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ananyawrts · 10 months

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Both of us were devils.

Betrayer, that’s what you are.

A cruel and inhumane betrayer.

The way my hands slipped the golden curved wine glass from my hands and spilled the richly sour wine down the throne and the way your eyes lighted up in delight and lust for my deserved seat as it got empty with my body falling downwards, the very seat carved with diamonds and ivory, I had watched it all with my bloodshot eyes.

your hands were joined together as a sly smile took over your face and my eyes watched it, realizing your deception with my heart dropping from my chest to my stomach. I felt my chest tightening and my veins paining inside my body.

My pulses were accelerating and my hands felt electric.

I had difficulty forming words on my tongue as my body fell down a flight of marble polished stairs but my eyes remained on you.

Millions of thoughts crossed my mind, millions of memories crossed my mind, millions of your unkept promises crossed my mind.

Slowly, you walked forward and towards with a grin on your face and my eyes were dropping low due to your intoxicating poison in my red wine but I wanted to see you, see your win over your victory, see you watch me drown in my own blood, see your smile stretch across your face.

My body was on the ground and my hands fell on either side as I coughed up my gory blood, a bile forming inside my throat from the words I wanted to speak out but couldn’t.

“Your trust in me to reveal your royal secrets was brave, my dear friend.”

You had bent down to my face, caressing my pale lifeless face and whispering those words to my ears. But I couldn't reply since my lips felt sealed with disbelief.

My eyes tried to stay awake as the chandelier’s yellow light above me almost blinded my vision.

A cough left my mouth as my legs felt stuck and tied to the renaissance rug below me and you had got up, eyes on me as you had passed by me and walked towards my seat.

I could feel your excitement and desire growing.

I could feel how your hands ached to grasp my throne, the throne shone brightly and glowed to your eyes like a jewel treasure found on a dark night.

I could feel how your legs hurry like my heartbeat towards it.

“But… why?”

My voice felt breathy and shaky since my eyes searched for a witness who had watched as the scene unfold, but none.

Then a soft laugh escaped my lips at the realization,

You were a genius and I was a fool for your charms, you were a devil and I was your worshiper, you were a sinner and I was your saint, you were my master who I had followed and I was your puppet whose strings you played with.

You raised my soul high in the sky but when it was time to leave, you didn’t hesitate to drop me down from the sky, just like you did to drop me from my throne.

My ego and anger clashed, how could you and how dare you?

“Innocence is not appreciated much in this world, my friend. So let me appreciate your naivety and innocence today as I sit on your throne, proud and hopeful to do so. You don’t know how my nights I slept, waiting just for this moment, yes we had our fair share of laughter and promises but for power and glory, who wouldn’t be a madman? Tell me! You were too at one point in your life, right?”

You replied nonchalantly and my blood boiled and my words aroused as I laid down on the floor, my throat dry and my tears sticky on my cheeks. I was unable to move but my soul inside burned with the raw ignition of fire.

“But, I trusted you with all my heart, with my position! I had lent my secrets to your wicked ears just to get spilled out at the last minute. Didn’t our friendship stop you from acquiring your plot on betraying me? Didn’t my belief and faith in you stop you from acquiring your plot on stealing my throne?”

“See, that’s where you are mistaken, my dear. To be frank, my mind was consumed from the thoughts of acquiring the throne from the start. You had forgotten the life spent in misery and poverty which you had spent and when people are shown hope, they want to grab it like a star in the sky and paint it on their chest, wide and open. Your power and glory had shown me hope to claim it for myself, selfish as you might call me, my motives were clear the moment I had laid my eyes on you and on the kingdom, i am sure you are familiar and related with these sentences.”

You sat on my throne, a satisfied laugh left your mouth and a sharp whimper left from mine, disbelief and distrust closed the walls around me which I had made a mistake of letting you in. The palace was empty but your heart wasn’t, i knew how happiness looked on you and I could imagine your face as your hands had quickly grasped onto my throne and your body placed itself on it.

