Living life on the edge

5 | Rose bushes

!tw:blood/injury!

As the sun rose over the brick houses, karl and nick said their goodbyes for the night and headed off in their different directions.

As nick crept his way into the forest at the back of the castle, he ran through the long grass, dodging the trees in his pathway. He reached a little gap he had created ever since he was a little child, and still no one had found it to this day. The only bad thing was it was surrounded by rose bushes that climbed up both sides of the tall wall. He strategically made his way through the vines and flowers and onto the other side. "Ahh" he screeched, holding his arm. He moved his hand to uncover a large cut from one of the thorns. He looked around for anything that could help with the bleeding. He pulled his plain white T-shirt off with one arm and tied it around the wound. Then continued to run through the castle garden. Climbing up to his window was a lot harder with only one hand, but eventually he made it up.

He flinched at the pain as the tap water hit his wound. He looked at himself through the large mirror hung above the sink. His eye bags were increasingly worse from lack of sleep, he had cuts and bruises everywhere from playing childish games with karl. He was a mess. But at what cost. He loved the boy, don't get me wrong. But he was a prince, taught to marry rich... forced to marry rich. And that was final.

After two hours, he was awoken by loud knocking on his door, he groaned as he stumbled out of his bed and to his door. He heard quiet arguing from outside the door and paused. He put his ear up to the door to hear what was happening...

"William u know he's not gonna like this, let me do it"

"I told you i will tell him" Williams voice got progressively louder as he banged the wooded door, scaring nick and emerging him back into reality.

He ran to his closet and pulled out a fresh white shirt and a black tie. He rushed around to get ready for a 'special day' his father had told him was today. He checked himself out in the mirror one last time and went to the door. He unlocked it and opened it, seeing his mother and father standing just a little down the corridor, the shouting seemed to stop almost immediately as both their tones of voices changed back to their sweet selves. "Morning sweetie".

Heels clicked across the stone cold floor. Nick walked down the eerie archways and corridors in between his mother who wore a gorgeous, yellow dress and clay who linked arms with his wife, supporting her and her very large baby bump.  As they came in a short distance of the wooden double doors, a loud tune played from trumpets and the doors creaked open, causing everyone to jump a little. The king lead first, walking through the pathway of guards towards a large carriage behind two gracious horses. Nick looked over at his mother, his brow furrowed in confusion. Niki smiled and gave him an assuring nod. Nick looked back in front of him, even more confused than before... 'where are we going?' He thought.

The sound of crowds cheering slowly faded into silence as they entered the quiet countryside, horses hooves clicking off the dirt ground was the only sound stopping a very awkward silence. Nicks polished shoes clicked together as he grazed his feet across the wooden flooring. "Nicholas" William snapped. "Stop that" "I'm sorry I'm nervous" nick responded anxiously. "Just drop it son" The next few minutes in silence felt a lot longer. Voices in his head spoke from all directions 'is this about me' 'where are we going' 'is this a bad thing'. Finally the curiosity got the better of him. "I just want to know where were going" he said calmly. "Nicholas, i said drop it" William shouted, causing everyone to flinch. Nicks hand clenched into a fist as they both stared angrily into each other's eyes, their chests pulsating quickly as they raged with anger for each other.

Niki tried her hardest to calm them both down through words, but as nick had finally after 20 years stood up for himself, he couldn't backdown now. "U never let me know anything, and when i do its always bad. Just because I'm not the one to sit on the throne next doesn't mean I'm not your son. You never played with me outside when i asked, you never said you were proud of me when i leant something new or found something outside, you nev-" "I'm the king Nicholas" "and I'm your son" he shouted at the top of his voice... that's when things went downhill.