The Eyes in the Water

The water near the castle is the coldest. And it's always the darkest. Everything about this place is dark. There is no love or light that really lives here. The citizens outside of the palace are only full of depression and anguish. My parents are...unforthcoming. It didn't always use to be like this. But from all the memories I have, darkness has taken them all.

Our kingdom used to be made of light. If you can believe it, people also used to smile and laugh. It was a different kind of peace. I guess I was too young to understand, or remember when everything changed. They were in pursuit of a monster. Honestly, it was about power. However, if I tell my father about himself, I'm locked away to my room as if I'm still a child.

The beach has always been my solace. The water towards the beach has always been the warmest. This beach is what raised me. This beach was my freedom. They would leave me here alone and go to their grand parties and boring royal meetings. I was happiest here. I was in love here. Laying here now, I can feel the relaxation washing over me. But I still somehow hear my mother's voice grating against my ears.

Aidana. Aidina. AIDINA!

My eyes flew open and my heart skipped a beat. I looked behind me and there she was. Sitting high atop her black steed with her feathered robe. My mother. The Queen. I rolled my eyes so hard they could have gotten stuck.

"Your majesty" I sulked. I already knew what she had come to say.

Your father has been looking for you. You know the beach is forbidden if you are unaccompanied.

"You both continue to destroy that which once meant everything to me. I suppose you're determined to turn me into a hateful creature like yourselves."

Please end the theatrics girl. We have done no such thing. If it were up to me, this area would be an extension of the palace, with no remnants of a beach. But your father did not wish for your hatred.

"You continue to turn your back on the world."

And on does it spin. Get back to the castle. Final warning.

As she started her horse to trot away, I couldn't contain my frustration,

"The world you've come for, will come for you too. And not in the way you'd like."

She paused. Her shoulder movement indicated that stupid low chuckle she always does and she turned to me, her eyes completely black and her teeth sharpened,

Then let us be befallen.

She laughed all the way back to the castle. The guards she left with me were determined to get me back there so as not to receive the wrath of my father. Sometimes I question why it is he couldn't come and get me himself if it was such a concern. But I remember that I came out at high noon. He'd burn to a crisp.

My father. The Vampire King of the Phantom Citadel. The woman he married, my mother. Queen Visandra. She's so very odd, but I suppose all swan maidens start off that way. My father fell for her hundreds of years ago. Then he took her as his bride, turned her and then they had me. But I'm so different from the both of them, I often wonder if they just found me somewhere.

The guards walking me back to the castle don't even bother speaking. Something did, however, capture not just their attention but mine as well. Off to the right side of us, in the water. It was getting bigger. Moving fast.

They quickened their pace. They realized at some point that they weren't going to make it. Not with me in the midst of their ranks. The leader waved his staff and opened a portal in a water puddle just ahead of us. I stopped and turned to look him in his eyes.

They were a deep blue. He apologized with them, and pushed me in. I landed in front of my parents in the hallway by the castle doors. My father all too pleased to see me alive, and my mother was barking orders at the other guards. One of her chambermaids brought her my father's sword. She handed it to him as he stood up. Broad shouldered and strong.

They brushed around me to the war room. But I had to see for myself. I ran to one of the open windows and saw the guards fighting for their lives. It wasn't even an army. Just a small group. But they came from the water. Who are they?

As I stood watching, my eyes wandered toward the edge of the beach. Movement in the water. It was something big. Bigger than what the guards could handle. To the east I see the citizens running for cover and finding hiding spots near the streets closest to the castle. My mother rode out and warning them of the dangers. More than anything beyond our walls, they feared her.

Looking back out at the water, I see her. She's real. Her name was always only a whisper, and her presence thought to be myth. But I knew in my heart that those eyes I saw so long ago were nothing but the truth hiding in plain sight.

"Nessie..."

I turned to run and meet her but another pair of eyes stopped me. A pair of eyes I could only recognize from a dream I had. At least, I think it was a dream. But those eyes. I've known them for so long without a true memory of them. But the feeling of familiarity washed over me like a storm as he grabbed onto me to keep me from falling out of the open window. His long white hair covering those eyes. At this point, my heart was telling my brain what to do, and a single sound came out of my mouth. But it wasn't just a sound, it was his name.

"Rahlin?"