Prologue

                                    

                                          

Cruelty is one of the greatest of weaknesses.       
     That was the one thing I learned from my aunt that I will always remember. 
     She told me that people were cruel because they lacked the ability to show compassion. They do not know how to love and thus they cannot show it.
     It's easy to be cruel. As easy as eating cake, she would say.
     But being compassionate took work. And a lot of it. Worst of all, it meant bearing the risk of heartbreak and failure and sadness. It was hard to be compassionate.
     However, in her opinion, the ability to show compassion is one of the greatest of strengths.
     She was the one who taught me to always be nice. To try and see things from the perspective of others and to never hurt people senselessly. 
     I am one hundred percent certain that it was this belief system of hers that led her to study the Last Pharaoh of Egypt, Pharaoh Akhenatem. 
     After getting her PhD in Egyptology and Archeology, she knew exactly what she was going to do. She flew out to Egypt in search for the empty tomb of Akhenatem.
     The evil Pharaoh who disappeared, so the story goes.
     What my aunty believed was that his own followers murdered him because he was so cruel and his people couldn't take it anymore.
     Then Egypt fell because there was no one to take his place.
     I knew now that my aunty was wrong.
     Akhenatem was not murdered.
     His cruel ways got him cursed.
     And for some strange, strange, strange reason, he found his way to me.
     The world works in mysterious ways.
     But as I looked at him over my book, watching him play on the floor with my precious Neferkitti, it blew my mind to think that this man was once cruel.
     There was a look on his face that somehow made him look... kinda sad. And maybe even pitiful?
     Oh god would he freak if he heard me call him pitiful out loud.
     But it made me wonder...
     What if he wasn't cruel per say?
     What if he was just... confused?
     The Beauty and the Beast was my absolute favourite fairytale... and maybe Akhenatem was just like the Beast. Misguided, confused, lonely and in need of someone to put him on the right path.
     But then again, if he's the beast...
     Then that would make me Belle.
     And there was no way that I was Belle. Nope. 
     No way.



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