Page 48
Story: Princess of Death
I removed the arrow then placed my hand on its flank. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you saying sorry, Dad?” Tiberius asked.
I grabbed the arrow and cleaned it on my breeches before I returned it to the quiver across my back. “Because life isn’t fair.” I pulled the large elk over my shoulder and steadied the carcass before we began our journey back to the house.
Tiberius led the way.
It was a fifteen-minute walk back to our home on the outskirts of the village, a modest cabin that was just big enough for us to raise our two boys. I hunted for our meals and sold the extra meat at the market. Anya had her own garden and used the vegetables to cook in her stews. Our life was simple, but it was ours.
Until she got sick.
We approached the wooden fence around the house, our dog Pinecone barking at our approach.
Tiberius opened the gate and ran through the door. “We’re back. Dad got an elk.”
I carried the carcass to the workshop I’d built for myself. I prepared the meat away from my family, because the boys were still too young to witness that much reality. I washed my hands clean of the blood then walked inside the house.
Darius was two years older and, therefore, left in charge of his mother while I was gone. “Was it big?”
“Almost too big to carry.” I circled him with one arm and gave him a kiss on the head. He was tall for his age. Both of my boys were. Soon, they would be men, and this time would be a memory. “Did you take care of your mother while I was gone?”
“Yeah. I made her some stew.”
“Attaboy.”
Darius ran off with Tiberius, and from the other room, I could hear Tiberius bragging about the hunt and making it sound far more exciting than it really was.
I walked through the open door into the bedroom and found her in bed.
Dying.
It hurt to look at her every time, to see how withered she was—and I couldn’t stop it. Her eyes were sunken, and she was thin. It was hard for her to speak without coughing, so she was careful with her words.
She was so weak, she didn’t even perk up at the sight of me.
“Hey, baby.” She didn’t want my pity, so I had to pretend everything was normal when my life was literally dying before my eyes.
“Hey…”
I came to her bedside and pulled up a chair. “Tiberius and I found an elk. We’ll have steak and potatoes for dinner.”
“Sounds nice…” She barely finished her words when a coughing fit took her.
I handed her a glass of water, and she downed it and spilled some down her chin. I dabbed it with a linen cloth. Witnessing her agony was a different kind of torture than actually experiencing it. I would do anything to trade places with her. Would do anything to slowly die while she continued on.
I’d hunted for many weeks to afford a doctor to come visit, but he said she had an infection of the lungs that couldn’t be cured. The winter had been harsh, and while I’d been gone fetching firewood, she’d gone into town with Tiberius because he’d sprained his wrist in my absence. A blizzard came through…and brought the sickness with it.
If I’d been there, I would have taken him myself. Or he wouldn’t have gotten hurt in the first place.
Now, I was about to lose one of the people I loved most.
Her weak hand slowly reached for mine. “Don’t look at me like that.”
My eyes dropped to our joined fingers, the heartbreak in my chest enough to make my sternum crack. We used to have a beautiful life, making love by the fire when the kids were asleep. The times when she waddled around the house with a pregnant belly were the best memories of my life. We were supposed to watch our boys become men and have their own families.
We were supposed to grow old together.
But now, I would raise my sons alone and enjoy the happiness of fatherhood while she became a memory to the sons she’d birthed.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48 (Reading here)
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102