"Elena?" a familiar faint voice called.
She opened her eyes to see Damian hovering over her, a concerned look on his face. He sighed with relief as she slowly came back to her senses. She glanced around the room, what appeared to be a bedroom. She was laying on a dark wood canopy bed with a thick down olive comforter and a sitting area sat opposite them. The walls were made out of stone, just like every other room in the castle.
The castle, it was all starting to come back to her, Damian's mother and sister, the dead guards. Pictures flashed through her mind of the dead corpse she had held, slitting its throat, and she began to feel light headed all over again.
"I'll go get a nurse," Damian said, rushing out the door. He returned minutes later with a familiar looking girl and Paisley.
"Elena?" the girl asked, a shocked expression spread across her face. She instantly recognized her. It was Arielle, one of the girls that had lived in the room down the hall from her. The day of the choosing, where two government representatives would come and choose a high achieving student to come work for the Palace, they had chosen her, and she had never been seen again.
"Arielle, it's been so long!" she exclaimed.
"Wait, you're the new Queen?" Arielle asked, scrunching her face in confusion.
She glanced over at Damian with a questioning look, "When did that happen?"
He grinned, "We did it, this is our kingdom. I'm the next in line. The first King since nine hundred years ago, and you're my Queen."
She smiled, "Does that mean-"
"Yes, we are finally going to rebuild this world the way it was supposed to be, with men and women," he said, pecking her on the lips, "Kaiden should be here by next week, we sent the bus back to get him and the other boys."
Paisley's eyes widened, "Kaiden's coming?"
Damian nodded and she squealed. Arielle set her bag down and Paisley skipped out of the room to Max, who stood in the doorway.
Arielle pulled a few devices out of her bag, ones Elena recognized from her exams back at her Camp. She pressed a cold metal disk to Elena's chest and stuck a thermometer in her mouth. After checking her eyes, ears, and mouth, Arielle packed her things and left.
Elena rested her head on Damian's chest, "I'm so proud of you, I'm sure your dad would have been too."
He kissed her forehead, "I couldn't have done it without you. You're going to be a great queen."
"Thanks, babe," she replied, pecking him on the lips.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Much better, I don't know what came over me before, I was fine when we got there," she said.
"Arielle said that it was most likely due to vasovagal response, something like blood might have triggered a drop in your blood pressure, causing you to faint. She told me you should stay in bed for a little while after you wake up, but apart from that you should be fine."
Elena shuddered at the thought of the dead bodies that had surrounded her earlier, something she never wanted to go through again.
They laid in silence for a while until a bloodcurdling scream echoed through the house. Damian and Elena both shot up out of bed, Elena taking a minute to regain her balance, before rushing off to the source of the sound.
They hurried down the hallway to find Paisley curled up in the corner of her bedroom, whimpering. Damian lifted her up, pulling her to his chest and rocking her back and forth. Paisley's eyelids grew heavy, and she drifted off to sleep.
Once Damian was sure she was asleep, he answered the questions he was sure were pondering in Elena's mind.
"Don't worry, she's having flashbacks from the day that she was taken, the day our father was murdered. She was there to see it happen while Kaiden and I were over at Tyson's. Beatrice, her maid, told me it's been happening more and more often, nearly every day. Apparently my mother had been abusing her, bringing back the memories."
He lifted her shirt, exposing her scarred belly, fresh from only a few days prior. Tears welled up in Elena's eyes. It wasn't something she would ever have imagined a mother doing to a child. All the story books she had read about happy families, like the one she'd always longed to have, were nothing like that. They all lived in quaint cottages, picking berries and singing songs. Never would they ever intentionally harm someone.
It was too much for Elena to handle, and she burst out sobbing. Damian pulled her close to him, setting Paisley down on her bed. He led Elena out of the room, in the fear Paisley might wake up and be just as upset as Elena was.
Elena calmed down a bit, still shaking at the thought of all the things she couldn't have stopped from happening to Paisley. She made a silent vow to never do anything of the sort herself.
Paisley had been through so much at such a young age, watching her father die, taken from her family, abused, nothing a normal four-year-old should have to have happen. She wished she could end these things with the snap of her fingers.
"I can do my best to stop it, as King, I can at least make it illegal. It's not the perfect solution, but it certainly will help," he said, as if reading her thoughts. He wiped her tears with his thumb, "Now, come on, we have a coronation ceremony to get ready for."
He led her down the hallway to a large room with two short pedestals in the center. A short woman emerged from a door to the right of them, arms full of different materials.
"Good morning, your highnesses," she said, attempting a curtsey.
Damian held his hand up, as if to stop her, "None of that yet, at least, not until it's official. Even then, I don't think I will ever be able to get used to people bowing and curtsying at the sight of me."
"Why don't we get started, what colours were you thinking?" she asked, setting the fabrics down on the floor.
"I was thinking a little more on the pastel side, seeing as it's spring," Damian suggested. Elena nodded eagerly, pastel colours always having been her favourites.
They each stepped onto a pedestal and the woman got to work, using a pale, beige-pink colour that complemented both their skin tones perfectly.
About an hour later, she was finally done with them both. Elena had to admit, she looked gorgeous in it, despite her tangled hair and the dried blood on her skin from earlier that day. (A/N: Dress in media) She slipped out of the dress and the woman showed them each to a shower. Elena let the warm water soothe her aching shoulders, slowly massaging her scalp with a pear-scented shampoo. She rinsed herself off before stepping out of the shower and wrapping her wet hair in a towel. She slipped on the nightgown that had been left for her and crawled into bed beside Damian, exhausted.
Hey guys, I hope you liked it, despite the fact this chapter was by far one of the worst I've written in a long time.
Total word count for the #JustWriteIt competition is 9524
-Kat
