As I sit in my home, intent on spending every minute that I can with my daughter, Marie, albeit the fact that she doesn’t yet know we are related, I cannot help but smile. Adam, her boyfriend, tells a joke; she laughs, and the sound come out in peals, like bells on the planet Earth. Katie, Marie’s intimate friend, laughs too; the joke amuses us all in some way or another. Suddenly the door is opened wide; my brother-in-law, Craig, rushes through, followed by Brook, the Queen of the Water Realm.

Her glittering blue lips part as she says “Lazarus William Herring, you must come with me at once. I bow to my Queen; I respect her as she should be respected. “I was not expecting you, Your Majesty.” When I conclude my praise, King Ilmatar walks into the room. “Then you definitely weren’t expecting me; I’ll have you all know that her mother has caused me a great deal of stress as of late!” He points a pudgy finger straight into Katie’s face. “In that case, she must come with us as well.”

Moments later, we are loaded into a carriage, and I am bound in shackles. King Ilmatar whispers something in Katie’s ear, and strikes me when I try to acquire the details of their little tête-à-tête. Katie nods all through this, verifying her understanding of whatever it is she is being told. When Ilmatar leaves, the carriage starts moving. Fortunately for me, the shackles are connected to chains bolted to the carriage wall; I consider this a plus as, if the carriage moves even slightly, I myself will not budge.

I count each hoof-beat of the horses as they plod along various terrains to get to the palace. I reach 3,930 before the carriage stops; the horses must have loped the whole way. A few moments pass, and Katie asks “What exactly did you do?” I open my eyes and straighten my back from lying down the entire ride to the palace. I look at her with a smirk and reply “Where were you when Kellie was screaming at me; off in la-la-land? do you go there every time someone talks to you, Miss Carlinson?” I use her last name coyly, as if trying to pissed her off or something. Of course, since I am a ladies’ man, she doesn’t reply with some off-the-top remark about what I’ve said.

The carriage door opens and Ilmatar disengages my shackles from the wall, smirking just as in just the same way as I had not thirty seconds before. “Has he been good to you, Katie; is there anything we should hold against him, making void any testimony for him?” Katie says “No, sir; he was a gentleman. There is nothing I wish to hold against him, though my father could probably point out a few things himself.”

~~~~~

A few days pass, and I grow weary of being locked in the same cell day in and day out and lonely. At this point, a guard comes into the hall and opens the cell next to me, shoving a man into it. I can hear a grunt as the man tries to escape from the shackles, then a sigh as he realizes his attempts to break out of the iron wrist- and ankle-binding circlets are futile. Eventually, a guard (though not the same one as before) enters the hallway and walks up to my cell, a smile on his face the whole time.

“So you’re the homicidal asshole... I see; I’m onto you, uh...” he pauses to look at his clipboard before continuing “Lazarus Herring.” For the third time today, I smirk. “I’m surprised that you have to look at your fancy clipboard to know my name... Lionel Hologen.” I didn’t need a clipboard, or even a nametag, to know his name, though he needed a clipboard to know mine. I feel a slight burning sensation as my eyes glow a vehement electric blue. They only do that when I’m feeding off of someone’s fear, a characteristic of what I am.

I cannot be sure of what he fears right now, but I am sure that it’s me in some way. “Don’t hold back, Lionel; doing so will only cause you to allow withdrawal of even more of your fear.” Normally, I’m not the type to scare people breathless, but Lionel got on my nerves, and so I drew out more fear than I needed to. Lionel [the guard] slowly backs away and then runs, screaming.

A few hours later, after bouncing a ball against the wall opposite me and catching it midair for amusement, I am shackled once again and brought into a room with bright lights, like a football stadium on Earth. I squint, and see – or try to see – my sister-in-law, Kellie, of the Earth Realm, standing inside the room with me. “What did you, do?” I ask. She tries to copy my smirk, but fails, and replies “I didn’t do anything, Lazarus; you’re the one that’s at fault here.” I smile, but only because she’s right.

Being a doctor, Kellie is supposed to visit periodically and ensure that, along with other inmates, I am healthy and in good condition to be tried. As she sits down, her scrubs and white jacket rumple. In an obsessive-compulsive attempt to help her, I grab her pant leg and pull, forcing neatness and order on the garment. She looks me in the eye and whispers “Thank you, Lazarus; you have a kind soul. I honestly don’t think you should be here. It was my mistake to have you sent here in the first place-”

“Kellie; don’t you dare harm your subconscious with words like those... It pains me to hear anything said against neither you nor your sister.” She sighs and answers “I feel the same way about you, Lazarus... my childhood friend...” Kellie and I have known each other since I was thirteen and she was nine. Our friendship didn’t truly bud until she was fourteen, though, and even then, at eighteen, I still couldn’t say anything. A few years later, I told her I loved her. By that time, I was twenty-one and she was seventeen. I don’t mean to profess my life’s story, but some things, perhaps, need to be known about me before I move any further.

Kellie checks my pulse and records the number on her clipboard. “I swear Lionel would have hit me with his clipboard, if he had had the chance...” Kellie laughs once, then stops and rubs my back. “Are you cold, Lazarus? Your pulse is very low...”

I shiver and reply “N-N-No...  J-Just... just a bit ch-chilly, that’s all, K-Kellie...” I shiver again before she wraps a warm blanket around me, hugging me as she does so. I warm up a little, but it’s so damn cold in the room that I cannot help but think that I will catch some sort of a cold.

All through the day, even after leaving that room, that cold, cold room, I feel a chill pass through my body. Maybe I am catching something; I’ll send for Kellie in the morning, and then we will know for sure. The remainder of the day passes much like the morning had; with me being bored out of my wits, and cold to the bone.

