Hazel's Boiler Room

Originally Posted by Hazel

I try to forget, yet SHE is constantly reminding me... *sigh*

1- A Kinship with the Queen
I am standing in front of a cemetery, talking to the Queen. Some of the graves are walking around, talking to the other graves. One of them looks like a small, long-necked dinosaur. The Queen warns me not to get too close, because some of the graves aren't yet resigned to their fate and may be aggressive.

Next to us is an enormous shelf filled with countless cards. On each card is a name. The Queen explains that this is an index of everyone in the entire kingdom. She says she must draw six cards for execution. "Wait a minute," I say, "how many people did you execute last time?"

"Six," she replies. "And six before that, too." ((I didn't realize the number reference until I woke up.))

"So you're just executing six RANDOM people for your own pleasure!?"

"Yeah... That's how we choose people for jury duty, too."

A bit later, I come back to find that the card system is gone. She... got rid of it because of me?

*lapse in memory*

I return to the kingdom a while later, confused about how long I've been gone. Also, this seems to be a computer game... I get a picture from my friend Goldenwolf of a purple T-Rex. It's cute, but definitely not up to par with her real talent. We meet up and explore the world together. To start with, we're on a beach, and I find some cool looking coins in the sand. One of them has a unicorn on it, which is Goldy's familiar in the game. She says that her unicorn was the one who minted this coin.

After coming out of a toy store, I tell her that I have to pay a visit to the castle. "Okay," she says, "see you later."

At the castle, the Queen is waiting to greet me. "Sarah!" she exclaims in delight, hugging me.

"Um, I wanted to thank you," I say to her, a bit awkwardly.

"Thank me?"

"For getting rid of the card system."

"Oh, that... Well, I didn't want you to be unhappy." She leads me into a back room, instructing me to stand on a ledge in front of a curtain. She warns me not to step backwards, because the *unremembered word* is behind the curtain. I'd had a bad encounter with this stuff earlier and don't want a repeat experience, so I watch my footing.

The Queen pulls back the curtain, revealing a tub filled with tar-like swirling liquid. An evil voice is coming from it, from the very depths of Hell, telling of events yet to come. After a while, the Queen closes the curtain. Her body has now swollen up like a balloon, a temporary effect of the *unremembered word*. She can't even stand!

My fingers are suffering the same abnormality, but this seems to be my only side effect. I know for a fact she bathes in this stuff, much to my disapproval, so I assume this is why she is in much worse condition than I am.

She asks me if I'll help her move a refrigerator, and I say that I will. I walk out of the room. When she comes out, she is once again her slender self. "We have to wait for my fingers," I say, watching as they slowly shrink back to normal size.

"Why did you gaze into the *unremembered word* with me?" She asks abruptly.

"Because you told me to," at her almost sad look, I add, "...and because I wanted to see what would happen."

She smiles at me, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "You know, you could be Queen if you wanted to." At these words, my real life comes to me in a rush. My name... the Queen... Leroy... regicide... Could I really take her place?

"I don't know if I could," I answer, thinking of how stressed she looks. Still, the idea is intriguing.

"The last person who was in your position had his head permanently shrunken three times smaller than it's normal size. Only your fingers were affected, and they're better now. You're a natural."

Paranoid, I feel my head. "Oh God, it feels smaller!" <<partially joking, partially being a hypochondriac

The Queen glances down and mumbles quietly, "There is no God here..."

I want to say something, but I cannot think of a good response to that.