(jaylor au) clandestine meetings in beautiful rooms

Nothing Good Starts In A Getaway Car

When it is abundantly clear that my father, the King is dead, I slip through the crowd and find my way back to my room.
"Taylor-"
Joe is at my side the moment I walk through the door.
"The King is dead," I mutter breathlessly. "Someone... tried to shoot me and he saved me. But he is dead. That means..." Everyone in the room knows exactly what that means. I can't say the words out loud because it makes me feel sick. What it means is that I'm no longer a Princess.
I will go to bed a Queen.
"It means that we move up the plan," Joe tells me, his hand on my waist. "It means that we leave. Tonight."
"Tonight? We're not even one hundred per cent ready yet-" Alexander starts. But there's panic in his eyes too. I'm not ready to be Queen, and I can tell from the way he's started pacing in front of me, that he's not ready either.
"We've got no choice! This is the last opportunity we've got to leave." I hiss. "This is the final moment of freedom, and we've got no other options. If we don't leave, you're going to be King, and I will be Queen."
He doesn't want that. I can see that his hands are shaking, trembling at his sides.
"We haven't even got a plan yet," Joe mentions gently.
"There's going to be no need for a plan, we won't get a future if we don't leave tonight," I tell him. I can't get the image of my father, his blood-stained chest and grey face. "We've got no choice but to make it to one of the safe houses by dawn."
Joe nods, his hand clutching onto me firmly. "If that's what we have to do, then we'll make it happen. We've got a few hours."

Austin appears in a moment, his face cold. "They've found him."
They've found his body, and they know that he's dead. They know that his corpse is lying on the floor, his blood staining the rug.
"It's now or never," Austin tells us, and there is relief in the fact that he is on the same page as me. We've got no choice if we want a future if we want to live. "We have to leave soon, or there will be nothing we can do to escape this."
Abigail is the next to arrive at my room, tears in her eyes.
"Taylor, you've got to get out of here."
"We," I tell her. "We've all got to get out of here." I nod. There is too much emotion flooding through my head, and I refuse to let myself think about my father. About the fact that he is gone, and I will never see him again. And all along, he was never the enemy. He would have let me leave. He knew it all along, and he never, not once tried to stop me.
"Can we organise everything with enough time?" Alexander asks. "The car, the things we need..."
"It'll be a rush," Joe nods. "But because everyone is all distracted with the King's death, I think that we'll be able to do it."
"We're heading to the one by Alexander's kingdom," Joe discusses. "There's a safe house just on the outskirts of town, and I think that we'll be able to make it by sunrise. Alexander is calling all the guards from the streets to the palace, to ensure that they will not bother us." Joe has the plan memorised like the back of his hand, and I am relieved about that. "Taylor's not going to be able to help with the preparations because she will be helping her mother with the funeral arrangements." He pauses, making sure that everyone understands what the plan is. "Alexander, you're in charge of getting the vehicle ready. I will help you with that, while also collecting the map, and other things we need from our combat room." Alex nods his head. "Abigail, you and the others are to get clothes and food, leaving them in the stables. Austin, you're just going to help Taylor survive the next few hours. Then, at five o'clock, we are all meeting downstairs, in the passageway, where we will follow it to the stables, and then to the vehicle. From there, we hope like hell that we get out." Joe sighs. "And if anyone is lost in the process, the others keep going. No matter what. No one turns back."
The thought had never occurred to me that we might not make it all out. The thought that it wouldn't go smoothly hadn't run through my mind - but it's too late now. Far, far too late. We don't have any choice.

There's a knock on the door, and I feel the fear flood into my mind.
"Comfort me," I hiss, willing the tears to come.
Thankfully, it doesn't take much to make the tears come, and Alexander immediately takes over Joe's position behind me.
The door opens, and immediately everyone puts on their act. Providing comfort, stroking my back, and holding me close.
"Taylor, darling." I had hoped that it wouldn't be my mother. I had hoped that it would be someone else. But when I hear her voice, I instantly go tense.
But still, I fake it.
Because if this is going to work, then I am going to need to fake everything for a few hours.