The Forgotten Princess

Chapter Two: Reality is My Nightmare

Author's Note: Hey people! Please vote and comment. I'd love some constructive criticism, too ...Oops, that came out kinda pushy. Sorry! Do what you want with your life :)
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Mommy was in the process of pushing me down to the floor when I was hit. Thankfully, the movement prevented the bullet from puncturing my heart. Instead, it hit a long pendant that had swung from my neck.

My parents were not so lucky. From the floor, I saw two red dots on each of their breasts, growing larger my the seconds. No one spoke--there was only the sound of labored breathing.

"Mommy? Daddy?" I repeated the phrase I had said not minutes ago to my parents. But this time there was no response. I crawled closer to see if they were okay.

Their eyes were open. That was a good sign, right? I stuck my face closer to my mother's. She stared back, her breath coming out in shudders. "Alexia," she rasped, "find..." Mommy paused, as if gathering her strength. "my family. They will help you. "

I nodded with tears streaming down my face. I could tell she was hurt. "Are you going to be ok, Mommy?"

"Yes." She weakly smiled before exhaling. She never took another breath.

In a panic, I twisted to face my father. He too had stopped breathing. I hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye, I thought to myself.

I wailed out loud and dashed out of the room. "Help me!!" I screamed, but the halls were empty. Finally, I saw my cousin, Carter. Carter was twelve, older than me by three years, so I looked up to him like he was my older brother since I didn't have any actual siblings. I ran up to him and squished his body into a hug.

He look surprised to see me. "Y-you shouldn't be here," he finally whispered, looking horrified. His hug tightened until it became almost painful. I could feel his fingernails digging into one point of my back.

"You're hurting me, " I muttered, trying without luck to wiggle out of his grasp.

He held on tighter. "I'm sorry." A searing pain tore through my body starting from a point between my shoulder blades. I knew at that moment that it hadn't been his fingernails pressing into me, but a knife instead. .

****
"Lex, lex, lex!" Someone was shaking me awake.

I grumbled and swatted their arm, "Don't do it. Don't do it." He pushed me off the bed and onto the floor. I sprang up in an instant. "What the heck, Landon?"

He smirked. "You were screaming again from your nightmares. The whole neighborhood probably thought you were being raped or something."

"Wow, nice of everyone to come check up on me." I rolled my eyes, but I knew not to expect them to help. In this neighborhood, everyone fended for themselves. There was no room for kindness here unless you wanted to be beat up or worse.

"I wish you would tell me what they are about. Maybe we could stop them." Honesty and concern shone through Landon's bright green eyes and he looked at me.

"We can't."

Landon has been my partner in crime ever since I fled the palace. He didn't know that those nightmares were my memories replaying themselves over and over. He didn't know reality was my nightmare.

Noone knew the truth about me and I planned to keep it this way. I knew firsthand that anyone could betray me.

****
"What time is it, Landon?" I asked as we ran across the rooftops that connected the buildings in the slums.

"I dunno."

I rolled my eyes. "Do you know anything? We're gonna be late at this rate. Move your fat ass along!"

Landon sprinted ahead of me. "Who's the slow one now," he smirked turning around to face me.

"You're so imma--"

"Agh!" Landon tripped over the edge of the building and flopped onto a balcony.

"Serves you right for not looking where you're going." Without sparing him a second glance, I grabbed a nearby railing and swung myself over his body before landing on the next building.

"Hey, wait!"

I didn't listen.

A few minutes later, I reached a dark secluded alley. "Jordan," I nodded tersely at a figure in the shadows.

He stepped into the light. "Lexie, I need you to meet some friends tonight." Jordan said that inconspicuous phrase a lot, but I knew him well enough to know the implications behind those words. He wanted me to kill someone.

Jordan was the boss of the most powerful gang on the western side of the Opal City although one couldn't tell by looking at him. A young lanky blonde with crystal blue eyes, he looked like an innocent upper class teen with not a care in the world. He looked like someone I would have danced with if I were still a princess.

I cleared those thoughts from my head. "Yeah, okay."

He handed me a slip. "Put on a show. I want the everyone to know about this."