My Light in the Night

Chapter 7

“Good morning, Princess Jerica!” Prince Mateo ran up the street waving and yelling.

Many people turned to look at him.

I gasped. In public I didn’t like being outed as the princess and he was making it super obvious it was me he was talking to. “Hello, Mateo.” I looked down at the warm meals in out cart, trying not to draw attention.

“Jerica! Will you go out with me?” he yelled from down the street.

I smiled slightly. Sure he’d outed me in public but at least he had made a scene by doing it, all be it a rather small one. “Sure I will.”

He came to a stop, panting, beside Valor and me. “What?”

“I said yes.”

“Oh…” He leaned against the cart, still panting and trying not to die.

I smiled. “Look at that. I finally got asked by two of them.”

“What?” Valor put his arms around my waist. “Never been asked out before?”

“Yes I have.” I turned to the small line forming beside our cart and handed out one of the hot meals. “And not just by you.”

Just then a big bang came from behind us and I felt Valor tense beside me. I looked over to see Valor frozen in absolute terror. The sound of gun shots were a relatively normal occurrence in this neighborhood since it was so close to the rural part of my country where they hunted for food or sometimes had to put animals down but I had forgotten to tell the boys that.

“Valor,” I said, grabbing his arm. “Calm down. We’re not in danger.”

Valor stayed on edge but managed to calm down enough to hand out the next few meals before another loud bang came. “I need to sit down.”

I set Valor down on the curb and turned back to the cart with Mateo. “So, Mateo, why did you miss breakfast this morning?”

“Personal reasons.” He looked away from me as he handed out the next meal.

“Such as?” I pressed.

“Y-you really, really don’t want to know…” He passed out meals at a steady pace.

“If you say so.” I heard yet another big bang but this time I saw a chip of brick get blown off the building to our right. “Everyone get down!” The people around me ran for cover and Valor put his head down between his knees. I grabbed Valor. “Come on!” I pushed him and Mateo under out cart before I dove beneath it.

“Princess!” Mateo yelled.

Just before I got to the safety of the cart, I was shot in the left shoulder.

Most people think that getting shot would hurt. Other’s will tell you that they didn’t even realize it when they were shot. I probably wouldn’t have realized I was shot but hired assassin won’t miss more than once so I knew I was going to be hit. The first thing I felt was impact.

The movement of my body to under the cart was enough to knock the wind out of me but the force of the shot in my shoulder was nothing more than as if Valor had clamped his hand around my shoulder with the same force with which he’d grabbed my shirt the night before. It didn’t hurt it was just sort of there. Then it was just numb. I don’t think I would have noticed the sensation if I’d been doing something else. That feeling quickly gave way to a very hot pain. A hot and itchy pain. It was like a burn blister, only that blister had another burn blister on it. It got worse as we laid there.

Valor was hyperventilating beside me but Mateo was still cool and collected. Mateo turned to me and scooted around to my left, leaving his back exposed to the open side of the cart. “Give me your arm.”

I can’t really tell you how painful in was to be shot but moving my arm was worse than the physical equivalent of a hundred nails on chalkboards. I had hardly moved my arm an inch before I had to stop because I was going to pass out. Words cannot describe the pain of moving with that bullet still in my shoulder. “I- I can’t…” I nearly screamed at him as tears fell down my face.

“It’s okay.” Mateo tore off his tie and pulled it around my shoulder. He folded mine in half and put it between my teeth. “Bite down. This is going to hurt.” He pulled his tie tight, slowing the blood flowing out through the wound.

I didn’t bite down. I screamed. I screamed loud. The screeched that escaped me probably could have killed Mateo’s ear drums but he didn’t seem to have expected me to bite down as his ears were covered.

“It’s okay, Jerica.” He set his hand on my upper arm and took my left hand with his other hand. “You’ll be alright, Princess.”

I stared into Mateo’s face and I wasn’t sure what to feel. I was in pain but I sort of just didn’t feel it as I stared into Mateo’s eyes. His eyes were so comforting, even though they seemed to be spinning, that I hardly knew what was going on any more. I was torn away from his eyes when a bright light flooded over us.

“Princess!” it was the voice of one of the royal guards but I hardly heard him. “I found them!”

My vision went black as a weight was lifted off my side.

I smelt the weird scent of a hospital. The weird sterile scent of the hospital mixed with four different scents, each as recognizable on its own as the hospital cleaners; three different colognes and a perfume. I could feel the warmth of two other hands in my own. I felt my finger twitch.

“She’s waking up!” Mateo’s voice called attention.

I opened my eyes to find Mateo to my right and Valor - looking very worried - to my left. I moved to push myself into a more sitting position but was stopped by the hands of Jake on my right shoulder and upper left arm. “Jake?”

“Didn’t think you’d be seeing me again, did ya?” he asked as he straitened himself with a cocky smile.

“No, I didn’t.” I smiled. “It there a way for me to sit up more?”

“Yeah. Let us help you.” Valor set on hand behind my back and he and Mateo helped me sit up more.

I looked around the room and spotted the source of the women’s perfume. “Mary?”

She looked down at her hands in her lap. “Yeah…”

I looked back to Jake. “So why are you two here?”

“Mary told me about you getting shot on live TV…”

“Live TV?” I asked. “We weren’t even there as royalty.”

“The local station’s teen reporters were doing a report over teen helping the community. I had just tuned in and noticed you so I called for Jake.” Mary didn’t look up from her hands. “We saw you get shot then we rushed to the hospital because Jake wanted meet you there and ensure you were okay. When we got here we overheard the doctor telling the boys that you have one of the rarest blood types: AB negative.” Mary turned her arm to show off the pick bandaid that matched her shirt.

“Mary is the only other AB- person in the capital and you needed blood fast.” Jake smiled at his sister. “She never donates blood so they had to take it straight from her arm to the bag. It was less than five minutes before you had the right blood pumping through you again.”

“It’s the needles. I faint if I see them.” Mary looked up at me. “I’m sorry I teased you about… well, about everything during school.”

“I already forgave you, Mary.” I gave a small laugh. “Don’t act like I’m going to have you beheaded.”

Mary froze up as though that was something she had been imagining the entire time. “Um…”

I laughed but it hurt when my shoulders bounced. “Ouch.” I grimaced. “That pain is horrid.”

“It could have been much worse.” Mateo squeezed my hand. “This is my fault. I shouldn’t have outed you as the princess in a public place.”

“Mateo,” I said in a voice that demanded attention. “Stop that. This is not your fault. A hired assassin gets inside info which means it was someone who knew where we were going to be today.”