The Prince of Arc - Part II

Chapter 12 - A Royal Card Game

12.

"...Dad?!" Skylar shouted over the screams at City Hall into the public telephone across the street. Her tone was frantic, showing her dad that the situation was a serious one.

"What's going on Skylar? Why do you sound so scared? Where are you?" His questions flooded the phone. "Are you at City Hall? I can hear the screams from home... Did something happen at the conference?"

"Yes Dad, and we need to leave Borders soon. I can explain once I get home. Start packing up everything," She pulled her sweatshirt's hood over her red hair, dropped the phone, and ran back home.

After passing through many crowds of people, running through numerous allies and busy traffic a few times, Skylar managed to make it home. She entered in through the apartment's lobby, went up the stairs, and into her apartment. There she found her dad and younger brother, Michael, already almost completely packed. She went to start packing her things, but her father stopped her before she could.

"What's going on?" He asked, holding his daughter's arm.

"King Archer was shot, and I'm almost positive a lot of people think I was the one that shot him."

"He's dead? He got shot?! By who? Why do people think you did it?"

With that question, Skylar knew she couldn't avoid anything with her father anymore. She started from the very beginning, trying to make the best sense of everything.

"The past few days I haven't just been hanging out with my friends at the park like I've said." She began, admitting that what she at first told her father was a lie. "Over the past few days I met two brothers, Marcus and Derek Cans. They said they were lost one day at the Park and turned out to be pretty cool. But then when we met at the market yesterday, I overheard him talk to the vendor..."

"You should never lie to me, Skylar." He interrupted her, as Skylar thought he would.

"I know that now," Skylar said, defending herself.

"How does this have to do with the situation anyway?" Her father asked, dropping his grip on Skylar's forearm to cross his own arms.

"Well one of the brothers was demanding the vendor to cancel the press conference because of the rumors that the King was going to be murdered, and as they talked she called him Blake; Blake Archer. It turns out Marcus Cans was really just the Prince undercover. He was trying to find information on the reason for the rebellions..."

By now, Skylar's father's full attention was on what she was saying. "Go on," He said, uncrossing his arms.

"I started yelling at him and was two seconds away from shooting him with the crossbow, but then he told me he was on our side. He even got on his knees and surrendered. I didn't shoot him, but everyone that was there knows that I'm not afraid to shoot a royal."

"So what?" He asked, still unclear on what she meant.

"He said he wanted Sandrux to be a democracy. The only thing standing in his way was-"

"The King; his father..." Her father interrupted once again. Instantly he understood why she was so worried.

"And since the actual shooter didn't make it obvious that they shot him, I'll be blamed. Dad, we have to leave now." Skylar added.

"You need to relax, Skylar. You can't expect them to blame just you; we will wait for a while to see what happens. Now help me unpack,"

"You think I can't expect them to blame me because you weren't there..."

"Skylar, you're overreacting, you need to rest." Skylar's father said, trying to comfort her. "It's been a long day for you..."

"I can't rest Dad! Not when a bunch of Loyals have me on the top of their most wanted list! Who else would they blame?!" Skylar's temper was rising, and her eyes were beginning to water.