4 Princes

IV

However, Little Red Cap didn't know what a wicked sort of an animal he was and was not afraid of him.

(Brothers Grimm: Little Red Cap)

ADAM
I WOKE UP TO the sound of something slamming against something else. I turned over in the bed, my stomach groaning and turning.

"Jack, stop practicing so early!" I screamed. Jack always practiced early. It sucked to have him as my neighbor. He was probably throwing knives again. He loved throwing knives.

"Let me go! You kidnapper!" A girl yelled.

A girl.

Why was there a girl in my room?

I shot up out of bed and then grabbed my forehead, scrunching my eyes together. I leaned over the side of my bed and puked over the floor.

The smell and sight made me puke more.

It burned coming up, and I knew that whatever I drank burned going down as well.

I vaguely remembered talking to Jack about just kidnapping a wife.

I really went and did it.

I puked again, but nothing came up except toxic and burning air.

I felt for a rag on my nightstand. I pulled one off and wiped my mouth as I laid down.

I felt the bed move as the girl hopped onto it. "Let me out. Now that you're sober."

Sober. There was something I was hardly ever. I was just as bad as my father sometimes.

I tried to open my eyes but the sunburned in my vision, blinding me. "Do me a favor and shut that curtain, won't you?" I asked.

The girl got off the bed. "No! Who are you? Why do you want me? Where are we?"

I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up, my stomach grumbling. "Who am I? Do you not know?" I reached under my pillow and pulled out a blade.

The girl screamed.

"Shh, shh. Please," I felt like crying. Her screaming was making my brain scramble in my skull. My eyes leaked as I opened my eyes. "This isn't for you."

I threw the blade, cutting the rope that held the curtain open. The curtain fell shut, enveloping us in slight darkness. I laid back down in bed and covered my face with my arm.

"Hello!?" She yelled at me, trying to get a response.

"Prince Adam Leon Rose Fairisles." I closed one eye and watched the girl's reaction with the other.

She kept a blank face. "Okay, Prince Adam Leon Rose Fairisles, can you take me home?" She asked.

She... didn't know me. She didn't recognize me as a Prince. As someone to be feared. "I'm afraid not."

The girl ran to the door and began beating on it again. "Help!"

The door opened from the outside. Jack was there and when the girl tried to run he held her arms and put her back inside. He closed the doors. "Lock the door, Elliot!" Jack yelled.

I pulled the blanket over my head and closed my eyes. The last thing I needed was a lecture from Jack.

"Adam. You really went out and kidnapped a girl?" I heard his heavy shoes storm to my bedside.

The covers were ripped off of me, and Jack stood there looking down at me disappointingly.

"Adam. You can't just do that." Jack massaged his temples.