As the brush coated with paint touched the canvas, and made it's first wave, a hum unconsciously started sounding in the room, and sooner, the first line on a song she made, left her lips.
Hello darkness, my old friend...
The paint made another stroke, with a different colour.
I've come to talk to you again...
When one has no companion to talk to, human beings tend to create their own illusion. While others would lose their mind and create invisible friends, Princess Kandice made darkness her friend.
Because a vision softly creeping...
Left its seeds while I was sleeping...
And the vision that was planted in my brain...
The sky on the horizon slowly changed its colour. The yellow, bright ball began to appear like the colours of oranges, lemons, and a grapefruit.
Still remains...
Within the sound of silence...
The sun began to rise higher and higher very slowly, and the colours became more vibrant. The sky began to cast all the colours on the leaves, turning them to gold.
In the wells of silence....and whispered in the sound of silence
The song was moulded with loneliness...
The light began to shine brighter and brighter to eliminate the darkness. The sunrise made the birds begin to fly over the land like it was peacefully. The sound of the birds chirping and the breeze.
Princess Kandice smiled when she looked at the beautiful painting she made. Satisfied by her work of art, she turned the stand, so the painting faced the side where the rays of the sun were peaking through the window.
She placed her hand on the pane of the window and took in a deep breath, eyes closed while basking in the feeling of being kissed by the morning sun. Her only lover, and possibly the only lover she would ever have.
Her eyes opened, and stared directly at the sun, unafraid that it might damage her beautiful eyes. They were indeed beautiful, just like the bearer. Her eyes reflected the blazing sun, burning fiercely with much life that was suppressed by the morning.
Her mind wandered back to two days ago when she suddenly received the King's visit. To say she was surprised would be an understatement. For as long as she could remember, the king had always loathed her. When she was still a child, he never failed to show his distaste towards her.
A part of her was also delighted, thinking that maybe he missed her a little. He was his father, after all. Even though he kept claiming he was not.
He longed for his attention, for his love, but that tiny hope was killed instantly. The same disgust she saw when facing her those years back, was still present.
The king was once against her mother's decision of keeping the little princess alive. He wanted to kill her but then later had a brilliant idea.
He wanted to throw her in the village where the rumours were about her being cursed would be spread.
People fear what they don't know, but they fear even more something that can be a possibility.
What better way to make her suffer than being subjected to everyone's hostility and being treated as a taboo while facing mob justice?
Just the thought of Kandice running for her dear life gave him a thrill. After all, he was also a masochist and had the idea of putting her in a detrimental situation. But after listening to her mother's reasons was when he was able to calm down.
"So the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I see," were his words accompanied by a sneer.
It was like she was the greatest evil that ever existed on earth.
She was. Thought she.
"Just a couple of days, and you will be ready. I have pampered you enough. It's time to pay up," The king said with scorn and left.
She still didn't understand what the king meant by '...you will be ready.′ and ′It's time to pay up.′
And what of being pampered? Yes, they brought food every day but nothing special.
Anyway, she has the right to everything!
Apart from the lessons, she was taught. Of how to behave and camouflage emotions. How to be proper and enchanting at the same time, nothing else.
She wondered what was the use to learn all the etiquette If she was going to grow old in the tower. She also found it strange why Queen's mother, Theodore wanted her to learn how to tempt people as well.
'The power of a woman lies in the eyes. Always remember that.′
The witch had said once in one of their lessons.
'But Queen mother, why do I need to learn inveigling people when you know, what their fate will be?'
She had asked curiously. Theodore was the one who told her that she was star-crossed.
'Now, princess,' she had patted her head a little bit harder, enough to make her wince.
'Even a curse can be a blessing.'
With that, she disappeared into thin air, never to be seen again. Not until yesterday when she came to bid her goodbyes, as she was leaving for a week.
′Be good. Don't do anything I would not like. Once I come back, we will celebrate your birthday and the breaking of the curse. You will be free, my dear, to love.′
Her grandmother had promised her.
Free
Free to love.
Princess Kandice was nervous, excited and looking forward to the queen's mother's return.
She let herself collapse on the bed, bouncing before laying on her back. She had begun daydreaming of how life outside the confined tower would be.
She will be like any other maiden. She thought. She would show all her portraits to others and donate them. Poor Princess Kandice had lived a life of a sheltered person to know what was going on outside the four walls surrounding her.
To her, people living outside were the luckiest.
Ever since Kandice blossomed into a heart-breaking impossibly beauty, no one had ever laid their eyes on her. Only three people. The Queen's mother, the king and Damaris.
Thinking about Damaris, she wondered how come she had not paid her any visit for a very long time.
Was she alright? She wondered or did she also get tired of visiting her? The thought made the princess uneasy.
She wanted to see her. She wanted me to tell her the good news.
She was the only one keeping her sanity intact. She was the only ordinary companion she had. Not a witch, not silence, but human.
But until then, she had to endure the loneliness.
And in the naked light, I saw...
She continued with her song. Concocting the sound of music, playing to the rhythm of her lyric.
Ten thousand people, maybe more...
Fools", said I, "You do not know...
Silence like cancer grows...
Hear my words that I might teach you...Take my arms that I might reach you...
But my words, like silent raindrops fell...
And echoed...
Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn to sunset and makes the night air smell better but let's not forget that loneliness isn't being alone.
It's the feeling that no one cares, and when no one cares, it breaks someone's spirit.
Damaris did indeed care for her, yet she was not always present. Her grandmother, though of concern, was a figure upon whom one could scarcely rely; her temperament shifted unpredictably from gentleness to enmity, from anger to malevolence.
Princess Kandice was akin to a resplendent rose, abandoned amidst a tumultuous garden. She was exquisite and delicate, yet her thorns were such that any attempt to approach her could prove perilous.
She longed for an adventure, for the warmth of family, but above all, she yearned for love.
Just a sliver of it.
…In the silence.
The silence was abruptly shattered when the door swung open without warning. Princess Kandice hastily seated herself, her gaze fixed upon the intruder.
"We must depart," announced the intruder, leaving the princess even more bewildered than she had been by the sudden appearance of this stranger in her chamber.
No common individual had ever ventured into her quarters before.
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Ps- The song is not mine.