"You're Highness!", a raspy voice exclaimed from the other side of the grand double doors.

Her Highness recognized her doorman's voice easily. But she couldn't help but notice the slight quiver in fear-laced voice.

"She has returned!", he proclaimed in a trembling voice that threatened to crack.

The blood-red menacing eyes of the woman on the throne narrowed into slits.

"Let her in", she ordered and the huge double doors swung open, revealing two hooded figures standing in the threshold.

One was the doorman, dresses in dark robes etched with symbols, his head was covered by his hood but she could still see the yellow beady eyes of her servant, glowing with fear as he tried not to cower in fright from the other cloaked figure.

Though he seemed to be slightly failing.

The other was a teenage girl, wearing a pure white cloak, it's puffy white hood covering half her face. The color of the clothing stood out in the red and black background in the way ink would stand out in paper. It was a strange sight, pure white in the darkest realm in the magic world, a white rose in the midst of fire and ashes.

But this rose had thorns. And it wasn't afraid to use them.

The lady on the throne licked her lips in anticipation, eager to learn the reason as to why she was payed with a sudden visit. Though,  her choice of clothing bothered her a bit, but it wasn't much of a surprise to her actually, her niece was indeed a strange girl.

Stranger than most girls she had met.

"Long time no see, my niece", the lady in regal dark clothing said, a wicked smile gleaming on her freakishly pale face.

The girl did not react with a smile. She tentatively pulled out a silver dagger from her cloak, it's silver blade gleaming dangerously in the room.

The doorman jumped back with a yelp, probably afraid that she would use her blade to decapitate him, which was unnecessary, since the girl would probably kill him in a more... fascinating way.

"She's coming, auntie", the girl whispered, not in fear, but in pure excitement. The young child stared in fascination at the blade in amusement as she licked her lips with anticipation, like a child waiting for ice cream.

"Ah, yes", her aunt said, "Soon, my dear. She will return. But I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about something else--"

"They won't let me", her niece interrupted, with a scowl on her pretty yet cold face. "They won't let me be the one to escort her to school"

"That's good", her aunt said, smiling cheerily. And with a wave of her hand, she conjured a floating chess board in front of the throne.

The board floated a few feet above the floor, face to face with the elevated black and red throne. It's pieces scattered all around the board in various positions, some defeated, others intact,  but both sides had an equal chance of achieving victory.

"You deserve it, you know", she said, smiling at the chess board with amusement.

The hooded girl's eye twitched as her left hand started to glow a vibrant red and the doorman beside her tensed.

The room started to become lighter and lighter , as if she was seeping away all the dark energy from the room and into her system, an dark aura started to form around her as her magic energy rose even higher.

Dark magic started to swirl in her hand, engulfing it in a dark swirling void, her clenched fist crackling inside the pulsating ball.

"Now, child don't--", but she was too late.

The swirling black ball that formed in her clenched hand had now been shot towards the doorman, who screamed as the black ball of dark magic collided with his stomach.

He crumpled to the ground, gasping as he started withering. From his stomach, his skin started vanishing and he thrashed, screeched and squirmed. He clawed at his abdomen, pleading for the pain to stop.

"Your M-Majesty!", he begged, his eyes turning black as the walls of the room. But her Highness just stared at him in fascination, making no move to save him from her niece's wicked spell. "Please--", he choked, his face twisted in agony.

Inhuman screams of pain started filling the room as they were forced out of the suffering creature. Curls of smoke erupted from it's body like some demon-barbecue which would probably taste just as horrible as her great grandmother's cookies, made of eggs from demon chickens and blood as a substitute for milk.

Yes, her great grandmother was a strange one. Apparently it runs in the family.

If you can imagine eating blood, chicken feet,  demon-bird eggs and fire mushed together in a pitiful attempt to make a cookie, than you might have an idea to how gross the cookie was.

In fact, it was so gross, that it was now the main course in the dungeon. It was no surprise that the prisoners chose to be whipped instead of digesting the infernal snack.

Wait, we were straying off the topic, wait what was the topic again?

Oh right.

The doorman was dying.

Of course.

The doorman-- what was his name again? Oh right, it was Richard. Yes, he was Richard the demonic doorman.

"Too much---!", he cried, his black beady eyes rolled into his head, before his body started convulsing so violently, he hit his back on the black obsidian wall. Webs of cracks appeared on the wall, and after a few moments, Richard exploded with a screech.

Thankfully, his organs didn't fling out of his body like her last doorman, instead, he exploded into a shower of dust and it scattered all over the black marble floor, leaving only a pile of dust, an empty, black robe and a curved wooden staff.

The woman sitting on the royal black throne wrinkled her nose in annoyance. "That was the fourth doorman this month!", she complained, pouting.

Her niece glared at her with such ferocity, she would have flinched if she was actually affected by it.

"I wanted to be the one to get her!", her niece proclaimed, her hands clenched into crackling fists, completely ignoring the vaporized doorman. "It was my chance!"

"Well, maybe it's for the best", she replied, smiling sweetly as she studied her new chess board with great interest.

Rolling her eyes, the girl in white robes replied to her in a angry voice,  "Why would you even say that!"

She chuckled and inclined her chin towards the pile of ashes, which was once Richard the doorman, her niece follower her gaze and rose an eyebrow at her expression.

"Because that might happen", she answered, amused by her niece's act of violence. "And remember, we need her alive. Not reduced to a pile of ashes.... Or organs"

The teenage girl scowled, but later on sighed.

Her aunt was right as always.

"Fine", she muttered and started walking towards the door, her white cloak billowing behind her as she strode towards the exit.

The lady smiled, and sat back in her throne with a gleaming Cheshire cat-like, her eyes glittering like gems in the dark room, anticipating, waiting and hoping.

But right before her niece could exit the doors, she paused and looked over her shoulder with a sinister smile on her face, her eyes holding a slight spark of dark amusement, as if she was already imagining the agonized look on Christina Solaire's face as she turned her into dust, or again, organs.

Though she preferred dust. Organs were quite hard to deal with.

"Promise me something, auntie", she said, her voice tinged with wicked humor.

"Anything for you, my dear", she replied, licking her lips in anticipation for the young girl's request.

"Promise me... "

A twisted grin crossed her face and a familiar dangerous glimmer sparked in her blood-red eyes.

"That I will be the one to slay Christina"

And with that, a pillar of red and black smoke surrounded her in a blurry tornado of smoke, and she vanished, leaving a blood red rose in her place.

The woman on the throne grinned and glided towards it, her end of her elegant black dress trailing behind her as she calmly picked up the rose, ignoring the thorns on the plant's stem,  and sniffed it with a smile.

With a flick of her wrist, she made the white queen on the chess board move a step forward, facing the black queen. Face to face with an enemy, waiting for the next move.

The chess board dissolved and she was left only with a rose, a throne and a wicked smile.

And so the game continues...

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A/N:

Do you see why I didn't make a prologue before? Because it's quite... Er, dark and gory... Yeah...

Thoughts on the chapter?

Any comments? Advice?

Food?

Yes, I said food. Have food? Hand it over.

:)

Anyway, thanks for reading the chapter!

Hope you like it!

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