The Crown's Obsession

Music Recommendation: Through the trees - BPMoore

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Helena was not like the other women who looked delicate and docile. She had no interest to play coy Her glare was enough to have the magistrate gulp down in nervousness.

The vampiress ordered, "Get your carriage to the place where the execution is going to take place. I will make sure to see why a person has been taken to the execution when he was blamed only yesterday."

"But what if he's already been executed?" asked the magistrate, his eyebrows furrowed in question. According to Queen Morganna's orders, they were told to put the man under immediate execution.

"Do you love your life?" asked Calhoun, taking a step forward. It seemed like Morganna had taken precautions to eliminate Theodore from this world.

"Y-you cannot threaten me, Advisor Calhoun. You might be the King's son, but we received our orders from the Queen," informed the magistrate without backing down.

Calhoun's eyes twinkled, "So the order came from the Queen Morganna. I am sure the High House would be more than willing to investigate the matter."

"Magistrate Maki," addressed Helena, "Unless you want to go against the will of every other land's King and Queen and don't want to be blamed for the disruption in Devon, I would ask you to lead us to where Theodore is being held to be executed."

Magistrate Maki bowed his head, scurrying away from the table, and they followed him out of the building.

Away from the town, Theodore was held in an isolated dungeon in the forest. His hands were tied in ropes, and his legs were connected by shackles that connected both his ankles. The guards who had brought him here hadn't bothered to give him food, but they had not missed the opportunity to beat him up on the Queen's orders.

One of the guards arrived in front of his cell, making a sound using the rod that hit every single rusted iron bar. The guard unlocked the gate and then pulled up Theodore, dragging him out of place before being brought outside where the gallows stood.

Theodore didn't resist one bit and instead kept quiet while the guard continued to drag him towards the gallows.

"What are you doing bringing him here now?!" shouted a buff man, who was the hangman, who wore a black cloth-like mask that covered the upper part of his face. "There's already another prisoner whose time is due to be executed."

"This one is from the Queen's direct orders," spat the guard, who continued to pull Theodore until they finally came to stand next to the gallows. The guard then looked at Theodore before asking, "What did you do that's got the Queen in a hurry to kill you?"

Theodore's face that was smeared in dirt and blood, looked up to meet the guard's eyes. He shrugged his shoulders, and the guard didn't bother to question more as to him Theodore was only more prisoner here to be executed.

"Someone get the skinny one here while I get the silver bullet for the vampire. This one is a vampire," said the head guard.

"NO! Don't kill me! I want to live!" screamed a lean man who was being dragged forcefully towards the gallows by the guards.

Theodore's lazy eyes moved to his side, noticing the man and the two guards who walked past him. By the man's appearance, it seemed like the person had stayed here for quite some time, and the guards took him up to the gallows before forcibly putting the noose around his neck while the man kicked and shouted for help.

"Don't kill me!!! NO!" the man continued to scream. With his hands bound, there was no way for him to escape or pull out the noose that was now around his neck.

The hangman went to stand next to the long bar like a lever, and he pushed it to one side so that the floor on which the man was standing opened itself. The person struggled until his body turned still, hanging by the rope.

"Bring the next one in!" ordered another guard, and soon Theodore was forced to walk up the wooden stairs and to take the position next to the person's body, who continued to hang.

Theodore looked at the trees that stood in front of him. He wondered if Calhoun would be able to make it on time to stop the execution. He wasn't scared of death as he had come to face death many times in the past. He wondered if today was the day where the edge that he enjoyed would be met to the point where there would be no return.

The noose was soon adjusted around his neck to make sure it wasn't loose but tight enough.

He caught sight of one of the guards who came to stand right in front of him with a gun in the hand that would be used to shoot him as a vampire wouldn't die by merely hanging by the rope.

Before he knew it, the guard who stood on the scaffold pulled the other lever, and soon Theodore's body was let to suspend on the gallows through a rope. His body started to move back and forth as if he was struggling because of his air passage being blocked.

He caught sight of the man who stood in front of him, raising his hand to point the pistol at him, trying to aim at his heart or his head.

But before the guard could pull the gun's trigger to shoot at Theodore, another sound of the gunshot was heard, and the head guard dropped the gun down.

Calhoun was the one who had pulled the trigger from his own gun to stop the guard from shooting Theodore.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?!" demanded the head guard in anger, not knowing who had entered the scene. "Guards! Get them to the prison-Magistrate Maki?" he looked behind the three people at the magistrate who was huffing and making his way there.

As magistrate Maki was a human, he didn't have the energy and speed to reach the place this quickly like the other three people. He stopped walking and bent down to place both his hands on his knees as he huffed. He then raised his hand.