You had curved your lips into a smile, legs crossed with pride, head leaned back from satisfaction. I could sense it because i had felt it often too.

“This is wrong. What you have done is wrong, James. If people get to know, they will kill you for it! Kill you for killing their ruler! Kill you for your sins.”

My breathing was shallow and a breathy cough left my mouth again as I whispered those words with my drowsy eyes closed. I gasped for air and gasped it again when my lungs felt trapped inside my body. forcing my body to face him, my body felt numb with sharp pain and my stomach troubled with a mixture of pain and malice created for him.

“then you should have been killed already and also, what is wrong and what is right, my friend? If not something people created to shape others' minds. If not something, people created by their poor experiences and warned others to not face the same fate as them. In this world, we are not the ones to decide what’s right and wrong, we humans have created these morals and principles which we abide by thoroughly and expect others to abide by too.” he leans forward and scoffs before continuing,

“People are not the same, you can’t expect people to turn from sinners to saints like you did. we are humans of greed and desires. No matter how much you call yourself a good man, there is a darkness lurking within your soul, a devil hiding within your goodness. No human was born great, people made them feel great about themselves due to their status or virtue. people often require other people with greater power to fulfill their incomplete wishes because they themselves weren’t able to do so thus they behave a little friendly and when times comes or when opportunity hits, they grab their opportunity without thinking twice and use their innocence as a weapon for their needs, a simple philosophy.”

He explains with a sly smirk on his face and I want to grab a sword and ruin it until it bleeds out just like my blood.

By the time he completed his sentence, my blood flowed from the rug to the spilled red wine and was slowly diffusing and mixing with it, creating a maroon color on the piece of rug.

The same expression crossed my face like his did.

I knew I was on the verge of dying, it was sudden and unexpected but isn’t life as unexpected as death is?

“Your reason for-for killing me is quite self-centered, I didn't know you were just after my glory, I knew other viscounts and subjects were but you were least expected. Very well, pretending to be my friend and my well-wisher when you just wanted to see my downfall. Wonderful.”

I chuckle,

“What will you say if someone questions why I died? Since you are close-closest companion, they would be sure to ask you first.”

My throat chokes up those words and my lips form a smile as it closes.

“Me? Oh yeah, i forgot about the acting which i got to start now.”

He clears his throat and smiles wickedly at me before I watch how the expressions on his face change into quick panicked one. The fake surprise and concern on his face looked so true and real that my attention didn’t avert, he was a good actor too, no wonder his lies worked on me.

“I will tell them the genuine truth about you but with more drama like, ‘oh sire! I have to confess something about our dear king, our beloved ruler. I regret and it pains me quite a lot saying it out loud but circumstances have forced me too… It aches my heart to speak out that the king isn’t from the true bloodline of our rulers and that he was adopted from a secret orphanage in our town since the high queen was infertile to give birth to a true heir. His parents had kept it a secret that Oliver the king was not originally their blood for the sake of ruling the kingdom until they died. If you don’t believe me, I have the proof! They are hidden deep inside the king’s cabinets in the right wing of the kingdom, the information about his true parents and their identities, the king had personally said it to me! and since I am the king’s dearest friend and brother and you need to have a right ruler henceforth, make me your ruler and let me rightfully rule your kingdom without committing a single sin like your king had done and also as for the death of our king, he had died due to over drinking of alcohol these days. he had been quite distress about his adoption since he learned it only a few days back, he couldn’t accept the truth and hence… he left us with only his crown left behind.”

His expressions changed from the sadness and into a quickened smile and sparkly eyes and a soft sigh leaves my mouth as i consume all the words he just spoke out, the secrets which he would confess about me which i had kept a great interest and trust. he would make a great king in my kingdom for sure, his white lies and his act was all so convincing that my heart raced in sudden fear though i tried to deny it. The truth would ruin my whole reputation and not only mine but my parents too.

“How was my acting, dear friend!?” James exclaimed and questioned me and I was speechless with only silent tears leaving my eyes.

