They sat around the table, each soul with grimacing eyes and cold faces. They showed no emotion, they bared no trace of sin, and they just sat, glaring.
There were six royals in the room. There was the man and woman who ruled the Kingdom Of Hearts, the king and queen, who lead their kingdom with an overly abundant amount of passion. They shoved every ounce of emotion and intense fervor into even the smallest of feats. They loved, they hated, and both with so much intensity that it often left them burnt and bruised more than anything. They were the kingdom of love and passion, but they were also the kingdom of immense pain and heartbreak. They longed for acceptance, for mad driven, reckless love, and they seldom found it.
There was a sole representative from the Kingdom of Clubs, the bachelor king, who drank his days in with substance and approached all with a charming smile. He used to be young, reckless, beautiful, and reasoned his ways around the life of parties and young girls who swooned at the sound of his name. Now he was older and found responsibility to be much heavier than he ever thought it would ever be. His brothers found happiness, settled down, had children. He convinced himself he didn’t want that. He didn’t want, no, he didn’t deserve a family.
The King and Queen who sat, painlessly burdened by the weight of expenses, ruled the Kingdom of Diamonds. The Queen could barely lift her head with the addition of her oversized earrings, along with the jewels that lined her eyes and face. Her extravagant gown was embroidered with unfathomable gems. The dress itself had cost fortunes, but none of that mattered. The more she had the more she wanted, and she wanted everything. She wanted it all. This fact often made her husband, the King, weary. He loved her more than he could ever love any material, but he was afraid she didn’t feel the same way. The greed was overpowering, overbearing, and it consumed her and her kingdom.
The King of Spades sat firmly in his chair. His Kingdom found that the dark clouds of bloodshed and war were never-ending. They fought, they lost, they mourned, and they started all over again. They strived and lived for that one single second of perseverance that crowned them victorious in battle. They were the kingdom of war, and the air they breathed around them was dark with demise. The king of Spades was a lonely man. He had sons, all warriors, who fought with smoldering eyes, all to avenge their mother who was killed in the midst of battle. She had been collateral damage. She wasn’t meant to be in harms way, and daily her death cut into each of the boys.
The table was silent as each royal took each other in. The King Of Clubs drummed his hands against his playing cards, shuffling them repetitively. He cleared his throat. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Good to see you all, miss me, did you?” His cocky words were brushed off with rolling eyes from the other attendees.
The King Of Spades sat up in his chair to speak. “We know why this order was called. So, what do we do about the girl?”
The Queen Of Diamonds wrinkled her eyebrows, her face creasing. “She is but a child…so young, can we decide her fate?” Her hesitant question came camouflaged behind her diamond-covered face.
“Age does not matter when it comes to the demolish of a law. She was found, abandoned, and unclaimed by a Kingdom. Either a royal family claims her or she must be…” The King Of Spades’ voice trailed off.
The King Of Clubs spoke up, the shuffling of his deck had stopped, and he held them up in both of his hands. “My hands are full, sorry, and I’m pretty sure if I took in a kid it would only live for a maximum of a few hours. My nephew stayed with me for a few days once, he’s six, and it was most definitely the worst days of my life.”
The rest of the royals scoffed, not amused at the rugged man. The King of Hearts sighed, conflicted in his feelings. “We already have children of our own, I don’t find it appropriate for us to take on another.”
And then the table of royals found themselves empty handed, with unanswered questions lingering over them. The Queen Of Hearts, the decision maker, then began to whisper the four words that would decide the child’s fate. Once she spoke them they could not be undone, they were orders, mandatory, and demanded the attention of every King and Queen in the room. So, the Queen of Hearts twitched the edge of her lips and let out in a soft whisper, “Off with her head.”