Chapter 11: Guilty Pleasures

Exhausted from his morning ride, Prince Leo jumped off his horse and rested beneath a shady tree, on soft earth. He closed his eyes and day-dreamed about a worry-less life of all you can eat meat buffets and endless supplies of razors (he hated the 5 o clock shadow). A wolf's howl echoed through the grey forest, Leo instantly sat upright. He kept very still, listening for the fainted sound of movement. Nothing, he sighed, relieved. Leo traced the marks on his forearm where a hungry wolf had bit and tried to kill him years before. It was a mark of the warrior inside of him, a symbol of his strength and luck. But nevertheless, it was still a scar, and that meant he was tainted forever.

His horse stared through the trees with its big, black eyes and started walking past him

"Caspian, Stop!" He ordered.

The horse ignored him and kept walking. Leo tugged Caspian's rein, but the strong stallion broke free and made it ways faster through the thick trunks and deeper into the dark forest. Leo ran after the stubborn Caspian, who was now galloping past the trees at full speed, jumping over knocked down trunks and splashing through muddy brooks. Suddenly, Caspian abruptly stopped, letting his owner catch up and whip the horse on its back before noticing the dead girl in the middle of the glade.

Leo rushed over to her side, her skin was so pale, almost translucent, and her body lay limp. He touched her face, ice cold. It sent shivers up and down his spine. He could see the blue and green veins through her eyelids, he lifted them up to check her eyes. Pale, dead blue, like a blind man. Her lips, Leo couldn't take his eyes away from them. They were full of colour, bursting with red on her pale face, like a drop of red paint on a blank canvas, he felt drawn to them. He ran his finger over her lip, it was soft.. Velvety.. Perfect.

The prince looked around, no one in sight. He looked at the dead girl... she looked very pretty just... lying there. He looked at Caspian, who had led him there for some reason. A horse could never tell...

Leo looked over the corpse, his hands fumbling at his knees. He looked around once more to make sure no one was watching, he then slipped a sleeve of her dress off her shoulder and traced his finger along her collarbone.

Very pretty indeed..

He stroked the side of her face, and licked his lips at the sight of her full, red ones. They looked like plump cherries, ripe and full of juice... Leo wanted to savour his desire, he knew what he was about to do would be very wrong, it would be sick. He could easily go home and bring one of his pretty maids to his room... But there was something about this dead girl. Out of everything in the universe, he only wanted her.

One kiss.

He leaned forward, hesitated for a second,

If I am going to do this crazy thing, I might as well make the most of it.

He carefully arranged her limp arms around his neck, placed one of his hands on her waist, and used the other to lift her chin up. He placed his lips on her, softly.

Mmmm. Surprisingly warm for a dead person.

Oh fuck. A DEAD PERSON.

Leo jerked his head away, the corpse's arms fell back onto the ground.

"What the hell was I thinking?!" Leo shouted,

spitting on the ground and wiping his mouth on his sleeve over and over again. He looked back at the dead girl, half expecting her spirit to come attack him.

"I'd be ruined if anyone knew about this," He muttered, climbing onto Caspian.

"Knew about what?" The dead girl asked,

"Knew that I just kissed a dead girl!" He told her, resting his head in his hands.

Wait a minute.

"Youre alive?!" He screamed,

The girl looked around, her skin was no longer pale, her eyes were no longer dead. Instead, she looked as if she were draped with morning dew. she was blooming with life, and her eyes were sparking but confused.

"Yeah? Otherwise I wuldn't be talking, right?" She said, laughing at her own joke, "And ew, you kissed a dead girl!"

"I kissed you! And you were dead! Oh God, please don't tell anyone, I'll be ruined"

"I was not dead! I was s- wait, where's Genie?"

Leo looked at the girl, she didn't know what happened. He sat on the grass beside her,

"I'm Leo," He smiled,

"I'm Stephanie" She replied, happily revealing her own pearly whites.