Saturday Matinee - The Dark King

The natives told the story of the Dark King....across all of the area's tribes they had varied mythologies....varied stories of the past.....but all of them told the same story about the Dark King!!!!
Cursed to live forever....he had ruled for hundreds of years and had grown so weary!!!
A sorceress was summoned and as she groveled before him he asked if she could relieve him of the burden of immortality....he wished to rest.....
She cast her runes and when she was sure, she told him.....she could cast a spell that would allow him to rest....for decades....perhaps for as long as a century....but that he would need a human wife to care for him  for all that time....when he awoke that poor cursed woman would age and crumble to dust and he would need to find another before he could sleep again!!!!
The Dark King wondered if he could be cared for by a manservant instead of a wife for he had no desire to harm a woman but had no qualms about passing the curse on to a man....
The Sorceress laughed and whispered something to him......
The many tribes stories differed about what she had told him and the reality was lost to time.....
John Gregory had gathered all the tales.....and when he unearthed the Dark Kings lonely fortress.....he thought he had made the Archaeological discovery of the century....
He spent weeks exploring the vast untouched ruin.....then he came to the ornate doors...
Huge doors of carved stone covered in glyphs he could not translate....and locked by a bar on the outside.....
The bar was so heavy he didn't think he could move it by himself but he didn't want anyone else to share in his glory for this discovery!!!!
As he grunted and pulled to slide the bar aside he suddenly thought he heard a sound....maybe the wind....but it almost sounded like a woman weeping....
The last inch of the bar fell aside and he stood before the doors....he ran his hands over the glyphs one more time, wondering what they might tell him....then he pushed.....expecting the door to be heavy and hard to move....
The door swung open easily and the first thing he saw was the sitting statue of what must be the Dark King....sitting regally with scepter in hand......
Then he spotted the woman!!!!
She was young and beautiful....but even as he watched she looked to him....he watched her age....rapidly her body wither and finally she laid down and simply turned to dust....
He thought he was going mad.....perhaps he had some type of hallucination....but then he saw the statue of the Dark King move!!!!
The Dark Kings eyes slowly opened and saw him and the small remnants of the woman....and he spoke.....and although he spoke a language that had died over a thousand years ago he heard every word in his head as though it was spoken in perfect English!!!!
"Why have you disturbed my sleep Man!"
"I didn't know.....are you really the Dark King?"
"I have been called that....and many other names over the millennia since my birth....come closer that I might see you better....."
"I didn't know that opening the door would affect this woman the way it did....I'm sorry...."
No need for sorrow for her....she's free of this cursed life....instead feel sorrow for yourself...."
"What do you mean?"
"Long ago a Sorceress cast the spell that allowed me to rest.....but I would need an attendant to stay with me until I was awoken again.....she told me it must be a woman....but my heart would not allow me to curse a woman....so she came close and told me that men would come....willingly seeking me out....and that all I need do was nod and the man would become the woman....and the curse would be upon her...."
John Gregory turned in panic and ran for the doors that were already closing....he reached them just in time to hear the bar on the outside door sliding into place!!!!!
Turning back he was just in time to see the Dark King nod....

How long he had been here he couldn't tell.....he had long ago lost count of the days and years.....he still pleaded with the statue to wake and free him.....he prayed for death....and he understood now how the Dark King really felt....and then came the day that he thought he heard someone trying to move the bar on the door.....