Fear Of Knowing
“The sound of hurried footsteps echoed throughout the palace. The king and a select number of his guards race through the halls with worry and unease. Why are they worried? Maybe they’re under attack, maybe there’s an intruder, maybe the queen stubbed her toe and they need ointment to soothe the pain fast. No, their worry comes from something much more… fun. And as the doors to the king’s throne room swung wide open, all their momentum stopped. They look and see the room a bloody red mess with limbs of men, women, and children lying around everywhere. At the far end of the room, sitting sideways in the king’s chair is the king’s court jester. That’s me!” The jester narrates loudly to himself before turning to meet the king’s gaze, “Hello Your Majesty, glad you could finally join me.”
The jester rolls off of the king’s throne and walks to the center of the room in his usual goofy manner. The room that was once a brilliant blue color had been drenched in dark red liquid. The room that the king felt the most at peace, and was always the safest, had been tainted and ruined. The king’s guards continue to look around in shock at the inhumanity of that jester’s work. The king however keeps his eyes on the jester, who despite clearly being the one who committed all the heinous acts, doesn’t have a single red spot on him. As usual, the jester is dressed in his white and blue outfit with bright yellow gloves and shoes, without a single drop of blood on him. He only sways about in the center of the room, humming a tune to himself.
“Is there something wrong, Your Majesty?” The jester now stands still, awaiting a response from the king.
Something about the way the jester stood, something about the way the jester asked, something about the way the jester looked filled the king with immense fear. Even though the jester was caught red, or yellow-handed, and even though there was nowhere for him to run, and his fate is as good as decided, he stands with an air of confidence.
“Guards! Surround the jester!” The king calls out.
Snapping out of their trance, the guards rush forward and circle the jester, pointing their swords at his neck. However, even this was not enough to sway the jester’s attitude so much as lightly. Even with a ring of blades pointed to his neck, he stood there almost like he was waiting for something. It almost feels like there’s a final clue that no one has figured out yet and the jester is waiting for someone to solve it. He had a plan; the king knew that the smiling jester had some sort of plan for all of this, but the king could not figure out what it was. And that’s when the realization hits.
Despite his better judgment, he let his eyes wander around the bloody throne room once again, taking in the horrific vandalism that had taken place moments before they arrived. He looked at all the bodies that lay scattered around the room. He felt sorrow for them, as well as pity. Eventually, his gaze landed on one of the disembodied heads, a woman’s head. His eyes widened in shock; he couldn’t believe what he was looking at. His body began to tremble, and his voice became shaky.
Until this day, the king had all but forgotten this woman as he had lost her so long ago. The memories of when they first met flood his mind. How it was an instant connection, love at first sight. And about how she was taken from him so early on and was never heard from again. He tried to fight every fiber in his being to not utter her name, but it was all for naught as the name “Isabelle” came out of his mouth.
“Oh?” The jester questioned, “Does His Majesty remember who she was? She was quite the lovely lady she was. It was most enjoyable hearing her scream for mercy.”
It took little effort from the jester to rile up the king. “What did you do to her you monster!?” The king stared daggers at the jester, whose composer remained unchanged.
“Now now, Your Majesty. I wouldn’t get so worked up about some broad. After all…” The jester’s voice became much more serious as he then said, “…what would Her Highness think about all this? About all of them?”
The king is once again taken aback by the jester’s words. Then the word “them” rang in his head. The king’s head jerked back to the sight of the woman named Isabelle. Upon a closer look, he could recognize a few more bodies. Two of that of small children and that of a man. The king couldn’t quite make out the bodies, but they seemed oddly familiar. Then everything clicked.
“That’s right Your Majesty.” The jester said in response to the king’s realization. “You know exactly who those people are. I mean…you did kill them all.”
The king drops to his knees, the blood that covered the floor soaking up into his robes, staining them. Some of the guards look around confused, as others seem to fidget around.
