in to her death as a vampire in an abandoned tower, she dug deep to know of her ancestors until she came upon the Piper’s story.
When Elizabeth’s time of death came, Ladle’s grand grandmother was ordered to take her life. But Elizabeth found a way to resurrect the Piper to oppose death.
Because of the many souls the Piper had killed with his plagues, the dark forces had granted him the power of Death. The Piper became the Black Death, killing souls before their time, and saving darker souls when their time came.
In short, when Elizabeth summoned the Piper back with a forbidden spell, the dark forces turned him into an opposing power to Death.
The Piper was stronger than Ladle’s grand grandmother, and saved Elizabeth from Death, granting her immortality.
Then when centuries passed, the good forces in the world understood that the Black Death couldn’t be fought with the White Death, which were Ladle’s ancestors because they all wore the white cloak like her mother. Black Death had to be fought with Red Death, which was a good soul that had enough darkness inside to oppose the Piper.
Ladle was the first to become a Red Death. Until the incident in the forest, she thought her role was only to take the lives of those the Tree of Life demanded. The truth is that her role is much bigger than that. She has to save the lives that the Piper takes unrightfully, and kill the lives that Piper saves for his own evil reasons, also unrightfully.
Now that my story came to a conclusion, the kiddos in hell were already in tears. I had realized that they were going to be the worst generation of devils ever. I couldn’t blame them because Ladle’s unknown destiny did even leave an impression on me. It was hard not to sympathize with her. She had a war of her own waiting for her, and it wasn’t an easy one. She had to balance the evil inside her with the good. She had to try hard to use the good to complete her job, and the evil to give her power that would match the Piper’s, and his army’s, brutality.
“Will she win?” a kiddo asked me.
“I don’t think we’ll like it if she wins,” I said, pursing my lips.
“Why?” another kiddo said.
“Because we’ll lose if she wins,” I said. “Don’t you get it? We’re badass. We’re on the bad side, and when push comes to shove, we’ll take the Piper’s side.”
“I hate you,” the kiddo said. “Why do we have to be on the Piper’s side? We love Ladle.”
At this point, I was seriously considering quitting my job. Who wanted to work in such an environment where all your assistants were against you? I had to come up with a good answer, something to tempt the kiddos to stay on my side and not Ladle’s. The words came to my mouth finally and I liked how they tasted.
“I tell you what, kiddos,” I said, kneeling down to them. “Remember when I told you that Ladle is Red Death because White Death wasn’t strong enough to oppose the Piper?”
“Of course, we remember. Get to the point and answer the question. Why do we have to be against Ladle?”
“Actually, we don’t,” I put a forefinger on my lips. “Part of being Red Death is that she has great evil inside her that she has to fight to stay good—“
“And? Get to the point!”
“What if we could tempt Ladle to be on our side?” I clicked my fingers, and a golden tint shimmered in my red eyes. I just did it for the effect.
“Great idea!” they raised their hands cheerfully in the air. “We love Ladle.”
I’m have to say that it was the first time that I saw that evil smile on their faces. I’m proud of my kiddos.
End of Prequel no# 11
Author’s Note:
1) I wanted to postpone this prequels so it would be longer and more detailed. The nursery rhymes and the poems that connect the Piper’s enigmatic persona to the Black Death are even more complicated. But it would have made the prequel too dense and hard to read.
2) Also, I had Ladle’s mother previously