Princey's Unexpected Journey

CHAPTER IX

Sebastian and I lost Jonathan somewhere in the forest. Jonathan probably knew every square inch of that forest. He probably knew all of the shortcuts, all of the secret ways out of there. I knew that we could not find him in there. I decided to head towards the castle. That was probably where he was headed. He was probably going to seek for his brother, venting to him about everything that just happened. It reminded me of my sister and I.

    Whenever my sister was sad, scared, or angry, she came to me for guidance. I did my best to help Miranda in any way that I could. I seemed to be her protector or sorts.

    When she first met her new husband, Daniel, she told me every detail about him. When they first started courting, I helped pick out every outfit that she wore when they saw each other. When Daniel proposed to her, she came to me with the news first. I almost seemed like a father figure. I was like the father figure that she deserved, but never had.

I guess that it was like that with the Groffton brothers. Jonathan probably looked up to his brother like how Miranda looked up to me.

    Wait, where was I going with this? Oh, I remember! I was thinking that Jonathan went back to the Groffton Castle. So, that was my first stop. And hopefully, it would be my only stop.

    As I approached the castle, I noticed that the castle had a small presence of guards. This was quite unusual in my eyes, for the Lin Castle was always heavily guarded. Always. I hated that we needed guards for every square inch of the castle. Do you think that I am over exaggerating? That is because I am. We only had guards for every square foot, not every square inch. I can hear you now: "come on, Manuel, get it together!" Well, when you are in distress, trying to find your true love, you will over exaggerate on everything. I promise you that.

    There was a bridge to the main castle doors. It was very similar to a castle that I have seen before. I believe that the castle was in the Kingdom of Arendelle, or a kingdom with a similar name. The name doesn't matter, in all honesty. The only thing that matters is that I have visited a castle similar to this one before.

Sebastian and I pressed on as we approached the doors. Once we got to the doors, I got off of Sebastian and ran to them. I started to knock on them as hard as I could, hoping and praying that Jonathan was inside.

    I knocked for a while, and then I stopped for a moment. I could hear someone talking inside of the castle. I know that castles are built like tanks, but they were not sound proof. Once I heard the noises, I continued to knock, hoping that one of those voices was Jonathan.

    After a while of knocking, my hands and arms were starting to tire out. I then decided to yell through the door. Oh, Jesus Christ. More déjà vu.

    "Jonathan," I called through the door, "Jonathan! Please. I need to talk to you. I have a feeling that you are in there. Please, let me in."

    The memories from when our roles were reversed came flooding into my mid. Jonathan had said almost the exact same thing that I was saying at that moment in time. Yet, this time, no guards were preventing me from going inside. Nothing was stopping me from seeing my love again. Nothing.

    Then, why was I still waiting outside? Was I waiting for a guard to come and escort me off of the castle grounds? Was I waiting for someone to open the door for me? Was I waiting for Jonathan to respond? I didn't know what it was. I did not know what compelled me to stay outside for as long as I had.

    "Jonathan," I called through the door, "I am coming in! No one is out here to stop me. Just, let me through and I will explain everything. We can work this out!"

    "You have said enough already, Manuel," I heard someone say through the doorway, "your guards said that you hated me! That you wanted us to leave! That you never liked me in the first place. Your guards said that what you have done was just a scam. They said that you just wanted to cut off ties with our kingdom."

    "That is not true! I never said those words! That was all of my father's doing! I never wanted for you to leave my kingdom, Jonathan! I never wanted to cut off ties with your kingdom. If anyone wanted to disassociate ourselves with the Groffton Kingdom, it would be my father. You know how tyrannical he is. You know some of his overbearing and pointless laws. You know how he feels about people like you, people like me. If anyone proclaimed what you have said, it would have been my father, not me. I would never try to hurt anyone, especially you."

    I heard silence from inside of the castle. There was not a word. Not even a mouse peeped. Nothing. I leaned my head against the doorway. "Jonathan," I whispered, "I love you."

    The silence seemed deafening. I slid down to the ground as I thought about the conversation that had just taken place. Had I done something wrong? Did I say the wrong words? Was I supposed to rap, sing, do anything to spark his attention, to get him out of that door? Was Jonathan even in the castle? I couldn't figure it out. Tears started to flow down my face. I had done something wrong, I was for sure of it now. Or, at least I thought that I had done something wrong.

    I perked my head up at the sound of a door opening. The door that I was next to was moving slowly. I stood up quickly as I wiped my tears away, hoping that the person opening the door wouldn't see them. Once the door had completely opened, I saw a shadow in the doorway. As the person walked out, the first thing that I saw were their eyes.

    And they were a brilliant blue.