The click clip, click clip, of my sparkling high heels echo on the marble floor of the glistening hallway dispersing my pride and joy welling within my soul. My dazzling blue dress flows around myself as I waltz down to where my supper will be waiting for me in the dining hall. I keep gliding past the murals of my ancestors that I have seen my whole sixteen years of life every time I went to fill my tummy. When I enter the already opened doors I see a man and a woman. Already eating, they gladly welcome my approach.
“Good afternoon darling,” said the king.
“Thank you father,” I replied.
“Are you ready for tonight? A coronation is a big deal, especially in this family.”
“Of course,” I say as pleasantly as I usually do.

By this point I had taken my usual seat and the servants had brought my food, today it was roasted pheasant with orange dressing with a fresh garden salad all looking dazzling on a gold plate and utensils.

I had just taken my first morsel when a young man entered the room. He was dressed immaculately with a perfect stride and might I say quite handsome and I had a modest but bright smile on my face as he sat down at his spot beside me holding my hand with my recently placed wedding ring on it.
“How’s your dinner dear?” John said.
“Fabulous, thank you for asking”.
“Of course,” he said with a bright smile on his face. There was a twinkle in his eye when glanced at my currently flat stomach, that won’t be for long.
“So John, are you ready to become king tonight?” inquired my father.
“Of course, Sir, though I do admit I am a little nervous, but with Rose by my side I know it will be fine.” That got an aww from my father and a smile from me. We had been married for two days and I’ve known him for a month and we already know we will get our happily ever after.

When we had devoured all we could eat the king and the queen left arm in arm, with John and me (the future king and queen) left following them. We were about to go for a walk, just the two of us, when my mother pulled away from father and walked towards me.
“Rose can we talk?”

“Of course,” I said, blowing kisses to John and my father then fallowing my mother trailing her flowing black laced gown down the hall again with the eyes of my ancestors staring at me with their heartless faces.
All the queens looked like my mother: plump nose, raven hair, flowing black gowns and a golden necklace with a black diamond it.
I kept following my mother’s train like a shadow. We were going closer to the exit of the castle. I was wondering why but I didn’t ask my mother. I’ve learned that her responses are rarely helpful. I kept following her though a rough wooden door which leads to the stables, It must have been the servants’ entrance because I had never been there myself. The glowing orb in the sky was the only source of light. I kept following though the barns through the field to the woods until she stopped by an ancient looking tree with no sign of life. The moon glared at us but the rest of the world felt cold barren and silent like the tree. Finally my mother turned to face me. Her pale face glowed like a ghost with the light of the moon casting its curse upon it.
“This is it,” she stated in her monotone voice.
“What’s it? What’s going on, Mother?”
Her face didn’t change as usual. She reached up to her necklace and pulled it off. The black diamond glared at me, seemed dark but in its own way was still beautiful. As it left her skin a scream of a child echoed though the forest then more and more burst through the forest.
“This is where it first happened,” she said in between the horrific wails of men, women, children and woodland creatures. “This is where the first queen of our realm made her sacrifice”.
To any normal person they would have listened to my questioning gaze but my mother seemed rushed and kept glancing at the cries and for the first time I saw my mother cry. For the first time she seemed awake.
“We need to hurry, Rose, our family is cursed.”
My mother must have seen the shock appeared on my face, instead she continued with her rambling.
“This is where our first ancestor accepted this.” She held up the gem. “This diamond will take care of our people, this diamond rid our land of war, drought, poverty, and turmoil but at the costly price of the queen; for hundreds of years we have had coronations at night, this night, where the exchange will take place. Rose, you need to wear this diamond to protect everyone else as you hear from the screams the moment you take it off all order disappears and the punishment you take will be given to everyone else. You will be in pure hell but everyone will live in the heaven you have known and enjoyed for sixteen years. Rose you will feel nothing for the rest of your life not love or goodness or peace but everyone else will. You will never again feel loved by John or your father or me. It’s your duty Rose. It’s a price you were born to pay.”
“So I don’t have a choice?”
“Because of your blood, no.” my mother simply spoke, tears streaming down her face
I put it on.
…
She put on the diamond and her expression changed the moment it touched her skin. It became nothingness. Everything was blank, the screams ceased, and the night went back to silence but, a wave of emotions hit the queen. She saw her daughter who was so full of life suddenly be so bare or empty. It burst her to tears of horror. Her daughter didn’t comfort her or protect her for she now felt nothing, but the queen was prepared for this feeling, as she brought out the dagger she had in the folds of her skirt.
Before she used it, however, she looked at the eyes of her daughter for the last time. They told her nothing, which broke her heart. For the first time she could feel how horrible this duty was.
So she turned the knife, flipping it, watching it sparkle with the aid of the moon. She brought it up to her chest where only a few layers of flesh lay between her beating heart and the dark weapon.
Then it sliced.
It was an easy job. Soon crimson liquid leaked out of her flesh to the dark fabric attempting to absorb the steady stream of liquid flowing to the soft ground. Just as the first drop of blood reached the ground the rest of her body followed collapsing on the ground as her daughter witnessed the life leaving her mother again.

Her daughter barely noticed the dead stranger at her feet.
The exchange had taken place.