The Queen of Nothingness

Escape

Being a princess is obviously something for the ordinary to be jealous of. But why did I feel like I didn't want to be a princess no matter what? Because of the fact that princesses are always being trapped in the tower and waiting for their prince charming to save them?

Bad luck, I'm not the type of girl waiting around just to get my a*s saved. Sorry my destined prince charming, you are gonna have to find and catch me if you like to get a hold of this unruly princess.

And if you ever thought that I'm the sit still and be pretty kind of girl, might as well don't sleep a wink at night or a knife might pierce through your heart.

As much as I liked to stay in the castle, hanging around my room, drinking tea in the afternoon, binging on books in the royal library, and stealing yogurt from the kitchen, I wanted to leave. Scratch that, I needed to leave.

Being the crown princess meant that there will be an alliance, a connection in kingdoms to be made through marriages, since they said that a girl cannot rule by herself. How traditional they are. They couldn't even think that one girl can also be equal to the strength of a man.

"Money, check. Food, check." I mumbled to myself while I opened the latch of my shoulder bag and recounted the things I had to bring.

The night stayed young and cold while I gripped onto the blankets I tied up together. In the movies, it seemed to be easy going down their bedroom from the windows. For I? Let's just say that it wasn't going well as I thought it could be.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I resisted my screams, making it a shout-whisper, falling down and landing on top of the thorny bushes.

"Ow." My whines were soft but painful. I caressed my butt pricked with the rose thorns. It's not how I imagined the night to begin but it's a start for a new page to flip.

My feet dragged my whole body to escape without being seen by any knight on surveillance. I ran towards the garden of maze, where I know the route to the other side. Sadly, Caster, a royal knight, also had the knowledge of it's layouts. And he grasped on a flashlight, shining it to my way.

I hid in the dead end corner, stopped my breathing for a moment, and crouched down to the ground, coating myself with the cloaks of the shadows in the night. Caster passed through the path I was in. He walked straightforward, directed to the track that led to the exit. How can I get away from his sight?

Caster and I were distant. Possibly because he didn't like my attitude and behavior while I, on the other hand, didn't have the guts to talk to a man who I knew not of and start a conversation just for pleasure.

Then again, it's maybe I was stealing his yogurt hence he takes away mine without any permission and my status as a princess was seriously not an exception.

Yogurt. The word repeated a dozen times in my head before I realized what I could do with it.

I unlatched my bag and removed a cup of berry flavored yogurt, placing it on the middle of the path.

A stone impressed me with weight that will allow the sound to be vociferous, making Caster hear it from faraway. With the walls of ivy and vines, the sound can direct Caster to where I wanted him to be. At the spot of my plan, I threw the rock as hard as I can at the pavement. It echoed throughout the walls, ensuring that the sound resonated towards Caster's standing.

Lights immediately brightened the dark while I hid behind the end corner. It shone upon the small sealed plastic cup as Caster's brow raised in curiosity. If there was anything I know at all about Caster, a magic knight, was that he absolutely can't resist the fragrance of yogurt and let the dessert melt on his mouth.

He gladly took it as seen from the dimples created by the forged smile on his face. I waited no more, quietly stepping out of the shadows and running hastily towards the other side of the maze; the exit and the gate outside the palace.

While I reduce the reverberation of my footsteps, nostalgia immersed through my veins and drew out the memory in me wherein we hadn't seen Tina for three days and all she where was inside the maze, trapped with eyes sore from crying by the continuous hours. She was seven back then and up until now, Tina hadn't known of the way out thus she never returned to this area of the castle gardens again.

I inserted the key to the lock, turning it. When it unclasped itself, the metal rang a wild noise that I hoped Caster and the other knights hadn't heard of. The rusted steel gate whined even if I was carefully moving it to open.

Before I could get a chance to close it behind me, a hand gripped on my wrist and pulled me behind the trees. The figure covered my mouth and screams were muffled.

Nostrils flared in hostility as an arm wrapped around my shoulders and a hand unmovingly sealed the words to clearly escape my throat. I struggled to get a glimpse of the darkness of the night masking his face although I his electric blue eyes flickered bright against the shadows.

Could it be?

"Shh," he whispered in my ear softly, "the knights will hear you. Stop moving and do as I say."

I nodded in reflex of not wanting my brother to get angry at me. My greenish eyes moistened upon realizing that he didn't leave his position for a girl and his siblings behind to take his rightful place. Only Ro can be the one to wear Dad's golden crown. It will suit him perfectly.

"Chiara," he said with breaks in his voice. Crying didn't fit with my poker faced brother and whatever situation he got himself into, he wouldn't let a tear slip past the securities of his eyes. Perhaps though it was only my imagination. "Get back to the castle and tell Dad about the crows."

Wrinkles inducted my nose to be stubborn. I slightly tapped on his hand, asking him to let me speak in curiosity. He didn't and tightened more.

"I can't. I'm not supposed to be here this night. Just get back home and tell Dad about the crows. He'll understand what it means."

Ro jolted his back to the trunk of the tree once I pressed my elbow with difficulty to his stomach. He won't be seriously hurt, just a minor injury was what I inflicted him. He had to hear me speak out my mind. I got questions that Ro probably knew not of.

"Where have you been? Why tell me this and not yourself? What is it about the crows?" I blurted out. Like I said, he had to hear me speak out my mind.

A lopsided grimace painted a picture on his face, releasing the darkness away. Hesitation rashly kept pulling away him from my questions, not wanting to answer, possibly for my own safety.

A slight frown engaged my pupils to dilate. "I'm not a child."

He parted his lips for a mouth, delays and second thoughts clung onto him. With my recent words, I helped him break free of the chains that unabled him to speak.

"I was kidn*pped," he said as my eyes grew wide in disbelief of what I heard.

So it wasn't about Allison. However, I was proved wrong yet again.

"And Dad was right not to trust Marquess James's daughter." Ro's head lowered, eyes gradually crinkled, cracks flawed his silvery voice. "I'm such an i***t! Why didn't I see it?"

One word, bro: blinded.

You were blinded by your love for her.

I didn't know why the sweet, lovely, graceful, beautiful Allison could ever do such a thing as to betray my brother who I also know she deeply loves. Was that all just an act?

My mind changed in beating up my brother into killing Allison. Ro may have had left his position and created a way for my parents to renounce my title as the heiress but I absolutely cannot forgive Allison for breaking my older sibling's heart.

"Just tell Dad about the crows–" Ro stopped short, lanterns behind the tree from where the olden gate stood in fragility.

"Oh, he knows already." We didn't notice it their presence first. Not until the King finished our unexpected night meeting. "This discussion will be in the studies, now hurry both of you back to the castle."

Ah. So did that mean my attempt to escape failed? It probably won't matter now that brother came back safe and sound physically. Emotionally? Well, she was his first love. And I surely prayed that she won't be his last love either. My dear good bro, don't shut your heart.

About the crows, huh? What was it about the crows that Ro himself could not deliver a simple message to Dad and let him receive the notification that he's alright.

Twisted knots tied around my stomach. Something will occur, and I wasn't not going to like it.

Fate played a game when Ro entreated in undertone. "Tell him about the crows but not a single word of the others I said. Or else, I will inform Dad of your thievery skills to steal yogurt."