White King

One of my first stories.

I sat inside on the cold winter day, my head pressed against the window of my small apartment in uptown New York. Outside the large snowy orbs fell from the sky quick as rain promising yet another massive snowfall. My fiancée Jane was there as well, near the door ten feet from me. On her finger sparkled a silver band with a diamond set in it, my engagement gift. But that was a week ago, and didn’t feel nearly like the same world as this one, but rather like the one that you see staring at you through the fog or in a mirror. I watched her as she nervously paced up and down the hall her brown hair swishing this way and that. Today she was supposed to receive the results of her college tests, why she was worried I had no idea she probably did perfectly as she always did.

She was perfect; she never forgot anything, always on her toes, as well as beautiful. We knew each other since we were twelve, and now we were engaged to be married in two weeks. Instead of getting dresses, she was more preoccupied with the scores, rather than decide on the colors she wanted she preferred to sit staring out the window for the mail carrier. Soon the man in his dark blue uniform walked into the lobby under us, I looked at her and she tore off down the hall loud enough I could hear her all the way down the stairs.

Her footsteps faded away and I thought about what she would find, knowing that it would not take her long to come tell me. I dropped down off the barstool I sat on and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a pomegranate and a knife. I cut the pomegranate, especially admiring the warmth of the crimson seeds. I took half and put the other half on the table for Jane. I walked back to our room and found the bed completely messy from waking up. I sat down on the bed and picked up the picture on the table beside me, a picture of Jane and me on our first date. As if on cue she burst through the door, “It isn’t here!” Her voice panicky, but not quite surprisingly. The results hadn’t gotten here for the past two weeks and she had panicked every day.

“Well, what did come?”

“Bills, what else?” With that, she dropped the pile of envelopes on the table in front of me. I idly picked up the stack and flipped through them; bill, bill, credit card offer, bill. She walked over to the window, I felt a slight chill as she opened it. It was just like any other day’s mail, full of nothing but bad news.

I offered the half pomegranate to Jane, “Pomegranate?”

“No, but what’s that there? On the table?” I looked down to find what Jane was talking about; there was a white envelope on the table with calligraphic writing slanted across the front. It was addressed to a Miss Larker, Jane, and looked rather impressive. I handed it to her across the table and she opened it warily and her green eyes traced drown the page.

“It’s an invitation to a ball. Do they even have balls anymore? Either way I am invited to the ‘Winter Ball.’ The letter says that I can bring a guest.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

I choked. I knew the argument ended the second she opened the letter. The light pouring form her face as she poured over the crafted letter spelled it out for me. Tonight’s plan? Dancing.

“It starts at five and ends at midnight.”

“It’s nearly three, where is it?”

“It’s in the Red Light District.”

I was about to argue. You should never go to an event in the Red Light district, it was just a bad idea. But if I argued it wouldn’t have mattered in the end.

“Well let’s get ready.”

She smiled, knowing she won again. Not that it surprised either of us. Jane took getting ready reminds me of a painter poised over a canvas. Her mascara hovering near her eyelashes as I watched her warmly from the door. She didn’t turn back, intent on perfecting her eyelashes. She rouged her lips a pale pink, insisting that the ruby I had picked wasn’t formal enough. Luckily, she gave in and used ruby lipstick. After slowly applying it she shook her head and quickly removed it as if she had a bad taste in her mouth.

After two hours she came out of the bathroom, dress slinking across her pale, firm legs. The dress was shorter than I remembered, it barely came down mid-thigh and I could have sworn it once brushed the floor as she walked. I stared at it and Jane noticed.

“I had it taken in a bit; it used to be long enough that it would dust the floor. I had a little bit taken out of the middle, do you like it?”

“Yes, but isn’t it a little too short now?”

“Don’t be so old-fashioned. Dresses like these are all the rage now.”

“Old-fashioned?”

Jane sighed. “Yes, old-fashioned. Sometimes, you act so passé. Like when we got �" when you asked me- when you gave me this,” pointing to her ring, “we were dating for what, a year and a half?”

“I just wanted to make sure that it was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to rush in.”

“I know, I know. Let’s just go.” Jane stood up and left, the goose feathers dangling from her dress brushing her legs as they swirled behind her. The door slammed behind her, nearly clipping me. I grabbed my keys, took another look around the apartment and sighed when I caught an open window. I walked over and shut the window through which snow drifted in lazily. I walked back to the door, took one last look around and shut the door, leaving the half-pomegranate lying on the table uneaten.

“Hello sir and ma’am, if I may have your invitation you can go right in,” he gestured towards a door on the right, I hadn’t noticed it, maybe it wasn’t even there, but I gave him the invitation anyway. “Have a wonderful evening.”

