The Stolen Crown

Jake Woodward(3)

      The way she looked at me was something I had never seen in any of the girls in my kingdom. She was elegant, beautiful, and the caramel, brown eyes she looked at me with pierced my soul. I tried to keep her calm when talking to her, but nothing seemed to be working. She looked at me with so much anger and I wish I knew how to change that. All the words I had said to her just seemed wrong no matter how right I tried to make them. All I wanted was for her to see that I wasn't going to hurt her. I didn't want anything to go wrong.

      I just wanted to feel safe again. If I tried to move towards her, she would move away. I don't know why, but that hurt me so much. I had never seen someone so scared of me like that. I didn't expect anything less since she called my name out like it was a curse. It didn't cross my mind that this was the kingdom that had such hatred towards my name either. I tried to keep my distance but it just seemed like she would rather see me dead. I didn't like that either. I had become determined to change that and make things different. The real question though, was how?

      I stood up and out of her fort hoping that she would see I wasn't a bad guy, but before I did that, of course I said something wrong again. I hadn't realized what I said until it was too late. Trying to get personal with a girl I don't even know was a really bad decision for me. I should have been smarter, but for some reason I took a leap and went for it. I thought maybe, somehow, I'd be able to make a new friend. In my kingdom, all the women worshipped me and all the men wanted to be me. Consider me lucky, I suppose.

      I figured that's how it would be anywhere. I understand I'm a stranger, but I was trying to be nice. I guess she didn't see me that way, or at least I don't think. I'm hoping at one point I can change her mind and show her I truly care about all. I thought running away from my kingdom would give me a better opportunity to a new life. Getting out of there was one of the hardest things I had done in a while. I just feel like now I'm trapped in something else, and I'm not exactly sure how to get out of it. In the end, I guess I was wrong and should have thought about my outcome a little better. 

      She began to walk towards the kingdom and I couldn't help but follow her. I didn't intend to did this as a way of stalking, but I wanted to be around someone else. It made me feel safer. As I had began to follow her, I heard what almost sounded like footsteps. It almost seemed like hundreds of footsteps. I looked to her and noticed she had heard it too. I wasn't completely sure what to do, but I knew I had a knife on me. I'm sure I could put that to use if it was necessary. It took a lot of gazing and a lot of intense breathing but eventually she had me walk closer to her. I didn't understand the feeling in my stomach but it was all too much to bare for me.

      So many thoughts crossed my mind. I ran in the middle of the night. No one should have known that I had left till the next morning. Honestly, it could have been even later because everyone in my kingdom knows I don't wake up till mid-day. I could have swore I would have been okay, but apparently not. My heart starts to race even more then when she approached me, but all I could do was stare at her, and she looked back. She didn't take her eyes off me. Once hearing those footsteps coming closer, the way she looked into the woods. I was so unsure of what she had seen. She looked at me with such horror after hearing everything, I was so clueless and needed to know what she saw.

      I couldn't see anything. No matter how hard I looked into the woods, there was nothing. It was getting dark and the way the leaves draped over each other completely blocked what little sun was left to get through. I was about to walk farther into the woods, but I was stopped. She grabbed me tightly, but it almost seemed as though she was trying to run too, but she didn't. Every second felt like her grip was getting tighter, but it was so gentle it didn't harm me at all. She kept squeezing me for what seemed like forever. I wasn't sure what I should do, so I wrapped one arm around her. I was worried that it would startle her, but I guess it didn't. She looked at me again, but this time, she looked relieved. Her mouth perked open just a little and that's when I realized she had something to say.