The Prince of Arc - Part II

Chapter 14 - The Hideaway

14.

"Blake? What are you doing here?" Skylar asked with an exhausted voice. She paused, look back at her burning apartment, and then continued talking. "Go away!" She began in shout. "You're the reason behind all of this!" She paused again, this time to wipe away tears from her eyes. She turned back to me to ask a question, shouting again. "What did they do to my family?!"

"Your family was taken by the Loyals, they're safe. " I responded, trying to calm her down. "I will order for their release later. But right now both you and I aren't safe in Borders. The Drakes could be here any minute and we can't be here when they are. You need to come with me."

"How do you know the Drakes didn't take them?" Skylar hesitated, got up, and walked towards me. She continued, "It would make sense. They think I'm on your side. But I'm not on either of your sides. Give me back my family and leave us alone."

"Skylar, trust me, if I could I'd not allow this to affect anyone but myself." I said. I paused for a second. "However, because I'm the King of Arc and have no control over Sandrux right now, the Drakes are targeting me while I have no chance against them. Everyone and everything affiliated with me is in danger. Until I can gain some type of control, we have to go into hiding." I responded, proud of myself for explaining the problem in a way that was somewhat understandable.

"You're positive that my family will be safe?" Skylar asked as flames from behind her grew larger. She didn't seem to notice, but I did.

"Skylar, the fire is getting bigger. Someone is going to call the police," I said, reaching for her arm. The police and firefighters were all Loyals, and if they saw us here they could not let us leave. "We have to leave before they get here, come on," She pulled away. She wasn't going to leave until I answered her question.

"Are you positive that my family will be safe?" She repeated, glaring at me.

"Yes, like I said, they are with the Loyals. Let's go, Henry and Cam are waiting a few blocks away."

"Where are we going-" She began to ask but was interrupted by a noise from inside the apartment. She turned to face the apartment, and we heard a loud crashing sound.

"Doors down!" We heard a man shout. "Nobody's in here!" Then after a second we heard the sound of a fire extinguisher. The fire started to die down. I grabbed Skylar's hand and began to pull her away from the building without resistance. She turned around as we ran down the fire escape, and we headed back to where Henry had dropped me off.

The streets were oddly quiet. Nobody was outside, some of the street lights were broken, and perhaps the weirdest thing of all: Besides a few parked cars on the side of the street, there were no cars. None were being driven, and there weren't any in parking lots. Borders was on lockdown.

This was only the second lockdown I've experienced. The first one was 5 years ago when Arc City was under a city-wide lockdown. There was a rumor going around that Archer Park, (The city's largest park,) had a decent-sized bomb hidden somewhere in the central garden. This bomb was said to be able to destroy an area the size of the city's downtown, so the Loyal police ordered for the lockdown. Even my family wasn't able to leave the palace for any reason whatsoever. I didn't understand and my mom had to explain that the city was in danger and that in order for it to become safe again we had to stay in the palace for a while. After a day-long search, the police found nothing and the city was able to continue as normal.

I wasn't surprised to see Borders under lockdown. After my father was shot; my mother, Henry, Cam, and I all fled. Henry, Cam, and I left Borders and hid in a field for a while until we realized Skylar was probably going to be captured if we didn't take her from the city, and my mother went off to the Archer hideaway outside Arc City. My entire family had either been killed or had disappeared in a matter of hours. The Loyals were most likely in a mad search for me and my mother and weren't given any hints to our locations because the Loyals also work with the Drakes, who we were hiding from.