We walked together arm in arm to the door where we met another guard, this time he took down our names and allowed us on through into a large hallway decked in snowflakes that seemed to move if you didn’t stare at them. We walked quickly, discomforted by the snow following us as we walked until we reached a large set of mahogany doors. On the door a plaque was mounted, but the message was faded and the metal was ice cold to the touch. We opened the heavy door which appeared to be made of solid wood and as we opened it a sight befell our eyes.

The room was a brilliant white, the hue of fresh snow and ice, with what appeared to be icicles hanging from the banister on the other side of the room. The wood in this room was all bone white, to match the rest of the surroundings. The decorations looked as if they had just come from Antarctica and set in this room to be looked at. The room was cold, cold enough to see your breath but warm enough to be comfortable. On the floor people milled about the room in a sea of endless ice blue, pearl, and white clothes.

We descended the stairs in front of us into the endless colors milling about. We went in together and stayed together only by holding each other’s hands. The din on the floor was deafening and when I looked back at the small stairs we had just descended and found them to have disappeared entirely. I searched the wall and found no sign of the door or of the stairs only the grand staircase, opposite the now vanished doors we passed through, was left. It was strange, but as I began to worry a gong rang out in its deep yelling voice and every head in the ballroom turned towards the grand staircase. The doors opened slowly, never once creaking, and searing light came out of the crack of the doors. As the doors opened more and more snow began to come out of the ever widening maw of the doorway, by and by the door opened the rest of the way and a man stepped out of the doorway.

He towered over the tables that were chest high and even appeared tall on the grand staircase as he descended gracefully. His hair was white as the snow, but his face was as young as mine, and perfectly matched his three piece suit and tie. He wore only white and as he flashed a smile I saw that even his teeth matched his white motif. His skin was paler than any I had seen before, but didn’t look sickly or strange, and his eyes were clearly an icy blue even from the other side of the room. He glanced around as he neared the foot of the staircase and caught the eye of several women and men in the waiting crowd and then they suddenly fixed upon Jane and I. It was brief, but I heard Jane’s sharp intake of breath when he looked at her. He finished descending down the stairs and clapped his hands once. A rumbling sound filled the now silent hall, a deep rumbling that rattled my bones. I panicked and began to look around the room for the door, any door I don’t care, but was instead amazed at the walls. Moments ago they were white washed walls with tapestries and paintings on them and now there were none. The room was instead a wasteland of ice and snow surrounded by a high cliff all around made of ice. It snowed on our heads, little flecks fell and stuck to our hair, yet it wasn’t cold.

The band began playing a waltz, it was chillingly alien, a strange tune but a waltz nonetheless. Jane and I paired up but as the song continued we switched partners. I danced with a dark-skinned woman who wore a dress that seemed to shake off stars as she twirled, surrounding us in a twinkling ball. I danced with her for what seemed like forever until we switched partners again, when she bowed to me and I bowed back feeling a little awestruck. Next I was moving with a woman with blonde hair that shook as she moved, she felt like fire: warm and full of light. I enjoyed dancing with her until I glanced around for Jane who I saw only a glimpse of as she passed with the man in white. I looked back at the woman and noticed that she too was watching.

“That man over there, the one you were watching, he goes by the White King.” She whispered into my ear, a smile playing on her lips and in turn, in my mind, but I shook them out. The music paused for another short time as we switched partners yet again. I reached for Jane as she passed, laughing, but was swooped up yet again by the white king. I searched quickly for a partner and was caught by a woman with what looked like large white flakes on her dress. As we began dancing to the much quicker foxtrot I found that her and I were trapped in some kind of bubble, a dome with a glassy sheen and snow whirled around us over and over never quite touching the ground. I changed partners again and this time danced with a woman of no remarkable quality except her exceptional beauty. I caught myself falling into her large liquid emerald eyes and pulled myself back out of her glance to find myself in an embrace. I pushed a little and she let go of me and we danced a little longer, her staring at me until it was awkward and I looked over at Jane her hair swishing about her head as she danced with the man known as the white king.

“You love her very much, no?” Her lilting voice, thick with an accent, played about my ears like music. “I can tell, most men would stay with me forever but I only allow it until the ball is over but others, others have no inhibitions. I would caution you to guard your heart and remember you will not be the first.” The accent, filled with disgust, lost its beauty.

“The first for what?”

“The first to lose someone to the White King.” Playfully she left me as everyone switched partners for the final time in the dance. I found Jane again and claimed her while the White King appeared busy and began dancing again. I watched her and held her tight; she however watched the man in white and held me looser than she ever had if she ever could have known. I followed the path of her eyes to the White King.

“You should stay away from him, he’s dangerous.”

“Who? Vincent? No, he wouldn’t hurt me; there isn’t an ounce of malice in his body.”

“Malice? Since when do you say malice? Besides he isn’t quite the same as the rest of us.”

