Greed
Once there was a greedy rich king who loved nothing more in the world than his precious diamonds. His castle on the north end of the town was filled with diamonds, emeralds, and anything else he could get his hands on. If anyone on the land he ruled had diamonds or rubies he would send his knights to go retrieve anything thing they could find. They would do sweeps of the land, raiding houses and destroying the privacy of the townspeople.
One day a man came into the land by the name of Claudius, He wanted to build a house there. He came to the castle asking to have some land for his new home. He was fairly rich and that’s all the king needed to hear. The king granted him the land needed to build his new home and even sent some men to help him with anything he needed. The man said his thanks and left.

About one month later Claudius finished his home thanks to all the men the king had sent with him. After moving all his stuff into his home he was finally a part of the town. Claudius didn’t have a family and no one really knew who he was or where he came from. He was around his forties, fairly tall man with thick black hair that fell to his shoulders with stubble upon his face like he hasn’t shaved in a week. The king waited for him to get settled in before he sent his knights to raid his new home.
On a warm bright night when the moon was at its fullest the king had sent his men go retrieve anything from his home that he would find pleasing. The knights broke through his front door and began to search every part of his house with no words spoken. Claudius awoke from his sleep in a fury. He began to shout and yell at the men in black armor. Two men held him down while the rest kept searching. They made it to his room where they found a gold and white box on top of his night stand, the box looked very old but still in perfect condition. The whole box was made from gold with the lid shiny white as it where made from polished bone. On the top it had a last name engraved in fancy letters. It was the Claudius’s family treasures which were passed down to the oldest son. Claudius asked them to stop very calmly, and telling them they were making a big mistake. The men laughed and proceeded to take the box. They found nothing else and left his house. This will be the biggest mistake the king had ever made.
Little did the king know of Claudius’s background. The land where this man once lived was a very corrupt town and had a crazy king. Claudius worked for this king. He was the king’s assassin, anyone the king didn’t like he would order him to take care of it with no evidence or traces. No questions were asked. He was very good at his job and made very good money.
When the corrupt king asked Claudius to assassinate his own brother, he refused. The king said either he kills his brother or someone else will do the job. Claudius said he would do it and went on his way. His brother Spencer, had got into some trouble and got mixed in with the wrong people. Claudius went to his brother’s house where he saw him sitting with his little son through the window. He had waited for Spencer’s son to go to bed before he would make his move.
Around eleven at night it was time to strike. Claudius made it to the back door where he proceeded to go in. He was standing behind his brother and he could not find the strength to kill him. Instead he spoke to his brother telling him to leave the city with his family tonight, or he would be forced to kill him by king’s orders. His brother fled the town with his son and wife only taking what they could carry.
Claudius could not face the king without proof he had killed Spencer. Claudius fled with only a horse and his most valuable items in the middle of the night, he rode until his horse could go no farther. That’s when he came upon this town and changed his name to Percy which was his brother’s son’s name, and forgot about his past he once had lived.
Claudius told himself he would never kill again, but the family treasure the knights had taken was the most important thing in the world to him. Right before his father died he told him to guard it with his life and never let anyone but true family even lay their eyes on it. Claudius made an exception to leave his old life behind and told himself he had one last job to do.
Claudius stayed up all night planning out how this was going to happen. This wasn’t going to be like any other job he had done, this wasn’t a random person he had to kill in their home. This was a king, surrounded by knights and who has guards around his castle at all times. These people were trained swordsman who he could kill, but not all of them. This had to be a stealth mission. After hours of planning and thinking, he finally had the perfect plan for his revenge. He waited, and waited. The perfect time to make his move was when half the knights would go out in the middle of the night with their black armor and do sweeps of the town, looking to see if anyone was hiding something the king might want.
That was when the castle was penetrable. This was Claudius’s chance. He put on his old uniform, which was midnight black, and took off towards the castle. Claudius took his horse and went around the town so no one would see him. He left his horse on the outskirts of the town by the castle, this was his escape plan. The castle walls were massive and there was a small moat around the walls with only the drawbridge as the only way through. Claudius remembered that there was more than one way out.
