Queen Of Nothing.

• Natalie Walker, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2019

Frost crunches under my feet the only sound echoing around the clearing. Tall leafless trees cast shadows long and deadly, twisting around my shivering form. The biting cold turning my sharp nose pink and breath into a mist that forms a halo around my shock of black hair. The only colour in the white of winter.
A flash of movement sends my empty heart racing. A wolf the size of a bear emerges, its grey fur blending in with the shadows parting around him. A soft growl fills the silence, pincered by my shallow breaths and still pounding heat. I freeze panic working its way into my cold mind, I can’t lose, not when I have nothing left. I close my eyes waiting for the wolf to disappear.
“My friends welcome to the coronation of my beloved daughter princess Amelia”.
I hear my fathers voice slide through the closed doors. Fear and excitement radiating through me, reflecting in my dark eyes and tense posture.
“Don’t be so nervous, you look beautiful”. My mother soothing voice and soft smile calm me, I smile timidly and glance down at my grey dress, the long silk trailing on the floor cover my soft slippers, beads shimmering in the light from the window next to us form the shape of a wolf woven into the soft fabric. Our family animal and pride of the nation.
I draw my head back pulling myself to my full height as the heavy wooden doors open.
The room is alight, dark clouds of smoke hang in the air, I stare the wooden benches and silver curtains caught in the bright red flames licking and reaching for the now invisible roof. Screams fill my ears, I can’t move, frozen to the spot waiting for the flames to hit me, staring at the crowd pushing past me. I hear my mother shouting my name, a faraway echo of past memories. I close my eyes certain it’s a dream the screams filling me, a crash of sound knocking me to the ground.
I wrench open my eyes, my mother's voice fading into nothing, the white and snow of my surroundings rush back, back rushes the cold and stiff limbs, back rushes the coldness of my heart and the emptiness of my mind. Nothing has been the same.
A small sob rakes through my body and I fall to my knees not caring about the sudden wetness of my clock. Memory’s flood me, a dam wall had broken inside me letting through everything I had kept buried. Gone everything was gone, the wolfs soft fur presses against my cheek, its green eyes understanding. A fresh wave of sobs overtake me, My tears freeze on my face, the biting cold pricing me from every side, I don’t care, my mind numbed just as it had done all those years ago, because I am alone in this cold world, because I am the queen of nothing and revenge will be mine.