The red curtains parted wide once again. At center stage was a single narrow rim of light, focused, onto a full suit of armor that lay motionless, sprawled against an ever-growing pool of blood that glinted harshly back.

Then from somewhere unseen, a strangled voice in panic cried out, "The castle has been breached!"

Cue the music.

For every petrified scream stifled so abrupt came the heavy rumble of drums, like the pounding of a thousand hearts beating incessantly. The dissonant blare of trumpets as swords clattered, mixed with the grating screech of violin strings as chaos continued to spread within the castle walls.

The stage lights from all sides glimmered a deep dark red, spewing, spurting, staining everything and everywhere. As the anarchy built, as the cymbals crashed, the choir sang loud in a deep sonorous terrifying unison.

They sang of the child in violet, how gradually she submerged herself in the starkness, the stench, of scarlet. Forebodingly, they recounted the horrors that blighted the castle interior.

The call to arms against an unknown assailant, how the guards, with their spears, with their sword, with magic sparking from their palms, fighting so brave and valiant only to fall so easily, effortlessly one by one, forming a trail of corpses that led onwards and inwards… which the child, a step at a time, followed deeper in, marching bloodied steps forward.

"Monster!" shrieked the choir, a melody in fright, with voices languishing in sorrow they pleaded for the terror to end. But she was not to be blamed, they were the ones that stood against her, they were the ones that bore their arms… striking their swords, hurling their spears, firing their spells… had they only simply just let her pass, she wouldn't have had to strike back.

She never wanted to.

"Monster!" blared the trumpets echoing, the drums rumbling, the cymbals crashing, violins screeching. An orchestral massacre that seemed to go on without an end in sight.

There was not a single gaze astray in the audience. Even I found it hard to veer my eyes away, but I had to, I needed to… for the so-called monster was watching too, seeing it all play out before her once more. All the mindless death and destruction by her hands… which now clutched her armchairs tight.

I've seen her enraged, beared witness to her outburst many times over… but this was the first time I'm seeing her this unnerved. In the first place, why on earth did she want to watch this if she knew already she'd regret it?

Don't say she didn't know, don't say she was ignorant - she knew damn well what she was in for.

Slowly, cautiously, and ultimately bracing myself for an imminent death, I lightly patted her arm. I expected her to lash out suddenly, skewer me like she did her Leon just then, but fortunately, she wasn't currently as hysteric as the her being portrayed on stage right at this moment.

She snapped her stare towards me, the glow of her eyes unsettlingly calm and empty.

I swallowed hard, and nudged my head towards the carpeted path leading up and outwards. "I think you've reminisced enough. Should we go?"

No movement that indicated a yes, nor any slight twitch that conveyed a firm no.

"You going to stay and watch some more? You don't look like you want to."

A nod, a blink, anything please! Anything aside from just staring at me! You're all mask and no face, so what the hell am I supposed to think here?

Help me out here, Sera.

Don't just stare, what do you want me to say? What do you want me to…

"Monster!" Everyone cried. "Monster!" Everything said.

The pounding music, the gloomy melody, the uneasiness behind every person's gaze.

I looked back at her, this time seeing more than just a stare, this time hearing the unsaid.

'Do you think I'm a monster too?'

Why are you asking me? Why do you wanna know? Are you so desperate for approval now, that you'd come to me for my opinion?

You never cared about what I have to say before. Why should you care now?

Why should I care now?

Do you think you could just bat some puppy-dog eyes a few times at me, and that'll be enough of an effort to get me sympathizing?

Well, let me tell you this, Sera…

Yes.

"I…" I flattened my lips. "Well, you see, I - "

"You monster!" bellowed a shrill high-pitched voice, its echo resounding an unbridled grief. "Why? Why have you done this?!"

We found our gaze drawn back to the stage - there, where the music stopped abrupt, and the ominous choir sung no longer - leaving just a deafening quiet only broken by a single voice quivering in the night.

A little girl soaked to the brim in the red of death stood right… across from her, in a gown just as submerged, stared back a face resembling so much the tarnished beauty of her face, clutching in her a small frightened child, also matching her down to the very stare they shared amongst each other.

"My... queen..." whispered a man that lay sprawled in-between them, his lips coated a deep, dripping dead, a shining crown still perched atop his enamored head. "Take Riona… please… just go… run! Do not linger here… for any longer."

His last words in his last breath, before his head fell slump, his eyes an empty gaze reflecting back the look of terror on his face.

"No!" The Queen whimpered, her hand stretching, but never reaching. "Don't, please…"

"Father!"

The frightened child escaped her mother's grip, bolting towards her father's body, the life ebbing away from his body from the large hole gaping from his chest.

She tried to nudge him awake, pulling at him, pleading with him, her wails echoing without an answer.

Her cries, so much like hers. The child, Sera, took a step forward towards her.

"No, stay back!" The Queen lashed at her, frantically reaching for her child once more, the tears streaming from her cheeks. "Do not lay your hands on her, you fiend! You monster!"

Monster. There was that word again. It was an ugly-sounding word. Painful.

"Why have you come here? For what reason, what purpose did you do as you've done?! What is it that you seek for so earnestly that you've taken the lives of so many?! What? Fortune?! Infamy?! Or was this just a mere whim for you?! Do their lives matter so trivial to you that you could so easily kill without a second thought?! Would mine? Would my daughter's?!"

Onstage Sera for once, looked a little confused. As if noticing something amiss in the scene before her eyes. She kept her stare staring forward, to the Queen's, her violet dress splattered in blood, and then to the child, tightly in her arms, holding so very close within.

It was a vaguely familiar sight, and she felt a vaguely familiar feeling. She took another step, wanting for a closer look, a closer feel.

But the Queen would have none of it. Suddenly, gripped tight in her hands, she seized a blade that laid strewn across the floor, and pointed it towards her.

"I said stay back! Do you not listen? Do you not understand me?! Do not take another step closer!"

Sera wasn't listening.

"What do you want?! Who are you?! Please speak!"

Sera wasn't speaking.

"Why don't you speak?! Answer me! How would I know what it is you want if you would not tell me?!"

She knew what she wanted, it was right there before her… just mere inches away, trembling, wavering… a slender hand gripping the handle of a sword… it was so very close.

Too close, unfortunately.

"Stay away, I said!"

It was a swing of the arm too fast to even react. The yell that resounded, the blade that clattered. Sera didn't think, she couldn't have - it happened all too fast.

One moment, the queen had raised the blade high, had it ready to plummet, to strike, and then the next - her petrified screams filled the air as she collapsed back onto the ground, squirming, blood-spurting, her wrist severed, falling to the floor with her.

For the first time, Sera was in a panic. She hadn't wanted to, she hadn't meant to! It was an accident, truly an accident. She never wanted to hurt… anyone.

This was all just an accident.

But no one would ever know that. No one would ever hear her say that.

She tried to reach a hand out to her, while her other arm flailed around for her severed wrist, somehow she had to let her know that this was not as she had intended to happen. That she only wanted just a simple step closer to her, to be with her.

Too late.

The screams slowly, feebly faded… as every other did, and the red of blood slowly pooled over around her, as every other did… her movement slowed, her breathing stifled.

Sera finally found her hand, immediately seizing on it, holding it... and finally after all this time, feeling it too. Only to find that there was nothing to be felt.

For there was no warmth.