Working for his old king he remembered seeing escape tunnels and secrets ways to get out underground that lead to the forest. On the left side if the castle there was thick dark woods. He went to go check out the woods to see if there was anything unusual. He came across a big thick tree. That was oddly colored and looked dead. As he checked it out it seemed to be a normal tree, until he hit it. The tree sounded hollow. He knew this was the way in. Claudius saw the crack in the tree and delivered a striking blow with a nearby branch that had fallen off. The bark crumbled and the hole opened. He looked in and saw a ladder going down into a dark, deep abyss. This was the way. Claudius tied his horse up to a nearby tree and continued his mission in the secret tunnels of the castle. It was complete darkness.
He scanned the walls with his hands hoping on finding a torch. There was an old wooden torch stuck in its stand on the wall. He lit the torch and the tunnel filled with light. No one had been down there in decades. There were spider webs and the smell was of pure death. He moved through the tunnels swiftly. The tunnels had many choices and the tunnels split often, giving him different choices. He knew taking the wrong tunnel would lead to him getting lost down there.
Claudius remembered that in the king’s tunnels he had worked for, that there was the king’s family’s crest, very small, above the tunnel that led to the castle. He whipped off the top of the tunnel entrance to the right, and there it was; the greedy rich king’s family’s crest. He followed the pathway until he found another ladder. This ladder went even lower. He knew he had reached the moat. The dirt was wet and damp with moss growing everywhere. This path continued until he reached a silver ladder.
This was it. This was the entrance to the king’s castle. He got ready and started heading up. As he reached the top, he stopped to listen and to make sure no one was there. He heard nothing and slowly opened the metal door. Slowly raising his head he scanned the room. The ladder led to the storage room way below the castle.
Standing up he brushed himself off. He put out his torch and threw it down into the tunnel. He shut the door and began upward into the castle. To be seen would be certain death and the the king would be hidden. The inner parts of the castle he was not familiar with, but had pictured it like the old castle he had worked in before. The castle was similar enough to where Claudius knew where he was going. He remembered where some of the secret doors and halls where. Behind mirrors, shelves, drapes in the halls. He was able to find them and sneak his way around the castle. The castle was made all from marble, silver, and gold. Nothing was dirty and it smelled fresh like someone cleaned it every day. The secret halls were dusty and dark, this was perfect because it meant nobody used them. There was a maid or guard who worked in the castle in about every room.
The King’s theater where plays and other events where held was filled with people. This would be the hardest part to get by. There were workers, guards, and people in every corner of the room. Claudius knew he would have to blend in. Hiding behind the drapes in the opening of the secret entrance waiting for a guard or someone to walk by Claudius was ready to strike. A guard in black armor appeared close, Claudius leaped from behind the drapes with his hand swinging for his mouth so there would be complete silence from him. He pulled the guard back behind the drapes into the secret doorway.
Once he pulled him back he realized that the man was the guard who came into his house in the middle of the night and took his family’s treasure. Out of anger he pulled with his hand that was covering his mouth as hard as he could backwards. With only the quiet snap of his neck, the guard’s arms dropped and he went limp.
Claudius undressed the man and himself. He put the guard’s black suit on and walked out of the drapes in complete confidence. No one even gave him the slightest attention. He walked next to the walls of the theater only looking straight ahead. Once Claudius had reached the stairwell he knew this was it.
He began to walk up the stairs ready to end this once in for all. As he approached the top, he saw guards in every hall and room. Claudius knew that the king was close by. Claudius approached the top of the stairs to be stopped by one of the guards.
“What section of the castle is in your watch?” the guard speaks to him like he is a kid. He does not respond.
“Guard, what part of the castle do you come from?” his tone of voice gets a little louder. Claudius still does not respond to him. Claudius keeps walking at the same pace that he had been the whole time. The guard turns to follow behind him, as Claudius begins to walk faster to create space between him and the guard he reaches for Claudius’s right shoulder and pulls him back, but before the guard realizes he is an impostor Claudius reaches for the man’s sword and pulls it from its sheath. Claudius lunges the sword into the man’s chest right under the ribs pointing upward. The man let out a loud moan as if all the air has been taken from him and yells with his last breath.
