The Rebel (#Wattys2016)

8. Must Get Out

"You like to play games."

Prince Skander looked at his companion. With her arm interlocking his, Adeen looked back curiously. They continued walking down the stairs to the gardens. Adeen closed her eyes as she inhaled the smell of flowees and wet dirt. She wondered if the Queen had told Skander about her love for the outdoors.

"I have a little game prepared. It's quite simple, actually. I ask you something, you answer." The formal eighteen year old prince was gone, leaving a playful eighteen year old boy.

"What happens after I answer?"

Adeen stopped and looked at him. Her hands subconsciously soothed her dress' fabric. The prince's hands stayed at his sides, relaxed. His blue eyes were amused.

"You get to ask me a question I have to answer honestly. Any question."

Adeen didn't like having to answer the Prince's questions, but if she could ask any question, then maybe it was worth it.

"Sounds fair. And we just stand here meanwhile?"

Adeen gestured at her surroundings, at the stairs and at the trees. Skander chuckled.

"And we do anything you want meanwhile."

Adeen thought about it.

"One would think a Prince would like control. One would think he'd have every second of his first date planned."

"I like control. Which is why I'm trying to stop liking it. I am trying to loose control."

"How is that coming along for you?"

Skander smiled. "I believe it's my turn to ask a question. What do you want to do? We could go hunting, or riding."

Adeen immediately turned to Skander as his last words left his mouth.

"You have horses?" Skander smiled and nodded. "I've never ridden before, but I sure would like to."

Skander grinned and offered her his arm. His navy blue shirt failed at hiding his muscles, and when Adeen interlocked her arm with his, she could feel every bit of muscle that had been carefully trained. He led her into the stables, where he ordered to prepare two horses and gave her a pair of pants. Once she had put them on, Adeen smiled a smile that hadn't been on her face for as long as she could remember. Skander did the same when he saw her.

"So." He sat on a bench and she did the same. The Prince looked at the Palace, which was far, but still the centre of attention. "The horses should be ready at any minute, but I think we should start playing."

"I thought we had already begun." Adeen smiled teasingly at him. "My turn." Adeen's black eyes turned to the Palace. "What is your favorite color?"

Skander chuckled and she turned to him. Although he was laughing now, Adeen smiled. "You can ask the Crown Prince of Illea anything, and you ask me my favorite color?" His voice sounded differently when he smiled. Adeen liked the change. She stared at him seriously and he sighed with a smile on his face. "Blue. I like to imagine some day I'll just get on a boat, navigate into the sea, and never come back. And I like to believe that I'll be surrounded by that blue that can only be seen in the middle of the ocean." Adeen looked at him, and she inched closer. He smiled. "What is your favorite color?"

Adeen had to turn at the palace. She looked at all the colors there, and tried to decide which she liked the most. "Red." Skander looked down and smiled. He chuckled. "What?" Adeen smiled, but was irritated. "What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing. It's just... of course your favorite color is red."

"What do you mean of course?"

"If I ask any of the girls there." He pointed at the palace. "I guarantee most of them will say pink. Or blue, to make it look as if they agree with me. But you said red. You are different." His blue eyes scanned hers for an answer. Prince Skander was trying to solve the puzzle Adeen Orson was. "I will ignore the three questions you asked that I answered and ask just one question. Why red?"

Adeen shrugged. "It's the color of blood." Skander turned to look at her. She laughed and covered her face with her palms. Heat rose from her neck. "I'm not a psycho. Blood means life. We can't live without blood. It courses through our veins every second of our lives, and even when we don't want to know, it screams at us that we're alive. That we're still kicking. Red is the color of fire. Of a warm fireplace that awaits after a day's work. Of the heat that cooks our food and makes us sleepy."

A servant came and told them their horses were ready. Prince Skander thanked him, but kept quiet as he helped Adeen into her white horse and then got into his black one. Adeen tried to ignore his long stare. He told her the basics, but it felt as if he was reciting out of a manual, because he didn't say anything about himself, or ask another question.

"You are different." Were his first words, as quiet as they were.

"My turn." Adeen spoke, deciding whatever Skander had gone through was gone. "Why do you want to run away so badly?"

"I like control, and I want to loose it. I like my life here, so I want to make a life somewhere else."

"So you like hurting yourself." Saying Adeen was mildly concerned was an understatement.

"No. I just like to feel alive. I like to feel that red blood roaming through my veins at a hundred miles per hour." He looked sideways at her. "The Palace, the life here, the control. They are just drugs. They numb me, put me in a haze, and make me forget what the real problems are." Prince Skander shrugged. "I guess I want to run away because I like my life, and I want to love it." He smiled at his hands, who were resting on his lap. "It doesn't even make sense."

"No. It actually makes a lot of sense." Adeen answered.

"Have you ever starved?" Skander deadpanned.

"Define starved."

"I mean, have you ever been hungry?"

"I was born hungry, and if I wouldn't have been Selected, I would have probably died hungry." Now it was Adeen's turn to try to solve Skander. She tried to tell herself she wanted to know about him because she wanted to spy. "You care so much about Illea. Your father couldn't care less. You want so much more. You are selfless, and brave. And you are overall perfect." Skander looked at Adeen, his blue eyes asking where it was going. "But nobody is perfect. So, Prince Skander, what is your fatal flaw?"

"You tell me. I think I have many. I have no idea of what's really going on out there, for starters. I want too much. Sometimes I exercise until I collapse because I am afraid of my own thoughts. I can't fall asleep until I've read for a long time, otherwise I have too much energy. I hate myself most of the time. I am cut off from the country I am supposed to rule." He took in a shaky breath and smiled slightly. "I just bared my soul for you to see. Now tell me, what is your fatal flaw?"

"If I told you about my flaws, I think I would talk for so long we wouldn't be able to sleep. For a week."

"Come on. You can't be that bad."

Oh, Adeen thought, you have no idea.

"I love so much I love nothing. I love my family, and my friends, and everyone who is close to kind to me, but if I really love all of them, then who do I really love? Isn't what I love supposed to be unique and singular? Then what if I love plural? Does that mean I like plural and I haven't loved singular yet?" Adeen looked at the Palace, in which the sunset's orange light was reflected on. "I am dead inside. I like blood because when I bleed, it's my only remainder that I am still alive. I have a hole inside of me. My family has been close to filling it, but I don't think anything will ever fill it fully. And it hurts. I am selfish, and arrogant, and if it meant my family would be safe, I would send the entire world to hell myself. My bones are made of mistakes and my muscles are promises. Mistakes keep me upright, but hope makes me move. And sometimes that hope fails and is fragile and weak." Prince Skander looked at her. Adeen sighed nervously. "My turn. Do you really hate not knowing about Illea that much?"

Skander didn't hesitate. "Yes. Why?"

"Because I might be able to get you out."

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