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A queen will always turn pain into power

~ Author Unknown

Chapter One

Alyssa

Pain, sharp and pulsing, explodes withinlike a wildfire up my back and abdomen

The shocked eyes of theI ever see

The intensity steals my breath

My mouth opens, but only a squeaked, inhuman noise exits

My sight beco to my cheeks

Is this how Mom felt?

Cold…the darkness closing in…

I’ to die here

My chest aches as the pounding slows

Thud

Thud

Thud

The world spins, fading…

How can it end like this? I was a queen—his queen—and it will be his kingdom that kills me

Chapter Two

A couple of months before…

Alyssa

Burying my mother left me with a sense of freedouilt inside my chest

I need to get out of here

She was ill for such a prolonged period, I cao, but I didn’t think it would be so slow, so degrading

She withered away painfully, lost herself day by day, until all that was left was a pathetic carcass unable to even relieve her bladder on her own terms

I’one

Those thoughts fill out that pocket, expanding within me

Guilt Guilt Guilt

I’ in it

“Is it wrong to feel like she died well before she stopped breathing?” I wonder aloud, theher chest bone lingering within me

She sounded like a spluttering generator out of gas The noise still haunts my dreams