Love is Poison

Chapter 1: Sierra

I touch the necklace hanging on my neck. It's a little bottle on a chain. I let the tears come down my face.

Ten years. Ten years since Savannah was murdered.

"As you can tell-- Princess, are you paying attention?" Emily asks.

"What?" I ask, bolting to attention.

"I know that today is the anniversary of Princess Savannah's death, Princess Sierra," my tutor, Emily, says. "But that doesn't mean you can neglect your school work. Ten years ago, your mother and father lost their firstborn child, but they're still able to run a country. All you have to do is listen to my lessons!"

"All you teach me about is previous princesses of Indur that found love and ended up slaving for stupid boys," I grumble.

Emily continues with the lesson despite my obvious annoyance.

Torwards the end of the lesson, a knock sounds. "Come in," I say politely. A maid comes into the room and curtsies to me and hands Emily a letter.

Emily opens the letter and reads it.

"It seems that you have some suitors to meet, Princess Sierra," Emily says.

Ugh.

Once a princess turns sixteen, she must meet suitors who hope to win her heart so they can marry her. I turned sixteen a week ago.

Emily starts walking out of the room so I soon follow her, lifting up my bright blue dress as we walk downstairs.

We weave through the endless halls of the castle until we finally reach the Main Room. Standing there are five boys.

One has bright blonde hair but a smirk as if he knows he'll win me over. I roll my eyes and his smirk disappears. Another has hair so black it looks like it is coal that was turned into black straw. He seems closed off. I know one thing, if I have to get married, I want someone open who will trust me with everything. One had hair so blonde it looks white. He stares at my breasts. Nope. Another one has brown hair that is curly. He seems nice, sort of. The last one has brown hair too. He smiles warmly. I smile back at him. The smirking boy gapes at him.

"Let's get this over with," I groan, sitting down next to my mother who is meeting the men along with me.

"Sierra!" She exclaims, kicking me under the table.

First to sit down is Mr. Smirk while the other boys wait on couches in the back of the room.

He bows to my mother and I saying, "I am Tanner Dinkins."

"Next!" I say, looking at the boys in the back.

"Sierra," my mother says firmly. "You should at least consider him."

"Mother," I say firmly. "This is my choice isn't it?" My mother grumbles something unintelligible. "Sorry Tanner, but no thanks."

The next one to come up is the closed off boy. He introduces himself as Cole Santry. I snort a little. "Is something funny?" He asks, showing no expression.

"Oh nothing, just that your hair looks like coal and your name is Cole," I say. I realize it was the wrong thing to say. "Oh, I didn't mean it offensively. I actually quite like your hair." Okay, I don't but I can't be rude.

He chuckles a little. "I guess it is quite the coincidence," he says.

We talk more but he still seems closed off. My mother looks to me after we're finished talking. I nod and she slips him an invitation to the ball where I will finally choose who to marry. If it was my choice, I'd choose nobody but I know, for the sake of Indur, that I must choose someone. So, I'm keeping my options open.

I talk to the other boys as well but they don't really stick out in any way. I say no to the one who stares at my breasts. I say yes to the sort of nice one and the one who smiles warmly.

After about an hour, I go back to my room and collapse onto my bed. Normally, I push my feelings away but today, I let them into my heart, crying and crying.

I cry a little longer and finally realize something that I've never realized before.

I'm scared.

I'm scared for my mother and father, my eleven year old brother, my nine year old sister who my mother had after Savannah's death, and I'm scared for me. We've been hunted ever since Savannah died. I've been shot at three times in the garden, my father has had a boulder an inch away from falling on him, my mother has been shot at with arrows eight times but thankfully she has only been impaled twice and both times were in her shoulder, Timmy has almost been run over with a truck on a trip once, and even little Serena has been kidnapped but thankfully the guards got her back before anything serious could happen.

I hear my door slowly open and I turn to see Serena coming into my room, with her little blonde locks tied up in a ponytail. Serena looks nothing like the rest of my family and sometimes I wonder if she's even related to us. She comes over to me and silently sits down next to me, resting her head on my shoulder. Even though she never knew Savannah, she knows how hard this on us.

"Sierra," she whispers, looking up at me with her dark blue eyes. "What was Savannah like?"

"Well," I say, smiling as I think of the girl who was my role model when I was a little girl. "She was very trusting and mischievous. We would always pull pranks on mother. She was also very humble and kind, always helping others when they needed it. She always knew how to make someone laugh. She was also very pretty. She always dreamed of princes and ballrooms colored blue." I laugh, remembering my older sisters fantasies of true love. "She always hoped for a prince who do anything, anything, for her, no matter the cost. Guess that's what made her too fast to pick. She thought she met this perfect boy when, in reality, he was anything but."

"She sounds amazing," Serena says, yawning.

"Are you tired already?" I ask my little sister. "It's only noon."

She nods, yawning even more. I pick her up and carry her back to her room. I set her down on her bed and place her blanket over her. On the way out, I notice a maid going into Savannah's old room.

That's weird, I think. Nobody is allowed in there.

Instead of alerting any guards, I follow her in. I have to stifle a tear at the sight of my trusting teenage sister's room.

She has a vanity where makeup is spread, looking fresh somehow over ten years of no use. Her blue blanket is perfectly made on her bed.

I almost forget why I came in here until I see the maid again. She goes over to the vanity and grabs some lipstick that was Savannah's favorite and puts some on as carefully as Savannah always did.

How dare she use a dead girl's makeup just like the dead girl herself did!

"Stop right there!" I demand, standing straight and tall.

The maid turns around and I see the fear in her bright brown eyes.

Her familiar bright brown eyes...

"Savannah?" I squeak.