1. Bedtime Stories

A woman went up the stairs and raised her voice:

- Time to go to bed!

Had heard their mother's voice, the kids obediently responded, tidied up their toys and climbed to their bed. The woman saw her children had already laid in bed neatly waiting for her. She could see how their eyes were glittering from expecting her mother to tell them a bedtime story.

The little boy said with a voice full of excitement.

- Mom! Mom, please hurry!

The woman couldn't help but smile wryly. This kid should learn how to be patient.

- Yes, yes. I'm coming. Which story do you want to hear?

The other kid, a little girl, said in a sweet voice:

- I want to hear Evil Princess.

The woman shook her head lightly after listening to her daughter's answer.

- Again? How many times was it?

But knew how stubborn her kids were, she still decided to tell the story again.

"Once upon a time, the kingdom was suffered from tyranny. The young king rose up and took the throne from his predecessor. His majesty immediately uprooted all the rotten nobles and established the new order. Unfortunately, because of how magnificent his majesty was, the Creator decided to take him away. The young queen at that time, who was stricken by the grief of losing her husband, had to step up and governed the kingdom. As benevolent as she was, the people were led into a happy life and enjoyed prosperity for a short while. And again, the Creator who couldn't bear to see the couple being separated anymore, decided to let them reunite, left behind the young princess alone.

But the princess was raised in comfort in the grand palace had become far from good. Contrary to the wise king and the benevolent queen, the young princess did whatever she wanted. On top of that, had a servant who looked like her and obeyed her every word just made the situation take a turn for the worse. And the young princess then became the supreme ruler of the kingdom like that.

However, the people started to feel the terror from the old tyranny under her dominion. Heavy taxes were imposed and anyone didn't abide by her orders were purged mercilessly. Under the long tyranny, the kingdom began to be called "Kingdom of Evil and Cruelty" and the young princess was secretly named "Evil Princess".

The evil princess should be on the throne as a queen, but she decided to continue governing the kingdom as a princess and only took over the throne when she came of age out of deference to her mother. Things should have continued so but then one day; the kingdom was heavily struck by the sudden mighty famine. Except for some haves, many died from hunger. Deaths and dread engulfed the whole kingdom. The lieges reported to her about the dire state of people's lives. They only wanted her to take action and help her people survive this famine but she brushed them all aside. The young princess, who was lived in luxury, didn't understand their suffering and didn't bother to care at all. "No bread? Hadn't they better know to find other food to eat?"

After confronting the princess, they all gave up except for one, the loyal commander of the royal guards who had served under her mother. He was the hero who had saved the kingdom and known as "The Guardian of Burning Flame" by the masses. His opinions still carried considerable weight. He only wanted to offer counsel so by himself, he patiently protested against her not helping the people. In the end, he wasn't able to convince the young princess so he and some of the lieges who supported him had unilaterally decided to take action.

The people were provided with food and shelter. They survived the dreadful famine. But not everyone was happy with this. The meals at the royal palace became measly. The princess was uncontrollably angry when she found out just what the commander had dared to do behind her back. She wanted to punish him but there's nothing she could do to him. One night, she summoned the commander to her chamber in the palace. The next morning, a dead body was found at a riverside on the fringe of the kingdom. Rumored had it that there were some people had seen a servant who looked like the princess standing there. He mumbled something and left. And because the commander hadn't come back home, his daughter was looking for him. Only after a few hours searching, she found his dead body and saw the figure of the servant running away. People saw a girl in red clothes was dissolved in tears and vowed that she would seek revenge on the princess for her father's unjust death. This marked the beginning of the rebellion.

The evil princess fell in love with a blue-haired man, who happened to be the crown prince of an island kingdom. She sent out her liege in hopes that he would accept her proposal. However, he replied "I'm honored but I have already been in love with a girl in the land of green. Therefore, I will not marry you." The princess got furious with jealousy and a desire to kill that girl surfaced in her mind, but she didn't know who the girl her prince fell in love with was. One day, she summoned the regent to her chamber and gave him an order in a quiet voice; "It doesn't really matter if you couldn't find out who she was, just killed them all". Without any warnings, a war broke out overnight. The kingdom sent an army to invade its neighbor. Villages burnt. People died. Smoke rising carried their wails to the sky. However, the evil princess didn't even seem to care and kept leisurely living in her palace as always; "Oh, time for tea", she said.

In the end, the defenseless country was thoroughly destroyed. However, the girl in question was still alive because she had been secretly hidden by the servant. He was also in love with her and since the princess did not know who she was, he thought he could send her to the blue-haired prince's country in order to help her escape from the princess's reach after things were settled down. The princess would surely give up if she learnt that the girl was in her beloved prince's country. One day the evil princess summoned him and handed over a parchment. An order was written in red ink. "Liquidate her". Later, the blue-haired prince found the love of his life had died unjustly in a foreign place. He vowed to himself that he would take revenge on the princess for killing his love.

