She couldn’t sleep a wink last night. The thoughts of The Jester being the Shadow King were almost too silly for her to grasp her head around. There is no status, no power, not even a good reason for them to be close with each other. It's almost too suspicious, she then thought maybe the King might be into men, but then remembered that time he hit on her while drunk and asked her to be queen. Before vomiting all over her shoes. However as a jester they would be allowed to be at the castle at all hours and talking to the King wouldn’t be out of the question. However in the middle of the night it was too much. However she did learn something very interesting about Demons that she didn’t think that anyone else knew, that some had the power and ability to change their appearance. Which gave her so much joy she screamed with satisfaction.

As months passed and the days were normal, she started to follow the jester around the castle. He would sometimes be in the library reading books about acting and such from other lands. She noticed two things, he was never really where he was supposed to be and met with the King at least once every couple weeks. Tonight surely after the news that the advisor to the King of the West would be visiting in a week's time, the Shadow King would visit his puppet. She thought to herself while hiding in the King's room, she was also thinking about how crazy easy it was for her to get in here, thinking that maybe it was a trap, but she must know the truth. She waited for what seemed like a lifetime trapped, hidden under the bed.

“So, this visit. You think it will be a friendly one.” The King said allowed, after quietly closing the door. She could barely contain herself. She knew it. He wasn’t alone. However it was too early to tell whether or not it was the jester.

“Probably not. More like a warning.” the jester said, and she smiled so big under the bed. She knew it. She was right. It was the jester, but was he a demon or was he a lover? What if he was both? But her thoughts were cut short from the sudden bonk to the head from the King sitting down hard enough on the bed it knocked her out.

Coming too, she opened her eyes to the jester, taking care of her injuries. “What the fuck were you doing under the bed?” The King looked unphased by this development.

“Take care of this Cal. We don’t have time for her silly stalking anymore.” Her face burned with embarrassment. Cal rolled their eyes and waved at them to hush.

“I have a solution already planned but wanted to wait until the moment was right.”

“Well, this is the moment if there ever was one.”

“You two get married and then she can just be let in on our little secret.”

“Absolutely not.” He looked mortified.

“Oh, come one, I remember when you first hired her, you said that she was your future wife, if you ever got the chance to pick one out.”

“That was before.” Cal looked confused and raised an eyebrow in his general direction. “I made a fool of myself in front of her enough to last a lifetime. I do not need to be reminded of that everyday any more than I do.”

“Hey, don’t I have a say in this?” saying it louder than she expected too, and with lots of anger.

“Of course darling, what would you like? I know the ladies love a spring wedding but I hear, fall weddings are going to be the next big thing from the kitchen staff.” the historian brushed Cal off of her before standing up, and then sitting back down due to the dizziness.

“No, about getting married!” She screamed instead. “Plus I don’t need to know about anyone's secrets.” She said convincing no one.

“Oh really? Why were you under the bed?” Cal poked. “What about all those journal entries you made about demons, not to mention the demon book, and all sorts of demon related contraband in your room I found.” Her heart started racing, this was not the way she thought this night would go. She swallowed the last bit of spit in her mouth before she saw the King's hand hit Cal’s head.

“You snoop.” The King sighed “I guess marriage really is the only option that makes the most since. It's not like we can afford to lose our next Head of Historian’s. Hank is already nearing 70 and refuses to train any more new students.” Shocked by the Kings words she forgot all about what they were talking about prior.

“Hank thinks I should be the next Head?” She was nearly in tears from overwhelming joy, Hank is the whole reason she became a historian.

“Yes, of course.” The King said as if it was decided long ago. She was so touched she started crying and the pain in her head was becoming unbearable.

“So the wedding is on! I do love a good wedding!” With that The Shadow King gave her a devilish smile. “I’ll get to planning.” Then he disappeared in front of her. Leaving her alone with the King. He walked over to a cart full of liquor and poured two drinks and gave her one. They both sat in silence drinking until the King eventually escorted her back to her room.

