Winter

Winter watched the tall shadow creep. He silently placed his hands on the ground and tried scooting further toward the back of his cell.

*CLANG, CLANG*

He winced. The iron chain’s links shifted over the cold ground. Winter held his breath and froze at the sound.

The shadow paused, too. It was eerily shaped like a person, but its unnaturally lanky form on the wall showed otherwise.

I have nowhere to run, nowhere to go.

So all Winter could do was wait.

Wait to be attacked.

Wait to be eaten.

Just wait.

After a tense minute, the shadow continued moving, slinking closer in jerky movements… and closer… and closer… to his cell door. It was right there, but he couldn’t tell exactly what it was. The room wasn’t bright enough.

Winter didn’t want to look, though. His jaw trembled. He would rather not see the thing that would kill him that day.

Is this really how it’s gonna end? I didn’t even accomplish or do anything to be proud of.

He had a lot of regrets. Not living his life was one of them.

*THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP*

Though his heart thumped wildly, Winter knew that the shadow was not the dark elf. The fast beating in his chest wasn’t mysteriously responding to the apparition, not the same way it had with that guy. No, it was just pure dread of what was to come.

Speaking of his heart…

Pins and needles tingled inside, from that deeper place within. A cough wanted to explode, an unbearable itch he couldn’t scratch.

Winter bit his lip and swallowed hard. The spit did nothing to relieve the annoying sensation.

He brought his knees to his chest.

Don’t look at it. Don’t give it attention. Maybe it’ll go away.

From the corner of his eye, the newcomer didn’t seem gangly anymore, unlike what he had imagined based on the shadow’s shape. It stood there on the other side of the cage door, watching him, observing him. Chilling clicking sounds sounded in its throat.

A shiver ran down his spine, and his shoulders quivered. The temperature wasn’t the cause.

A minute passed. Two minutes. Three. Then, ten.

Ugh, it’s getting colder. Is it gonna stand there the whole time?

Winter turned slightly to look and shuddered at the sight. It was a mistake to have done that. Not even a second later, he focused on his leather boots, praying to anyone who would listen.

No way!

It was himself. Winter. Yet… it wasn’t.

It resembled his demeanor and wore the same clothes. The thing was a supernatural phenomenon. For a person to encounter it in their lifetime, there was nothing but misfortune waiting for them—and in some cases, it was an omen of death.

He had read about them in a book about creatures, which he had found in the Nordenstein Castle’s library when he’d sneak out of his tower at night. The notion had frightened him as a child, and he’d always been on the lookout for anything that looked exactly like him.

A doppelgänger—an evil twin. Those spirits were ominous. Everyone had one, but it was rare to come across them; a one-in-a-million chance.

Winter’s thoughts scrambled.

How in the world did my doppelgänger end up here! Though it was possible that a nearby spirit had shapeshifted into one but… still!

*CLANK*

Winter flinched. It slid the door open.

O-open?! Was it not locked?! Is that why I’m chained to this forsaken wall?

It entered, limbs twitching, struggling to walk. Yes, it was likely to have recently shifted.

Winter would not glimpse it again. His eyes remained down, and he sat still without any subtle movement.

*STEP*

He shouldn’t peek.

*STEP*

He had to be invisible.

*STEP*

Winter’s breath hitched sharply when his doppelgänger suddenly dropped to his level, putting its face a hand’s-span away.

Don’t look. Don’t give it attention. Don’t look. Don’t give it attention.

“Why?” it asked, sounding like Winter but more throaty. “Why are you so weak? Why do you choose to live the way you do?”

Winter kept quiet and ignored his double. They existed to deceive and manipulate, so he couldn’t think of any reason to listen. He wanted to cover his ears.

“You were always easy to control, just a feeble soul without a fucking backbone. Pathetic and small.”

It wants a reaction. But I can’t respond. I won’t give it! Do not give it validation.

The doppelgänger edged nearer, humming random notes. Its rancid breath brushed down his neck.

“There’s a whole world out there,” the twin croaked, making more clicking noises.

When it talked, spit sprayed on Winter’s face.

“Don’t you want to see what’s outside? The door is open, you know. Stop being a wretched little—”

The brutal spirit stopped in the middle of its ridiculing, hissing loudly toward the door, and retreated.

W-what?

He took another risk to see it. The contorted Winter crawled low to the ground in a twisted manner, disappearing into the hallway shadows. The clicks faded along with it, and then there was silence.

Why did it just…?

He wasn’t complaining by any means, but it troubled him. There was no indication of footsteps coming.

What was my doppelgänger scared of to flee like that?

It was a terrifying thought that 1) Winter had to fret about that monster returning and 2) there was something else to frighten it.

The earlier itch in his chest constricted his lungs, more so than it had earlier, forcing him to get on all fours for some sort of relief.

