The Shattered Picture Frame

Hensley grimaced at the sound of those words coming from the mouth of a 50-year-old king, the two lovers kept talking and Hensley kept listening, eventually, Hensley silently went back to his chamber and broke a picture frame. The picture frame was of his past stepmother, father, him and her pet, he didn't like to see that woman's face the minute he woke up but now he also had a good reason to break it. He had nothing bad to say about this lady, she was as sweet as honey, how could he say anything against her?

She wanted good for the kingdom, Hensley and the king too, this was a lady who was pure at heart and straightforward, Hensley slightly smiled at the sounds of her giggling and having fun. The next Sunday soon arrived, yet Hensley didn't know who to kill this time, the kingdom was almost all perfect now, the people had started spreading rumors that the discriminatory people were getting murdered by the wrath of God, so this had to be kept up for a long time. Hensley hesitated at first, but ended up playing the song on the violin anyway, birds chirped at the melodious notes like always, some passersby sang together.

A portal opened and Death stepped out, "Who shall I take this time, dear Hensley?" Death asked sincerely, "Anyone of your choice except for my soon-to-be-mother." Hensley replied with internal rage of some sort, but he couldn't go back now. It was too late to tell Death that he was tired of killing people, that he just wanted to live a normal life, he didn't say any of this because he remembers that he promised Death to play this tune on every Sunday to live another week, he misses one and the chain will be broken. The chain of consecutive Sundays which had the violin be played, will be broken, so he will miss another Sunday, and another one.

Summing up to a year being lost, a year being subtracted from his lifetime. If it's a day, a week, a month, or a year, for a man who had experienced Death, even an hour more to live is precious. So Hensley didn't utter a word about it, but Death noticed something wrong, "Dear Hensley, is something bothering you?" Death questioned curiously, "It's nothing, Death. I have just been feeling a little. . . Lonely. That's it." Hensley answered with the same level of sincerity.

Death nodded, the sound of bones clattering could be heard, he had no skin and no muscles after all, he vanished away silently. Hensley thought for a moment and realised, he was feeling lonely, he had no friends or siblings to hang out with or mess around with, it was just him and Colette. "Fontana!" Hensley called out, less than a minute later, Colette emerhed, "You called, My Liege?" "Yes, i did. Let's go out today too, i am looking for a friend." Hensley declared sternly.

Colette looked shocked but then, nodded eventually, they both went out and into the kingdom, scanning every corner for a happy child or a mischievous teenager, but to no avail.

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