* * *
Ella
After Maddie’s wake, we were all very quiet, but I couldn’t get over the likeness of the charcoal portrait that Charlie drew of her, and I wanted to know more about his hidden talent.
“Charlie, where are we going?” I asked with an amused smile as he pulled me. I didn’t know where we were going, but we were heading towards his private quarters, and I became slightly nervous.
“I want to show you something,” he said from in front of me. There was no way that he would be taking me to his bedroom, no, that was absolutely absurd.
We stopped outside a regular-looking wooden door and I concluded that this was not his private bedroom, and I let my shoulders relax.
“Close your eyes,” his voice was calm and playful, and I didn’t detect anything sinister going on, so I did as he asked and closed my eyes, covering t
Years after getting her revenge on her old babysitter, Lucinda returned to normal life as a young woman looking for a future husband. She was fifteen and gorgeous, flowing brown hair and brown eyes like chocolate, curves that caught every man’s eye, she walked around the village with utter confidence.There was only one other woman in the village that Lucinda considered being as beautiful as herself, and her only competition was Malinda Reed. Lucinda loathed the woman, they looked quite similar, except for their skin and eye color. Where Lucinda’s eyes were brown, Malinda’s eyes were blue. They had the same long, dark hair, Malinda's was more black where Lucinda's was
After finding Lucinda trying to sneak out of the castle, the King dragged her by the arm to the ballroom, which when there isn’t a party, he uses to conduct work with the village magistrates around the kingdom. The room had a certain echo when it was not filled with numerous guests, and Archibald wanted to put Lucinda on blast.“Your majesty, I swear, I came to warn you!” Lucinda pleaded as she fell to her knees in front of the King as he sat on his throne and glared down at her, just as he had glared at her daughter a month ago for similar reckless behavior.
* * *AnaSeeing mother in the ballroom with her eyes full of mischief and how she blamed Ella for the outbreak, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was entirely my mother’s doing and she was only framing Ella for the plague outbreak.Mother never liked El
It was just past nightfall and the threat of bandits was high for the group to leave for the Tremaine house on horseback, so the Prince offered a large carriage to escort everyone. Peter would act as the coachman because of how protective he is and his keen sense of incoming trouble. Barely an hour passed and the group made it to the Tremaine household. It was dark since no one was present in the home, but the girls knew their way around so well that they pushed through the darkness and lit candles around the house to light their way. Handing a candle to each person, everyone took a separate room of the house to search.
* * *CharlesI left my art studio and ran outside to get some fresh air. This day had been the absolute worst; First, Maddie dies and we aren’t allowed to give her a proper funeral, so instead we hold a small wake in her old bedroom. Second, my fiancée gets accused of being the reason for the plague outbreak and is sentenced to death. Third, I learned that I have a bastard brother, who is none other than the palace guard, and my friend, Peter, who will take the throne if I refuse to wed after Ella’s execution.I became dizzy, my breathing became shallow and I was unable to bring any significant amount of air into my lungs, I felt as if I would die right then and there, and at the moment, I was alright with that. I dropped to the ground and gasped for breath, but I felt like I was slowly drifting away. I stopped fighting, and let the darkness take me.When I woke, I was back in my room and on my
* * *EllaI sat on the bed in Charlie’s room and waited for him, silently, as he had told me to, with nothing but the sound of the crackling fireplace.Looking around the room, it was far grander than my room in the guests quarters, the colors were richer, the wood was darker, and there appeared to be a walk-in bath in his bathroom, “Hm, that seems rather extravagant,” I whispered to myself as I saw it.My head snapped back towards the doors when I heard light footsteps approaching, was it Charlie? Had I spoken louder than I thought and someone heard a female voice coming from the prince's quarters and come to check? The steps stopped just outside the doorway and I held my breath. Do I hide?The door opened slightly, barely a few inches, and I tried to silently sneak myself under the bed to avoid being seen. I was, after all, supposed to be in the dungeon. No one entered, th
* * *PeterWe 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,