* * *
Peter
We gathered evidence from the Tremaine household and hurried back to the castle as fast as we could to clear Ella’s name and prove that Lady Tremaine was guilty. The Tremaine house was only an hour away, so we arrived back at the castle to present what we found to the King and Prince just past midnight. We didn’t care about the time, it was our friend's life on the line.
To our surprise, both the King and Prince were awake and conversing in the corridor when we all arrived, “Your majesties,” we all bowed and greeted. I’m sure we all looked horrendous- Ana had a blood-splattered dress, Driz and I had old sketchbooks and scrapbooks of torture memorabilia, and Derek had a look of guilt – he had stolen herbs and spices from Tremaine’s kitchen - that was his find in the house, I knew we shouldn’t have put him in charge of searching the kitchen.
Charles had an
* * *DrizellaI woke up just as I had remembered falling asleep; still in my clothes from Maddie’s wake, on top of the sheets, tear-stained face along with my sister who lay right in front of me. We cried ourselves to sleep last night.This morning I am troubled. We cried for our mother last night when just hours before we had been in her house to gather evidence against her. We asked for this, didn’t we? Last night, I fell asleep feeling sorrow. This morning, I wake up feeling numb. My mother is about to be executed, and I have run out of tears.I bathed quickly to fix my face and my ratty hair, I wanted to throw my black dress into the fireplace because it held too many poor memories, but I held back. The dress didn’t do anything – it was all me. I was in this position because I chose to be.After getting dressed and waking up Ana so that she could bathe and change,
* * *PeterDerek and I began walking the halls of the castle silently. He didn’t pry but left me alone with my thoughts for a while until I was ready to talk.As a palace guard, I’ve walked these halls for years, but today I am seeing them in an entirely different light. There is a chance that someday all of this could be mine, and the thought horrified me. I inhaled deeply to take it all in, then exhaled to relieve my stress, but it didn’t work.“What’s going on, Pete?” Derek finally asked.I sighed and stopped walking, “I don’t know if I can do this,” I placed my hand over my mouth and started pacing from wall to wall.Derek stood where he was, “Can’t do what?”I looked up at him then, still pacing back and forth, his hair and eyebrows seemed especially bushy today, but that may
* * *PeterWe rode for a few minutes until the house was no longer in sight and I pulled on the reins of Onyx, stopping by a tree with a small pond nearby. I walked behind a tree and let out the biggest “FUUUUUCK!” at the top of my lungs so loud that the tree’s rattled and birds flew away.Derek seemed to expect this reaction, for he didn’t flinch at my outburst at all. I tried to breathe in and out to calm myself, I felt my blood boiling and my face turn red and hot, I needed to cool off. I saw the pond nearby and started taking off my clothes. First to come off was the jacket, then my shirt, then my shoes, and I walked into the pond, laying down in the shallow water.I closed my eyes to focus on the water cooling my skin for a moment until a shadow blocked the sunlight from me, “What are you doing?” Asked Derek from above me.My eyes were opened now and g
* * *DrizellaAna and I left the kitchen arm-in-arm towards Ella’s room to give her the tea to help her throat. We both felt awful because it was our mother who put her in the condition that she is in, but at least our mother will get her punishment in due time.It was odd walking into the Prince’s private quarters, but that’s where Ella was resting and we wanted so badly to check on her. One of the twin doors to the bedroom was opened and we knocked lightly when we saw Charles sitting on the side of his bed and Ella at the head of the bed.“Come on in,” he smiled at us and motioned for us to enter.“How are you feeling, Ella?” Ana asked her as I poured a cup of tea, she only shrugged in response but she had a smile on her face that was somewhat reassuring. She was obviously doing better in the sense that she had been pardoned from execution, but she
*Mature Content** * *DrizellaI went back to my bedroom to lay down for a while after speaking to Charles and Ella about who is to take over the throne and Ana showing me the coronation dress. I tried to rest and close my eyes, but my thoughts were swirling my head a million miles a minute.After a decent hour of tossing and turning in bed, I heard the door open and I sat up on the bed. Peter was standing by the door with his jacket in hand looking at me, he had the same troubled look that I had.“So, it wasn’t a dream, then,” I said and he shook his head.“No.” He sighed, “No… it wasn’t.” He began walking towards me to the bed, he threw his jacket over a chair and sat on the edge of his side of the bed with his back facing me. I crawled over to him on the bed and wrapped my arms around him from behind, my head resting against his
* * *AnaDriz became overwhelmed and went to lay down, but I stayed back to continue on the dress some more. It was currently only pinned together since I have only been in the castle for a few days, but the prince supplied me with everything that I would need to finish it before the crowning of the queen, which I was told would be in a matter of weeks, should we ever figure out which of my sisters would take the crown.God, what a crazy thing to think. One way or another, I would be close to the Queen of Briarglen, either the sister to the queen or the stepsister to the queen, either one I was fine with.“What are you smiling about?” Asked Derek from the doorway. I hadn’t closed it after Driz left the room and didn’t notice him arrive. He was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and an amused smile as he looked at me.I put my hand on my cheek to find t
* * *AnaI walked over to the branch-covered doors at the side of the house, ignoring Derek’s question, “Where are you going?” from back at the carriage.I got on my knees and brushed aside the cleverly-placed rubbish to camouflage the doors and unlocked it by moving the wooden rod that prevented it from being opened from the inside. My heart began to pound and I hesitated to open the doors, but then I remembered that mother was far away and locked in a dungeon, she couldn’t hurt me or trap me in here again.Taking a deep breath, I finally opened the doors and saw Derek walk around the corner and to me. His bushy eyebrows shot up when he saw me start to descend underneath the house and he hovered where he stood for a moment, unknowing if he should follow me.I brought a light with me, remembering that the oil lamp had burnt out the night that I was stuck in here readin
* * *DerekI couldn’t fathom what I was seeing; this cold and dark room underground that held an eerie feeling, I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams being trapped in a place like this, my heart broke for Ana to see her here again. I remembered the fresh marks on her back that I saw for the first time last night, and a shiver went through my spine at the thought.I had to comfort her somehow, and also myself, so I finally kissed her, and it was amazing. I knew that I liked the girl and we got along, but our conversations had always been so casual that I didn’t know if she liked me the same way, but the way she kissed me made me feel like she did.I didn’t want to leave her in the torture chamber, so I sent the coachman down to be with her while I snuck inside the house and packed a couple of trunks worth of her clothing and personal items from her room upstairs, I wanted to make sure tha