Characters: Queen Isabella, Siarra, Kim, Countess Olivia, Kadaj, Fallon, Adam, Malkav, Narsis, Frankie
Queen Isabella sat cross-legged in her chair, quietly contemplating her thoughts with her chin in her hands, as Siarra and Kim entered the room with Lucilla behind them. Isabella said nothing at first. Her eyes stared out over the barren, bloody arena and her fingers gradually found their way to her lips, drawing invisible lines across the soft pale skin. Her breaths were calm like a spring breeze. Without shifting from her position, she turned to the prisoners.
“It’s funny…” she said with an expressionless face as she stared down Siarra and Kim. “I was under the impression that I was queen of this kingdom. It’s just so funny. I thought everybody was supposed to obey me or die. Isn’t that simply droll? Isn’t that just to die for?”
“It’s not what you think,” Siarra said. Then, remembering her manners, she added, “Your Highness.”
“Yes, it does seem to be that even I don’t know what goes on in my own kingdom. Obviously this is some sort of joke because I know you didn’t ruin my contest for no reason.” She paused, running her index finger down her chin in silent meditation. “But yet, I do wonder why I am not laughing. This should all seem so amusing, don’t you think? I just… I don’t know. I can’t seem to smile. Perhaps my funny bone is broken. Do you find this amusing, Fallon?”
“Not in the least,” her courier answered.
“What about you, cousin Olivia? Do you find their antics to be entertaining?”
Olivia was dabbing her mouth with a napkin, but she couldn’t help snickering through it. “Actually, yes, I find their antics to be very entertaining. For the first time, somebody fought back in your little contest and you can’t handle it.” She threw down the napkin and burst into laughter.
One by one, Isabella’s fingers curled until her nails were digging into the flesh around her lips. “…Alright.”
“Your Highness,” Kim said. “Please, allow us to explain. There’s something we have to tell you about—”
“Gena?”
“…Yeah, how’d you know?”
Isabella finally spread her palms, causing Adam and Malkav to fall through the air and slam against the table on their backs. “You aren’t the first pests to be a thorn in my side today. It seems everybody knows something I don’t.”
“As if that was anything new,” Olivia remarked.
Taking her chances, Siarra stepped forward and knelt before Isabella, putting her fingers around the arm of the queen’s chair. “Please, I just want my brother back. Gena kidnapped him.”
“Didn’t you come to rescue your little pets?” Isabella scoffed, waving her hand at Malkav and Adam.
“No, you can have them. I just want my brother.”
“Siarra, you bitch!” Malkav snapped, but Adam held him back. He didn’t want to anger Isabella again.
Isabella watched the men on the table and then looked down at Siarra. “…Gena said you might come here, claiming that she was evil. She also said that you would try to steal her brother away.”
“Her brother!?” Siarra said. She almost jolted up, but Isabella held her down with a hand on her head. “That’s…that’s a lie! That’s all Gena does—lie, lie, lie!”
“Perhaps,” Isabella said, reaching for her pearl necklace. She pushed it aside and grabbed hold of another necklace, one tucked underneath her neckline, and pulled the front end out. Hanging from it, his legs kicking as the string rocked on Isabella’s fingers, was little Frankie.
“Frankie!” Siarra cried. “Oh, Frankie, what have they done to you?”
He looked at her and his eyes widened in fear. “N-no, not her. Don’t let her come near me! She’ll hurt me. She’ll hurt me again. I don’t want to see her!”
Siarra’s heart shattered. “What…?”
“He told me everything,” Isabella said. “How you kidnapped him from his sister, how you mistreated him to get back at Gena because you were jealous of her. He even knew you would try to ruin my tournament and assassinate me. I know you were all in this together.”
“I…” But Siarra didn’t know what to say. She stared at Frankie, his wild eyes burning with so much terror that she began to doubt her own reality. What was this madness? What was going on? What was real?
Overcome by dizziness, Siarra sank to both knees and fell back against the chair next to her. Her heart began to tighten. Frankie clawed at the air, screaming like a rabid dog at the very sight of his sister, and something as cold as night flowed through Siarra’s veins. She looked up at Frankie as he dangled from the string like a puppet. A puppet. What was happening? Everything was dark. Everything was wrong. Everything was a lie.
“It’s all a lie…” Siarra whispered, but her own voice sounded fake, dreamlike, gone. “All of you…are lies… It’s not real… Stop…doing this…to us… …” The life was gone. With the last of her energy, she tried to crawl across the floor, but her wrists were too weak to support her own weight. With a dying moan, her cheek banged against the floor. The shutters of her eyes began to close as her pupils rolled to the top of her head. Darkness began to take over. She stared up at Isabella as the last glimmering light of the real world faded to black. “Why…? … …”
Isabella gently tucked Frankie away. “…Gena was right. Take them away.”
“Even the Men?” Lucilla asked.
“All of them! Get them out of here.”
Lucilla bowed and heaved Siarra’s limp body onto her shoulder. “As you wish, Your Highness.”
Lowering their weapons, two of the female Paladins in the back of the room grabbed Kim and dragged her out the doorway as another snatched up Malkav and Adam. None of them went quietly.
Isabella watched them go and sighed. “It’s tough being Queen.”
“It’s no different than when you played with dolls,” Olivia said. “You think everybody is here to amuse you and that you can just toss away old toys when you tire of them. You haven’t grown up at all.”
“At least I don’t wear Men in my hair.”
“That’s enough you two,” Fallon said. “Isabella, somebody has to go out there and tell the audience that the tournament is still on. They’re all confused.”
“Then why are you still here?” Isabella asked impatiently. She watched as Fallon stood up, pushed in her chair, and hurried out the doorway. Then she reached for the apple on the floor, which Narsis was just about to sink his crooked teeth into. He nearly bit into Isabella’s hand, but quickly withdrew his mouth when he realized the kind of repercussions that would bring.
Isabella lifted the apple and rolled it across her arm, from her wrist to her shoulder and back again. “You know, cousin… I think I’m going to declare a day when the whole kingdom worships me.”
“That’s just what we all need,” Olivia said with a roll of her eyes.
“No, really. I don’t think enough people appreciate me. I want every person in this kingdom to bring me presents and treat me like the queen I am. Just for one day.”
“Please, Bella, darling, you’re spoiled enough as it is.”
“Well, I don’t think so.”
Olivia shook her head and reached for a biscuit, slapping a stick of butter across its warm surface. She did it slowly, deliberately, spreading the butter until it was perfectly smooth. “You wouldn’t. You want the whole world handed to you on a silver platter.”
“Yes. I do.”
“Get real, Bella. Who would give you that?”
Before she could answer, Gena and Roxanne entered the room and Isabella greeted them with her first smile in quite some time.
Giantess World
