"Your Majesty," she replied as she quickly got to her feet at superhuman speed.
"So it was you? You killed them?" I asked her in bewilderment.
"Cut the lies darling it's just you and I." She said.
I was shocked..... Dumbfounded even, until I admitted, "Okay Kathryn." I reply with a sinister smile.
Yes, it was I. I had orchestrated the murder of my own father and brother. But they were jerks and I have no regrets.
"You know, sister, it was so satisfying to see their faces as I shifted forms. Do you want to know how I did it?" She asks, pouring us two drinks, then sitting next to me excitedly.
"I went into father's room in Earnest's form and I started an argument with him. By good chance or your meticulous calculations, Earnest arrived just in time to get his head cut off by father, since he thought I was him. Just when he had realized the mistake he had done I knew he would call Marcus since he was the head of security. And he did, but you were busy distracting him so I took his form and went into the room to help father dearest. With that opportunity, I killed him in Marcus' guise and he died thinking it was Marcus." She explained to me and as she said every single word my mind replayed how I had planned and calculated every move and step we made, every single outcome and I had contingencies for every undesirable outcome. I was a bloody genius.
"Yes it was indeed a wonderful plan, jee I wonder who came up with it." I say sarcastically.
"Oh come on dear sister, it was oh so fun. As I slayed them I remembered every time when they tortured me and mother, how they killed me mercilessly, buly riping my intestines out, and I knew that the sweetest revenge would be to kill them myself. And to leave them with the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen next. Thank you for giving me this opportunity." She says hugging me tight.
"But father hadn't died yet." I say, almost whispering.
"What?" She asks in shock. " But I slit his throat." She stutters.
"Don't worry, I finished him off right before he could mention Marcus. I don't want him to get involved in all of this." I say sipping my drink deliberately.
"Wait, do you love Marcus?" She says raising an eyebrow.
"No, yes, I don't know." I say after deep thought.
"What about Luka?" She asks.
"I have no idea. I'm so confused about both of them. I say looking down. Kathryn then comforts me, "You'll figure it out my little dynamite." She says kissing my forehead and I hug her tight.
"My time is almost up now. I just wanted revenge and I've gotten it, for us and for mother. We can now rest in peace." She says, tears of joy in her eyes.
"I know. But for that I know I have to pay a huge price." I say, "They say that the spirt that helped me bring you back to seek revenge, wanted revenge as well. But I don't know for what. But I guess we'll find out. That way, revenge for revenge." I say.
Back when the medium told me that that was the spirit's only condition, I accepted. I was desperate back then because I had felt so alone in my course of revenge and I needed someone to help me. So I went to a medium to see if she can try to bring my sister back to life. My sister was a witch. Not a bad one but I believe one can already guess how the society viewed her. She had hypnosis powers and although she used her powers and her foresight to help the kingdom, my father saw her as a threat and planned on eliminating her. With that he set Kathryn up. He laid accusations of treason and attempting to kill the king on her, both of which were punishable by death without mercy. He used that to gather allowed witches as well as he also claimed that they, beside my sister were conspiring against the kingdom of Mayvna. So he arrayed them in public, with Kathryn at the front line where he had her insides ripped violently from her while she was still alive.
I was just a child and worse still I had not yet recovered from mom's death. He forced me to watch as my last favourite person was tortured then burned to death alongside all the other women who were beloved to practice witchcraft. With her death, my father declared that Kathryn's legacy died with her, and nobody was to ever speak of her again, as it could be considered chanting incantations to wake her up, which was considered witchcraft which was punishable by death. Since then no one has ever dared to mention Kathryn and I, well I lost all my innocence. All the feelings I had left of love for my father were lost as well. As they say the line between love and hate is quite the thin line. And at that moment, all the intense love that I had for my father turned into a deep hatred.
My hatred for dad and Earnest ran deeper than the depths of hell and that was when I had decided that one day I shatt end their reign of terror and fear. One day I shall wipe their inhumane souls out of the face of the earth. But I knew that if I took a radical approach, then I would end up like mom and Kathryn. So I decided to wait until the time was right. After years of endurance and planning, I then approached a medium who was in hiding, and asked her to help me out. She was willing to do so, because even she was tired if father's rule, which was completely based on his paranoia and his desperate attempt to maintain power. As you might have already guessed, one has to pay a price for something. So the spirit was summoned. And she of course asked for something in return.
"I'll give you your sister so that she can take revenge, but I have a few conditions." She said.
"Go ahead." I signaled.
"She will not be back for too long."
"Understood."
"The one who's body she inhabits will die after she leaves it."
I wanted to stop it at that, bit the medium was persistent.
"It's my life and I am willing to give it so that Mayvna can be free from that monster." She said with a satisfied smile.
"But..." I tried to stop her, but she turned to the spirit and said,
"I agree what is the next condition." He asked.
"My last condition is that, just as I have given you a chance at revenge. You shall take revenge for me. Either you or your descendant. Don't worry, I'll not ask you to kill someone. It's just that someone had angered me when I was alive and I want to avenge it. And that those two souls that shall be killed by Kathryn will belong to me. Is that a deal?" The spirit said.
"It is a deal. But you have made it clear that no blood shall be on me or my descendant's hands for the sake of your revenge." Say.
"In the presence of the medium I make this promise to you." she said and a contract drafted itself out of thin air.
I take it and read it carefully and the terms of the agreement were just as we had mentioned, but I wasn't going to risk it.
"This revenge shall only be taken once and once it is done by either me or my descendant, then I shall have no score to settle with you, and we shall all be out of each other's hair. I hope that is Okay." I say.
She shrugs and adds it to the contract. I re-read it just to make sure there were no loopholes.
Once I was sure I slit my palm and sealed the deal with my blood as the medium did the same. With that said and done, we proceeded woth the rituals and the medium was given a month to live. I didn't bother her for that month. But when she came back, we moved Kathryn into her body to help me out with the revenge. As I remembered all that I had done just to kill those two, I took a deep sight that it was finally over.
"Actually I want to do something else for you before I leave." Kathryn finally said after a brief silence.
"What are you going to do?" I ask getting a bit worried.
"I'm going to turn myself in." She says.
"But..." I start but she stops me midway.
"Listen Anna, I'm going to die tomorrow either way, so I will reveal myself as the one who killed father, you will say you captured me and I will go out a legend. And the people will trust you completely, then you can live your life." I thought long and hard about it, and I gave in to her request, she huggede tightly one last time, and staged a capture. I presented her to the council the next day, where she claimed that she killed father out of rage, and they sentenced her to death by guillotine. On the day of her execution, Luka was right beside me and as the axe fell, everyone hailed Kathryn as a hero.
That day I felt a heavy weight lift off my shoulders as I lay in bed. Now the only burden I had was what to do about Marcus and Luka. Just then I heard people in chaos outside. I rushed to see what was going on, and what I saw made my skin crawl, and I fell to my feet as my heart sank.