SERENA

PART I: Chapter 17 - The Only Way To Be Safe

The guards lock Serena in an empty cell in the dungeon and leave.

"No! Please don't leave me here! Come back!" Serena yells but they leave anyway.

Everyone looks at her and they all know who she is.

"What brings the Princess down here? What have you done, little girl?" A man on the cell on the left of Serena's asks her, but she doesn't answer.

She sits down on the ground, with her back against the wall and tries to ignore all the voices talking to her. She hides her face in her arms and tears start rolling down.

Serena has no idea how long it's been since she was brought to the dungeon, but some time later she hears her father's voice.

"Serena." He calls.

She raises her head and the tears have already dried. Her parents are standing right in front of her cell, looking at her. King Soky looks as angry as he looked in the coronation ceremony and Queen Nami looks like she has been crying as well.

Serena gets up and gets closer to the cell bars that separate her from her parents.

"How long did you think you could hide this from us?" King Soky asks her.

"Honestly? I thought that if I didn't use it, I could hide it forever." Serena answers. "And I was going to hide it forever because I knew you would execute me. I knew you would execute your own daughter." Tears start rolling down her face again.

"It's against the law, Serena, whether you're my daughter or not. Being the Princess doesn't make you more important that the law."

"I'm aware. I just think that the law is wrong."

King Soky scoffs. "Of course you do."

"How did you find out anyway?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Someone told you, right? Who was it?"

"It doesn't matter, Serena! What if no one told me? You think I can't find out on my own? I know everything that happens in Elementia. You could never hide something like this from me."

"What do you want from me? Why did you come down here?"

"We came to say goodbye."

Queen Nami starts crying. "I'm so sorry, baby." She tells Serena, without looking her in the eyes.

"Mom, please. You don't have to do this to me. Please help me."

"You know I can't, Serena. I can't just change the law because you're my daughter. I wish I could, more than anything. But I can't."

"Of course you can! You two are the King and the Queen of Elementia! If there's someone that can change the law is you. I'm begging you. This wasn't something I chose, it just happened to me. How can people be executed for being unlucky? That's not fair."

"Life's not fair, Serena." King Soky tells her.

"We're so sorry." The Queen says.

"If that's all you came here to say, you can leave." Serena tells them and gets back to the place where she was sitting before. She's not crying anymore and she's looking straight at them.

"Very well." King Soky says. "Goodbye, Serena. Let's go, Nami."

"I'm so sorry, baby." Queen Nami says as King Soky pulls her by the arm to leave the dungeon.

Night falls and Serena looks outside through the small window on the top of the wall she was leaning against before. The sky is very dark, almost black and there are no starts in sight. The moon, however, is full and illuminates the dungeon, giving it an even creepier vibe.