Rosemary’s voluptuous shadow loomed over Cyrus as he struggled to get upright and face his foe. His whole body was reduced to a jiggling mass, and he saw from her smirk and haughty eyes she delighted in seeing him like this.

“Ever since our first encounter,” she said digging her fangs into her bottom lip. “I’ve been taken to you, little baby Prince. You fascinate me the most out of all your little friends.”

“W-w-why?” Cyrus stammered.

“Because unlike them, you are the most… lazy…coddled…selfish…baby of them all.”

As each accusatory word pounded deeper into his head, Cyrus watched in horror as Rosemary removed a letter tucked inside the top of her tight fitting dress. It was marked with the royal Coates seal of approval. She read it mockingly, “And I will lay my life down for thee, I pledge as long as you call me yours, you will always be safe and sound by me.”

Rosemary’s pale purple eyes shifted coldly to Cyrus and she began to chide him in an icy tone of voice. “You know, when strange men send me personal letters, at least they have the courtesy of writing it themselves. You wrote yours with…magic.”

Rosemary dangled the letter over a struggling Cyrus. He wished so badly to snatch it from her. He felt his face flush with embarrassment and his heart beat thunderously in his chest.

Rosemary’s voice whined, wavered and teased the prince, “When I took this letter from poor Trinity, she was clutching it so dearly. I almost didn’t have the heart to take it from her…”--Rosemary paused, cocked her head to the side and spoke in a desensitized voice--”But then I remembered I have no heart…”

Cyrus watched helpless as Rosemary began to shred the letter with her cold clammy fingers. “When I tore it away from her, it was so fake it was laughable. And yet, she was deceived…”

Cyrus only managed to squeeze out a few words from his trembling mouth, “Rosemary…”

“Mmm?”

“You didn’t tell her did you?”

A large smile stretched across Rosemary face as the pupils in her eyes shrank. “Maybe I did…maybe I didn’t. But that doesn’t matter now. After all, don’t you want to know why I find your sloth so fascinating?”

“Why…?”

”Because…” Rosemary said, her pupils shrank to the size of tiny black marbles and her fangs and uneven teeth stretched the full length of her mouth. “It’s made you so plump! You’re a delectable fountain of blood and a feast of clogged arteries!

Rosemary’s eyes began to roll around her head uncontrollably as her voice swooned to heights of disturbing pleasure-- “Oh it’s made me so mad with hunger and you’re too petrified to do anything, little boy.”

Cyrus’ heart jumped painfully over her twisted visage. He reached helplessly for Archibald’s briefcase, but it was kicked aside by Rosemary’s heel. “Sorry about that…” she said. “I want you to have no distractions as I devour you headfirst.”

Cyrus, still immobilized, watched as the briefcase soured through the air. It clattered to the floor and suddenly fell open. Much to his surprise, a pink stuffed dragon fell out. Its button eye dangled off its head and its patchwork fabric was well worn from tons of squeezing.

“Aww,” Rosemary shrieked. “Did mommy pack that for you?!”

But Cyrus was too focused on the toy to hear her. His head rushed back to the night his mother gave it to him. He had awoken from a horrible nightmare caused by an ominous shadow lingering on his wall. It looked like a witch’s hand reaching out to grab him.

He remembered his mom’s auburn hair mixed with a soft grey and her emerald eyes, wise, empathetic and kind in a way only a mother could be. She told him, “Never fear that ugly shadow on your wall because it’s just a tree branch .”

Cyrus remembered how her words eased him. She disappeared into her closet and emerged with a pink stuffed dragon. “I won’t always be here, my sweet prince. So when you aren’t with me, keep this stuffed dragon by you. He is the color of my love for you. He is also there to remind you, sometimes ugly shadows are much less scary than you think they are.”

Cyrus felt his limbs move for the first time since Rosemary terrified him. He watched as the dark dame’s twisted shadow stretched over his body. “You are strangely silent, baby boy,” the creature snarled. “I’d expect to hear more pitiful cries before I drain you of your vitality.”

“I have one last thing to say, Rosemary,” Cyrus said, his voice unwavering.

“Oh?” Rosemary asked, her eyes no longer rolling, but her thick lips pursed together instead.

“I may be a mama’s boy. I may cry like a baby sometimes. But no baby could come all this way without becoming slightly more of a man than he was before!”

Cyrus flipped over and scrambled towards the suitcase. He scooped up his pink dragon, clicked the briefcase open and pulled out the final sack of dragon powder. He snorted it with a ferocity and imagined he was the dragon he clutched in his hands. Flames from his mouth brightened the room in a golden orange light and the dark dame was bathed in a shower of fire. Her whole body erupted and she screamed as her hair caught on fire along with her clothes. Cyrus let the fiend sizzle before he grabbed the remaining bag of dragoon water. He gulped it down, allowing it to swash around in his belly to maximize the blast before he unleashed it. A jet stream blasted Rosemary, smashing her against the wall, where she crumpled in a smoldering heap.

