“No,” she laughed, entirely dry and humorless, “not the blood that runs in your veins, but rather the amount of it you spill. Sometimes there is just no room for mercy.”

Sure the Queen was beautiful and honorably skinny, but everyone knew why: she trained and trained. Every morning and every night. Her nails were constantly lined with blood, and why shouldn’t they be?

In this world, one can only fight tooth and nail to get on top. For her, that quite literally meant “tooth and nail,” for some of her nails were beginning to regrow from the base of the nail. What was left before the growth was a dark and ugly mix of torn flesh.

She smiled at her subjects again. Some were on the floor in front of her, quivering while they attempted to bow in a puddle of dark liquid. The others weren’t so fortunate.

Her body relaxed impossibly into the hard wooden thrown she sat in. The queen looked at her nails and frowned. She rolled her eyes as she found that another nail had been torn off in her latest “shindig.”

“Look what your friends did to me.” She spat, not bothering to show her subjects her injured finger.

“All in an attempt to dethrone me? I must say, your little band of merry men almost did it. My heart skipped half a beat when I saw you storm into the room. No matter. It’s time to dispose of the treasonous rats.” She flicked her hands at the men. There were 8 total. 5 were already laying unmoving on the floor and the other 3 were staring hard at the ground.

One pissed his pants. The queen smiled delightedly at him.

“Save him for last. I have a few questions…” she trailed off and gave her hunch man a slight nod. The loyal man nodded back. He knew where she stalked off to. She wanted to be alone in her chambers to wash the remnants of her work off her body. Later in the day, the lone survivor would join her for a long death. Where she would treat him to the best food he’d ever eaten and divulge him in polite conversation. Only when he’d be fast asleep — with the help of sleeping drug — would she end his life.

This was her joy.