~~~

The next morning, I am visited again by Kellie, though, this time, she comes straight into my cell, dragging all of her effects on a cart. She’s doing a check-up on every prisoner in the building. When she gets to my cell, I shy away, backing into a corner. “You could at least have warned me about-” I point to the thermometer in her hand. She sighs. “This is not a rectal thermometer, Lazarus. It’s the kind you put under your tongue.” I sigh and open wide; Kellie records my temperature as 0 degrees Celsius – the freezing point of water – so, technically, I should have started to freeze already. “Lazarus, there is something I must tell you, though I’m technically not allowed.”

I raise an eyebrow and reply “Which is... what?” Kellie sighs and whispers “Th-the kings and queens... they want you to freeze... but I don’t, Lazarus; I want you to live to see another day...” after which she starts to cry. It pains me to see her upset like this; I pull her closer and run my fingers through her hair while shivering, causing them to make a jagged course through her mud-colored locks. She pulls away and I ask “Will you stay here with me, Kellie?” She looks me deeply in the eyes and says “Yes, Lazarus... I will stay for as long as you need me to...” As she murmurs this, Lionel walks down the hall again.

“Dr. Padget, there are a few guys needing urgent care in the... E... Block- oh; I didn’t realize that you two had an intimate... thing goin’ on...”In case you’ve no idea what E Block is, it’s basically where all the convicts from the Earth Realm are kept. Every “Block”, or building, is labelled with a certain letter for a certain Realm. For example, F Block is where the Fire Realm villains are detained, and A Block is where the convicts from the Air Realm are held until their trial. I am held in the W Block, designed for... well, you figure it out.

The worst day of my life so far can be described as 4 days ago when I was captured. Throughout the rest of the current day, I have periodic moments in which I reflect on life as it was before the murder of my wife, Denna.

~~~Three years later, in the courthouse...~~~

Sitting by – or rather, under – the tiny window of my cell, I decide that I am going to resume what’s left of my life with an apathetic outlook. I may not be perfect – heck, I know I’m not perfect – but at least I’m alive. The past three years were the kings’ and queens’ way of torturing me before the actual sentence was carried out.

Suddenly, my cell door opens with a dissenting clunk, and Lionel Hologen himself steps through the gap. Instead of a ‘Hello, Lazarus, have a nice three years rotting in this stink-hole?’ Instead of having the chance to respond, what I get is a blindfold tied around my eyes and handcuffs restraining my hands, holding them behind my back. “Get up!” Lionel yells, and I am kicked into a standing position. I feel a lady’s comforting hand on my shoulder, and murmur “Kellie; is that you?”

A voice replies “No” and I first think it is Queen Brook; usually the Royal (king or queen) of the convicted Elemental’s Realm will accompany said person to their trial. “She’s behind you, Lazarus; I am here for you, and so is Violet.” I sigh at the fact; to break a long-standing tradition would not benefit any of us. “And what of River and my sister and brother-in-law; are they-?”

“Yes.” Now I recognize the voice; somehow, my wife made it here. Kellie and the others must have something to do with bringing her back for me. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to shield out the intensity of the lights in the room I was taken to that one day a few years ago. Stuttering in a frightened voice, but still wanting to make sure I know who this person is, I ask “D-Denna; i-is that... is that you, love?” A smooth hand caresses my cheek and the voice I recognized earlier replies “Yes, my darling; it’s me.”

I open my eyes and see her, the love of my life, standing before me. After not seeing her in what made for 13 long years, you can imagine how elated I am that she’s here, alive, and standing in front of me. Instead of being told to stand, I am allowed to sit and rest my legs, after walking a mile without stopping for anything. Denna sits, too, but on the floor instead of a chair. I smile as she yawns, stretches, and lays her head on my lap. “Kellie said you were sick. Is that true, darling Lazarus?”

Yes, love; it is true. I was ill multiple times before you came back to life... by the way, could you please explain that, love?” She nods, her eyes still closed. “Uh-huh. Kellie said she asked Kate to bring me back. She said she told Kate it was your birthday and she wanted me to be your present.”

“Well then, I have a very pretty present, don’t I?” Denna looks up at me, her large brown eyes glittering like topaz, just as they had the day I- the day I murdered her... “Lazarus; darling, is something wrong?” Her eyes are now an urgent ochre; I snap out of my trance and answer “Oh, nothing, love; I’m just thinking about things.” She shrugs and pokes my stomach, just like she had before she was killed. I grab her finger and pull, making the appropriate ‘Pffft’ noise as I do so.

Queen Brook walks up to me and asks “Did you, or did you not, Lazarus William Herring, kill this woman?” while pointing to Denna. I sigh and reply “I-” before Denna says “No. He didn’t kill me; it was...” The name trails off as she continues talking, and I grow tired of hearing her stick up for me. When I look up, Queen Brook’s facial expression has changed from distaste to wonderment as she says “Oh; I see...”

After some explaining, I am set free without another word from the Royals. “How did you convince them, Denna?” She smiles coyly, copying my grin, and replies “Oh, I told them that you were trying to protect me from Roger Simms, my old college ‘buddy’, by killing me so he couldn't hurt me himself.” I smile as we both walk away from the secluded area, laughing.