Beryl’s Requiem: Prologue
by:
It’s not easy being the bad guy, take it from me. No one ever wants to hear your side of the story. No, they’re always too busy whining "You did this," and "You did that," and "You killed So-and-So," and "You caused the total destruction of the solar system." Blah. Blah. Blah. By the Abyss, recriminations get so tedious after a while.
Granted, my life is flashing before my eyes and I can’t quite say that I’ve lived an exemplary life up until now. It’s funny, but I’ve always heard that death was supposed to be accompanied by a welcoming, warm, white light. True, I’ve got the light and I guess it’s warm enough, but it’s neither white nor welcoming. Not me, instead I get this big, pink bubble-looking thing that’s going to disintegrate my body into sub-atomic particles. Oh, joy, I just can’t wait for that. And I seriously doubt the Pearly Gates of Heaven are thrown open in anticipation for me on the other side. No, once my body’s dissolved, my soul gets a one-way ticket to Hell, where my goddess is going to feast on it for an eternity. Well, what’s left of it anyway. Several millennia of pure, unadulterated evil kind of has an eroding effect on one’s soul, as does causing the annihilation of the populations of eight planets and the moon, I’m sure.
No one seems to understand that while I was quite willing to serve my demonic goddess, that it doesn’t necessarily follow that I want to become her next entree.
Just like no one can comprehend that, in my mind at least, I’m just as much a victim as everyone else. I’m equally a slave to Necessity and my role was predetermined by that wily bitch, Fate. And does anyone bother to find out why I turned evil? I wasn’t born that way, you know. Not that anybody really cares, they’re much too busy pointing fingers and assigning blame...but I’ve gotten into that already. But, believe me, I have my reasons. Lots of them. They all stem from a man, of course. Doesn’t every woman’s? Maybe being spurned by your dearest, only love doesn’t sound like a decent reason to start a galaxy-wide war to you, but it sure as heck did to me. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, after all. And I wonder just how sweet and innocent that saccharine little princess would’ve turned out if he had chosen me.
But enough with all that. I made my decisions long ago and I lived, and am now dying, by them. I have no regrets...okay, I regret my soul’s about to be served up on a try with a side of fries and a Coke, but other than that....Did I have my life to do over again, I’d choose the same course, without my horrific blunders, obviously. And at least I’m dying some shreds of dignity, however much as can come from being defeated by some fourteen-year-old brat who can’t even walk and breathe at the same time. Even now, my death is not an empty one---- I die now, but I’ve already taken her four closest friends and her lover away from her. She won, but her victory cost more than I bet she thought it would. I may have lost, but I go with the knowledge that I’m leaving her to face a life spent utterly alone. My body is dying, but I’ll live on forever in her memory and I have cause to believe she’ll be alive for a long, long time. This is a battle that will not fade away, lost in the shifting sands of time. This girl, though she does not know it, has made me immortal. Perhaps it is not the immortality I had once sought, but it is more than any of my predecessors have. I will be remembered forever,
As Beryl, Dread Queen of the Youma.