Encore Azalea

Chapter Zero

Chapter 0 - Prologue

12th July 2005

Royalty is said to be a gift given by God himself to show one’s superiority, superiority which allows him or her to be able to lead their kindred and the nation that they represent. Are they however entitled to have such power over other individuals? Is royalty the default characteristic after which we should judge others? I for one do not agree.

My name is Daniel Holt. You need not know too much about me as the story itself will unravel everything for you. I have been born with royal blood and many times have I received special treatment because of my “heritage”. Since I was young I had to hide from the real world. The life I have lived was perfect... Perhaps too perfect that even I have realized that something was wrong.

“Dad! Where are you going?” I asked.

“Daniel. How many times have I told you to behave more adequately? My proper name is viscount Michael of Essex and you may call me father. If we, the royalty, don’t show respect to each other, why would the commoners?” he responded.

“I am sorry father…”    

“As for an answer for your question, I am travelling to your aunt for business. I shall be back in two days. Until then, take care of yourself and listen to Agatha. Don’t forget to practice your Literature skills. Next week is an important day and you know that better than anyone.”

“Of course father.” I said reluctantly.

This was something usual for my father to do. I have almost grown entirely alone but for Agatha and the other maids. “Mr. Graves should be here in an hour from now” I mumbled. Perhaps it was time for me to get ready for today’s lessons. This was my routine. This is exactly as I did almost every single day. If it weren’t for the riding lessons I think my brain would have imploded from gathering so much information and behaving so formally to anyone. It is as if I could never have a friend myself. But I have to be smart. It is what I am born to do. I am born to lead and everyone knows that a leader needs to be intelligent in order for the nation not to collapse. But do I even have to worry about leading my nation? My father is the heir ever since grandfather has died.

Such thoughts used to go through my mind every day and every single day left me with the same question. Why am I entitled to control one’s desires? Why is this “blood”, that has the same biological composition as any other, so special? And with those unanswered questions I thought I had to die.

Just as I intended to sit down on the chair a ringing could be heard from the door. “That must be Mr. Graves.” I said to myself. “Just as usual. He is here at 5:40 PM”. But instead of the usual “Good day, Mr. Daniel” all I heard was a shrill scream that was most likely a maid and a deep but very clear crack followed by splatters of a liquid. At first I thought that a cup of water had most likely broken due to a mistake done by the maid.

Curious to find what could have possibly happened I nonchalantly picked myself up off the chair and walked towards the entrance. What I found however made my insides to curl up and gave me an instant feeling of vomit. I started to feel dizzy at the sight of the maid’s corpse and immediately threw up. The instant I was done, an armed person grabbed a hold of my humerus and tossed me against a wall. I could feel the cold barrel of the gun pointed against my left temporal. I was shivering and each second that passed felt like hours. I never imagined I could ever be so close to death. In all the philosophy lessons, in which I talked about death I imagined it as one’s life simply ending, while that person never had any remorse regarding anything that happened to him. A happy ending to put it bluntly. But standing there, pressed against the wall, happiness was the last thing I was thinking about. I just wanted to shout that it was an unfair death and I didn’t deserve to die so young. That is when I finally managed to truly understand life. I somewhat started to feel relieved. Relieved to have discovered the “truth”. A few moments later and the same crack was heard again. My vision faded to black and there my thoughts started dissapearing. This. Was. The. End?

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Sorry for the bad writing. It was the first chapter. I promise it will get better in time.

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