Young Royals continuation

Chapter 3

One more day. One more day was all he needed to endure before he could see Simon again. It was all he found himself thinking about through his routine. As he ate breakfast he was reminded of their first conversation, divided by the plates of food offered by the Hillerska canteen. The hours he spent laying in bed brought him back to the night he had slept with Simon in his arms. Wilhelm lay in the tranquil setting of his room, embracing the calm before the storm that consisted of a crowd of workers who were designated to Wilhelm to prepare him for the next day; his first public appearance since the holidays had begun.

One aide followed by another, each with their own individual roles that would all come together to produce a polished version of the boy Wilhelm had become in the winter break. After hours of work, Wilhelm was finally left in peace. All his supplies, uniform, textbooks, and notes lay neatly in piles around him. He felt overwhelmed, and could feel the familiar drop in his stomach as his heart rate increased.

"How am I going to get through this? How do I avoid seeing him, when it's the one thing I want most to do?"

The panic within him rose steadily as his mind raced around with every scenario that could possibly occur the next day. He didn't know what he would do without Simon by his side. He longed for his support, his embrace. He found himself struggling to calm down, so he raced to the bathroom to splash cold water on himself, hoping it would make a difference. It didn't.

He was drowning in his thoughts. The faces of all the people he had lost were flashing in his vision, and he wondered briefly if he had ever hallucinated like this in any of his other panic attacks. Wilhelm's heart was pounding, his legs trembling. He felt suffocated, and the mountains of supplies enveloping him only added to the choking feeling that was close to subduing Wilhelm completely.

He closed his eyes, and was only met with the face of Erik, the face of Simon, the face of his mother, the face of Felice...

"Felice!" he suddenly remembered. Wilhelm tried desperately to recall where he had put his phone. With shaking hands, he roughly dialled Felice's number, and prayed for her to pick up.

"Hello? Wille?" Wilhelm heard through the speaker.

He felt overcome with relief, but it was not enough to end the fear building up in him.
He tried desperately to get a sentence out, but he was struggling to breathe, the words building up and choking him with every attempt he made.

"Wille? Are you okay?" Felice said

"...No!" He was able to splutter out.

He mustered the strength to call for help, but having been accustomed for so long to keeping his feelings to himself he couldn't for the life of him work out how.

"Wilhelm, calm down. Sit on your bed and take deep breaths."

Wilhelm followed her instruction, and found himself slowly calming after about ten minutes of breathing. He took one final deep breath before picking up the phone again.

"Hello? Felice? Thank you, it worked. I don't know what happened, I was just thinking about school tomorrow and-"

"Wilhelm, it's okay. You're obviously going to be stressed about tomorrow. I can help more if you need it. Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes, much better. Thanks, seriously. I should go now."

"Are you sure? Do you need anything else?"

"Yes, Felice don't worry, I'll be fine. Thanks again."

"Wille-"

And with that, he shut the call and reassured himself he'd be fine. After all, it was what he'd gotten used to doing.

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Hey hope you enjoyed that chapter. I know anxiety is something many people do struggle with and it's something I struggle with too, so I wanted to take the chance to focus on it for this chapter. Have a great day and thanks for reading :)