Page 52 of Monster's Obsession

“Oh, look,” I said, then felt stupid for saying that to a blind person. “They’re selling the chocolate plants I love, and I could eat some now. Maybe we can buy a plant and I can just munch on the leaves?”

“Anything you want, I’ll make it happen,” Ash said smiling, and my insides tightened at the reminder of how much he brightened my life.

Before I knew it, he’d bought all the plants in the stall and had the merchant pluck the leaves and place them in a small bag for me. I blushed because I had no idea if they knew I was about to eat their precious plants. While they did this, I glanced around at an oversized fountain in the middle of the town square, with yellow water flowing. I didn’t want to know what that was or touch it for that matter. But I was captivated by the beautiful statue of the woman with two heads holding onto a serpent, water flowing from its gaping mouth.

There were so many things in this world that were polar opposites, and yet they worked perfectly. Like whoever this woman had been, she either slayed snake monsters or was a maid killed by one to be forever remembered in statue form.

Kids were running around the water, splashing each other, but something else grabbed my attention from the fountain. There was a red crown painted on the stone base of the fountain, just like the one I’d seen in the cavern of the Red Battle, and I was convinced I’d seen it elsewhere too.

At first, I assumed it was the creator’s mark, but I wasn’t too sure. It made more sense that it was a stamp of approval, perhaps from the Red Queen back in her day of reign. I found it interesting she’d placed her stamp of approval on items around the city.

Once Ash returned, we continued our tour through the markets. And by the time we got back to the castle, I was eating the leaves like a bag of chips.

Their chocolate taste left me salivating, and there was no way I could stop until I finished the whole bag. Ash had to leave for an errand for Creed, and seeing as I was alone, I found myself staring out the window, eating my leaves, thinking about the crown image I’d seen around. It made me wonder if the other place I saw it had been at the museum where they had the queen’s head on display?

Stuffing my mouth with more leaves, I finally left them behind in my room and made my way to the museum, curiosity getting the better of me. Sitting around only had me overthinking where Steele was, how Seven kept his distance, and even Tempest’s strange behavior lately.

By some small miracle, the elevator didn’t try to kill me today–I only went three wrong places before making it to my intended destination. I made my way down the corridor where the mud-like walls were decorated with bones. Torches burned in wall brackets on my path, leading me to the familiar arched doorway made of entwined branches.

I knocked, but when no one answered, I pushed it open, greeted by the morbid display of severed heads encased in glass suspended from the ceiling by chains. Even if I had been there before, it still left me shuddering to have these dead eyes seeming to follow you around the room.

Once inside, I instantly spotted Boltaroy, the guardian of all the deceased as he’d once told me, a monster who wore black pressed suits with a white button-up shirt underneath. Currently, he had his nose inside a huge leather-bound book.

He stood lanky, skin whitish blue as though he was the one who was dead, and greasy black hair slicked off his face.

“Hello, Boltaroy,” I said loud enough to grab his attention.

His head jerked up from this book, eyes wide. “Got an appointment?”

“I wanted to have a look around, if that’s okay? You don’t appear too busy and I won’t be long.”

He huffed with exasperation, his nostrils flaring. “Fine, but be quick. This isn’t a place to pass time.”

I wanted to laugh because technically it was. But without another word, I made my way around the clinical white room, quickly finding the Red Queen.

A beautiful woman with reddish skin, turquoise colored eyes, and thorns sticking out of her neck as though she wore them as a necklace. Except those things came out from her skin. Even her small silvery horns right over her temple added to her beauty, but her position of queen was exemplified by her jewel encrusted crown.

I circled her head, searching for anything showing the crown symbol perhaps on her crown, curious why it was so randomly placed around the city. More than likely, it meant nothing, but I also needed something to distract my thoughts.

When I came up blank on the symbol, I made my way around the room, seeing if I could find it again.

“What are you searching for?” Boltaroy asked, strolling toward me, his thick book tucked under his arm.

“I’m just looking,” I answered generally.

“I recognize an inquisitive expression when I see it.”

Considering he was now lingering alongside me, poking his nose at what I was doing, I figured there was no harm in asking him.

“I’ve been seeing around the city a red painted crown in the oddest of places,” I explained.

“And you guessed it had something to do with the queen, so you came to find any evidence of it here?”

I eyed Boltaroy. Was he capable of reading minds? “So, you know what they mean?”

“Speculation only. You see, I’ve only seen it turn up right before the death of our queen. And nobody knows what it means. But the theory going around is that they are good luck charms and will bring prosperity to those near them.”

I stared at him, unsure I believed him considering moments earlier he’d told me he had no idea.

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