Startle Her
From Lord Of Utterdom
You reach out and grab hold of her shoulders, yelling "BOO!" as you take tight hold of her, thinking the joke already quite funny.
Unfortunately, the startled maid swings around with the vase, screaming in fright, and smashes it against your temple. It shatters into hundreds of fragments, some of them digging into your flesh, cutting deep. The impact sends you sprawling to the floor, where you head connects with the stonework. You blink twice as the blinding pain in your skull begins to swell to a sweeping crescendo, then you simply black out.
You awaken months later, head swabbed in bandages, wrapped up in blankets and lying in bed. You are tended by a local surgeon, who smiles down at you politley. "He is awake," he says.
You find it troubling to speak, to move your limbs, and your bones ache as you try to climb out of bed. You spend years relearning the simplest of processes, and you never regain full strength or mentality.
The crown passes later to your eldest sister, and you live your days out amongst the castle walls as mostly an invalid, still dreaming of fame and glory.
You die an old and bitter man, alone and depressed as the spring shines through your window. You never even learned what happened to the servant who struck you.
THE END.
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