“I’ll be awaiting your response.” He said and gave the proper bow signifying an official offer of marriage before leaving her alone.

The jester does a cartwheel, followed by a backflip, then losing their footing falling into a tub full of water for a different act up next for the King. Everyone laughs boastfully, the embassy from the east was very pleased about how good the acts have been.

“That’s the best jester in the land, Igar.” He holds up his large mug and declares his love for this country's entertainment. The whole room is bursting with excitement and joy. The long tables are full of nobles and knights. The staff join in the party after all the food is served and big production is done. Another big success for the Kingdom of Alabaster. Known for being the best in every way imaginable to man.

Taking a long look around the room, the jester smiles. After all these years as the Shadow King, I think being the jester has been the most fun of the positions I have hidden myself in. The jester goes and sits down thinking about their times as the advisor in the early days, generals in the great wars, and one time as the Queen. This peace is because of this demon's love for this kingdom. They tried to convince these people long ago that an immortal hell spawn would be the best King but being as they can make themselves look however they want and have the power to do whatever they want, the collective fear outweighed the trust of the First puppet king.

But that fun was about to come to an end. A plucky young historian that loves to go over the history of kings and all the different changes and rulings over the last several centuries was coming to an awfully large realization. All the kings after the demon wars, had the exact same policies, ruled in similar ways, and were described as being loyal to the previous Kings ideologies. Not just a couple but the last 15 Kings had all acted and behaved as if they were the exact same king. She would write about her suspicion of a Shadow Demon King in secret notebooks at night. Everyone knows that the Demons could no longer dwell in this realm. The war ended with that being the agreement. But what if not all of them left. These thoughts plagued her mind and journal entries and over the months she would spend time after her daily duties as the Head Historian's apprentice researching this. Looking for any proof of her Shadow King. She was even suspicious that it could be him.

She quickly walked down the halls with a book that she found deep within the library that looks to not have been open for ages. The title was something she couldn’t ignore, “Tales of Demons”. She was so excited about what could be in here, nearly all the information was destroyed during the great wars, after the Kingdom of Celist to the west came through and sought to wipe them off the planet. This was only a few short years after the demon wars. It's why the castle commissioned historians and preservationists, so much was lost, that they didn’t want it to happen again. Just another thing that all the King’s believed was important. However, caught up in her thoughts she didn’t notice the jester walking down hallways backwards with the King and ran directly into the jester's back knocking herself down to the floor with the book.

“Oh!” The Jester shrieked and dramatically fell to the floor as well. The King laughed. “I have been slain.” reaching their hands into the air and then playing dead for a second, before helping her up. However the Jester picked up the book first then handed it to her. She was mortified. Did he read the title? Thoughts raced through her head. It was known that the King did not much care for demon talk. What if he tells the king, I could get fired. She quickly grabbed the book and hugged it closely. “Sorry. Excuse me.” she managed to muster out and do a quick bow of respect to the King. Moving quickly and out of sight. Before it dawned on her. It's the middle of night, Why would the Jester be with the King at this hour? She turned around and peeped down the hall but they were no longer there.

“That was close.” The King stated as he started to get undressed. His large and luxurious room, filled with things made of gold, bones, and pearls. If it was expensive and rare, it might as well be here.

“Maybe we shouldn’t meet for a while, my liege, that historian girl was carrying the oldest book from the library. A book about demons. I’m rarely wrong with my reading of people. She is definitely suspicious of something involving demons.” the Shadow King suggested as he materialized a chair to relax in.

“That’s why I don’t like talking about that type of history, look too close and it's troublesome for this kingdom. You know I respect that you do this but eventually you gonna get found out.”

“Oh please after 15 Kings, doubtful. Plus,” the Shadow King held out their hand and sparks crackles from their growing claw of a hand “ I think I can take care of them.”

