The Lunar Queen [ON HOLD]

When London Bridge starts Falling Down.

I gingerly stood up and looked over my shattered port.  In the back of my mind all I could see was Kai's face turning into that.. that thing.  I blinked and fluttered the image away.

"Cinder, what should I do?" Thorne asked gently.

"Well, of course we should look for him I.. I think,"

"Maybe we shouldn't.  Maybe we should stay here until Earth lets us know what they need," He rubs my cold arms, "Come on.  Lets go inside,"

I trudged in.  I felt like my feet were dragging in snow.  As a matter of fact they felt like snow themselves.  I soon found myself struggling to walk at all, but Thorne picked me up and went on ahead.  I couldn't understand how he could walk so fast when it was so cold and snowy.  I started to ask him, but he shushed me and I fell asleep.

My dreams didn't haunt me with visions of Kai like I thought they would have.  Instead, I was greeted with the memory of the ghostly girl I saw in his castle.  Nothing happened.  I just saw her but she didn't seem to see me.  I stayed calm when she looked up.  I didn't cry out when the blood started dripping.  I felt so peaceful looking at her; the opposite of how I had reacted in our first meeting.  Soon she was whisked away from me and Cress was rocking me awake.

"Cinder, it's time to wake up,"

I nodded and sighed.

"Cinder, Thorne told us everything.  We haven't heard anything yet, but you should eat in case we have to leave quickly," she cooed.

I nodded again.

"Cinder, are you alright?"

"Yes.  I'm fine," I rolled over and up off the bed, "Can you help me clean up at least?"

"Sure," we headed to the bathroom and she washed my face and pulled my hair back out of my eyes, "Now, lets go eat,"

I sat silently and ate, so everyone else did, too.  I felt bad for acting like this and dragging everyone down, but I couldn't carry a conversation when my mind was going a million miles an hour trying to come up with the right solution.  For once, my cybernetics were baffled and couldn't pick the correct answer.

"Your Majesty,"

I looked up.

"Maybe we should call Earth ourselves,"

"I want to, but I don't know if it's my place to.  I don't want to disturb them.  Obviously they're very busy looking for him," I said and reverted back to silence.

That's how the rest of my day went.  I wandered around the castle while everyone whispered and scurried around me.  Finally, at bed time, I pressed the button to call Torin.  I was alone in my dark room, praying that he would pick up.  I got nothing.  And so I went to bed again.

|||||||||

BEEP BEEP BEEP WAH WAH WAH WAKA WAKA WAKA ..

I flew up out of bed and looked around for some sign of danger.  My control panel was going wild with safety procedures and my eyes were darting back and forth without my control, looking for anything to help us.  I knew whenever the alarm went off I was supposed to run down the tunnels and lock myself in somewhere, but that was apparently not an option according to my controls.  I loaded bullets into my finger and went to open my door.  There was nothing in the hallways, no movement out the windows.  Nothing.

The strangest thing was, that included guards, maids, my crew, and any other people who should have been around. I wondered if they had all done the smart thing and gone down the tunnels, expecting me to do so as well, but I doubted it for some reason.