Wow, he would actually reveal the truth of my heritage for the throne, the thing I had trusted him most with. Whatever he said was true that I wasn't the true king to the kingdom but I deeply cared about my subjects like no ruler did, but people would forget that once the truth would be out.

The people would forget the once good king and remember him as a liar and a conman for ruling the kingdom while lying about his heritage, people’s minds would be corrupted, thankfully due to James's incredible acting and my grave secret. but he had left out a part because he and i both knew how messed up it was. my hands trembled at the thought of him confessing those truths out too, and the look on people’s face, disgusted snickers and widened eyes. but it was some pretty dark truth I had drunkenly confessed to him one night.

james kept quiet as a lone tear left his left eye, he realized that i knew what he was talking about.

his cold and stern face blankly stared at mine despite i could sense he had billions of emotions rushing inside his chest as he waited for me to think more about it.

I tried to kill my childhood friend at the orphanage who was my age, to claim the position and people’s attention when I was young, he was initially first adopted for being the heir before me. I tried to kill him with the kitchen knife until his body had numerous fresh scars and his eyes drained out of tears and with my stubby fingers just so his mouth would shut down all the truths on a night before his adoption by the royals but he had escaped from my hands and went missing from the silent town, so my plan went into vain. I was abandoned by my parents and a life of loneliness wasn’t being handled by me alone. I wanted to be chosen. I was young and desperate but I realized I was wrong after entering into the kingdom’s door. I wanted to experience the riches and power like many kids like me wanted to at the orphanage that time and the royals had no choice but to adopt me since i had a black hair and green eyes like my friend who i had tried to murder but had escaped for the fear of his life. but soon, when I was held on top of the world, I started respecting people for that and started serving people with all my heart, forgetting what of an injustice I had done to the naïve boy.

my guilt started eating me alive as I processed my past again, re-lived my traumatic past again and again. those sparkly green eyes of the boy whose life i had threatened to kill, scarred him just for the sake of getting adopted, those sparkly eyes which got lit up at the thought of getting adopted, the lost friend of mine held my hand that night and told me how desperately he wanted to become the future king and bring back his father’s land back to his faraway family righteously and all his other desires for becoming a true ruler.

but i had tried to kill him for my own greed for getting known, ruined him for my pleasure and desperation while suppressing his truth.

karma had it’s eye on me too, just like his. no matter how much i had changed, i forgot that my past would haunt me back in different ways.

like, he is what i was. he dreamt of things i had dreamt too, he shares the same soul as mine does, dark and silent.

fuck it.

It was all planned out from the start to expose that I was an illegitimate child of the king and queen and lure me into my own death by the hatred of my dear subjects, after the truth would be out.

It would be better to die now than die out of hatred of people who once respected me.

A chuckle leaves my mouth as I raise my hands and clap them against each other, creating a loud sound against the cold four walls of my kingdom, praising him for his brain and manipulation.

Trusting him was the most foolish thing I had done in my life. I should’ve listened to the king and queen when they kept me away from him during his arrival as a advisor to the high king to palace, but his warm eyes and his trap of laughter, affection and attention made me follow his path, naively as he would say.

I heard that his birth was a mystery but he was believed to be a son of a peasant and was often snickered and disgusted upon, but I treated him as my equal without knowing he had an eye on my place from the start of our friendship.

Brilliant, just brilliant.

He laughs out and claps his hand in excitement.

“Such a good actor, friend and a blackmailer you are, i couldn’t expect anything less from you. Brilliant job, my friend. Lovely to know how I am dying, this horribly on the ground. I hope you have got what you had always wanted too, you bastard!” I say with immense bitterness and sarcasm in my tone.

“it always mine to have, to begin with, my lovely friend.” he replied with a smirk on his face and my head titled a little in confusion, what?

what was he saying!? this throne was always his to begin with?

James’s black hair and nostalgic green eyes bought back certain bad memories to me of my childhood friend but i denied it and tried pushing it away.

The boy at the orphanage had escaped. it isn’t james, right? but my childhood friend had same reasons as james for the throne and same eyes and facial features as him.

what is happening to my mind?

