"Hans?"
No one was safe from the flame.
"Hans! Dear, please stay with me!"
As the world was set on fire, everyone just watched it burn.
"Please!"
The repeated faint cries of Cassia gradually grew louder and louder. Despite the strong deafening ringing in my ears — her cries finally broke in. I opened my eyes the best I could to grasp what was happening.
In terror, my eyes widened.
Wait, terror?
What's that?
Ah, it's a feeling, right?
How — how much have I forgotten...
How much do I still recall...
A crimson sea was engulfing the colossal structure I was sheltered in.
The mansion that once loomed with pride behind the rigid towering iron gates — was now deteriorating in flames as I watched its downfall. To think fire would create such colors as each flame flickered in front of me.
All I could do was watch.
I couldn't move the rest of my body.
"Hrrk!" Waves of agony traveled through my body as I grit my teeth. The relentless ringing once again dominated Cassia's cries as I tried my best to keep myself from blacking out. I failed to take my eyes away as I let it absorb the reality I'm in right now.
Slowly.
Painfully.
All I could do was watch as despair struck me from every direction.
My eyes couldn't help but dart around to capture every fine detail, engraving it in my head, making sure I wouldn't forget any part of it.
Or rather — to make sure I remember all of it clearly.
I lay dead on the heavily damaged foyer, horrified at the view exposed by the gaping hole in front of me. Cracks crawled around me, breathing out smoke and spitting out soot, further weakening the building like a disease.
The gaping hole opened up further as I saw a glimpse of the vegetation — vines and shrubs that grew and filled the cracks and slits of the walls and stoned paths that slithered outside the household, and soaring trees, once crowned in emeralds, flanked at front — all wilted and burnt to a crisp.
The appeasing sound of the flow of crystal waters, nowhere to be found as the once delicate marble fountain lay dead, dismembered, at the mansion's threshold.
This — this was the despair-inducing tragic event that befell on the Ambrose household.
"Please, hang on a little longer," Cassia pleaded as she gently moved my head closer to face her, "stay with me a little longer. Just—" Her tears fell on my cheeks as I felt her soft delicate hand caress my hair. I could feel her trembling, shaking, as she tried to force out a smile in front of me — a bitter smile.
I watched her in despair, sobbing as she tried her best to focus on my face and my face alone...
She ignored everything that's happening right now...
She ignored the entire world for me...
She made sure I ignored everything that was happening around us — even my lower body as she lifted my chin up.
I felt the waves of agony spread around my body once again, radiating from my abdomen.
I had to look down.
YOU ARE READING
Hidden Worlds: The Sheltered Princess
ParanormalA shutter snapped and suddenly nothing was the same. To think that reality could shift with the literal blink of an eye or in this case, a lens. He took the photo by accident, of a peculiar girl - the Sheltered Princess. A girl who has an astounding...
