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Saying you’re going to be there for someone forever is a fleeting and feeble attempt at persuasion; on one hand, you want it to be true, you want to be wrapped up in the golden light of the sun, in their arms and feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. On the other hand? You know it’s a lie. One day they’ll have to leave, whether that be through mortal means or mortality.
Of course, Golden Cheese had believed the lie; I mean, who wouldn’t?
Under the lowering sunset, they had vowed to stay together no matter what, they had said to each other that they would never leave each other no matter what… How did it all go so wrong in just a week? A week was all it took for their words to crumble to little less than sand under their sandals, to break her heart and to result in the separation she would never get over. As she stood at the temple, staring at the altar she wondered how it could have gone so wrong. How did her father find out about him? How did he even get caught? How foolish was she for believing his words, that they would never part, that their hearts would beat as one even as they came of age in the blistering sun.
One month short.
That’s what he was. They would have found out if they were soulmates, if their fates were intertwined and yet her father had been planning something different; it was tradition for the royal family to marry for the witches, most of the pairs on the throne weren’t even soulmates, they had no love between them, no red string to take them to who they loved most. Her mother and father hated each other, only having her to have a successor. They didn’t sleep in the same room, they didn’t even eat at the same dinner table, her mother was sweet, a kind soul but her father… Her father kept her up most nights with his screaming; at the guards, servants, her mother, her… Anything he could scream at had been well and truly put in its place; but she guessed she couldn’t exactly blame him, it wasn’t hard to get irritated around here. Besides her grandfather and great-grandmother used to scream at the top of their lungs too.
That was… Until they gave out.
She was not remorseful for any of her family dying, the generation before only made the generation following worse. They did not deserve mourning, they didn’t even deserve to be remembered. People always looked at her and told her she was too soft, she wouldn’t grow up to be a good queen, she was a girl, she wouldn’t be a good ruler and she was beginning to suspect they were right. She was nothing like her father, the complete opposite actually. She wasn’t scared to break rules, to set trends, to be rebellious; besides, that’s what brought her to meet him.
A bookworm in the royal library, trying to tutor her, but instead, she took him on a little adventure. She had always been fond of spontaneous trips, but it seemed her new friend wasn’t. In fact, it was the complete opposite; she had snuck out to the market with him to walk around, shawl shrouding her hair and face in the plainest clothes she owned, which still weren’t entirely plain, she would never want to wear something plain white. And shye had him by the hand in a vice-like grip, so he wouldn’t run away. He was hesitant, he didn’t want to get caught.
She called him a coward.
Oh how wrong she was…
As she got to know the boy she learned that he was quite similar to her in many aspects, they both liked adventures no matter how big or small, they both hated being bossed around by her parents and they both enjoyed each other’s company. He was only a few months younger than her, obviously, she had been of age first and he was there to watch her string appear-
Or not.
“Well… Where is it?” She asked quickly, checking her fingers, arms and even toes for a sign of a soulmate and yet, there was nothing. “Is this because I’m a part of the royal family? Are we that amazing we don’t get normal soulmates? This is all so stupid!” She groaned, a little upset that she didn’t have a soulmate supposedly. Of course, looking back on the event, it was stupid. But she was still quite upset.
“Hey, Goldie, it’s okay. Even though you don’t have one now, that doesn’t mean your chance is gone forever. You could have one, they just might not be of age.” He chuckled and rolled his eyes, looking up at her from his book and giving her a small smile.
“I know but I was so excited… What if they know that their soulmate is out there but they don’t know their soulmate is as incredible as me?” She asked, putting a hand to her chest offended, making the man just laugh more.
“Come on, Goldie. No one could be as amazing as you. I mean, you are THE Golden Cheese of the royal bloodline, I bet people would be fighting over you now that you’re of age. Getting a string at sixteen on the dot is rare anyway. Some just develop, y’know?”
“No, I don’t know. Please inform me, the all-knowing Blue Cheese.” She tease4d and smirked, only to get a pillow thrown at her. “Hey! You nearly hit my wings! I need those!” She complained before chuckling and smiling, a small light in her eyes shining with glee. With him… With him she felt the most like herself, she loved being with him… Of course, she could never admit that, she could never say that out loud. As much as he said it, she could never find the courage. She couldn’t find the courage until it was too late.
There he was a week later.
She should have never seen him like this.
She should have never gotten him into so much trouble he would be like this in the first place.
If only she had said she had hated him, that she never wanted to see him again.
Her Blue Cheese…
Lying dead on the stone altar.
His eyes should never be that cold, that blank of a stare, his body should never be lying cold or bloodied, and there should have never been a sacrificial dagger stuck through his chest.
She had tried to stop it, she had begged someone, anyone to let her out of her room, she begged for her father to spare him but through the “will of the witches”, it was done. It was done to keep her pure, to keep her healthy, to keep her from finding and marrying her true love. It was done to keep her forced to marry, to keep her silent and obedient, to keep her clean. No matter how much she screamed and cried, shoving her shoulder into her door until it was bruised and bloodied, the door never budged. No matter how many times she threw things and broke her window, there was never enough room to fit through. No matter how much time she had, it would never be enough to save him.
And she was there, staring at the altar, looking at her dead love and feeling her heart break, though she ran up to him, tried to wake him up she knew it wouldn’t happen. She knew the blood was on her hands and her hands alone. She draped a wing over his cold body, trying to give him a blanket of warmth, though she knew he couldn’t feel it. He was gone. He was gone. Her best friend. Her soulmate. Was GONE.
“Come on, Blue, this- This isn’t funny.” She said softly, cupping his face. Why did his eyes have such a blank stare? There was no life in them like there was before, why wasn’t he there? Why wasn’t her love there, waiting for her? “If this is some elaborate scheme to make me tell you I love you then it worked… Hooray…” She said, her voice cracking as the tears began to slip down her face, her hands trembling as she put her forehead to his. He felt too cool for this climate, he felt too cold…
“Come on… Blue please, come on… Just say this is a joke, a mirage, say something, anything…” Drip. A single tear fell onto his face, sliding down his cheek as she broke, her heart wrenching as she sobbed, holding onto the body with all she had. This had to be a joke. This had to be. He couldn’t be gone so soon, he couldn’t be.
“Please-! Please don’t go, I need you here! I need you here, you can’t have just died on me?!” She screamed and yet her voice stretched and no one had answered. No one… Not a single soul was left in the temple this late, they wouldn’t deal with him till morning, she knew that. Then why was he still here... No, she wasn’t going to accept the fact he was gone. She couldn’t. As much as she screamed and cried it was all met with silence.
“You promised, remember?!” She sobbed, her voice almost giving out. It was so sore and broken that it could hardly produce sounds. “You promised me we would stay together forever! You promise you would stay here and protect me! You promised that you would love me! Why did you leave me?!” She screamed until her lungs gave out. Now she understood why her father did it, because, at the end of it, when you can scream no more, you are left with your thoughts. And her thoughts were horrifying.
She should know, she had been left with them for over thirty years at this point.
Every day she thought of him, what could have been, what she did wrong and every day she hated herself more. After stepping up as Queen after her father and mother perished she did not wed for the witches, she did not bear an heir, in fact, she was planning to just live out her life and die old so no one would assume throne again until she was long gone. Even when she had met her new friends, the ancients, nothing could bring back that hole in her heart, that warm flutter of love in the air when he walked by. The summer smile he would give her that would blow her away. The small kisses they would sneakily share in the dead of night. Nothing was going to bring that feeling back…
Golden Cheese was destined to live the life of a hero and die alone.
Because sometimes, forever doesn’t last that long.