I tried to join the puzzles in my head and his sly riddles of words but it was just a guess,

he wouldn’t actually come back after i scarred him and scared him away.

but my heart raced again as i thought about the coincidence.

My hands fell to the sides without enough energy and my mind felt dizzy with the poison starting to take its effect on me.

“Shh, my oliver… it’s time to go back to sleep now and let me sleep too since i didn’t have a proper sleep since that special night. now Quick, close your eyes and silent your soul for all your sins. it was very good while it lasted, right?”

he yawned out and stretched out his hands, placed it down his chin and warily watched me, his lips twisted into a thin line.

“ honestly, it feels so miserable and quite upsetting to watch you die. I wish i could have saved you or something but someone had to be the bad guy in your story and luckily it was me. But please die, knowing how great of a liar you were too, more wonderful than me actually, lying and lying until you had changed yourself for the interest of your people. people like you are a threat of society, a dirt. Honestly, my friend, rumors have it that people tried to assassinate you for the throne before me just because they could claim your power and glory and whatnot because luck always followed you like a dog, but who would tell the fools that they lost!? for the first time in my whole life, the beautiful luck changed it’s path and started followed me back and only your death would change my past, people would finally start respecting their true ruler and be on their knees for my word, fight for me and teach me arts of warfare and more about the royal politics without looking at my status or my family line for that, for that was i always desired and you always knew it.”

james pointed a straight finger at me, like he was stating facts.

“you do not deserve the throne, my friend. It was a tit-for-tat. from the start, You didn’t have any real goal in life unlike me and just out of sheer nepotism or something, you had claimed the throne to yourself. pretended to be nice just so your sweet little truth won’t be out, pretended to be helpful and righteous just so people won’t take disgust on you for who you really are from the inside but un-fortunately time is up, time is up for you had enjoyed power for yourself without even deserving all of it but don’t worry, i will make sure people remember your bloody existence and make a huge statue outside for it, paint you like a masterpiece and also, write fucking poems about how righteous you were, though i highly doubt the people will ever think that after the truth would be out, and yeah since i am such a good friend to you, i will leave out the beautiful and greedy murder of the young boy you had at the orphanage, like i would leave mine.”

him and i were the same people with same desires but with different motives.

I wanted the throne so that i would be loved and cherished by all despite my actions, wanted the throne so that I would treated as everyone’s equal despite my past but he wanted the throne since he took great determination in actual kingdom’s politics and glory after winning wars with rival kingdoms who snatched the farmers hard-worked lands with injustice, just like his father’s small land was snatched away in his past with misery. just like the boy i tried to kill so harshly, james and him shared the same ideas and it haunted and pressure me continuously.

unlike me who valued reputation and lived for people’s validation for my existence.

He was a true ruler and a visionary for thinking that far for my kingdom.

that’s what i came to know at the verge of my last breath.

He watched me from my throne and smiled proudly at the work he had done, by killing me but without getting my blood on his hands.

and soon my eyes dropped and my vision was dark and i could see the same boy i had killed, but this time it was as if he was coming back to me for revenge, i could see the boy sitting on the throne with serene green eyes of his as it glared into mine at hatred but in the form of my best friend james or was he the same man i had tried to kill that night?

I felt my heart rate slow down and my breath becoming cold, my hands draining its color and my face becoming pale as the poison and the guilt of my past worked its magic on me.

“both of us were devils.” he called out to me as an crossed his legs sharply and glared at my body.

And so, as I laid dying on the ground, his wicked and menacing laughter echoed around the four walls with pleasure and victory for claiming the throne like it was always his to ever claim.

then i realized.

the righteous ruler had come back from his flee, escaped his death from my hands and his fate just so he can come back and rightfully claim back his throne which i had stolen. It was not a guess but a fact, the pieces of his mysterious birth and existence clinked like pieces of puzzle in my head.

it was my own childhood friend at the orphanage, my sweetheart from orphanage who once trusted me,

my james.

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