Simple Awakenings

Chapter nine

"What are you going to do with me?" I snarl at King Dicklas, which is my new nickname for him because he is a dick for a) ordering that I live in this palace for the rest of my life, and b) practically taking me away from everything in my life. My brother, my friends, my education, everything.

"Well...I'm not going to treat you like a prisoner." He answers. "But I can't let you roam free. Therefore, I will hearby decree that you are an honored lifetime guest here at the royal castle of the Realms." If this is beginning to sound like I'm Belle in Beauty and the Beast, I'm right.

Hey, she was told that she was to live with the Beast for the rest of her life. So yeah, I'm Belle and this fucking asshole is the Beast. Haha.

"So like...can I stand up now?" I ask. "I am beginning to lose feeling in my knees from kneeling on them for quite some time and I need the blood to go to them."

"Yes, you may." He answers as I push myself up off the floor. "So I'm going to tell one of the maids to prepare you a room, but for now let's get you something to eat. You must be hungry after a long journey."

"I'm not hungry. It's actually...last time I checked it was two o'clock in the morning when I was picked up." It must be the next day and Josh must be somewhat worried that his little sister left in the middle of the night without a word of notice. But if I did have a reason to leave in the middle of the night, I would've left a note saying maybe "Hey so and so was drinking hard so I went to pick them up so they won't be a dick and drink and drive" or even "So and so broke up with so and so, so we went to wreck their car". But leaving for here, I left nothing.

"Then how about a snack? A glass of wine?" Man, this king wants me to eat. He's reminding me of my friend's mom who makes so much food that we have to eat at least something.

"I'm eighteen." I state.

"So?"

"I'm underage to drink wine."

"There's a think as underage with drinking?" I nod. "Oh. Well, have you drank anything before?"

"I drink milk and juice. I don't like pop." There's my midwest showing as I say pop and not soda. I'm sorry, but I say pop.

"Pop?"

"A carbonated sugary beverage. I don't like carbonated beverages." Yet, I did love the regular butter beer from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter when I went to Orlando with my friends. "Alcohol is kind of in that range."

"Well, either it's wine or water." He states, his voice raising a bit now.

"Well, I would take the water. I practically lived off of water for an entire fucking week for four years!"

"Don't raise your voice in front of the king!"
 "Well, the 'king' was already raising his!"

"SILENCE!"

I shut my mouth.

The next couple of minutes was just a death glare standoff until I hear the petite voice of a lady say, "Your majesty. The guest's room is ready."

Atlas huffs and stands up from his throne. "Very well." He walks down the hall, making some gesture to me that I guess is saying to follow him. I roll my eyes and do so.

While on my way to my room, I also got the grand tour of where I guess I will be living for the rest of my life. I say grand tour light-heartedly since I really want to be home now.

"So this is the main hall. Over there is the dining room, and there's a ballroom, and other rooms that are specifically designed for staying guests. But since you're a lifetime guest, your room is upstairs on the floor where my room is. And here are some stairs." He walks up the flight of stairs, and like I have been for this entire tour, I follow him up. He points to the closed doors explaining which rooms are which on this floor and which ones are off limit, including his own. Nothing surprising about that.

"And last but not least, your room." He stops in front of a closed door. "Well, don't just stand there, mortal. Open it."

That earned another eye roll at him as I turn the knob and open the door. The walls of the room were a white stone, and the floor was a maroon carpet which is bringing back terrible flashbacks to when the basement of my house was an ugly purple color. But this carpet is nothing like that. It's more...beautiful. There was also what looks like a queen sized bed with a grey bedspread. There were also matching vanities and wardrobes. I walk over to the wardrobe closest to me and open up one of the drawers to see an array of different dresses of various colors.

"Since you are a guest, you are required to wear a dress." Atlas says from the doorway. "That includes with pajamas. So I will need you to change out of those hideous clothing so we can burn them."

I look down at my pajamas and then back up and sternly, I tell him, "No."

"Mortal, you are under orders from the king."

"Sir, you are taking me away from my life. I won't let you burn my pajamas. I didn't bring anything with me because I thought I would be returning home from this. These clothing are now the last bit of home that I have. So I will say this once again. I. Am. Keeping. My. Pajamas. That's. Fucking. Final!" I was about to cry for the second time since arriving here.

"Alright! Alright! Fine! You can keep them. But I better not see you in them whenever I'm around. That's my only order with them." He puts his hands up showing he gives in. Ha, take that.

"Thank you." I huff and look back at the different dresses. All of my life, the only time I wore dresses was my concert band dress, my different school dances dresses, and that's it. I would wear a graduation dress under my gown, but...I won't be graduating with my class. I won't ever graduate now. I won't go to college and get a degree in whatever part of education I want to go into. I won't get married or have kids or grow old with my husband and retire. "Can I be left alone for a bit?"

"Yes you may. My only request is that tomorrow you join me for breakfast since dinner has already passed. Good night." He closes the door behind me, and I am now by myself for a bit.

Thank god that there was a window to my room because I would be so claustrophobic if there wasn't. A girl does need her fresh air. So I walk over to the window and open it up, letting in the evening breeze. I could see the sunset in the distance, along with forests and grass. It almost feels like I'm at Inverness castle on Dunsinane hill and in the distance is Birnam Woods.

Alright, when in my right state of mind did I just decide to compare this scenery with Macbeth? Or the Scottish play because I did a couple plays and musicals backstage and in pit orchestra. I've had to run around my school's auditorium a couple of times my freshman year. Not the most fun, even when marching band season was done with.

But Macbeth. It was an alright play.

Okay, I'm done talking about this.