“If I may, a story I shall tell,” the jester begins to speak again, “a tale long since forgotten. This story begins with a kind soul, a loving family, and a foolish man who ruined it all. Once upon a time, there was a perfect family, a man, a woman, and two lovely children. They had their happy times and their sad times, but their times were always together. One day came around a foolish man who fell for the woman, and this foolish man believed she too loved him instantly. This foolish man had a family, just like the woman, the foolish man knew of these facts but decided true love triumphed over all. The foolish man tried to talk to the woman, who naturally did not feel the same way. If the foolish man was not foolish, he would have come to his senses and given up immediately. Oh, but this man was the most foolish of them all and came to the only logical conclusion: she wants to be with him but is too pure to break up her family. So, the foolish man did only what a truly foolish man could do. With his great power, he had the woman’s husband arrested and the children were taken in under false accusations. After feeling like he successfully destroyed all the roadblocks in their way, he returned to the woman triumphantly. He found the woman with tears running down her face, tears of joy he assumed. He went to her and told her of his deeds, to which the logical woman yelled and screamed out of…anger and frustration!? Whaaaa!? In a state of shock and confusion, the foolish man ran back home and too had the woman arrested, same as her family. The family was once again reunited with each other, in the security of prison cells. The foolish man returned to his peaceful life without anyone knowing of what transpired, and anyone who questioned the foolish man met the same fate…IF they were lucky enough. The end.” The jester finishes his story with a light head bow.
The guards that knew began to sweat bullets and those that didn’t look around in horror. The king stayed where he fell, now with his hands also on the floor, allowing the red to coat his hands and crawl up his sleeves.
The jester then turns his attention to the guards around him, “What about the rest of you? See anything out there you like?”
Seemingly on cue, one of the guards drops his sword as tears stream down his face. “How… how did you know?” The guard says as he stares at another pile of limbs.
One by one, the guards lose their will as they see things in the room they truly wish they didn’t. It seems as though every single one of them had something they wanted to keep hidden, and it seems like every single one of them had their secrets exposed. The king especially continues to find faces he never wanted to see again. People he had exiled because he either found them to be annoying, because he might have been rejected by the woman, or simply because he wanted to watch certain people struggle for entertainment. No matter where he looked, at the dark red painted walls, he could see his past sins coming back. New or old, everything he tried to cover up and keep hidden, has all resurfaced here.
The throne room is filled with the sounds of screaming and crying from the guards. The guards have all in some way thrown themselves to the floor, covering themselves in the dark red blood. The king eventually manages to turn his gaze back to the jester with eyes that have become soulless. The king stares at the jester with a lifeless expression, who stares back at the king with a jolly smile. The jester starts to walk toward the king, with the normal pep in his step that he always did. The king notices that despite walking on the pools of blood, not even the bottom of the jester’s shoes had any red on them.
The jester stops once he is beside the king and says, “Welp! This has been fun. Thanks a bunch for playing with me, Your Majesty. Though I would have liked a more challenging match. This one was just tooooo easy you know?” The jester’s words hit the king with great force, but nothing prepared him for what the jester said next. “I mean, I didn’t even have to use anything from before you changed your name and became the king. Isn’t that right…?”
The final word that came out of the jester’s mouth, the name, was one the king had removed from his memory entirely. The word didn’t even register in his mind, but he knew it all too well. The king felt his entire body shake as he hears his old name. As the king looked up to see the jester, all that was there was the same normal happy expression. Though the king couldn’t help but feel something much more… sinister behind the jester’s smile. Finally, the king falls into the red pool, and his clothes have become fully stained in red.
With a wave of his hand, the jester leaves the defeated king and his howling knights. “The cheery jester bids bye-bye to his old friend, His Majesty, and treks on once again. Away from the red-stained room filled with red-stained men and their red-stained king. With each big step, the jester, still purely dressed in blue and white, goes and goes, wondering about what great fun he will have next. Wondering about what fun people he will meet and what fun games they shall play.”u
