A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS #ONCEUPONNOW

04 | AND AFTER THE NIGHT

04 | AND AFTER THE NIGHT
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I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK OF THE KING. I had thought of him as a monster, but up close, he seemed more like a boy than anything. 

I had thought he would have scales and horns from all his wicked deeds, but he did not. He was surprisingly beautiful, his face chiseled and sharp, but his eyes dark and unreadable. 

When I met his eyes, I saw the storm brewing inside, the winds and waves of grey swirling inside his irises. His eyes were haggard, and he looked exhausted. 

He looked more human than I had imagined. 

I decided his outward appearance did not matter. He was a monster on the inside, and that was all that counted. 

With his family history, I was not particularly surprised or disappointed when Shaza turned out to be a monster. His father was a murderer, his grandfather was a murderer, his great-grandfather was a murderer. 

There is that saying: the apple does not fall that far from the tree. In our country, we say: the prince does not fall far from the king. 

Before Shaza had been king, his father, King Almahad, had been king. I would always see Shaza lingering behind his father on television. I pitied him then, having the king as his father. King Almahad had been infamous for his ruthlessness, he had cold eyes that chilled my blood and hands that supposedly marked his wife's face.

He branded his many wives, and the queens would show up on television with bruises around their neck, purple and blue. Many times, his wives were executed because of miscarriages he had caused them. King Almahad had claimed that they had been unfaithful, therefore causing their miscarriage. 

I remember when I was about eleven, there had been a television broadcast of the king ordering his own son Shaza to be whipped a hundred lashes simply because Shaza talked back once. The king had ordered twenty more lashes when the then prince Shaza's chin had quivered while being lashed. 

When Shaza was twelve, the king ordered his own wife, the queen and mother of Shaza to be executed by gunfire. And she had been executed, despite Shaza's tears and pleas for his mother to be spared. The country had adored the queen, and Shaza had loved his mother above anything. She had been the only one to show the country and her son any type of kindness.

King Almahad had simply said, "Your mother is your weakness, and kings have none." 

Shaza had replied, "Then I wish not to be a king. I only wish to be a son." 

King Almahad had struck Shaza across the face on public television, stating, "You do not have your own wishes. The only wishes you have are mine, your father's." 

Now, I still pitied Shaza. 

But I only pity him because of the fate he would suffer at my hands. 

And he would suffer. I had vowed t

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