Am I Still Dreaming? ~ Kingdom of the Immortals

Am I Still Dreaming? {13}

-13-

By midnight, Albert had forced me to drink all of the elixir that he had brought. I had never felt more full of energy in my life, I felt like an army of one-thousand men - I felt invincible. The chains kept me from moving, I watched as Albert paced back and forth in front of me. 

“I don’t understand!” 

“What?” I ask eagerly, I almost felt like I was drunk. At the same time, I was completely aware of everything going on, my senses heightened. 

“They are not all dead yet!” He yells in frustration.

I wonder who is still alive. He told me that Niklaus, the Queen and King were dead. I watched him kill Bonnie, but those were all the immortals I knew. Except Zoe, unless she drank the elixir before her birthday. 

“You know something, I can sense it,” Albert looks at me suspiciously. 

“I know nothing! I swear!” 

He narrows his eyes at me, almost giving the appearance of a serpent now, “If you don’t tell me, I will bring Niklaus back and torture him, killing him slowly. Then, when he is on the brink of death I’ll stab you. After he dies, I’ll make sure your death is slow and painful.” 

I cringe of the thought. I can’t let him hurt Niklaus. If he does kill him like that, he will definitely cross over to Silent Creek! I sigh, “There is another Princess.” 

“What?” 

“There is another Princess in the castle. She wasn’t an immortal, but she could have become one.” 

I am a terrible person who deserves to die. First, I rat out Niklaus for wanting to kill Albert and now I basically give him an invitation to kill Zoe. If anyone should rot in Silent Creek it should be me. I should be killed slowly and painfully.  

“Now was that so hard, Amber?” He smirks and leaves me for a moment to go up the creaky stairs. I wonder if he is going to get Zoe and kill her in front of me. He returns a minute later with a pair of handcuffs. It takes me a second to form a plan to try to redeem myself, as soon as the shackles are off my wrists and ankles I disappear knowing that if I hesitate in the slightest he will try to place the handcuffs on me. 

I appear in the castle, but I don’t have a spare second to marvel at this new ability. The fate of all immortals is a stake, I call out, “ZOE!” 

I don’t have a doubt that Albert will follow me so I wait for him to appear while I hide with a frying pan from the kitchen in my clenched fist. I need to buy some time for myself by rendering him unconscious since I know that if I was able to lock him up he could just escape. When he appears I whack him in the back of the head with the frying pan as hard as I can. He collapse to the ground, I hit him one more time just to be safe. 

Then, I head to the dungeons to the bed rooms to the King’s office, but I can’t find Zoe anywhere. I decide to try the garden. I find some empty bottles of the immortal juice, following them I push further into the garden and I hear a whisper, “Ambrose? You’re alive?” 

“Listen,” I frame another spell book. “We don’t have a lot of time left, but if everything goes as planned I want you to keep this book. Albert burned the original, and I want you to use this to protect yourself. Also, tell Niklaus I-” 

“I saw your parents,” She interrupts me. 

“What?” I look at her. And I mean really look at her. Zoe changed. Instead of being the lanky girl that I saw only a few days ago now she was a tall curvy young woman. Her brown eyes and golden ringlets were the same, but she looked more mature. 

“I became an immortal too. I started to drink the elixir - Niklaus made sure that I was able to have a batch that wasn’t contaminated before he died. My psychic abilities were heightened and I can see ghosts who have crossed over to Silent Creek! Your parents told me that they were making sure immortals that were affected by the tainted elixir didn’t cross over. They have been closely watching my parents and Niklaus,” She explains. 

I hand her the spell book, “Tell everyone that I love them.” 

“Ambrose-” 

“I have to fight him, Zoe, I have to save the immortals.” 

She brings me into a hug and whispers, “Please be careful, Ambrose.” 

I return the castle, but Albert’s body is not where I left it. I have to kill him before he kills me. I look around frantically when I hear a voice from behind me, “Looking for someone, Amber?” I feel something pierce my chest and I let out a shriek. Turn to face my enemy, I see that he has a gun in his left hand and a small bag in the other. “This is where your heart will go when I am through with you.” 

I stay downstairs knowing that if I go in the King’s office, Albert will follow me and revive the corpses of Niklaus and the King only to make their death more painful and slow. I run to the kitchen, but before I can grab a butcher’s knife, Albert appears behind me and stabs me with a steak knife in the back. I don’t dare to turn around, but I snap his neck. Within the last seconds of his life, Albert sends the knife straight into his heart causing me to die with him. Knowing that I am running out of time as my skin grows cold I chant the spell I memorized to save the immortals. 

“We all crave the freedom

We believe the kings of the sky posses

The freedom to fly, the freedom to soar

Look down on things below

From the pedestal of wind and wings.

“Many times I hear from naive tongues

I wish I could fly like the birds,

Flying over trees and oceans

Look at everything in macroscopic light.

“Never do I hear from others

What my heart tells me.

“I crave the simplicity of instinct

Innate ability to do all required

Rather than the freedom of flight

I look for a set pattern of motions

That my heart can be content with

I look to knowing how to create

Without the hassle of learning

I look to knowing when to die

Without the freedom of life.” 

I can feel the change in the air, the immortals are going back to reality, but I feel like I am being sucked up by a vacuum that is ten times my size. They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. The last imagine I saw a green light that shines on the smiling faces of my parents.