Prince of Hearts

Turn That Smile Upside Down

If you think being a prince is great, think again.

I'd love to tell you all what is going on; there's just one problem. I don't know!
My name is Alistair Inkheart and I'm being chased by my own Royal Guards. Why?

I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHY!

All I can tell is that they look ecstatic—in a menacing way, and I'm not gonna be able to outrun them in their own training course — yes, today is Tuesday which means I was supposed to train with them.

Oooh look! it's Salvatore!

Anyway, enough of that. Let's go back to a time where I knew what was happening: Yesterday.

My best friend Sal and I spar as we usually do in the late afternoons, we're brothers in ways more than one. This means that his brother Perseus is an older mentor to me of some sort.
We ended the last day of March with a blast, we left the palace — all three of us— to go check out the streets. It's something we've done every few weeks, just to know the people.

Wait... The last day of March...
At this point, I realize that yesterday had been the last day of March... meaning today is the first day of April.

It's April fool's day.

I turn around and give the guards a smirk. I know what they're doing now.

They stop running and stand still at a fairly far distance, maybe around 5 meters.

"Ha-Ha-Ha—" I manage to choke out. All that running really ripped the air out of me. 

"Happy April Fool's, Your Highness!" they all say ecstatically.

My grandfather stands in the same room, and from the corner he jokingly shouts, "I told you to prank him, I didn't mean mortify him and make him run a marathon."

We all burst in a fit of laughter. Not because his joke was funny, but because it wasn't. We're weird that way. I bid them farewell and happily make my way around the castle on my way to my private quarters.

The frescoes on the ceilings are ever so beautiful. Portraying acts of piety, charity, and love.

Love. I used to know what that meant once.

I they not to think about it too much. it never ends well when I do. As I try to forget, I stumble upon the castle gardens. The most extravagant and lavish of all places within the palace.

All my joy and exhilaration dies as I pass the garden's hidden chambers. My look changes to one of desolation. A pain begins to engulf my lungs. A memoir of her absence. The pain of remembering someone who was once there.

I used to love this part of the palace, it was my favorite, until that fateful day... The day I lost her.

Recalling my unusually unhappy past, I begin to have a realization.

All the Kingdom's citizens look up to me as their idol, their model. The crown prince, a joyful, happy and forgiving young man.

I was the brilliant and ecstatic sun that lit up my nation.

What the people don't know is that, just like the Moon, the sun too may dim. They don't know that behind my mask of happiness, sadness resides.

I am not the perfect little jewel they think I am.

I am no great prince.