Jacob walked the castle hall toward the restroom and realized that he could once again hear that ethereal song that always played across the wind in this strange land, accompanied by a piece of creepy, shivery music. It was constantly starting and stopping. Ever-falling into a light crescendo. It had started playing right when he was first transported to this misty, medieval nightmare. However, with a shiver he realized that the two voices singing it were clearly the voices of King Felton and Queen Ember. Haunting, lovely, and sorrowing but also with a string of odd, elated laughter. Their sad singing contained an undertone of mirth.

  He almost screamed as outside the castle window the Shadow Beast clawed at the gold pane and gave him a look of scarlet fury. its paired, snowy antlers adorned some beautiful, white, dragon's face with blackened lips. Its eyes were oddly sad, like its dead, red irises were weeping and yet no actual trailing of tears fell from the bottom of either great eye. It soon dissipated into shadow and became one with the overarching rain-mist.

  He heard a sudden chortling coming from Ember's bedroom, she and Felton were speaking in hushed, pretty whispers and he heard almost no words, made out just one, a name, Emanuel.

  Wasn't he the creator of the Monovalent Realms Virtualiser Technology? Well, it made some sense he was dreaming about him since he was stuck in one of his games, albeit a twisted one, but somehow the tone of the Royal brats made a shiver play a single cold chord down his spine. He entered the restroom which was a dusky-pink and entirely too feminine for his tastes though he suspected Princess, Queen, whatever she was Ember, likely adored it. The giant, clawed bath caught

  his eye as it was pretty cool. His own, beautiful bathroom ensuite, bizarrely enough, required a key and the Royal brats hadn't deigned to give one, perhaps they merely forgot. Yet Jacob felt it was the sort of thing they would have done on purpose.

  The next day, Ember came and with a surprising friendliness offered to give a tour of the castle. As they passed by endless halls and winding staircases and made their way toward the golden turret, Jacob noticed a sweet, little doll just sitting on a table below that grand staircase to the gilded top of the castle.

  Ember, who had been skipping about and looking more like a child than ever, even in that ridiculous ballgown, suddenly went back to being solemn and her face twisted again into that earlier imperiousness.

  "Oh yes, that doll is little Dahlia. She was abandoned by her original owner who she loved so very dearly and thus cursed everyone who touched her to dance till they died in a kind of a frenzy, as a grave punishment and penance towards a humanity that scorned her. However, I am far too powerful to fall prey to such simple, trickster magic."

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She picked up the doll who leered at Jacob with great, glass eyes.

  "She is pretty, isn't she?" Ember remarked about the creepy doll which admittedly, had the fairest, curling hair and the biggest, bluest eyes but an odd, cracked, black stain on its cheek. Though the rest of its form was perfect, polished porcelain.

  "She's just lovely, almost as wonderful as me," Ember finished dreamily, her head seemingly drifting into some golden clouds. Ones that Jacob couldn't see but seemed to nevertheless colour her otherwise cool and distant demeanor with a sweet but irritating feyness. Enlivened her with the happiness of a dreamer.

  When they made it finally up to the turret it was growing quite late and the last little blue of dusk was leering dark. Ember walked gracefully over and sat down on the turret's bed sticking out her little feet in their silver slippers. Eventually pulling them out of the silvery shoes. She then commenced gazing at her rosy-tipped toes, admiringly. Reverently. Jacob sat in a nearby rocking chair, the only place in the isolated little castle-top room, where you could be seated. It was uncomfortable but also just a little soothing, the way its smooth motions rocked him like a gentle cradle in the sea.

  Ember rose, walked to the edge of the room, and stood by the turret's great window, before opening it and climbing out on the golden ledge. Pushing aside the red curtains she unfurled her white wings and took flight. Landing on the silver rooftop. She opened her lips and gave a kind of whistle. Then, finally, she spoke. Well sang.

  Shadow Beast, hear my cry,

  Take this boy as prey

  Boil his blood

  Make his pretty hair fry...

  With a great rush of claws and shadowy wings, the beast appeared snarling and headed toward the turret where Jacob was sitting, now feeling quite ashen and sick. Suddenly, right before it reached the window, Ember lifted her hand and gave a dismissive wave and the Shadow Beast stopped immediately in its tracks: it uttered a lovely, honeyed sound almost like a melodic purr and beat its bat-like wings affectionately, or so Jacob could have sworn. Its shadowy, shapeshifter form bowed its great head reverently at Ember and those insubstantial shadows of its now fully-black body slipped right through Queen Ember's fine, delicate, little fingers as it flew up towards her and then away into the night.

  "Just kidding," Queen Brat said. Laughing. "I don't sick the Beast on people. Well, technically I am able to. Can't say I ever have though."

  Emanuel help me, Jacob thought. Get me out of here, please. Somebody, anybody, the IT guys who run the servers, please notice something has gone wrong and get me out soon. Though maybe the creator was the one who trapped him here. He had heard, read somewhere, that he had a twisted sense of humor. Still, it would be insane for the man to throw away the fortune he made and all the begrudging respect he had garnered as a deformed man who had proven his societal worth ( even likely ending up in prison) just to lightly torture some teenager.

  Ember, meanwhile, was leaping gleefully about on the ledge shrieking about how spectacularly her fair wings gleamed in the dead of the night, yet when she turned to Jacob and finally faced him, he was startled to see her uppermost lip tremble as her face seemed to grow chilled and there was such a look of regret in her bright eye.