Bluebirds Without Wings | Julie and the Phantoms

Times Are Tough

Julie had quietly crawled through a hole cut in the graveyard fence and ran through the forest, hoping Luke didn't catch on. Every sound her footsteps made as they crushed leaves below her made her clench her fist harder, the birds in the trees letting each other know of her presence in their usually serene home. Julie ran until her ribs hurt, stopping to rest at a tree. She didn't know how much longer until Luke realized, so she kept walking despite the voice in her head who told her to turn around.

There was a way back to the castle gardens from the woods, and she intended to get there by herself. If she could get through this without harm and convince her dad that Luke was a bad guard, maybe he'd grant her independence once more. She was more than strong enough on her own.

Julie stopped at a clearing in the woods to stand on the cliffside overlooking the lush neighboring kingdom of Plowden. Plowden was always on par with their kingdom, and she didn't mind when they came over for visits. Prince William and her were good friends, and she looked up to him.

Their actual cities were still far away from their border as Plowden had a pledge to protect the natural land and only alter it when necessary. She couldn't say the same thing about other kingdoms.

Her head turned when she heard a loud whirling noise in the distance. She looked up and saw the royal helicopter going up in the air, flashing the emergency signal. Her heart went to her throat as she started running back into the woods and to the castle grounds. She shouldn't have worn flats if she was planning on running away in the first place.

She knew the helicopter was for her. They had done this for Carlos once before when he hadn't returned from the woods past his curfew, and her dad was losing his mind. She was with her dad the entire time, and he didn't breathe correctly until Carlos was back in the castle. Carlos had fallen asleep in a tree.

She wondered how fast Luke had gotten back to the castle to alert them. There was no way he could've made it back to the castle that fast and gotten a helicopter up in the air in the amount time she had been gone. It seemed impossible to her, but she had to remember that he had a phone.

The castle garden was in her view, and she felt like she had blood lodged in her throat from all the running. She ran past the hedges and saw a few guards yelling in nervous voices. She crouched down, keeping an eye on them before watching them run to a different part of the grounds. She got back up and made it to the screen door of the castle sunroom and ran in, shutting the door with a bang and falling back onto a chair to collect herself. She fixed her hair and pulled it back in a low pony, laying down to look up at the sky through the glass ceiling. The helicopter was farther from the castle now, but it was still making the glass vibrate.

She had to let them know she was back soon before her dad had a heart attack because of her. He had enough to worry about, and she didn't even know where that list started. She got up and left the sunroom, making her way down the halls. There were no staff members out greeting her, and there was this silence in the castle that was unnatural. The workers had a small community, and they were always filling the castle with life no matter how difficult things got.

She peaked into the kitchen and saw that it was empty, everything thrown around like they were all poofed away in the middle of doing things. She thought it was strange that the workers would leave their stations behind to go look for her. She kept walking on her own, not finding anyone and made her way to her dad's office that had two guards posted outside. They looked surprised to see her, but they let her go in without a word.

When she made it inside, her dad glanced up from his laptop on his desk and said, "Hi, angel," before glancing back down. She was taken aback with his dull reaction. He looked stressed out with his wrinkled forehead and frown lines popping through. Then he looked back up and raised an eyebrow, "Where's Sir Luke?"

Julie came to the realization that the helicopter wasn't for her, and that she wasn't even prepared to have this I can take care of myself conversation with her dad. "What's the helicopter for?" she asked

"Our favorite prisoner got away but they told me two minutes ago that they got him." He shut his laptop and crossed his arms, studying her face. She looked down at the floor, noticing there was a leaf stuck on the corner of her shoes. "Julie." In that moment, his phone rang and as she turned around, he said, "Stay." Julie sighed in defeat and decided to sit at one of the chairs, the sound of the helicopter outside drawing closer to park on the castle roof. She tried to focus on it as her dad talked with who sounded like Bobby. "Alright," he said. "Assure him he's not in trouble and to come back to the castle immediately. We'll talk about the rest when you get back." Julie wondered what the rest was. Her dad had never hidden so much from her before.

"So," Julie flashed an unconfident smile. "Since Luke-,"

"Sir Luke."

"Sir Luke is such a bad royal knight, can I be on my own again." She didn't know if her dad looked frustrated or amused at her feeble attempt of shaking the knight off. Now that she processed it, it wasn't her best plan. She did feel some comfort with the thought that maybe if the prisoner had decided to escape in a later time, her planned would've worked. Her dad was too scrambled to truly focus on being a dad.

The King rubbed his face and sighed. "Julie, even if he was the worst knight to come out of the academy, we would just assign you a different knight. Which is what we're going to do on his days off anyway. You have to get used to it, mija. Times are tough right now."

"Can you at least tell me why? You haven't told me anything. All I know King Caleb sent that man to harm us. I think I deserve to know more, especially if something happens to you." Julie didn't like thinking about living her life without both of her parents so young, but it was always something she was taught to remember during her training and education. She was born to outlive her father and take the throne one day. Someone out there, wanted to make it sooner than later or they didn't want her to take the throne at all.

"I can't right now, Julie," he said, a frown as deep as the ocean on his face. His ice blue eyes seemed to be melting into tears, but he took in a deep breath and blinked a few times. "Please go back to your room and don't run from Sir Luke again. I can't imagine how horrible things could've gone if the man would've seen you without your guard."

It was a sick game her and her father were playing. Who is actually going to outlive who: daddy daughter edition. But that's just how it was when your dad was king, and you were almost positive you were about to live through a war.

-

A/N: Woah it's been 3 weeks since I last updated. I started school Jan 4, and I got some writer's block unfortunately. I've been asked to read a lot of novels for my assignments, so I think that helped me get out of my rut. Here's to hoping I'm back to updating sooner :)

ALSO: Wattpad readers thank you so much for your comments! Wattpad makes it hard to reply to everyone throughout the story, so if you have any questions or general comments, you can just leave them at the A/N and I'll try to reply to all of them there, even if it's just a few emojis. I truly appreciate you guys!! You guys gave me the want to get out of this writer's block <3 Until next time!