Although it is entirely an escape short story, I like this story best. I decided to experiment with the point of view by focusing on the bad side rather than the good. The idea for the story has somewhat been in my head for nearly half a year, and only until now did I find the inspiration to fully write it.
A wicked, deranged laughter pierced the silence of
midnight, only to plunge to the lowly night crawlers in the moor below. Like the
tail of a comet, a metallic purple flame sliced through the blackness of the sky
as the woman delightfully tossed back her hair to the chilly stream of air
flowing past her. Her lips curled into a vicious grimace, exposing her teeth
savagely.
Beyond the barren wasteland, a sinister
fortress loomed, even more sullen than the shadows surrounding it. She perceived
a stout silhouette in the window of the ebony tower of the Southwest
Wing.
Her zealous pet ogre peered anxiously out the
cracked pane. Once recognizing his master�s phosphorescent figure, he hopped
from the windowsill and began twirling and dancing in circles. A sudden gust
vehemently blasted open the balcony doors, which sent him crashing to the icy
stone floor. Accompanied by a redolent bluster of autumn decay, the sorceress
stormed through the doorway like the Lilith, the Queen of Night herself. She
triumphantly clenched within her palm a browned scrap of
paper.
The ogre politely dusted himself off from the
blow. "Master, master!" he shrieked joyfully, his entire body bobbing like a
rotten apple in a tub of swamp water.
"Quit being so
cheerful!" she hissed. "Or I shall throw you back into captivity if you retain
that joyfulness!"
"Yes, Your Wanton Highness." The
ogre fidgeted with his feet as he looked at the filthy floor, but he decided to
try his luck. "But Cordula," he whined querulously, "I thought tonight we were
going to plague the townspeople together."
The
sorceress scowled at him adversely. "You graceful, virtuousmaiden! The
only reason I endangered my existence tonight was to attain the spell of supreme
domination from the wizards� obscure Book of Nothingness, and now you expect me
to jeopardize some petty villagers� lives?"
Despite
her heated temper, she slowed her pacing across the chamber as she sunk deep in
thought. She unfolded the crinkled paper she was gripping in her hand, and she
stared at the withered words. "But after tonight I will never again have to
endure your ignorance anymore. I shall rise into authority of the entire kingdom
and rage a new war against the Kingdom of Enchantment, thus extending the
boundaries of every depraved creature to the ends of the
earth!"
The ogre began to clap his hands
ecstatically and jump in jubilation, but he stopped himself when he remembered
not to be cheerful. Cordula, however, had her attention aimed on other thoughts
than her pet�s actions.
Immediately, she seemed
ubiquitous as she materialized in the parlor.
"Mother, I have finally stolen the spell of power so that my�I mean�ourkingdom may dominate the world!"
The queen�s
sweeping black robes were draped luxuriously to the floor as she effetely
reclined upon the lengthy divan. "That�s very wicked of you, dear," she spoke
callously. She held a hand to her mouth to conceal a
yawn.
"But mother, don�t you realize the advantages
I�I mean�wecould possess if we ruled the entire world? Do you know the
number of humble servants we could clutch in the palm of my�I mean�ourhands? Do you understand the vast number of creatures who would be willing to
sacrifice their own lives for the sake of mine�I
mean�ours?"
The queen remained in a taciturn
state because the grapes the servant was feeding her were hindering her ability
to make an utterance. Cordula narrowed her eyes at her mother and muttered under
her breath while she materialized back in the ebony
tower.
"I should have known!" she wailed, and the
forcefulness of her words knocked the ogre upon the floor once again. "I will
show her! She will be incredibly envious of me once the spell is
cast."
"But what if it doesn�t work?" the ogre asked
unexpectedly.
Cordula spoke cautiously. "Either
nothing at all will happen, or�Oh bother! Don�t urge me to think of such
occurrences! I must start the preparations at once!"
So the sorceress fetched the common ingredients from the cabinet of the chamber,
and she sent the ogre to retrieve the rare ones from the treasure vaults. She
toiled over the task fastidiously, pouring the exact amount of each into a
golden jeweled goblet. The resulting concoction appeared threatening, perhaps
even baneful.
"Can I try some?" the ogre inquired as
he gazed curiously into the chalice.
"Don�t be
senseless." The sorceress waved him away. The potion cast a sanguine aura upon
her face, thus masking her usual purple appearance with that of blood. She
breathed deeply and elevated the cup with both hands. "May the supremacy of
every ruler dwell within me." She clutched the flaxen goblet to her rapacious
lips. She tipped the cup laterally until its entire contents had been emptied
within her.
The sorceress lowered the goblet
carefully, and she smiled maliciously into the bottom. She shifted her gaze to
the ogre, who in the meantime had withdrawn to the far
wall.
"Does power frighten you?" she asked in an
unusually harsh, cacophonous voice.
The ogre stared
at her with wide eyes. "No, but your wrinkly face
does."
Cordula raised her eyebrows and looked at her
reflection in the brazen cup. The skin of her face flapped in flabby rolls. A
white brilliance frosted her hair, and then her lengthy tresses sunk into her
skull. The goblet toppled from her grasp as the horrible realization washed over
her.
"The spell," came out a stale, wispy
explanation from her throat. "The spell ends this way since it is in that
book�the Book of Nothingness."
She slumped to the
floor as her limbs decomposed, and her entire body crumbled into fine powder.
The ogre scampered out of the ebony tower, the gust from the shutting door
scattering her ashes across the icy stone floor.