• Darkness spilled into the bright sunset. Scattering stars all about. Slowly the sun disappeared behind the mountains. The moon reflected perfectly off of the lake. Everywhere I look there are trees. All but this one little cabin, with a small lake, were trees. The cabin was my home. I didn’t always live here, all alone. I used to belong to a family. Once upon a time. That was before I was taken away. Through the night, I was made invisible. Locked away from the world. The cabin was my world now. The only things from my past are Snuggles, my patched teddy bear, my mother’s locket, and a few notebooks. With them I can remember who I am. What I was.

    Footsteps came from behind me. I didn’t have to turn to know who it was. It was Alan.

    “You do know Ana that tomorrow is the ritual where all of the lost clans come together don’t you?” his voice held a nasally tone to it.

    “How many times must I tell you not to call me Ana. That is not my name” I didn’t bother turning around knowing that would only please him.

    “Yes you have told me many a time…but Anastasia isn’t what I want to call you. You’re my Ana”

    I whipped around and held him up in the air, furious.

    “I am not your Ana. I am no ones Ana. I belong to myself, as Anastasia”

    “Put me down!” Alan’s voice rasped.

    “Why? You don’t need to breathe any more than I do. But if you wish to be put down…so be it” I threw Alan into the lake and stalked off towards the cabin.

    How dare he bring up the ritual so carelessly? Since I was reborn that is all that I have been trained for. Barely leaving time for me to hunt. Why did they choose me to be the one to compete at the ritual? It didn’t matter now; there was nothing I could say to make it so I couldn’t go.

    “You know Anastasia it wasn’t a good idea to expand your strength to through Alan into the river when you should be saving all of your strength for tomorrow” Gale said opening the cabin door for me.

    “Why should I save my strength when I am going to go hunt?”

    “You can’t hunt until the ritual is over. That is the rules”

    “What? I don’t remember ever hearing that” I couldn’t believe that. They expected the contestants to not feed? It wouldn’t bug me as much it would bug the other vampires. I only need to hunt every other day, but I didn’t like to.

    “It’s a new rule that has been sent out. You need to go to wait in Alan’s office. He needs to go over the rules with you”

    “I know those by heart, I don’t need to have them read to me again” I knew that they had to reread the rules but I didn’t want to face Alan after throwing him into the lake. He was going to be so mad at me…

    “Don’t worry about him trying to attack you. He can’t and he won’t. Remember if you are not favored by his highness Alan would take you as his mate. So I highly doubt that he is going to be angry with you” Gale’s voice was soft.

    “I don’t want either of them as a mate. You know very well who I would like to be with” I wasn’t going to say it out loud for it would cause the one I wanted great harm.

    “You shouldn’t say such things out loud Anastasia. It’s dangerous” Gale’s eyes flashed with an emotion I could not name.

    “Anastasia!!” Alan’s nasally voice came from the other side of the office.

    “I…I better go. Talk to you later Gale” I turned around and walked into the office; shutting the door behind me.

    “Ana you are late. We have so much to discuss, and so much to prepare you for. Flora!” Alan shouted standing up.

    “Her bath is ready Alan” Flora said coming in from the door besides Alan’s desk.

    “Good you may leave us now.” Alan said looking at me. “Ana get into the tub this instant.”

    I bared my teeth at him but got undressed and sank into the tub. Scrubbing every inch of my body clean. While I did this Alan read the ritual procedures.

    “Every clan must summit one female over 200 years of age. A wedding gown must be donned. The gown must be floor length, and within all shades of white. A veil is required. You are to be reminded that you are competing for the favor of his highness. If you are to be favored by his highness you are to be wed that very night. After his highness is satisfied the rest of the clan males are allowed to choose his bride. They are to be wed after his highness according to thy clan number…” Alan stopped reading when I stood up from the tub grabbing a towel from the table next to the tub.

    “Aren’t you required to leave while I dress? I thought no man was allowed to see me until the ritual?”
    “Yes Ana you are right. I will see you at the ritual”

    As soon as he left the room Flora entered holding a white box.

    “It’s a good thing that you have curly hair Anastasia. It gives us more time to figure out what we are to do about your make up and how you will enter”

    I nodded and sat down in a chair. I knew that I wasn’t allowed to work or help Flora get me ready.

    It didn’t take long for Flora to get me ready. My hair Flora left down instead of putting it up; I think she did this because my usual style was to wear it up. My eyes were done up in a deep smoky brown. My lips were a blood red. Besides my eyes and lips I had no makeup on. The gown was beautiful. It was my take on a gown that I had seen. My mother’s wedding gown. I remembered seeing it when I was younger, before I was reborn.

    The dress wasn’t by all means extravagant. It was quiet simple. The top of the gown had a sweetheart neckline with a corset type fit. The skirt wasn’t quiet a full ball gown skirt but lay in a medium sized circle around me; giving into a small train in the back. Detailed beading almost in the form of triangles went all the way around the skirt; on the top beading lined the sweetheart neckline continuing slightly down to my belly button. Beading lined the bottom of the top and came to a triangle point in the center; slightly below my hips.

    “What do you think Anastasia?” Flora asked me turning me towards the mirror.

    I took in everything I saw. My hair fell loosely in chocolate ringlets to below my shoulder blades. My eyes looked dangerous. My normal forest green eyes were now a deep winter green. The gown hugged me in all of the right places. Around my neck my mother’s locket laid gracefully. I gently lifted the hem of my skirt to look at my shoes. They were a deep sapphire blue; the heel was only three inches long, I could wear these forever and never feel the difference.

    “I look too beautiful Flora…. What about the veil?”

