30 Days As A Substitute Prince

Chapter 14

Day 14 of being the substitute prince

 

I think I might be going crazy. I’m not sure if it’s something hereditary, but I shall surely write to my sister so I can find out.

 

I’ve been seeing a woman--a quite beautiful woman and no one else knows of her existence but me. She appears at times when I’m alone, and I know it is impossible for me to imagine her, but how else could I describe it?

 

The only person to prove my sanity is Joshua, as he is the only one who I have shown, but he claims that he did not see her.

 

I’ve been rather worried, and two days of questioning my mental state haven’t been doing much good either.

 

I try to stay away from the princess. She questions my actions, but it is only because I do not wish for her to discover what I’ve recently discovered, as well as all the other reasons why I have to keep her at arm’s length.

 

Maybe this is good. Maybe I will only grow madder, and soon this will all be a blur to me. But every time I close my eyes, I see Heather.

 

I do not feel safe around her anymore. She is always lingering--watching, and she knows what she does to me. She knows that  she scares me. 

 

I hope she will disappear soon. I do not understand why she appears or what she wants, but I hope it will be over by the time my stay here is through.

 

Signed,

Chad.

***

Chad sighed as he recorded another journal entry, this one being the most serious one yet. They have become a habit of his morning every time he wakes up and they surely did the job at helping him express his feelings. 

Especially this one in particular, where he couldn't speak to anyone without them thinking he's losing his mind. 

He slowly sketched the perfect image of the woman, crouching in the garden and smiling up at him. She didn’t seem dangerous, but she was surely a mystery.

And she isn’t real, he thought before quickly shaking his head to be rid of the thought. But what if she is real and…

No. She couldn’t be. Joshua was staring directly at where Chad saw her, and he said that he didn’t see her. Also, Aria knew no one by the name of Heather, so she couldn’t be real.

He simply had to accept the fact that he wasn’t as normal as he thought he was. Something was going on in his mind, and the sooner he realises and seeks help, the better for him.

Sighing, Chad closed his journal after spending the past ten minutes sketching the image, before spending another staring at it. This couldn’t be healthy, and he knew it. So, he decided to get himself ready for the day and try to forget it all.

Maybe he could ride a horse to the coast today, or even deep in the forest to that beautiful cabin where Dania used to take him at times when the town-life got too rough.

But how could he? He was now 'Zadkiel' after all, and Zadkiel wouldn’t know anything about Oryn. Maybe he could have someone accompany him, playing it off as ‘wanting to see more of the country’?