* * *
Ana
Seeing 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,
* * *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