*COUGH, COUGH, COUGH*

A violent cough hurt his throat, and he felt his vocal cords scrape with every rough expulsion of air. The uncontrollable choking made it hard to breathe.

Winter placed a hand over his heart. There was an ache there.

What is this pain? Am I getting sick? Is my childhood sickness coming back? But… this…

*COUGH, COUGH, COUGH*

The tingles seeping from his heart turned into zaps. Winter collapsed onto his side, sweating despite the frigid air. He couldn’t breathe, and was entirely immobile.

*COUGH, COUGH, COUGH*

“H-help.” The call was so quiet that it couldn’t even be considered a whisper.

The room became blurry and the edges of his vision turned black. The last thing he saw was the skeleton looking at him, laughing with its jaw wide open.

***

Taerynn

The king stood on his balcony overlooking his ruined kingdom. The blood-red moon was especially bright that night. It was a full moon, a cursed moon to highlight his own embarrassment that he couldn’t leave that damned realm.

Though, I suppose it is better than Fenrir’s case, with the Gleipnir tying him to his land permanently. Sensitive mutt. At least I can get out more freely when the curse is gone.

The fae souls who lived in the hellish part of the afterlife known as Myrkrheim trudged through the deteriorated buildings and streets. Since the war, nothing had been restored to its prior self.

Several things had become cursed after Taerynn’s Magic Mirror had broken forty-five years ago—the land, the mana, himself…

And no one in the other realms cared, despite the light elves being partly responsible for the mess. Their empty promises to help repair the area, which was so vital for demonic fae souls to be maintained…

Taerynn growled. It was all because they looked down on him for being ‘different.’

But he wasn’t the only different one.

There was Snow White, the princess who was secretly a prince, a fact withheld from everyone that he still couldn’t understand. Humans were unpredictable and sought out more than they needed—

“My Lord.”

Taerynn kept his gaze on the moon. “Yes.”

Rowan doesn’t come at this hour. It’s the middle of the night.

His head servant, a dark elf soul who had been serving him since the beginning of his reign, bowed. “I sincerely apologize for disturbing you so late, Your Majesty. There’s a report you need to be aware of.”

“Proceed.”

Far away, screams echoed throughout the hellfire. A fight had occurred between two trolls in the distance.

“I’ve received three complaints from servants that a… humanoid spirit is slithering around Myrkr Castle.”

“And why does that pertain to me?” the king asked.

Phantoms wander around often. They’re harmless. Usually.

“They said the spirit has, er, red lips, black hair, and was so beautiful that they had to stare.”

At the mention of that description, Taerynn turned his head. It was impossible.

How could Snow White have escaped that chain?

“That is no spirit,” he insisted. “It is merely the human I discovered with a portion of mana that belongs to me.”

Rowan shifted, getting uncomfortable about proving his king wrong. “The servants were adamant that it was not a mortal. Though its beauty was undeniable, there was something… uneasy about it. Its shadow did not reflect the body shape, it was very different.”

“Hmm. I suppose you are correct. It seems an annoying thing has attached itself to my belonging.”

“What should we do about it?”

“Doppelgängers are relatively harmless, merely a nuisance. To say they are an omen of death is poppycock. Warn the others to dispose of it if they catch it.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.” Rowan bowed and went to depart to his room.

At the same time, there was a blustery wind that chilled Taerynn to the bone. His long white hair blew in the air. Humans could not survive such temperatures.

He thought of that thin outfit the prisoner wore—the flowy white shirt with a red pattern and black pants. It would not be enough to keep warm.

“Rowan,” Taerynn said, turning around to face his trusted servant.

“Your Majesty?”

“How long has Snow White been in the dungeon?”

“I would say more than half a day,” the servant replied.

I suppose it’s time that I ask about his decision. If it’s a favorable answer and he gives me his true name, he can come out.

“You can go,” Taerynn said.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

The king observed the harsh landscape some more. It never became easier to look at, too bleak to believe things would improve with time.

No. They never will, not with my soul’s core like this.

He went inside the office, slammed the doors, and left his quarters. It was quiet.

He descended farther underneath the castle, where some of the most despicable torture was inflicted on the worst of fae souls. And it wasn’t quiet down below—cries and wails begged for forgiveness, saying that they were sorry for their evil deeds on Midgard and the other Yggdrasil realms.

But, Myrkrheim was the end for them, their souls’ final destination. That was it. No forgiveness. No mercy.

Taerynn reached mid-level with plain cells, and his blood ran cold when he saw Snow White on the floor, unmoving with pale skin. A trickle of blood had fallen from the corner of his mouth.

The elf grabbed the door’s iron bars and tossed it aside. It crashed into the wall behind him in a flurry of dust.

He picked up Snow White and expected some fight, like there had been earlier. There wasn’t any. The prince stayed limp and unresponsive in his arms.

After removing the shackle, he whisked the pretty little thing away into the night, leaving the dungeons.