be celebrating the start of another time of prosperity and peace, he was mourning the loss of a great kingdom and the death of a magnificent queen. And it was through his tears that the last toxic remains of the demon’s curse escaped his body and dissipated into nothingness, curing him of the vile disease and freeing him from the demon’s control… but only too late.

            His body was weighed down with the heaviness of his broken heart as he looked off into the distance and began trying to figure out where he was to go now—banished from the only world he ever knew as home and forever exiled from the only one who ever gave him purpose. “Where do I go without you,” he asked the haunting memory of his queen.

            To his utter despair, there was no response.