Unfeeling

Two | Voice Of Silence

Evan
The silence of Clandestine is maddening. After ten years here, the unnerving sense of quiet has always set my nerves on edge. But despite the eeriness, it is home... whether I want it to be or not.

"You know... if I could meet anyone in the world, I would want to see the Princess," Jeffery Baker, my best friend, informed me.

I raised an eyebrow at his confession. He wasn't alone, thousands of perverted men have itched to get there grimy hands on the mysterious princess. They didn't have much luck, Princess Amberley has been kept under locks ever since the Iniquitous, my family, betrayed the King fifteen years ago. I haven't heard of any sightings of her in years.

When Jeffery realized I wasn't going to respond, he looked up dreamily, "I hear she's so beautiful that she made a whole army dance around like lunatics!"

He's right, I do remember she was a beautiful four year old. I wonder what Jeff would say if he knew I had used to push the princess into a mud puddles and stick frogs in her shoes.

"I also heard that she's actually a guy in disguise. Don't believe everything you hear Jeff."

I smirked at his disgusted expression. He mumbled something under his breath going along the lines of me being the master of ruining everything fun and ruining imaginations and dreams.

"If I could meet anyone in the world, I would meet myself... because I'm a sex God."

Jeffery scoffed but ignored me as we walked down the stone, grey tunnels of the underground facility, leaving me to my thoughts. I silently wondered how the princess was doing. She would be eighteen now, all grownup and surely bossing around everything that breathes, just as she did when we were kids.

Amberley was my first friend, my only friend until my father turned power hungry, taking over thousands of miles of land and fighting for one goal... To kill all the magical beings called Altrus. The only problem, I was one of them. My father took advantage of this by sending me into the impenetrable, underground Altru sanctuary called Clandestine Institute at the ripe age of nine to spy on the facility and find a way to destroy it.

Ten years later, I've had no success. The stupid place seems to have no weakness. I wonder what Amberley would say about the grown up me. She would be understandably disgusted. I doubt she would spend ten years trying to kill hundreds of innocents just because their daddy didn't like them.

"You're doing it again..." Jeff drawled, not looking at me.

"Doing what?"

"Using your mind to go somewhere else and perhaps another time," he replied.

I snorted. "Huh, you're philosophical today."

Jeffery didn't have time to respond as we came upon the training room. I sighed with contentment. While Jeff was horrible at hand-on-hand combat, archery, swords, wrestling or anything physically exerting, I counted down the minutes until I got to release all my stress through training.

Maybe it was my royal training as a kid but I had always been naturally good at hurting others. My scores were well above everyone else's in all categories. I looked at the whiteboard in the corner and grinned when I saw the skill our class would be workings on. Hand-on-hand combat was written in Coach Lawley's obtrusive script. Yes, thank you Coach! I have been particularly stressed lately and now I have found my outlet. I didn't even need to break the "no power" rule to beat all these punks up.