    “The veil goes on before you go into the ball room so you don’t mess up your hair.”

    I looked at Flora and wondered why she hadn’t been chosen. She was about my normal height with heels on; so about five feet eight inches. Her skin was like caramel. Her hair was long, straight, and a rich brown black color. Tonight she was wearing a floor length gown that was a deep teal color. She was very pretty.

    “Anastasia we have to go by car so we must leave now. Are you ready?” Flora asked grabbing a smaller white box and heading towards the back door.

    “As ready as I will ever be I guess. Let us go before I decide to…. Let’s go.” I followed Flora to our black Lexus that we barely used. It was hard to look outside because the widows were so dark. The dark windows made sense though. The sun didn’t really hurt us. It just made our eyes hurt deeply.

    “Would you like to listen to music Anastasia?” Flora asked from the front of the car.

    “Yes. I would deeply love to listen to music that I love. Just to be me, and not worry what other people have to say about me. Or even what they think will happen.”

    Flora said nothing. She just took out a CD from the glove box and quickly put it into the CD council. Enya wrapped around my head making it easier for me to sort through me thoughts. It would take us about six hours to arrive at the Kings castle.

    One way or another I would be getting married tonight. I wish that my father could walk me down the aisle. But that was impossible. My parents were long dead. I had been gone for thirty five years when my mother passed away. Five years later my father followed.

    No matter what happened tonight I would be marring a man, vampire, which I did not wish to marry. If the King did not choose me, then Alan would choose me.

    “Are there any ‘prophecies’ about this future queen Flora?” I asked quietly.

    “Yes, actually there are a few of them. Would you like me to recite them?”

    “Yes please.”

    “Well…it is said that this new queen shall be able to conceive on the night of their wedding day. And that she will produce a heir for the king. A male heir that is. It is said that the labor…will be very painful. More painful than the transformation from human to vampire. It is also said that the new queen shall be able to speak mind to mind to animals, and they will not be afraid. It is said to be that when the vampire who is to be queen walks down the stair case and into the ballroom, that the room will go silent…”

    “Anything else?”

    “Yes… It is also said that the new queen will have eyes the color of the darkest forest, and hair the color of the richest chocolate.” Flora said staring at me in the review mirror.

    “How true are these prophecies?”

    “They have never been wrong.”

    “Well it can’t be me. My eyes aren’t that dark, and neither is my hair.” I said harshly.

    Silence filled the air, but it never was true silence. Every forty or so minutes the cd Watermark would end, and Flora would restart it. Fifteen restarts later Flora shut off the stereo.

    “We are here Anastasia. You remember how to walk in?”

    “Of course I do. You drilled me the whole time getting ready. Hard to forget don’t you think?”

    Flora gave me a look of annoyance as she pulled onto a long drive way.

    “Hey Flora what year is this?”

    “It is 1993”

    “The month and date?”

    “September 23. Why are you asking?”

    “Two hundred years later, the day of my birthday, I am getting married to someone I do not love when I should really be dead right now. That’s all. Now where do we go?”

    “We are going to park in front of the stairway to the left. Then a servant will come out and park our car. Meanwhile I will be escorting you inside to a small little room, where I will be touching up your make up and putting on your veil.”

    “And then?”

    “Then we will head towards the ballroom. I will go through a small door on the side, while you wait your turn to enter through the big doors.”

    “Humph. Lets get this over with then.” I said as Flora put the car in park, A young man, human by the smell came and opened my door for me. I gave the man my brightest smile. Enjoying the way how I could see him blush deep red.

    “Anastasia, now please.” Flora said half way up the stairs.

    “Oh I’m coming. Just enjoying my last bit as a single, semi-free woman. Okay?”
    Flora rolled her eyes but flashed to the door and held it open for me while I walked up the stairs. I really could have run up them. But I didn’t want to crinkle the dress. Plus I was on my schedule. Not anyone else. They could hold the ball for me. On the plus, if I was late, there was less of a chance the King would pick me. Alan would probably be too furious to speak to me. Leaving the chance for Gale to ask me. That is if Gale loved me…

    “Anastasia, if you were not in a wedding gown, I would come and fight your a** to move it faster.” Flora growled.

    I grinned. Flora never cussed. When she did, it was usually towards me. It had always brought me joy.

    Another human showed us into a small room. All it had was a mirror that took up half of the back wall. A couch, a small desk, and a bar stool.

    “Sheesh would’ve thought a maybe princess and her friend would get better accommodations don’t you?” I asked standing in front of the mirror.

    “It is only a room for us to use quickly to refresh ourselves that’s all. So no. I’m sure that there are better rooms everywhere else you look, but for the purpose its needed for. It works just fine. Now stand still so I can put on your veil.”

    My veil was an ivory color with a silver shimmer over it. It cascaded to just about where the skirt began to go out a little. On the side was beading down in the pattern that was on my dress.

    “Come on Anastasia, we must go now.” Flora said gently.

    “I’m coming… Hey Flora, if someone were to chose you, would you get married here?”

    “No, we would do the ceremony back at home.”

    “So..if the King chose me I would be unable to see anyone of you guys to get married?”

    “No.”

    “Oh….. So only the ‘chosen’ brides will be getting married to someone tonight?”

    “Yes. Why are you asking this?”

    “Because… Well because I was curious.” I fixed an expression onto my face that I was pretty sure would give off the impression of bored yet somewhat excited. When inside I was very sad. There were people that I might not get to see for a very long time. If I were wed to the King. I would not get to see any of the people I had grown to like. On the bright side of being wed to the King. I wouldn’t have to see Alan every day. But I wouldn’t be able to see Gale. Would never be allowed to marry him.