The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Jester
by Kathleen McCluskey

The jester sat in his humble room and looked around. His grandmother’s urn sat on his small desk mocking him. He looked at it and sighed, he thought about how she would always tell him, “Don’t ever underestimate the power that your family legacy holds. We are the keepers of secrets. We are the keepers of all things deadly.” He smiled as he remembered her getting revenge on the man that had smacked him when he was a boy. She went into their small hut and began her incantations. He watched with his eye swelling as the man began to cough, the cough up blood. Watching as the color ran out of his face and blood poured out of his eyes and nose, he smiled. Vengeance always made him smile.

Now he sat, in his cold desolate room and thought about the king. The king had a nasty habit of making him do the most obscene things. He shook his head as he remembered the monarch making him drink one of the knight’s piss. All because he laughed at the knight for having spilled wine on his shirt, “drink, fool. Drink!” the king cackled at him. A large tear rolled down his cheek as he recalled the humiliation and the sickness that followed. He knew that he would never have the nerve to tell the king that he was being cruel. To do that would drop the wrath of the king onto his head. He was only a jester after all.

He stretched out onto his bed, turned his head and looked at the urn again. Closing his eyes he began to think about the things she taught him. Tossing the blankets off, he went to the cabinet. There sitting on the shelf were the flowers that she had given him on her death bed. He smiled a crooked, evil smile and lifted the container off the shelf. He knew what he was going to do. He would make the king drink, he would make him drink the tainted tea. The jester would watch as the king and some of his court writhed in pain on the floor as death would come to take them. And the jester smiled. Vengeance always made him smile.

Fiction © Copyright Kathleen McCluskey
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Kathleen McCluskey:

The Long Fall: Book 1: The Inception of Horror

Lucifer always cunning and intelligent challenges father to a battle of wits. Being the angel of light he casts a judgemental eye upon mankind. He begins a war with his fellow archangels and God. Michael, along with his siblings defend their home and mankind from their deranged brother. Broad swords and hand to hand combat drench heaven in blood. The four apocalyptic steeds are released, each having their own destructive power. Betrayal and lust are at biblical levels. Understand the very creation of evil and the consequenses that transpire in the first of THE LONG FALL series.

Available on Amazon!