The Kindness of Kings

by Chelsea Ballinger

  "I have decided to step down as your King and gladly welcome your new King, my son, Crown Prince Sedgwick!" Caius brought his arm around Sedgwick's shoulder as the crowd cheered. Louie smiled and applauded for his brother from behind.

  Behind, he thought. He was always behind his brother and he was tired of it.

  After the announcement, they exited the podium and entered the skyscraper where reporters surrounded them.

  "Your Majesty! Is there a reason why you have decided to step down now as King?!" a reporter asked Caius.

  "I decided that a change is needed. I have served this country for thirty-four years proudly and I feel my son is truly ready."

  "What about you, Prince Louie? Are you excited for your brother?" asked another reporter.

  "Yes. My brother is an amazing person and he will serve this country proud."

  The royal guards stood in front of the reporters as Caius and his sons moved on to the elevators.

  "King Caius!" The royal family and the media turned around to see a man in the center of the lobby with bloodshot eyes and baggy clothes that looked worn out. His skin was pale and his hair was black and short.

  "You think you’re a good King?!" the strange man questioned him.

  "Who is this nut?" Christina asked as she and Mina stared at the television.

  “You think you’re a good King?! You’re not a good King!” the man claimed, and Caius’ brow creased.

  “Get that idiot out of here,” he said to Jackson and the other guards.

  Signaled by the royal guards approaching him, the man pulled out the two things that would make everyone listen to him. Stuffing his hand in his pocket, he yanked out a hand grenade and with his other hand pulled out a gun from the front waistband of his pants.

  He fired a shot in the air and the crowd scattered, screaming for their lives at the sight of the hand grenade that was clenched in the man’s trembling hands. Louie grabbed Sedgwick by his jacket and squatted behind the front desk in the lobby.

  “You stay there! King Caius!” the man yelled at a retreating Caius who was being pulled by his guards to safety.

  The man shot at the glass statue of the S for Serenity, shattering it and sending glass all over the main floor and on Caius who was running beside it. Caius covered his head and Jackson took out his gun, pointing it at the crazed man along with four other guards beside him and in front of Caius.

  “Put the gun and the grenade down now!” Jackson ordered.

  “No! Not until our King listens!” the man yelled, holding his stance.

  A camera man from the same news channel that was airing on Mina’s television decided this was the story of a lifetime. He stood beside the front desk and continued recording, allowing not only Mina and Christina and Bartleby to watch it, but also millions of Serenians around the country.

  They watched as Caius stood behind his guards and said nothing while the man’s eyes widened at the realization at what he was doing. He was now an enemy of the country, but for him the true enemy was their own ruler.

  “Why… Why do you do this?” the man asked the King. “Why do you raise our taxes? Take away our health care? Charge us more so the rich can live better than they already do?”

  Caius stood still and said nothing.

  “What the fuck!” Bartleby snapped, pulling his hair, wishing he was there to help his friends. “Why doesn’t Caius say something? That guy’s gonna blow everyone if he doesn’t talk to him!”

  “Quiet!” Christina said, trying to listen while Mina sat in the middle of the floor, numb from what she was watching.

  Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie.

  “I’m calling my dad. He said he was going up there for the King’s announcement,” Christina dialed her father’s cell phone, but there was no answer.

  Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie.

  Bartleby’s face dropped. “Oh my God!”

  “What?”

  “My dad was driving their limo today. He’s there.” Bartleby’s head dropped in his hands.

  Christina placed her hand on his knee. “B, your dad is probably outside by the car. He will be okay. I’m sure of it.”

  Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie.

  “Right Mina? They’re all gonna be okay.” Christina wanted reassurance from her friend, for Bartleby, and for herself because her dad still wasn’t answering his phone.

  Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie.

  “Mina?” Christina watched her frozen friend whose eyes did not blink as she concentrated on the man on her TV screen. There was only one thing, one person, one answer on her mind.

  Louie.

  “Say something, damn it!” the man ordered Caius.

  Louie peeked his head over the desk and watched as his father stood with pride, his chest rising, his jaw clenching and said, “Serenity does not answer to terrorists.”

  Louie dropped his head against the desk, angry at his father’s ego. He glanced at his brother who was beside him, frozen and staring into space. Sedgwick was as numb as Mina, but his thoughts were different.

  What do I do?

  “What do we do, Sedgwick?” Louie asked his brother.

  Sedgwick raised his head and faced his brother. “I… I don’t know.”

  Louie understood his brother’s answer. He didn’t know what to do either, but something had to be done.

  He looked back at the guards who were communicating with the sharp shooters on top of the city buildings during the announcement. None of them had a clear shot and even if they did, the thumb that sat through the loop of the pin attached to the hand grenade was a risk neither of them was willing to take.

  “She was only eleven,” the man mumbled to himself. He repeated the same sentence over and over to himself as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of the hand that held the grenade.

  “Where the hell are the reinforcements, Jackson?” Caius asked his guard while still staring at the crazed man.

  “They are working on it, Your Majesty.”

  “There will be no reinforcements!” the man screamed.

