Embellished With Lies

Chapter Twenty-Six

"That was unexpected, Matthew," Molly spoke up about midway through our escape in the woods. She had not yet let go of my hand, nor had she let go of my little sister's either.

"I wasn't exactly expecting that either," I mentioned, breathing heavy. "Look, I know that killing Cinderella was not exactly apart of the plan, but..."

"Matthew, it is okay," Molly told me. "Quite honestly, yes, it was not originally in the plan. However, you were only defending yourself. Everything will be fine."

I nodded while listening to her speech, but then a new thought dawned upon me. "Wait, doesn't this mean that someone will come after us?"

She thought about this for a moment or so before shaking her head in response. "No, I do not suppose so."

This was news to me. After all, in all of the action movies I had ever seen in my entire life, whenever someone of substantial power was killed or seriously injured, the essentially bad guys were sent after them to kill and get revenge on them. "They're gonna come after us."

She politely countered my opinion. "I disagree. I kind of have a feeling about this one."

We met Lady Tremaine in the woods. Anastasia and Drizella were waiting for us as well, and I was clueless as to how long they were waiting there for.

"Quickly, now," Anastasia urged us, gesturing wildly with her hands for us to hurry into the carriage. "We must be going now."

"But Molly said that they weren't going to come after us," I mentioned as I hopped into the cart.

"They will not come after us," Molly assured us, rolling her eyes a little.

I never thought I would see Molly get even sassier than she already was. But once again, I was wrong.

Drizella put her hands on her hips as the horses started to trot along, going along with our escape plan. "Oh? And may I ask why not?"

"Drizella," Anastasia muttered, touching Drizella's shoulder. "Come on now."

"No," Drizella replied. "Why not, Molly?"

"Because," Molly bit the inside of her cheek, "that is what the king's parents were supposed to do. Distract the King himself and, if the queen ended up dead, convince him to start planning a funeral instead of an attack." she shrugged. "It is quite simple, really."

Even though it probably wasn't wise, I tuned out the bickering girls and focused on my sister. She was sitting directly next to me and had her knees pulled to her chest.

I couldn't help but feel terrible for her. After all, she was only five years old and had to engage in "war". She was a kindergartner, and she had to watch lives be lost. Cinderella was her favorite princess, and Tessa had to sit there and watch her die.

Five years old, and she had already seen more than anyone had back home.

I remember one time when I was seven, my dad had just gotten some videogame. It was your typical game, full of violence and blood and guns. I wanted more than anything to watch him play, but he always told me no. I remember getting so mad at him, but now I knew that I wouldn't have been able to handle it.

Even now, I wished that I could erase all of the scenes that I had witnessed while here on this, erm, trip.

Poor, poor Tessa.

"Hey, Patootie," I murmured in her ear, and she didn't even flinch. "What's wrong?"

A tear escaped her eyes and made its way down her cheeks.