“Impostor!!” Claudius knew that this was it. He had to move fast and swiftly. The guards started coming out of the rooms and seeing the guard laying there. Drawing out his sword and still the dead guard’s sword in hand. This is not what he had planned out.

Adrenalin starts pumping as he franticly forms a plan. Overwhelmed with fear he knows he has no option but to fight his way out of this one. There were only four guards that he could see. He waited for them to approach him knowing that he would have to rely on his training. Claudius prepared his every move while the men charged towards him. Strategically he took down the first two guards, but with little time to recover before the third guard had attacked.
Claudius gasping for air, gathered himself and stabbed guard three with what he thought was a clean kill. The fourth guard, the largest one who had been in front of the King’s room, approached Claudius, but this is when he looked down to notice he was bleeding a tremendous amount from his side where guard number three had sliced him.

With the glossy visions taking over, Claudius waited for the last guard to make the first move. Claudius knew every move he made had to be perfect, so that he could utilize whatever energy he had left to finish his mission. The guard looked into his eyes, but Claudius didn’t move. He stood there waiting to make the perfect move. The guard that stood in front of him was the man who held him down in his own home when they stole his treasure. Claudius’s head started to spin. He felt faint but showed no sign of weakness. The guard leaped forward delivering a forceful blow. Claudius raised his sword just in time. The power of the strike knocked the sword from his hand and across the floor. As the guard went for another devastating blow Claudius dove forward under the legs of the giant guard.
Claudius spun around before the guard could react and swung his sword slicing both of the guards Achilles. You could hear the snap of the man’s ligaments as they retracted into his body. The guard let out a loud agonizing scream as he fell to both knees. Claudius stood up behind the man with his sword across his neck almost piercing the guard’s skin. The guard dropped his sword and put his hands in the air, but it was too late. With adrenaline pumping through his veins Claudius ripped his arm back cutting the guard’s throat cleanly open. The guard grabbed his neck as blood flowed through his fingers. He fell to the ground where he would quickly bleed out.
Exhausted, Claudius grabbed his side where he has been bleeding and walked to the king’s door. Claudius could no longer walk straight and used the wall to hold himself up. Opening the door he could see the king waiting at the other end holding his gold and diamond axe. The king’s hands were shaking and the fear was in his widely opened eyes. His face pale from the loss of blood, Claudius stood up straight and began to walk directly to the king. Claudius had no weapon in hand and was covered in all the guards’ blood and his own.
“What do you want from me?!” The king yelled in fear. Claudius had no response and continued to approach the king.
“What do you want? I can give you anything you desire. Just name it and it is yours.” The king pleaded to Claudius. Still, no response from him. They were now getting close. The king began to back up towards the wall as Claudius approached reaching distance.
The king out of fear raised his axe ready to swing. Right when the king began so come back down with his axe, Claudius raised his hand and stopped movement and put his axe against the wall. He then released his hand that was covering his wound and put it around the king’s throat. Without a word Claudius squeezed the king’s throat as hard as he could. The king clawed at Claudius with his free hand trying to get one more breath of air, but he could not. The king slowly began to stop fighting. The king’s face began to turn purple and his body went limp.
Claudius stayed there red faced, still squeezing as hard as he could. He slowly released as the king’s body slid down the wall to the floor. It was all over.
Claudius stood over the king’s body covered in the blood, his vision started to become more blurry and he knew he was dying. He looked around the room and all he could see was treasure. Then on a stand in the corner of the room sat a pearly white box. His family treasure. He limped over to the box and grabbed it. He held it in his hands as he fell to his knees. Claudius had no more strength to stand. He opened the box to see the treasure he had so more cherished one last time. He set the box down right in front of him as the rest of his body fell to the floor. It was all over, surrounded by a pool of blood, Claudius slipped away at peace into eternal sleep.