  “What will there be then?” The man turned to the side to see a nervous Louie taking off his suit jacket and laying on the floor.

  “What are you doing?!” The man pointed his gun at Louie.

  “Your Highness, get back!” Jackson ordered.

  “Louie!” Wesley yelled from the desk. He and the other guards were so busy trying to figure out what to do that they did not notice the Prince approaching the gunman.

  Mina from home, quickly covered her mouth with her hands as the camera man zoomed in on Louie, with his arms stretched out, slowly walking to the man.

  “What the hell is Louie doing?” Christina asked as they all stared, scared for their friend.

  “Aw, no, no, no,” Bartleby said as he jumped off the couch and sat close to the TV next to Mina. “Don’t be a damn hero, Louie.”

  “Stop where you are!” the man demanded of Louie.

  He stopped and kept his arms outstretched, assuring him that he came in peace.

  “I just want to talk,” Louie spoke to him calmly.

  “I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “I know, but I want to talk to you. Listen, these guys in here. They’re not gonna listen. I’m going to be honest with you because everyone is just scared right now, so it’s a little hard to concentrate when you have a bomb in your hand, you know what I mean.”

  “Oh, but you’re going to listen to me?”

  “Let’s just say I am having an awful week and I say ‘what the hell, why not listen to the guy with a deadly weapon in his hands?’”

  “I don’t really want to hurt anyone. I just want someone to listen.”

  “I see that, so I’m listening. You said she was only eleven. Who was?”

  The man’s hands trembled some more as he gathered the courage to relive his worst day.

  “My daughter.”

  “Your daughter. What happened to your daughter?”


  “She…” he paused. “She died a week ago.”

  Louie’s heart wept for the man. “I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?”

  “The factory where we create the steel laid half of us off. They just dropped us. My insurance was through them, and I lost it. I worked for them for fifteen years and they just dropped me with a last paycheck and a good job. I lost my house and… I had to move me and my daughter to the low end. The buildings there are infected with mold, rats, roaches, everything that can make a home unbearable. We started getting sick from the mold and my daughter already had a bad heart. I tried to get a loan but I… didn’t fit the requirements. A new requirement bestowed by our King. We have to have under a two thousand dollar debt for loans. Was only off ten dollars and fifty six cents. I appealed and still was denied. I applied to every job in the capitol but they were already dropping people due to budget cuts because of business taxes. I did everything. I am a middle class, blue-collar worker and yet I still could not get help because your father only cares about himself and the rich bastards who kiss his ass while the people who supply him with income, people who serve him and your fucking family get nothing! My daughter had a stroke at eleven years old. I took her to the ER but I didn’t have any insurance so they couldn’t see us before the others. She died in the waiting room.”

  Serenity, along with Louie, heard the sorrow of the man who they had feared; a simple man who had nothing left to live for.

  “I’m sorry. I’m even more sorry that my apology means nothing compared to the loss you have suffered,” Louie told him sincerely.

  “At least you have the heart to admit it. But I’m tired,” the man said as he pointed the gun back at the royal guards who still stood in front of Caius. “I’m tired of him not acknowledging us. We matter. My daughter mattered. God did not build this world for us to serve him and get treated like shit! He has to be stopped. No matter what the consequences are. People are saying we might be going to war. I saw what the last war did to this country. We can’t go through that again.”

  “So you’re going to blow us up? And what about after? You will be remembered as the crazed man who killed a lobby full of innocent people. What do you think your daughter would say to that?” Louie paused and thought of something else. “What do you think your daughter is saying now?”

  “My daughter is dead!”

  “Yeah, but she is still with you. My friend…” Louie drifted off into thought as Mina realized what he was saying. “My friend, she told me that my mother still watches me. That her spirit is still with me, watching over me, guiding me through life. I called bullshit, but I’m starting to think she is right because my mother’s love and hope gave me the courage to do this, and trust me, man, this is not something I would normally do,” Louie laughed nervously. “What’s your name, anyway?”

  “Michael,” the man answered.

  “Michael,” Louie repeated and nodded. “What was your daughter’s name?”

  Tears streamed down Michael’s face as he thought of his daughter.

  “Mina.”

  Louie’s face faltered at the name of the eleven-year-old girl who was the inspiration for Michael’s defiant act.

  The same went for Christina and Bartleby who stared at Mina in disbelief at the irony .

  Louie stepped closer to Michael.

  “Stay back,” Michael warned.

  “No.”

  Louie kept walking towards him until four red dots appeared on Michael’s chest.

  “Holy shit!” Bartleby’s eyes widened. “You guys see that?! The sharp shooters have a clear shot.”

  “But if they take it, he could easily trigger the grenade,” Christina said.

  Michael stared down at his chest, his eyes glaring at the red dots that danced on him as the sharp shooters tried to hold steady to their weapons, gearing to take the shot.

  Michael looked at Louie. “You see? Power shows no mercy, not even for the weak.”

  Louie watched as Michael clenched his jaw, ready for his defeat. Louie realized Michael was not going to pull the pin from the grenade. He was going to stand there and let the world watch as the royal guards shot him, ending his pain and allowing the world to see the truth that hope was lost.