“I get it, you don’t want me by him because you’re jealous.”

“What? I-“

“You don’t need to say a word; he told me all about how you shot looks at us. He told me all about how you only wanted me because you wanted to show me off like a trophy.”

“No I-“

“I’ll see you later.” She left in a huff leaving me partner less and down trodden I retreated off the dance floor and sat on a bench, made of ice. I sat there my head in my hands when a soft hand touched my shoulder.

“It’ll be all right, it only stings for a little while.” It was the woman with the liquid eyes that I danced with earlier.

“No, it’s just that- How could I lose her?”

“It wasn’t you, it’s him. Every year he invites all of us and two real people to join him in his celebration of winter on the solstice. Unfortunately he takes the woman in the human couple and draws her to him. His whispers caress and he promises you things you didn’t even think possible.”

“Is there a way to save her?”

“At midnight meet me here, and then we will try.”

She stood up to leave and I grabbed her hand, “What are you all?’

She smiled silently, laughing flightily and left I stood up and rejoined the dance, this was the chance of a lifetime. Now that I was looking for it there was magic everywhere, one woman grew flowers wherever she stepped, a man touched things and they would turn to gold, another grabbed me and suddenly I felt as if I was happily drunk. We danced for a while and when she let go I was perfectly normal again. I danced the hours away with the colorful cast of dancers.

At midnight, I was sitting on the bench tired from dancing and the beautiful woman came and beckoned me. I followed her to the newly visualized staircase that the White King came down in the beginning. We climbed to the top where she stood and baely whispered, “This human wishes to challenge the White King to a duel for the woman.”

“I accept. Find her.” The voice was chillingly smooth and liquid. In front of my eyes all of the dancers faded and were replaced, each one, with an exact replica of Jane. I flew down the stairs to find her into the sea of replicas. I ran around and saw them all tossing their hair and staring at me adoringly. I pushed through the dancing crowd until I was caught by someone. It was Vincent, the White King.

“Follow the rules now, or someone might get hurt.” He let me go and pushed me into the arms of a Jane.

“You’ve found me, let’s go!” Jane was so excited about being found, her eyes like liquid emeralds.

“You’re not Jane, just dance with me.”

“Your loss.” The voice Jane-like but chillingly strange. I continued in this fashion until I reached one who when I asked about leaving refused to come. Startled I fell silent and watched her for a while.

“Where is he?” Jane’s voice, the real Jane’s voice I hoped.

“Where’s who?”

“Vincent.” All of a sudden the crowd faded and Jane was dancing with me, everyone else was as they were before, joyfully dancing. Vincent swooped out of the crowd next to me and grabbed Jane and dragged her up the staircase and through the doors, slamming them as he went.

I ran up the stairs desperate to get her back, away from that monster. When I got to the top I ran to the door and threw it open to find Jane on a throne next to Vincent, slowly eating ruby red seeds.

“You’re too late she’s given you up and there’s nothing you can do about it.” It was Vincent’s icy voice. “She gave you up before, but you know that. Otherwise she wouldn’t have fallen to me, I would have meant nothing. I had her before you even walked through the door.”

“But I, I tried, that means something. Doesn’t it?”

“It doesn’t matter how hard you try, some things never come back. Just ask her.”

I ran up to Jane on her throne, grabbed her hand and held her. “Jane!” We stayed together for a brief second until she threw me off.

“My name is not Jane. How sickening of you, I expected better behavior. You will leave now; my husband and I have business to attend to.” Sneering at me, my mind reeled with realization. I turned away from the pair and staggered out through the heavy double doors.

“Don’t blame yourself, you can’t be held responsible for what happened.” A feeling of warmth rose up through me, I succumbed and allowed the warm trickling through my body to fill me. Once I felt ready I looked up to find the blonde woman sitting next to me on the bench, “You’ll feel better when you wake up.” The last thing I saw as I faded from consciousness: her warm smile and rosy cheeks.

I woke up, as if from a nightmare, sweaty and thrashing to get out of the blankets covering my legs. I finally escaped and padded across the icy room and through the short hallway to the kitchen. Half-drowsy, I slowly looked around the room, something had to be wrong. On the table lay a knife and half of a pomegranate, everything seemed old and dull, and I could see my breath in the frigid room. I looked down at myself and found that I wore a black suit with a sickly pink tie. Panicky, I turned and ran into the bedroom, it seems like something left, completely vanished. I came back to the bedroom and sat on the warm half of the bed and ran my hand against the perfect comforter on the other side of the bed. I glanced around; looking for something to remind me of what I missed, and I caught sight of a picture on my bedside table. Inside was a torn half of a picture, just me staring out past the camera. I sat back down on my bed and realized she was gone, the ice was a dream, but she still left me for him.