The Crazy Tyrant Wants To Kill Me

7

I collapsed to the floor at Cedric's feet, gasping for air. I rubbed my burning neck, touching the reddened skin. When I finally caught my breath, realization sunk in. Had I just hit the emperor with a flower vase? 

I dared myself to glance up at him. His hair was damp with blood, streaks of red running down his forehead. 

My brain urged me to run before he shoved me against the wall and suffocated me for real this time. But my legs felt like sloppy jelly, refusing to move. It was as if all the energy had been drained from my body. 

"Ha..." Cedric ran a hand through his hair, staring down at his hand dripping with blood. The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as he meet my horrified gaze. 

What was he going to do with me now? Drown me in a pot of acid? Wrap his hands around my neck and suffocate me until my eyes bulged out of the sockets? 

"Why are you looking at me like that? Scared I'll kill you? Scared you'll never see your beloved Theo again?" Cedric scowled. 

"I-I think there's some misunderstanding," I stammered, fumbling over my words. "I'm not J-Julia. I'm Amanda."

"Seriously? That's exactly what you said five years ago."

I felt my heart stop. I stared at Cedric; his dark eyes that resembled an endless abyss, the faint scar that ran along his high-bridged nose and his sharp jawline. Was he a part of my past life? But... I couldn't remember anything. Not a single thing.

Cedric cupped my chin, his eyes piercing into mine. "I won't let you leave me again this time, Julia. We will get married next week on the 9th, and no one will be able to stop us."

"What?" Getting married? To the emperor? This bloodthirsty, ruthless emperor?! Who knew what he would do to me. Why was he doing this? 

I thought about how the guard killed Violetta without batting an eye. How Cedric didn't hesitate to kill an innocent two year old. How I would be dead right now, my head separated from my neck if I didn't look like Julia.

But what scared me the most was if I really was Julia. Could it really be a coincidence that we looked the same? 

I need to find the truth. I need my memories back. And I also need to escape this place before I got entangled in a deadly marriage with the emperor.