GLIMMER AND DECAY [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 2

THE NIGHT HAD FALLEN deep, and everyone in the castle had gone to sleep. Well, except for the crown princess.

Arianna swirled her glass of wine around as she basked under the glow of the moon. She had fallen asleep a few moments ago, however, a familiar nightmare woke her up.

Arianna wasn't sure if it was because of the nostalgic emotions that her old room was triggering, or if it was something else she couldn't comprehend herself.

"I wonder if you're still alive, Gracie," she muttered to herself, her gaze focused on the starry night outside.

She took small sips from her glass, letting the bitter taste of the kingdom's finest wine quench her drying throat. Anxiety sipped through her skin, but Arianna wasn't allowing anything to kill her soul again. She was already done with her penitence a few years back, and it was time for the world to move on.

"Sister." Her jaw hardened as she heard her familiar voice whispering through the wind.

Arianna shut her eyes tightly. She held her glass firmly, and she slowly placed it down on the table beside her. She was trying to avoid throwing the glass across the room.

The crown princess held her hands together and placed them on her lap. She took deep, slow breaths, and slowly released them, an attempt to calm the pounding on her chest.

"Calm down, Arianna. You have done this before," her soft voice convinced her body and mind, and eventually, she slowly calmed down.

This was something she learned during her journey to find herself—the real journey she took when she left their kingdom. It was a secret trip she requested from her father.

And since they couldn't hide her disappearance from their people, the king decided to announce it as a journey he bestowed upon her eldest and heiress.

The wind blew in from the small cracks of her window, soothing the uneasiness building on her body. Due to her wine intake, and the comforting coldness of the wind, she eventually dozed off.

"SISTER! PLEASE, HELP ME!"

Arianna stirred from her sleep as she heard a familiar voice of a child screaming. Her green eyes widened, her pupils shaking as she couldn't recognize where she was.

A frown decorated her forehead as she recalled what she did last night. And the last thing she could remember was falling asleep on the couch of her room. But instead of the couch, she found herself lying unconscious on the cold, hard ground.

She was wearing the same nightdress she wore to sleep, and her white slippers. But the place where she was right now wasn't the same room she had been last night.

"Where am I?" She pulled herself up to stand as she assessed her surroundings.

Arianna looked around, curiosity and fear crawling underneath her skin as she felt déjà vu from the scenery around her. She wasn't sure where she was, what she believes is that she's having a nightmare again.

There were trees in different shapes and sizes surrounding her, and a one-way path ahead of her. She turned around, hoping for a way back that may lead her home, but there was nothing but darkness behind her.

The eerie sound coming everywhere petrified her. She was unsure whether to stay where she was and try to pinch herself awake, or to trace the path ahead of her.

With no other choice, Arianna decided to walk straight ahead to an endless path filled with dark smoke. She hugged her arms tightly, her perfectly trimmed nails digging against her porcelain skin.

"What. . ." She would gasp and flinch each time she would hear soft snapping sounds coming from the small branches she was stepping onto.

"Stop scaring yourself, Arianna," she scolded herself as her hands squeezed her arms.

She took a sharp breath and stopped on her tracks when she heard a rustle coming from the right side of the forest. Arianna's green eyes shook in terror as she heard faint yet heavy footsteps approaching closer to her.

She held her breath, and the hairs on her skin stood as fear ran down her spine. It was a silhouette of—what seems to be—a human. Its shadow looked so thick from the fog that she couldn't recognize if it was a man or a woman.

Her head began to throb painfully, and her heart pounded on her chest as panic filled her senses. She watched with labored breaths as the figure went closer to her, but before she could see the owner of the footsteps, Arianna sprinted.

Adrenaline had pulled her from her frozen state and away from whoever it was. She ran towards the other side of the forest as she tried to avoid the person following her. Her head was filled with fear and only fear as she went past the trees.

Due to her panicked state, Arianna was unable to feel the sharp branches of the trees grazing against her skin.

"No," she muttered under her breath when she felt someone getting closer to her. She panted heavily as she desperately ran for her life.

"Sister! Save me!"

Arianna instinctively stopped from her tracks as she heard her familiar voice. She instantly looked back to where the voice came from, and she felt an unpleasant emotion on her chest as she saw those distinctive green eyes and dark hair that had always looked at her lovingly.

"Graciella," she whispered into the air.

It was the same image she had been seeing for the past years, except that Graciella looked battered. Arianna felt her legs shake, then she fell on the ground. The sight of her younger sister with her tattered dress, and a couple of bruises covering her arms and face struck her chest.

"No," she gasped for air as tears welled in her eyes. "My sister. . ." She cried as she took in her little sister's beaten image. Arianna caught her breath when she saw her smile.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" Graciella's words stung her heart.

'This isn't what I wanted,' is what she wanted to tell her. But nothing was coming out of her mouth.

Graciella took a step forward, and the smile on her face slowly turned into a sinister one as she went closer to her sister.

"You're a selfish person." Each second Graciella would utter a word, her image would change.

Arianna felt her heart drop as her little sister gradually became a soulless corpse. Graciella stopped in front of her sister, her face an inch away from Arianna's.

"You wanted me dead."