“Even after nearly a thousand years, people can find out the truth.” The King made a point that the Shadow King could not argue with just sigh as if the whole thing was exhausting.

“Sometimes I wish I never became a Shadow King. But with humans' disdain towards Demons this was the only way to create peace between the two realms. If I step down the demons will start another war, as long as I am at least a Shadow King they are happy and you are happy. However my ambassador said that some believe that it shouldn’t be necessary to hide any more and we should work on integrating to the realms once more.” He looked around and gestured vaguely before continuing “I don’t think humans have that ability yet, we’ve barely managed to keep peace between the human nations.”

The King nodded his head and then laid down in his bed. “I wish I wasn’t born as the successor of a puppet king. But it is what it is. However it is nice to at least be a King.” Crawling into bed with the King, the Shadow King playfully turns themselves into a woman with piercing blue eyes and fiery red hair.

“But aren’t I just the best?” The Shadow King smiled. Mocking the King who just angrily turned away.

“I told you not to do that, I would prefer a human wife. Also aren’t you technically family. Filthy old demon.” The Shadow demon gasped as if shocked by the words.

“Hey, He died like 300 years ago. Plus it wasn’t me that had the children, he had lots of bastard children. That's why there are so many noble families now.” The king just looked disapprovingly of this conversation lasting any longer. “Alright, goodnight, and hopefully all is well in the morning. We did good with the east, now back to work with the west. After what we heard today, it seems as if they are back to no longer being happy with us.” Then they dissipated into black smoke.

The TV in the conor is playing some sort of superhero movie. As she sits bloodied in the chair, the women can hear the movie. However it's distorted like a beat up DVD that has scratches on it skipping and pausing and making it distorted. “You didn’t seriously…” followed by a skipping sound “…think I would let anyone but myself…” another pause and something like white noise “...be the one to kill you did you?”

As she slowly moves her eyes from the floor up to the TV, a woman sits there eating popcorn as if it's a perfectly normal movie night. “This is the best part!” she says then slapping the girl tied up to the chair bound and bleeding as if they are best friends. “The kidnappers are about to get their ass kicked. Never fuck with a women with a bad streak.” she sounded like a witch as she laughed.

“Please let me go.” softly escapes her lips, tasting the blood that is entering her mouth and spitting it out. Only to be followed by the sickening sensation of her face being licked from her chin all the way to what must be the wound.

“I would never spit any part of you out.” Smiling mouth covered in blood and kissing the girl. Forcing her to taste her own blood once more. Before the shock makes her pass out.

“I just love these superhero movies.” She says to herself continuing to watch the movie. Acting as if her other party member is awake. About 30 minutes later the movie ends. “Ah! Classic. The villain and the hero falling in love gets me every time.” sniffling and blowing her nose into a tissue. “What should we do next, Christine?”

Christine was barely coming back too when she heard her say this. Dizzy, holding on to hope that someone would come for her. Her eyes try to grasp her surroundings but everything feels as if it's not real. The wooden panel walls, the shag carpet, the barely working DVD player and TV, it felt like she was on the set of a horror movie. Void of anything that would make a house a home. The carpet had burn marks and stains and it clumped in weird places from the lack of care. It was the only thing Christine could look at anymore, her head too heavy to lift.

“Oh shucks. I’m all out of booze. I’ll be back!” The cheer in this stranger's voice hurt more than the wound on her head. The jingling of keys echoed in her brain. This is my only chance she thought as she heard the door close. With all her might she tried to free her hands and feet bound by tape. But the harder she struggled the more it felt like nothing was happening. The tears started rolling down her face, hopelessness was setting in. There was no telling how long she would be gone. She eventually stopped struggling, it's not like she could knock over a bolted down chair. Too weak from the blood loss she sat there awaiting the return of her kidnapper.

Will my arch nemesis come for me too? Who even is that? Were her last thoughts before everything went dark.