Sleeping Beauty [WMMAP Fanfiction]

Chapter Twenty Three: Sleeping Beauty

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Alice, the girl loved by her mother.

Alice, the orphan with nothing to her name.

Alice, the wanderer with nowhere to go back.

Alice, the knight that got along with no one.

Alice, the bodyguard of Athanasia.

Alice, a member of the royal guard.

Alice, a girl with friends, and a place to belong.

Alice―

Inside a palace, an unnamed flower slept, never known of when to wake up.

Peaceful, she seemed. But she was not a flower, nor was she unnamed.

She was a human named Alice, afflicted with the same curse as her mother before her.

―Alice, the sleeping beauty.

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Her fingers held onto the wooden frame she bought from the marketplace, in places where she would not be pricked.

Alice did not leave her room often. She had kicked Felix out, told him to sleep on his own, to stay away from her. At least he listened to her. Claude wasn't expecting her to work either.

Her room was rather clean. Gone were the items Robane would keep there, and all that remained was furniture that the room came with. A bedframe, the same as the original, a desk and chair, the fireplace installed years ago, the only piece of furniture the room did not start with was the full-body mirror.

All her little belongings, they were stuffed inside her old drawstring bag, which originally sat at the back of her closet with Jack's picture. And, with all her belongings packed for her to leave any moment now, she had pulled out the picture frame. No photo sat in it, of course, she had thrown out the only print of that memorial stone's moment years ago.

Her father, insane as he was, did work in manufacturing memorial stones. It was a very profitable business. There were those who could take a picture and be imprinted onto paper, and that was how that old, folded picture came to being.

Why did I ever buy such a thing?

Really, no picture deserved to be placed in its hold.

There was a knock on her door. "Alice?" Felix called from behind, sounding panicked.

With a slow sigh, she dragged herself off the fixed bed. Her bag was pushed against it from the floor. In her hand, the bad-quality item hung from her fingers, held by a corner.

"What," she bit out when she opened the door, seeing him dressed in uniform.

"Have you seen the princess?"

"Obviously not." Walking past him to enter the hall, he was quick to follow. "What happened?"

"His majesty said she disappeared in front of his eyes, so I think she's used magic."

She strided quickly. "Where were they last?"

"The garden."

Did the princess run away? But she wouldn't be able to survive alone, would she...

"Robane." Her feet stopped. She spun around to face him. "What would happen if you found the princess?"

He was startled at the question. And he didn't answer her, either.

"If we did..." he trailed off, not knowing what the answer actually was. And if he did, neither expected it to be a good one. He may have been an idiot, but even he knew that Claude wanted to be rid of Athanasia.