Unsurprisingly, people rebelled against the evil princess. They were led by two figures known as "Red Swordswoman" and "Blue Gentleman with a Mask". Their anger couldn't be contained anymore and the rebellion quickly spread the entire kingdom. They surrounded the palace. All the ministers and the servants ran away. The royal army was impoverished by the recent war so the troops easily defeated the royal army which had severalfold men under. And the only one left behind in the palace was the pretty, lily and cruel "Evil Princess".

It was decided that the evil princess would be publicly executed. "She" was put in jail waiting for the clock to strike in her remaining time. Everyone gathered to a square where a guillotine was ready to see the evil princess met her end. Still, even at the death's door, "she" kept a smile on her face like "she" always was. Heard bells of the church rang, "she" flinched a bit and said: "Oh, it's time for tea!" That was her last words before the blade fell. Everyone was happy and celebrated this day. The day they were totally free from the evil princess's dominion."

As the story came to an end, the woman realized her kids had already fallen asleep. She tucked them in, said good night, left the room and closed the door.

~ ○ ~

- WHAT!!! That's it!!?? Are you kidding me???

A loud scream came from a young girl sitting on her bed. She was reading a novel on her laptop and apparently, she didn't really like the end of the story. The proof was right now she felt the urge to spit out a mouthful of blood.

- No, no, no. This can't be true. Let's try searching again. There must be another chapter somewhere.

The poor girl deluded herself that the story hadn't ended just like that. Unfortunately, it's not like another chapter would suddenly pop out no matter how long she searched.

Earlier, she had prepared all the snacks to leisurely eat while reading the rest of the story. Contrary to how content she was at the beginning, she felt horrible finishing such a stupid story. And the bedtime story at the end just made her even madder.

The novel was about a kingdom falling into ruin. But the plot was different and it ended with that twisted bedtime story. She understood the author's concept a bit. The history which was publicly known didn't necessarily mean to be the truth. But this was way too much. If the author's purpose was to p!ss people off, then congratulations, he or she had magnificently succeeded in doing so.

The servant was secretly the princess's twin brother. And the princess wasn't just evil, or rather she was naïve and stupid beyond saving that turned to evil. The only reason the girl still kept on reading was because of the princess's twin brother. She liked how the romance between the princess's twin brother and the girl in the land of green was described and wanted to witness their happy ever after. Unfortunately, the daydreaming girl found out that the situation took a turn for the worse.

Those stupid melodramatic bullsh!ts were thrown all over the place. She lost count how many times she spat blood whenever someone died. Character after character competed for a chance to die early like death was a common thing.

Those plots were probably made as tearjerkers but too bad it's a big failure because as one could easily see, the girl became angrier as the time went by. And she really had to try her best to hold the urge for flipping the table when the princess's twin brother disguised himself and died in her place.

Dafuq!!?? Excuse me! It was the stupid princess who started the whole mess and now her twin brother had to clean up her sh!t and died in her place!!?? Just what was the point of this horrendous story?

The girl didn't even know where to vent her frustration. She grabbed a banana next to her, peeled it, and because she was too mad to the point of not being able to think clearly, she put the whole thing in her mouth. The girl needed more snacks to calm her swelling rage but there's nothing left. She realized that she had eaten everything.

That was when she decided to stand up and search for more food. And again, because madness had shrouded her brain, she totally forgot about her laptop and her mug on the overbed table. She hit them with her legs and caused those things to fall off. Naturally, she wanted to save them from kissing the ground but as stupid as the girl was, she abruptly bent over and tried to reach out her hand while standing on the bed unsteadily. The result was she's falling along with her beloved laptop to ground. The mug shattered, water spilt everywhere and also on the plug. Her head was pierced by one of the shards when her body hit the ground. And because of the impact, the banana was pushed in deeper and got stuck in her throat.

Things just happened too fast. Before she knew it, she was already on the floor dying. The poor girl was choked, electrocuted and stabbed in the head at the same time. She wanted to do something like pull out the banana from her throat but she couldn't due to her body being numb by the electric shocks. She even saw her blood spilling on the floor. But the worst part was that she couldn't die instantly.

"Wonderful! What a way to die!" She still wanted to live but there's nothing she could do. "Well, it's not like anyone cares about me." She had lost her parents and now was living with her relatives. She knew they didn't really like her staying in their house. The only reason they let her be was due to her inheritance. But she was still glad to have a place to return to.

"So, this is the end." As her life was slipping away, she started to give in. But then… "Wait!" The girl recalled how she looked right now. Because she was at home, she dressed sloppily. Her room was a mess, her face was a mess and her clothes were also a mess. If someone saw this scene, they would all think: "What an ugly filthy girl!"

The girl tried to struggle one last time. She didn't want to die like this. "Even if I had to die, I want to die beautifully! At least let me change the clothes!!!" Never before she had such motivation to live, but it's all futile to fight against death. And absolutely the darkness descended, ending the light in her eyes.