The Dead Princess Crown

[Nation of Avenor — The Church — Midnight]

Rain hammered against the enormous stained-glass windows of the church.

Thunder rolled across the midnight sky, shaking the old stone walls as though even heaven itself had grown restless.

The church was empty with only one girl stood before the altar.

Barefoot and soaked to the bone. Her simple white frock clung to her trembling body, the hem stained brown with mud from the long walk through the storm.

She didn't seem to notice the cold, neither she seem to notice the rain dripping from her hair. She only stared at the statue of God before her.

Her hand was pressed tightly against her chest, her heart hurt like something had been ripped out of it.

"Princess Levara is dead..."

The words escaped her lips like a broken whisper.

She swallowed, then shook her head as he wet lashes trembled. "No...no...that's not possible."

She took a step forward as her bare foot landed against the cold marble floor, leaving behind a muddy footprint as her voice cracked.

"Levara...my Princess Levara..."

She pressed her palm harder against her chest, as though she could somehow hold her heart together.

"How...how can she..."

Her vision blurred as tears mixed with the rain still dripping down her face.

"...how can she be dead?"

She stopped before the altar, and for a long moment, she simply stood there.

The girl is Elly with no family, no surname worth remembering and no home waiting for her. An orphan who had grown up knowing what it meant to have no one.

And yet, somehow...she had found a family on a television screen.

Princess Levara.

It sounded ridiculous and Elly knew that.

How could someone love a person they had never met? How could a girl she'd only ever seen through a screen become the most important person in her life?

But for Elly...Princess Levara became her family the day she sat alone in the corner of the orphanage's common room, watching television while the other children played behind her.

A young beautiful and smiling Princess Levara surrounded by cameras was on T.V.

The day, Little Princess Levara had looked directly into the camera with a gentle, warm smile that Elly had never forgotten.

"I am the family of those who never had a family."

It had been nothing more than a sentence, a sentence spoken on television and a sentence Levara probably didn't even remember saying but Elly did.

And she carried those words with her through every lonely night while Princess Levara didn't know Elly existed.

But Elly had decided that didn't matter because sometimes...family wasn't someone who knew your name, sometimes family was simply the person who made you feel less alone.

And now...that person was dead because of a heart attack? That's the biggest absurd thing Elly ever heard in her entire life.

"A heart attack?" She scoffed in pain as her eyes lifted toward the statue. "A twenty-seven-year-old woman? The Princess of Avenor? Died with single heart attack?"

She shook her head.

"No...that's a lie."

Lightning flashed through the stained-glass windows and for one brief second, the church was illuminated in brilliant white.

Elly's tear-streaked face appeared almost ghostly beneath the flickering light.

"They're lying. Princess Levara was healthy."

She knew it.

She had watched every public appearance, every interview, every charity event, every birthday broadcast. Levara had never looked sick, she had never shown signs of a heart condition and she had been alive yesterday.

Smiling, waving, breathing and now the Imperial Palace expected everyone to believe that she had simply...died?

Elly's fingers curled into fists as she looked toward heaven and now her grief was turning into anger.

"They murdered her."

Her voice echoed through the empty church.

"They murdered my Princess."

Thunder exploded outside. Elly stepped closer to the altar, her eyes burned with pure rage and tears.

"How dare you...how dare you take her away from me? She was the only person I had! THE ONLY ONE!"

Her scream crashed against the walls of the church, echoing back at her like a cruel imitation of her grief but the statue remained silent, unmoving and unblinking.

As though God Himself had decided that her pain wasn't worth an answer. Elly stared at it through her tears, her lips trembled and then she laughed.

A small, broken laugh.

"Of course...of course you wouldn't answer."

She took a step toward the altar, then another, her vision blurred and her legs felt strangely weak.

"After all...you've never answered me before."

And then—

STUMBLE!

"Ah—!"

Her foot slipped beneath her as she lost her balance.

THUD!

Her knees struck the cold marble, followed by the rest of her body. Pain shot through her legs but she barely reacted, she simply stared upward, at God, at the statue that had watched her entire life without ever reaching down to help her.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as her voice was barely a whisper, "You...you really are nothing but a statue."

She pushed herself up with shaking hands as her breath hitched.

"You sit there...watching."

She struggled to stand as her voice grew louder.

"You watched me grow up without a family, you watched me wait for someone who never came and when I finally found one person I could love...you took her away too."

She stared at the statue with pure hatred.

"Was my life not miserable enough?"

A tear dropped from her chin.

"Was it not enough to make me lonely? Was it not enough to make me learn how to survive without anyone?"

Her voice broke completely.

"Why did you have to take her?"

Silence.

Elly's breathing became ragged, then her eyes fell upon the candles surrounding the altar the tiny flames flickered peacefully. Something about their warmth suddenly enraged her, she lunged forward.

WHOOSH!

Her hand swept across the altar and all the candles fell.

CLATTER. CLATTER. CRASH!

Flames scattered across the marble floor as her scream ripped through the church.

"What's the point?! What's the point of lighting your house...when you create nothing but darkness in people's lives?!"

A candle rolled across the floor. Its flame flickered, then went out. Elly stood there, soaked, trembling, her bare feet surrounded by wax and dying flames.

"You want people to pray to you but where were you when I needed someone?"

Thunder rumbled outside. Elly raised her tear-filled eyes,

"Where were you when I was alone? And where were you...when they took my Princess?"

Lightning flashed through the stained-glass windows, for one brief second, the entire church turned white. Elly looked toward the heavens, her tears wouldn't stop.

"If you're real...then prove it." She fell to her knees. "Give her back."

Nothing.

Elly slammed her fist against the marble floor.

"GIVE HER BACK!"

Her knuckles burned.

"I just want her...I want my Princess back." Her shoulders trembled violently. "Please...please...give me my Princess back or..."

She wiped her tears with shaking fingers.

"...I swear I'll tear apart every piece of this world that took her from me."

Her eyes hardened.

"I'll burn your heavens."

Thunder exploded.

BOOOOOOM!

The entire church shook as lightning tore across the sky.

Then—

CRACK!

A blinding flash struck somewhere beyond the church, the windows rattled violently and darkness swallowed everything.

Elly's body suddenly went rigid as a sharp pain pierced through her chest.

"Ah—"

She clutched her heart as her breath disappeared and then she collapsed onto the cold marble as tears continued sliding down her face.

"Please....please give my princess back..."