Knight in Shining Armor (A Gabbie Hanna AU)

Six: Devastation is All I Ever Get

Trigger warning for death...

   Colleen and I hoped the note had reached Sir Evans: Josh, Come to Gabrielle's study at 10:00pm. Don't be late! -Colleen "Are you sure he'll get the note?" she asked me. "Yeah, trust me. All you had to do is wink and smile," I replied, "your orders are final unless someone higher up declines them, and Mother has no idea." "I'm just scared Gabbie," she told me, and I embraced her in a hug. Then I heard the door start to creak open. "Colleen?" Sir Evans called out, and he turned to face us, Colleen holding my hand for comfort.

"It's time Josh," she announced, "for you to let it go, watch me smile, and you'll move on to the next girl." "But I don't want another girl, Colleen," he replied, "I want you." He tried to take her hand from me, but I pulled it back. She gestured to the papers, lying on the desk next to my quill in my inkwell. "Josh, I'm in love," she replied, and I saw the tear stream down his face. "I guess I'll have to do this by force then," he announced, and he took out his sword. Everything happened in slow motion. He lunged for me, but Colleen let go of my hand, giving my one last smile, and she stepped in front of me. He didn't stop in time, and the sword went straight through her heart. I stepped back as she fell to the ground, and warmth left her brown eyes as she touched the floor with a thud. I leaned over her, trying to do something, mouth to mouth, anything. But she was gone. Then the world went mute, and I kneeled over her in shock, shaking her, when the grief finally got to my brain, and I screamed. I swear it pierced everyone's ears in the entire castle, shaking everyone awake. I heard quick, pounding footsteps coming closer. Alexander and Lauren appeared in the doorway, clad in nightclothes. "What happened?" Alexander asked, quickly figuring it out when he heard Sir Evans. "Oh God, oh God, oh God, I killed her. I killed her, I killed her, I killed her." Alexander knelt beside me, and a rush of knights, their metal armor clanking, surged through the doorway, and yanked Sir Evans up from his knees, pulling him away. That was when Mother came through the doorway, and her eyes widened in utter shock. I ran Colleen's limp hair through my fingers, my tears wetting her peaceful face, until knights tried to take her away. "No!" I shouted. "She's dead, and it's all your fault!" Sir Ballinger screamed, pushing me away from his sister's fragile body as my hands shook, and I sat there sobbing until morning.

~~~

"Is everything ok?" Lauren asked me when she came into the study. "You think?" I replied, staring at the dried blood—her blood—on the side of the desk I wrote countless poems on. Some were about her. The way she laughed when I told her a joke, the way she smiled when she looked at me, the way her hand fit perfectly into mine—stop, Gabrielle. You can't think of these things right now. Of the way her hair curled perfectly, the way her eyes always shone with warmth, the way her lips fit on mine. All of it, gone forever. I would never get to see or feel any of that ever again. "Gabrielle?" Lauren said, snapping me back into to reality. "Yeah?" I replied. "Do you think you'll ever be able to love someone again?" "No," I answered firmly, "never, will I ever let someone fit in my heart like that again."

"Lauren? Gabrielle?" Alexander called from the doorway, "breakfast." Lauren got up and left the room, but I said, "Have them bring it here for me please, brother?" "No," he replied firmly, "you can't hide in here forever." "Yes I can," I replied, glaring. He walked over to me, hauled me up, and demanded, "Get dressed, and come as soon as possible." "Fine, my perfect brother," I snapped, "I'll pretend I'm happy to make your perfect little life perfect again!" "My life, perfect?" he laughed, "you really think my life is perfect, don't you?" "Do you see the disapproving looks Mother gives me every single time I do something?" I shouted, tears threatening to spill. "Do you think I want to be King and sit in Daddy's seat? Mother tells me what to do, and I obey!" he shouted back, and the tears started to spill. "At least you have Lauren! I loved Colleen, and it seemed like she was the only one that loved me. She's the only thing I need to be happy!" I screamed, my tears soaking the ground. "You think I don't see the way she looks at you? She's just another one of Mother's ideas!" he screamed back, his tears falling. "At least you have Mother," I choked out, and I got up to slam the door in his face. "Daddy had a nickname for me too," he replied. "What? Xander?" I scoffed. "No, Alex," he answered, closing the door in my face.

   I decided not to eat breakfast, and I wrote a poem with my blood-stained quill. I started to sing the words, their melodic tune haunting my soul. "I miss you Colleen," I whispered when I finished, my tears still streaming down my face.

A/N: Sorry about that. Anyways, what do you think she was writing? FYI, I have an Extras book for my Adopted by Gabbie Hanna trilogy, and I would love it if you checked it out!