A Kingdom's Expectations & A Shocking Revelation {Sequel}

Chapter 7

I stayed in my favourite haunt until the light stopped filtering in at the edges of the curtains. When the candles flickered low and gradually started to flicker into darkness, I stopped my painting. The walls were streaked and covered with words and pictures and the tattered canvas was still featured in the middle of the room though now it was just worthless strips of ruin.

My paintbrush fell to the floor, dripping red all over the floor - not that it mattered at any rate. My hands were scored through with streaks of paint; I'd used my own fingers to paint delicate areas of paintings just because I found a calmness in exercising my own hands sometimes.

I didn't realise the window was open until a stray breeze blew the curtains upwards and caressed my bare skin. Sighing, I stepped forward, pushing aside the curtains and grasping onto the window frame. The window was stuck for a moment, gripping onto the edges and refusing to slide down. I pushed down, adding extra force and it slammed into place, making me jump backwards in surprise.

The curtains fell back into place, no longer having the wind propel them to dance in air and I closed my eyes for a moment, leaning against the rich material of the drapes. I had used to do this as a child, except back then, I could wrap my whole body in the grand curtains. Cocooning myself away as if when I emerged, I would be an entirely different person.

"Of all the magnificent rooms in the kingdom, I have to say this one is the most mesmerising."

A foreign voice, a snatch of conversation, an intruder - I whirled around, surprised and wary all at once at the stranger who had managed to find their way into my most private of places. 

He caught me off guard: this was a boy perhaps younger than Sebastian but a little older than myself: of light brown hair, a childish grin and the greenest of eyes like spring's first offerings. It was how... mischievous he looked that disarmed me so, from letting an angry retort assault him instantly.

"You can't be in here," I said automatically, though my mind was drawn to his words. Mesmerising. That was what he had called my paintings. I thought them fascinating maybe, but frightening more so. A stranger should not have thought them mesmerising. 

"It wasn't exactly easy to get in here," the stranger admitted with a dimpled grin. "But I found my way here nonetheless. I consider it one of my talents to... enter places not meant to be entered."

"It's called trespassing," I said sharply, though it didn't come off sharply at all, more... faint. "Entering places you're not meant to."

"Oh I know," he replied. "But I've always been curious as to why I couldn't enter certain places. For instance..." The stranger stepped further into the room, his gaze flitting all over the room. "This room is magnificent. Why you would want to hide away all of this astounds me." His eyes wandered finally to me, straight in the eyes. 

"They're private," I responded, finally with a bit of steel in my voice. "This whole area is my private area. So if you could refrain from glutting your sight with my private paintings and also step out of my private room, I think everyone would be much happier."

"I'm getting a theme here," the stranger sallied back. "Are you trying to tell me all this magnificence is all for the eyes of one?"

"Yes," I snapped, confused by his constant compliments. 

"Bit greedy," he muttered. "You should learn to share."

"I don't have to share!" I retorted, now irritated. "They're my private thoughts."

"Are they really?" he asked me, his voice enthralled. The stranger's eyes lingered over the words in the corner of the room. "Real power does not lie in saving others, but in saving yourself... well, that's rather maudlin, don't you think?"