The Villian

As my story came to a close, I realized that I was the villain all along. I looked down at the wound in my side, and watched as the blood spread like a blooming flower. Tears slid down my cheeks, there was so much pain. As the world began to turn black, I remembered what I did to deserve this.
I guess my coronation was the beginning. It was the first day I had ever held real power, and I had intended to use it against the things that had wronged me in this world. Thieves had taken my family’s fortune, and an angry drunk took my father’s life. Becoming queen was my way of getting back at them, of earning a life worth living. I hadn’t thought about the consequences of that power and all my anger against the world.
As queen, I ruled with an iron fist. I believed my punishments were fairly dealt, though many of my subjects said I was cruel. Looking back now, maybe I was too harsh on my people. Criminals were lucky if they received a flogging, many of them were sentenced to death, and entire villages had been severely punished for crimes against the kingdom. As a child I had seen what these criminals did to people. With how much pain these people caused, and I found it just that they experience that pain for themselves.
Not long afterwards, I became pregnant. I gave birth to a beautiful little girl, the same girl who stood over me now, holding the knife that wounded me. When I first held her, I had sworn to protect her from this world, and all of it’s evil. I had failed to see the darkness in me, and the fault in my thinking. Growing up, I had limited her journey’s to the castle walls. I had imprisoned her within my castle, because I was scared to let her go. Eventually, she escaped and I became terrified for her well-being. I had my knights search the entire kingdom for her, and put out a reward for her return. However, she still evaded my grasp. I couldn’t fathom why she had left me. Didn’t she know how much I loved her? Now I see how I wronged her, how I wronged my kingdom. Maybe I did deserve this after all.
I looked at her face now, pained yet victorious. She was free now, free from me. With the last of my breath, I had one thing left I needed to say. Her eyes met mine, and I could see how relieved she was. “I’m sorry.” It came out a whisper, and as I cried for my daughter, realizing the horror of what I had done, the pain became to great, and the world went black.