Serpentine | ✓

8 | cursed

*** C U R S E D ***

    THE PLAN WAS simple.

    Dance with the prince, kiss the prince, laugh with the prince, and leave before the clock striked midnight.

    It was always on my mind that I hadn’t been able to sleep – always on my mind as the first few rays of the sun entered the cave. The prince wasn’t going to visit me today since His Highness had smothered him with Royal tasks in lieu to the ball.

    How tedious it must had been, replaying a bunch of phrases and words in your head – trying to find the will to act on them. But as tedious as I made it sound, nothing could give me the will to do so; kiss, dance, laugh, and never look back.

   There’s so many parallels in this situation – choices that would leave me with more just one path.

    As shameful as it is to admit, I had once thought over the course of the night to just leave everything behind – be a coward to my own happiness, face the future with so much fear. If I hadn’t met the prince, would he be able to evoke such thoughts from me?

    Before Kingsely Alexander, everything was simple. I didn’t have to make life-altering choices, I didn’t have to sacrifice so many things.

    But was I really happy with that type of solitude? Hiding myself behind Black and White when there’s so many Grey to be discovered.

    The whirlpool of insecurities flooded my mind, caging my thoughts with their claws and with their voices. How was I sure that everything would go smoothly? How could I give an expectation to things that are supposed to be unexpected?

    The plan was simple as it was tantalizing.

    Dance, kiss, laugh, escape.

    Four words yet they all do so much damage.

    Four words in my mind even as I cooked my breakfast of bland Rabbit Stew, even as I groomed myself by the lake in the clearing, even as I knitted my parcel of clothing into what I hoped would be a stunning masterpiece.

    The day was drawing near and the Winter Ball invitation felt hot against the pocket of my coat.

    So many what if’s.

    So many things that could go wrong.

    But I thought about the only person that could calm my growing anxiety: Kingsely Alexander.

    Kingsely Alexander to heal the knots in my stomach.

    Kingsely Alexander with his proud smile and his charms to keep me from running away.

   He was enough, just enough to harden the tiny resolve that was about to slip away.

    I didn’t want to wear my spectacles, I wouldn’t want to give out the impression of a blind man. My snakes were harder to conceal so I crafted a headress out of the Antlers of Stags – I just hoped I wasn’t overdressed.

     Now that I think about it, I hadn’t read the contents on the invitation. How could I be so foolish to overlook such a paramount detail!