  Louie did not think, he just knew that he could not let him do that. He could not let him a man who mattered die for nothing. Louie walked closer as the guards yelled his name. Louie walked in front of the man; the red dots were on his back. Everyone’s mouths dropped at Prince Louie’s selfless act. Him, a royal descendant of the greatest people in Serenity, stood in front of the fire for a common man gone crazy.

  Michael’s eyes widened at Louie’s conviction, which seemed to be silently telling him, “no, I will not let you do this.”

  “Oh my God,” is what everyone who watched from their televisions whispered as they saw their Prince do what their King should have.

  “Tell me something else about Mina,” Louie urged softly.

  “The man’s lips trembled thinking about his daughter but also at the warmth that crept inside of him from the Prince’s kindness and courage.

  “She loved to pray,” Michael spoke quietly.

  “Okay,” Louie nodded. “Let’s pray then.”

  Louie glanced at his shoulder and slowly lifted his hand, placing it on him. He took his other hand and grabbed the arm that was pointed with the gun at the royal guards. Slowly, with Louie’s guidance, the man let down his arm and together both men lowered themselves to their knees. Louie, surprising himself, remembered the infamous Lord’s Prayer.

  “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Louie spoke and it was not long before Michael followed. “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…” Michael, along with the rest of Serenity watched the Prince with his eyes closed, pray, and in their eyes it was one of the most beautiful and magnificent acts ever in the history of a kingdom. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

  The world stilled, and as Louie’s eyes opened to see the life that was brought back into the saddened Michael, his revelation was revealed. Louie never thought much when it came to God and his life, but in that moment, he felt it. The knowing of something more.

  Michael nodded and smiled faintly at his Prince. He put the gun and the grenade gently beside Louie, then, shockingly, he bowed to Louie. Louie could not believe it and neither could Caius who saw his greatest fear return, through the surrender of Michael to Louie.

  The guards raced towards Michael and Louie once it was clear. They grabbed Michael, pushing him down to the ground, pressing his face against the cold floor, bending his arms behind his back, but Michael was not fazed by it. He just kept smiling to himself.

  “Take it easy!” Louie said as Wesley helped him up, pulling him back. “I said take it easy!”

  The guards handcuffed Michael and stood him up. Louie watched the smiling Michael.

  “They will execute me… but at least I die knowing this country has hope.”

  Three of the guards took Michael away as Louie stood there with Michael’s words that were left with him. Everyone’s fears disappeared, replaced by the curiosity of what they had just witnessed.

  “Are you alright Your Majesty?” Bryan asked Caius, who was glaring at his son.

  “I want that man executed immediately,” he demanded.

  Sedgwick watched his brother in awe and jealousy for he had reversed every rule and ethic that was taught to the people of the world. His little brother had led them to safety through kindness.

  “What the hell just happened?” Bartleby asked, smiling at his friend on the screen.

  Mina laughed to herself with tears in her eyes.

  “He just changed everything,” she said, reveling in the love that had filled her heart and soul because of what she had just witnessed. She sat back and quietly repeated the name that had raced through
her head while she had feared for his life. “Louie.”

  +

  “Bishop!” Connor barged through his mentor’s home and found him in the living room where he was sitting on his couch, staring at the television that still had Louie on screen as the reporters bombarded him with questions. Louie said nothing. He wanted nothing. He was okay with just doing the right thing.

  “Did you see? Did you see what the Prince did?” Connor brushed his blonde hair back, wiping the sweat off. He had raced to the Bishop’s home, wanting to ask what it all meant.

  “Yes,” the Bishop graciously smiled. “I did.”

  “This has to mean something? Right?”

  The Bishop looked at Connor. “Yes, my young friend…” He looked back at the television. “It means everything.”

  Chapter 23

  Strange Behavior

  Anchorman 1: “Footage from the crazed gunman and suicide bomber, Michael Tabbith, is still going viral.”

  Anchorwoman: “That’s right Jack, and it’s not just Serenians watching, it is the whole world watching the amazing and selfless Prince Louie, no less!”

  Anchorman: “And you can be sure Serenians had a lot to say about this, Joan.”

  Serenian 1: “I was watching from work when it happened. I have no words. It was unbelievable. You hear all these things about Prince Louie and then he does that?! I think the guy’s awesome!”

  Serenian 2: “He is so hot. And the fact that he did that for that crazy guy just made him hotter.”

  Serenian 3: “I have lived in this country for sixy-two years and out of those sixty-two years I have never seen anything as amazing as what I saw when Prince Louie helped that man. That man wasn’t crazy, he was just hurt and tired of the truth being put on the back burner to make the royal family look good.”

  Anchorwoman: “Host of the Daily World News, Frost Goodman and co-host Martha Harmon also had a lot to say about the event during a taping of their heated political debate series.”

  Frost: “I mean, I still can’t believe it. Prince Louie saved the day! And where was the King in all this? He just stood there, and when he finally spoke, he said what we expected from any leader, because when you threaten the King, you threaten the country, and you are automatically labeled a terrorist. But Prince Louie completely changed that code of ethics with his actions four days ago.”