“Hey. . . . ”

Back and forth, Auric nervously paced the stage in an awkward loop.

A pathetic smile spread across his face as he continued to speak.

“Soooo. . . . .What’s up? I’m your new king. Preston is dead.”

Right away, he got the impression that he probably would’ve been better off starting with something else.

The crowd instantly erupted, beating him down with a variety of noises. He couldn’t even recognize some of the words that were being shouted at him.

A light tap on the back prompted him to turn around, only to see Galavaine and Amie staring at him. Galavaine had a fairly stern, tight-lipped look that read “What the fuck are you doing?”, while Amie simply rolled her eyes and proceeded to bury her face in her palms.

From somewhere in the middle of the audience, Auric heard the ear shattering shout of an obviously displeased citizen.

“‘Da hell you mean King Preston is dead?”

Auric questioned the intelligence of his city’s inhabitants.

“I mean . . . .he’s dead. Gone. Not here anymore. No longer your king“.

A woman’s voice could be heard from the far right.

“Well how did he die? We’re in the dark on everything you know. The Kingdom hasn’t kept us informed at all!”

Auric thought about it for a second.

“That’s actually a very good question, Miss.”

He’d learned his brother was gone, for weeks now, but he hadn’t questioned it once. Perhaps the pressure of taking rule had clouded his thoughts, and prevented him from dealing with the things that mattered the most. Maybe he didn’t truly want to believe Preston was dead. No. That wasn’t right. He’d only started to warm up to Preston in their later years, but prior to that, Preston was the sole reason their parents never gave Auric a second look.

He once again faced Galavaine, beckoning him forwards.

“Yeah. How did King Preston die?”

Galavaine felt the weight of hundreds eying him down.

“That is information we cannot disclose to the public at this given moment.”

As if on cue, the crowd burst into ferocity once again.

Various shouts from all directions made their way to the stage.

“Oh shut up! Is there anything you can tell us!?”

Almost apologetically, Auric looked at Galavaine and motioned him towards the back of the stage.

“Anyways! Moving On-”

This was going to be harder than he thought. More voices lashed out at him mid-sentence.

“No! Fuck you! Who even are you?! Why are you suddenly King!?”

Others began to nod in agreement and examine him.

“I’m Preston’s younger brother.”

As he expected, numerous retorts and statements were thrown at the stage.

“We’ve never heard of this!”

“Preston didn’t have a brother!”

“I swear to god I only remember the King and Queen having one kid!”

The microphone that had grown comfortable in Auric’s hand was quickly snatched away.

Galavaine appeared to be more irritated than Auric had ever seen him. Whether or not this was a good thing had yet to be decided.

“He’s serious. Now start acting more like an audience and less like a jury.”

With a nod, he returned the mic and walked off.

“Alriighhttt so since you guys are so fucking intent on detail. . . Hi! I’m Auric. I’m sixteen years old and I like to play video games and eat toaster pops! You probably haven’t heard of me because as a kid, I chose to distance myself from the mess of a Kingdom you guys look up to! But guess what! Thanks to that dumbass brother of mine, look where I ended up! If you don’t like me based of the ten minutes we’ve spent talking . . . well that sucks ’cause I’m the guy you’ll be bowing down to for years to come!”

Nearly the entire park was staring at him with eyes wider than the sea.

“Now, any questions?”

Hands everywhere jolted upwards. Auric pointed at a hefty middle aged man standing towards the front of the audience.

“King! My wife has been missing since last week! I have sent in a report but have not heard back! Numerous others are facing the problem of missing loved ones as well!”

He laughed a bit before clearing his throat and addressing the man.

“Dude have you even been listening to any of this? You haven’t heard back because well. . . yeah. . . it doesn’t take a king to realize your wife’s probably dead. Oh, and before any of you come at me for that- ”

Swiftly pointing at Amie, he continued,

“That’s one hundred percent her fault. It’s her job to keep track of that stuff and I have nothing to do with it. She’s also been around here longer than I have.”

Amie’s jaw nearly collided with the ground. She gawked at him and left the stage from the back.

The crowd simultaneously broke out into anger and amidst the chaos, Sara jumped back into the spotlight.

“Well. . . we hope you enjoyed the debut of our new King! That’s all for tonight!”

After her pitiful closing statement, she gave Auric permission to leave and called the cleanup crew. It was going to be a pain to clear out the park tonight.

While citizens began to pour out, two peculiar figures remained in place, eying the massive stage that stood before them.

“Man. And here I thought we’d have to tone things down when the city returned to order. This kid’s a fuckin’ tool.”

“Kid? He’s around the same age you. I’m kinda’ feelin’ like that cute redhead’s our next target”.

“I’m not gettin’ the same vibe but. . . .we’ve already screwed up like forty times. At this point I don’t think it matters who we kill. This chick keeps herself hidden. Let’s check out the amusement park later.”

The stars that danced in the night sky watched over the city of Halford. Not even they, had an idea of the storm that was to come.