𝐊𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬

𝟶𝟶𝟸: 𝕬𝖕𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖍𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘

━━━━━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━━━━━

Cheryl stares at the princess through the bars of the dungeon cell.

Sitting on her cot, Toni glares back at Cheryl, silent and defiant, her arms crossed.

Cheryl could've sworn she heard scraping sounds as if someone had been trying to dig her way out to freedom.

The redhead glances around the dungeon, seeing a spoon sitting next to Toni.

"Bring me that spoon," She says, pointing to it.

The princess doesn't want to, shaking her head. "I'm not done eating."

Cheryl knows that is a lie and her patience is growing thin. "You are now. Bring me the spoon."

The princess crosses her arms, leaning back against the wall. "Come in here and get it, if you want it so badly."

Cheryl grumbles, frustrated. "You know what?" With a grim look on her face, she keys in the code, slides open the bars, and marches right up to the princess.

Toni's eyes go wide but she doesn't budge. Brashly, she even reaches for the spoon as Cheryl tries to get it.

Because of Cheryl's training, her reflexes are faster and she snatches it out of her hand. "I put you in the dungeon as punishment. Don't think for a second that this is as bad as it gets."

"If you were going to hurt me, you would've done it by now," Toni says, bolder than ever.

Cheryl quirks an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

The redhead takes the princess's hand and squeezes, crushing her uncalloused hand in hers.

Toni flinches, trying to pull her hand away. "Ow! Stop!"

"Don't test me, princess. That was more fun than it should've been."

To Cheryl's satisfaction, Toni only glares at her as she leaves, locking the door behind herself.

Cheryl returns to the observation room to check on the video feeds. Luckily, none of the cameras in the palace reveal anything interesting.

As she's done every day for the last week, Cheryl checks the news sites for any stories about Princess
Antoinette's kidnapping.

Just like every other day, she finds nothing.

Queen Esmeralda must have put a media blackout on her daughter's disappearance.

I must find out how the palace is responding to the disappearance. Cheryl thinks to herself.

Donning a hat and oversized sunglasses, she drives several miles into town. She tucks her old BMW beater-a calculated choice of vehicle-behind a small restaurant.

They're in an alley, she spots four shady-looking people talking in a huddle. The squat and ugly man gives Cheryl a long gauging scare as she heads into the restaurant.

In the diner, she checks the paper but the only information in it is a gossip column about what tropical locale the princess may have jetted off to.

Suddenly, Cheryl's raising her head as a woman begins to speak to her. She glimpses a nametag on her uniform.

"Morning. How may I help you?" The tall blonde woman asks.

Cheryl thinks quickly on her feet, she has to find out something, anything.

The girl has been good at facades and deceiving people all her life so she puts on her best smile and lies through her teeth.

"Hi. I'm a journalism student from Luxembourg University. My editor wants me to learn about the royalty around here if I can?"