Hope awoke from a strange dream. Only to discover that it wasn't at a dream. To her horror, she looked around the strange bedroom. Most everything in the room was black. The only exceptions were the crimson red satin sheets, and the same shade of red for the stained glass windows. Except for there not actually being a terrifying giant pendulum clock, it reminded her of the dreaded ebony room from "The Mask of the Red Death".

She got out of the large bed, and made her way over to the windows. Well at least the room was illuminated, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to see. She never could have made her way around the room without some sort of light source.

Cautiously she pushed the window open, and let out a large gasp. All she could see was a dark vacuous void of nothingness, that was only illuminated by what appeared to be lightening and a roaring thunder. There was nothing below, but a whirlwind of dark matter that echoed from what seemed liked an endless void. Was she in a black hole, or worse? Was she in hell itself?

"It's a long way down, isn't it?" His husky voice whispered in her ear. She let out a fearful gasp, as he had startled her. As she turned around, she had almost lost her balance. It felt as though she was about to be sucked out into the endless void itself. But fortunately he grabbed her, and held her to him.

"Careful." He whispered, as he gave her a sly smile. "It's an extremely long way down."

"Where does it go?' She asked.

"Nowhere." He replied. "And everywhere, I guess it all depends on how you look at it."

"Well maybe you shouldn't have snuck up on me like that!" She cried in anger. "I almost fell out the window. I would have fallen to my death!" He just looked at her, and laughed.

"I fail to see what's so damn funny!" She yelled.

"Below is an endless magical void." He replied. "You wouldn't fall to your death, you would just keep falling. But I'm a winged creature that can fly. I could easily find, and catch you."

"But this isn't some movie!" She snapped back. "Haven't you ever heard of terminal velocity? You'd break my neck if you tried to catch me in mid air like that!"

"But we are no longer in Earth's realm." He laughed. "We are in the enchanted realm. Physics does not apply here. And even a mortal, albeit a beautiful one as yourself, is immoral here. We cannot die."

"Where the hell are we?" She cried.

"In my royal bed chamber." He told her, as he continued to smile. "Where we shall conceive our many offspring."

"You're disgusting!" She groaned. "I know we're in a bedroom, in a castle somewhere, but where?"

"As I said before." He told her. "We are in an enchanted magical realm. It is a place of nothing, and a place of everything."

"Why do you have to answer me in riddles?" She asked in frustration. "Why must you be so cryptic?"

"Because there are no real human words to describe what this place is." He explained. "All forms of magic exist here. This is the place where many Fae creatures dwell. Because man drove us out of Earth's realm millions of years ago. And when we do enter Earth's realm, we must hide in the shadows. Or we hide in areas that man cannot see."

"Why do you feel the need to hide in the shadows" she inquired.

"At one time, not too long ago, we were able to hide in the air and the sea." He continued. "But man has discovered, what you might call advanced technologies, throughout the centuries. You see man was supposed to remain innocent, and childlike. But man became dangerous as he sought knowledge that was forbidden to him. It is why he was exiled from what you know as Eden. It is what the Fae know as the magical realm, and both realms had once coexisted in harmony."

To say that Hope was even more confused was a bit of an understatement, "You're telling me this is the Garden of Eden? This is paradise?"

"Paradise is what you make it." He explained. "This is a result of the many sins that man has inflicted upon the world, as well as himself and his brothers. As king of the Fae's, my job is to protect this realm. Many of my kind, have fought for the throne. I had been deposed, and imprisoned many millennia ago. I warned them, that we needed to be more proactive when it came to mankind. But I guess you can say that my fellow brethren didn't like that idea. Going to war with mankind, seemed too dangerous to them. So I was locked in a bottle, like a genie. I was treated like the most loathsome of all the Fae creatures."

"You want to go to war with mankind?' She cried. "Because your afraid of us? You act superior, yet you look down on genies! How can you judge the way man treats his brethren, when you do the same?"

"Believe me my dear." He replied. "No genie is a brother of mine. They are tricksters, who prefer to stay within the Earth's realm. They enjoy toying with other's, that's why they target man. Because man is much easier to deceive than Fae. And it could be argued that it was the genie that let man know of the existence of magic itself."

"And why is man not allowed to know of the existence of magic?" She asked. "Surely you are aware that some human beings suspect such things. I mean how do you explain witches, or warlocks?"

"Magic is one of the last's things that mankind has not conquered." He explained. "And once man conquers something he destroys it. When man has tampered with it, it either corrupts him, or he corrupts it. If you don't believe me, than look at creatures such as werewolves, and vampires. They are cursed beings who either themselves dabbled in, or were attacked by other humans who were cursed by powers that were forbidden to them."

"Well if humans are so terrible, then why would you even want me?" She asked in anger.

"I need to be able to bring our worlds together." He explained. "In order to do that, I need half human heirs. Our children will correct the mistakes that man has made, since he first learned to stand erect. Half Fae beings that can safely exist in your realm, they will be able to fix the mistakes that man has made. They shall bring about harmony to both realms."

"Wait!" She cried. "That's why you wanted me as your wife? You didn't want me, you wanted a human. You want to breed me, so you can use my children, so you can try and create your own Garden of Eden? Well forget it! It's bad enough, that you would chose me out of what you think is necessity. But you want us to conceive a bunch children, and not have love be a part of it. No! I won't do that! I never felt as though I was loved by my parents, I will not be responsible for creating children who will also feel as if their own parents never wanted them!"

The look within his eyes had softened, as he gently placed his hand upon her cheek.

"I can assure you that you mean a great deal to me." He told her. "If it didn't matter who my queen would be, then I would have chosen the first human that had ever been brought to me. But I didn't, because I wanted a woman that I could love."

"Love?" She asked. "How can you claim to love me? You don't even know me! All you saw was a picture of an infant girl! How then hell could you look at a picture of me, that was taken eighteen years ago, and say it was love? If anything, that shows me that you are sick and demented."

"You're thinking like a human." He whispered.

"You know why?" She exclaimed. "It's because I am one!"

"Very true." He replied with a caring smile. "But a very special one, a very beautiful one. Even though your outer features are more than esthetically appealing, it is your inner light, your inner beauty that had captivated my heart. I could look beyond a picture of an innocent child, and see the amazing woman she would one day be. Humans with an inner light, such as yours, are rare. Any fae man, who would gaze upon you, would immediately fall in love. It is not only why I fell in love with you, it is why the genie did as well. But he is trapped in the bottle, and I am the one who is here. So it is my queen for whom you shall be, not his."

"And if I refuse your—generous offer?" She asked.

"I will never hurt you." He told her. "That is what unconditional love means. I love you for who you truly are, not who I want you to be. However, that doesn't mean that you can take advantage of my heart. I may have no desire to cause you any harm, but that doesn't mean that I won't harm others. If I wanted to, I could just torture random humans for fun. Now you really don't want to be indirectly responsible for that, do you?"

She couldn't believe what he just said. Her body stiffened, as it began to shake in both fear and anger. "You wouldn't dare!" She cried through gritted teeth.

"Try me." He said as he folded his arms, with a wicked smirk upon his face.

Feeling defeated, she closed her eyes, as eve more tears fan down her cheeks. "What do I have to do?"

"No, no, my love." He whispered as he wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Shh...Please don't cry. Just as the genie tried to do, you must wish to mine forever. But before that."

He then scooped her up in his arms. Startled, she let out a loud gasp. "Where are you taking me?"

A triumphant smile soon appeared upon his face. "To my bed, my love. I want to show you a—hands on benefit, of being the chosen bride the dark fairy king.