𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑

𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑃𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑆𝐸𝑉𝐸𝑁𝑇𝐸𝐸𝑁

Lorenzo

               I am still awake, it's the middle of the night and somehow I cannot fall asleep, no matter how much I try. So I get up and pull something from my wardrobe to wear.
          It is something simple yet it looks ridiculously good. After changing,
I walk out into the halls. My chamber is on the fourth floor and I headed down to the third floor to go to the library. I have two libraries. One on the third floor and one on the second floor. I got to the third floor, thinking about my father and why he wanted to meet Raeliana himself. He invited her to his royal ball. I know he is up to something and I don't like it all. He is corrupted, evil and dangerous.
           A nasty man who only thinks about himself. I hate him so much that I want to erase him from my memories. I utterly despise him. My father never truly showed me kindness and parental affection. He has always been like this to me. Commanding, evil, no merciful and corrupted by the darkness. Despite all the things he has done in the past to me and to my older brothers, he is still my father. He always overlooked me and it stings. I keep telling myself that father will never change but I somehow have hope that he might. Deep down, he never will.
           Suddenly, I hear someone's voice and I immediately stop walking. It's the voice of a girl, seeking help. I recognize the voice in a heartbeat. It is the voice of Raeliana. I start running to where the voice comes from and when I come closer,
I see her face. The second I saw her, I heard her voice, crying for help. It breaks my heart. She turns around to see me as I get a better view. I see blood on her. She looks mortified, scared and hurt. Damaged and tortured.
            She finally sees me and runs towards me in fear. I opened my arms to her and when she ran into my arms, I hugged her. There's tears in her eyes when she looked up at me. Her blood is on my clothes but I do not care about it as my attention is on her right now and want to know who did this to her. I look down on her and my hand raises up to caress her cheeks gently. Stroking her head with my other hand. She looks down and pulls herself closer to me into my chest.
             After a few minutes, I calmed her down. Her crying stops and I feel her body slowly pull away from me. 

                'Raeliana, who did this to you?' I ask her, wanting to know who did this upon her and decide what I do to them when I catch them. 

                'He is dead.' I hear her whisper as she looks down on the floor. 

                'How?' 

                'I killed him,' she pauses. 'With his own dagger that he used on my body.' My eyes widened. Shocked. I can't believe what I just heard. Especially from her.
I know she doesn't possess any sort of powers yet. An image of her killing someone rushes through my head. 

Terrified of the sight of her killing someone. Her hands is covered with blood. 

         Raeliana looks up with her siren eyes, those eyes might even be deadly to look at. Those blue eyes of her are the heavenly sky. I am stunned. I cannot breathe for a second as my breath felt like it was taken away but came back to me as i am still here and staring at her. My eyes cannot leave hers, she is standing in front of me and I want to hold her more. 

           'Was there any guards outside of your chambers?' I ask her. 

           'They are, but in a deep slumber. The assassin who was sent to kill me, he put them into their sleep.' She responded quickly. 

I look down at her body once more, she is covered in blood. Her body has scars. She doesn't deserve this at all, she is an innocent girl who wants freedom and to live. I must take her to recovery immediately. Raeliana falls down and I catch her right away in my arms, my eyes still deep into hers. 

            'I'm tired,' she says, her eyes closing and I act quickly. Carrying her in my arms as I feel her arms wrap around my neck. Her head is pressed against my chest, slowly passing out. She's losing blood. I run to the recovery room, it takes a few minutes but we get there. I see a woman in a nursing uniform as I open the door. Her eyes fall upon me and when she sees Raeliana in my arms, she gasps and runs towards us in a heartbeat. 

             'Oh, my goodness. What happened to her?' She asks. 

             'No questions now. She needs immediate help and she is losing lots of blood.' I say, walking closer to a bed and carefully laying down Raeliana on her back on it. 

The woman nodded, understanding the situation and she acted fast, she grabbed the medical supplies that she needed for this process. After grabbing all the supplies and putting them down on the table next to her, she looks up at me.

              'Sir, you must go.' 

              'No, I will stay.' I say. 

              'Prince Lorenzo, you must do your duties first. Then, you can come back. I assure you, she is in good hands. I will treat her now so please, leave.' 

I nod, turning around to leave the room. I step outside and I look down after I close the door behind me. Raeliana is in there, laying down and getting help. The memories of my childhood flow around in my head. A sick feeling in my gut. Breathing, picking up and pounding in my chest. My hands are shaking, no. in fact my whole body is. The rest of the world fades away and it's only me standing on the cold floor. I'm panicking. I can't breathe, I clench my right hand against my chest and remember my childhood. The day one of my friends died in my arms, Ophelia.
           She was one of my greatest friends in the entire world and she's gone. I couldn't save her and now, Raeliana. She doesn't deserve this either. Whoever assigned an assassin to kill her, will pay for this and I will not show mercy. Raeliana suffered enough in her. Reality comes back. I don't know how long it's been. I slowly calm down. My breathing is not so heavy anymore. I can breathe now yet the memories are still in my head.
I hear Raeliana cry from the nursery room from pain she has to endure to get healed and she cries louder. I will be there for her when she gets better but for now, I must find this person who assigned an assassin to kill Raeliana.
          After hours of searching, searching for this person and waking up the knights who were in the halls outside of Raeliana's chamber. I still haven't found this person but what i know, this assassin was assigned by someone really good at hiding.
          I called Darren and Kazuyuki to come as soon as I left the nursery room and they came immediately. The three of us are in Raeliana's chamber and looking at the dead body on the floor. The dead assassin who hurt her. He should be grateful that I didn't get my hands on him or otherwise he would be corrupted alive by my powers. Darren coughs, I roll my eyes to be ready for what he is going to say the next second. 

         'So, what should we do with the body? We cannot just leave his body here.' Darren says, crossing his arms over his chest and looking down on the body once more. 

         'A funeral sounds nice.' Kazuyuki joins in and makes a suggestion for what we should do with the body. I scoff, and my eyebrow twitches in annoyance. 

         'He doesn't deserve a funeral.' I say bluntly and Kazuyuki opens his mouth to say something in response but Darren is faster. 

         'He is dead. A dead corpse is here and you don't want a funeral for him?' Darren says, he looks surprised and I shoot him a glare. This man who is dead doesn't deserve a funeral. Not in my castle. He hurt her. Raeliana. Kazuyuki opens his mouth to say something and this time he says it, and it catches my breath. 

         'It reminds you of her. Doesn't it?' Only Kazuyuki and I were close with Ophelia when we were younger. The three of us were always seen together and close to another. Kazuyuki is my best friend and Ophelia was my soulmate. I found comfort in her when she was here. Now, she is no longer alive. 

          'Not now, Kazuyuki.' I pause for a moment. 'This man doesn't deserve a funeral and that's final.' 

They nod in response, agreeing with me. Darren opens his mouth and asks about the dead corpse on the floor. 

           'So, what do we do with his body?'
My eyes shot straight at Darren and answered quickly. 

           'We burn him where there is nothing left of him but ashes.' There is a hint of shock in their faces as I said that and their eyes widened. After a few seconds have passed, Kazuyuki is the one who steps up and nods. Then, Darren does the same thing.