Princess and the Pea Chapter 36

I hope you enjoy this flashback chapter:

Chapter 36:
Vincent sat down and patted the ground around him. Everyone scooted in closer, a bit grudgingly. Vincent sighed, clicked his fingers, and began.
“It all started two hundred years ago, when my brother Destin and I were only children.” He looked around and saw his audience’s amazed expressions at his age. “We were a tribe of spirit hunters. My father was the head chief and my mother was a famed archer.
“That day was a cold one indeed. It was winter solstice, and the snow was up to our freezing knees.” Vincent chuckled darkly. “I remember my father’s disbelief when he heard a knock on our door. ‘Who would come here at this hour, in this storm?’ He’d said.
“Father opened the door to a tall, slender woman with blue hair and menacing indigo eyes. She was holding the staff of the Grand Dark Witch, the leader of the witch coven in the Witch Woods. She had smiled and asked to come in. And since my father was a kind man, he let her in. That was the worst decision of his life.
“The tall witch introduced herself as Helen Crosby, and told my parents that she needed their help.
“‘What kind of help?’ My mother had asked. And Helen told them her plan.
“Helen said she wanted to unite the spirit hunters and the witches into one clan and use our respective powers to ultimately take over all the known kingdoms in the world. She spoke of her aspirations to rule and conquer all. She convinced my parents to believe that it was for the good of the nation and that the witches and spirit hunters would help each other and obtain power as partners.
“My father was reluctant. Our clan had few numbers and we were taught not to trust the witches right from the very start. But Helen knew how to fawn and sooner than we could count to three, they were on her sided and trusted her completely.
“Helen would come here everyday to talk to my parents about the alliance and to come talk to me and my brother as well. It was clear that Helen liked my brother more. He admired her very much and believed everything she said. I was smarter. I could never read the look in her eyes, but I knew something bad lurked behind them. I remained my distance, and Helen never cared.
“A month after the alliance contract was signed between us and the witches, something terrible happened. I saw Helen murmuring incantations in her room one evening and summoning all the dark spirits. I heard her call out my brother’s name in the incantation, and I watched her cackle as she poured mixtures together into a murky green potion. She smiled in delight when the dark spirits crawled into the mixture, and I remember her exact words: ‘They’ll never know’.
“And I wasn’t smart enough to tell my parents what had happened. I hated them for letting Helen in, and I truly abhorred their attitude towards me then. So I said nothing, but I’m sure Helen knew I was there then.”
Vincent paused, and buried his face in his hands. He closed his eyes and groaned painfully.
“What happened next?” Marilynn asked.
“I found my parents dead the next morning in their room,” he said. “There was blood everywhere. I couldn’t watch. I ran out as fast as I could, right to my brother’s room. I saw through the hole in the door and I stopped cold.
“Helen was there, her hands covered in my parents’ blood. She was talking to Destin.
“‘Now, now, dear,’ she said. ‘Come here. I have something to show you.’
“My body was screaming out at me to rush in there and save my brother from that evil witch. But I couldn’t, and I watched helplessly as Helen gave my brother the murky green mixture, and I shook tremendously as I watched Destin swallow it.
“He turned out to be what he is now,” Vincent whispered. “He morphed permanently into a black mist, and became Helen’s servant. Helen soon passed him on to the necromancer Corinth, and they used him. And Destin still always trusted them. There must’ve been something else in the potion.”
“What happened to you?” Samson asked.
“I escaped. I ran out as fast as I could and Helen didn’t catch me. I ran for so long, and I found myself alone in the woods. I’ve lived there ever since.”
“That’s an awful story,” Queen Sandra said. “I can’t believe you had to go through all that.”
Vincent stood up. “Well, I did,” he muttered. “And now I’m going to do the same thing to Helen as she did to my parents.”
Fiona stood up too. “You mean we’re going to,” she chirped.
Everyone nodded in agreement.

-Vociferously yours, Vicky.