Cyrus smiled to himself. He strolled over to Rosemary. Her body lay charred and it twitched from the pain. “That’ll teach you to mess with Cyrus the magnificent. I’m not afraid of you…even if I did wet myself…”

A quiet but high pitched cackle arose from the heap of Rosemary’s body, causing Cyrus to jump back. Cyrus watched in horror as Rosemary rose from the ground, every burnt welt retreating into her shiny pale skin. Even her charred hair neatly arrayed itself once again. Rosemary had a distant but satisfied look in her eyes and she smiled. “You’d think you’d know by now that we Everbloods are immortal, my pudgy prince. Any harm you do to me is instantly healed.

Rosemary twisted her head with a sickening crack. “Now where were we?”

Cyrus stumbled backwards as Rosemary’s smile grew wider and wider, her cheekbones grew bonier and more skull-like and complete blackness filled her eyes. She strutted towards him as the very visage of death and he backed away faster and faster. “I love how fear marinates a body,” she said laughing. “Now come to mama!”

She slashed her fingers like an outstretched claw, and Cyrus quickly held up the briefcase. It flew out of his hands, and bounced along the floor, the latches flying open again. All kinds of tricks shot out of it, filling the floor Everything from rainbow handkerchiefs tied together, to joker cards, to top hats with yellow question marks on them to a shiny white skull.

“Archibald’s thespian skull?” Cyrus said out loud.

Rosemary was silent, and when Cyrus looked back at her. Her eyes had returned to normal and she looked like a pale woman again. She stood agape looking at the skull, with her hands clasped together. Suddenly, Cyrus sprinted towards it. “NO!” Rosemary cried and she dove forward, grabbing Cyrus’ legs, causing him to fall to the ground. Cyrus continued to crawl on the ground, dragging the dark dame behind him. “Stop!” She cried, holding onto him by one hand.

Cyrus thrashed his legs and kicked the dark dame in the face. She recoiled, releasing his arms and he quickly snatched the skull. “What’s so important about this skull?” Cyrus asked, suddenly feeling tough.

“Give…that…to…me…” Rosemary growled in her guttural voice.

“Hmm, to smash or not to smash…?” Cyrus responded holding the skull upside down in his hand. “That is the question isn’t it? Perhaps you should tell me what this is, or I’ll break it right then and there…”

Cyrus saw hesitancy and uncertainty in Rosemary’s face for the first time. It was the most human he had ever seen her.

“That is…” she started. “My boyfriend’s skull.”

“Your boyfriend?” Cyrus asked. “I thought you only eat men.”

“Well I do…and I ate him too…but…” Rosemary said. “He was the only man I ever truly loved.”

Rosemary gazed away from the skull for the first time. Her eyes reflected something other than pure bloodlust “I didn’t always used to look this voluptuous. I used to be a very plain, homely girl with no assets at all. I knew he would only see me as his best friend unless I did something. That’s when I found the bloodstone.”

Cyrus found himself as fascinated as he was repulsed. He never knew that such a terrifying monster could actually have human qualities.

“It granted my wish and transformed me into this….He was entranced at first and said yes…until I hungered for him and my face became monstrous…”

Rosemary’s voice cracked, “As he screamed in sheer terror over me, I ate him then and there.”

The dark dame bent her head to the ground in solemn mourning. Cyrus found himself actually feeling sorry for her. Even if she terrified him to his very core, she still had emotions and regret.

“Rosemary…I…”

Suddenly Cyrus heard a whooshing sound and he looked behind him. A tear in the dimension appeared behind him. He looked back and saw Rosemary clutching Celine’s Time Ripper. She dashed at him and tackled him, sending them both into the void.

Cyrus screamed as the pressure tightened around him and a deathly chill filled his bones. He opened his eyes and found himself floating inside a large vortex, illuminated only by gold pulsating blobs of energy. A searing wind blew around him, allowing him to hover through the air. It was like he was inside a tornado, and the nature of this reality tugged at his very core, ready to rip him apart.

“Welcome to the Dark Realm’s very own Soul Void!” Rosemary laughed, floating a short distance away from Cyrus. “And let me warn you, nothing in this realm can exist very long. Except for the very essence of death itself.”

“And why did you bring us here?” Cyrus screamed.

“Because,” Rosemary shouted back, a broad grin on her face. “You will give up that skull; or today, you will die in the very realm where you were created.”