like honey but poisoned

blood red

Holding my breath I watched Lissa hold onto the dead rabbit, she ate it with animalic lust. Blood was running down her hands and arms. She returned my gaze, her eyes unfazed, wild, barbaric and turquoise.
Slowly I backed away from her.
Don't run away, I thought to myself, while observing her. This is still Lissa, she needs my help, I tried to remind myself, even 'though it was hard to believe at the moment considering the state she was in. I tried my best to stand my ground, but all it took for her was to let the remainings of the rabbit fall and bare her teeth at me, growling lowly and I was on my feet faster than ever, running towards the castle without thinking.

But when I neared the castle I slowed down, there was an awful amount of knights in blood red armour, knights of Crimson obviously.
"Shit," I mumbled to myself. Good thing was that no one had noticed me yet. Careful not to draw any attention to myself, I snuck into the castle using a secret entrance. I had to find Vanessa and warn her, if they hadn't found her already. I walked through one of the hallways, when someone grabbed me from behind. I spun around immediately. It was Blondie.
"Blondie, what the hell-"
She covered my mouth with her hand and I heard voices.
"Stupid little thing, she must be here somewhere, I'm sure she's just hiding. But we'll find her, right Jasper?" A woman spoke.
"Of course, my Queen." A man answered.
Then the voices slowly faded.
When they were out of reach, Blondie said:
"They're everywhere and I fear we don't stand a chance, because not only are the knights of Crimson fighting, civilians of Crimson are fighting too, it's only a matter of time until we lose."
"And where's Vanessa?" I asked, feeling my fear increase.
"I don't know, I haven't seen her anymore since the battle has started."
"Oh God, what if they've taken her already?" I could feel tears form in my eyes.
"It shouldn't concern you."
"What the fuck, Blondie, she's my aunt!"
"I know that, but you're the princess. You're the one who needs to be protected right now."
She started taking her clothes off.
"Uh, Blondie what are you doing?" I asked her irritated.
"I'm taking off my uniform, duh!"
"Yes, I can see that, but why?"
"So that you can wear it and I'll wear your clothes, if we're lucky, they'll mistake you for staff."
"Oh." Was all I could say.
That was actually quite clever of her.
"But Blondie, you don't have to do this, you could get seriously hurt!"
"I know," she simply said, while undressing further.
I was taken aback by the fact that she actually meant it, that she offered her help, even 'though she knew about the consequences. I used to be so busy being annoyed by her, I never noticed how selfless she was. But how could I? You can't know someone you don't want to know. But now was not the time to get sentimental, so I undressed too and we quickly changed.
"Just go and hide or try to escape," Blondie said and waved me off. "I'll take care of them."
I was still stunned by her behaviour.
"Thank you."
Blondie just shook her head.
"It's okay, just go now."

I did as she said and carefully went down the stairs. Luckily no one was in sight. On guard I went to the secret entrance I knew since I was a child, but as I got there I noticed that even there were knights of Crimson, they just seemed to be everywhere, this was hopeless. As I heard voices again I simply went downstairs, right into the cellar. I disliked the cellar as countless nightmares had taken place here, but this wasn't a dream, this was reality. Maybe the situation wasn't as doomed as I thought and I could just hide here and then find an opportunity to escape, I tried to tell myself.
After a while of hiding I decided to try and go upstairs again, but I heard someone come near me, so I hid behind a cupboard.
"It's not possible that the little brat escaped, I'm sure she's still here, but I'm tired of waiting, I want to find her soon." I recognized the female voice, I had heard it before.
"Of course, my Queen. What are we supposed to do about the fake princess 'though?" The man, who accompanied her asked.
The Queen laughed cruelly.
"I'll behead her myself, this dumb naive thing who had the guts to try to fool me. It'll be a pleasure." She laughed again and I gasped, but quickly covered my mouth.
"What was that noise?"
She walked closer and I really hoped she wouldn't find me, but of course she did.
"There you are! Don't look so shocked, it was only a matter of time until we'd find you and now we did."
She looked me up and down, then scrunched up her nose.
"Ugh, you look exactly like your mother," she spoke with distaste.
"My bad," I mumbled.
"Don't get ahead of yourself young princess, you'll learn to fear me soon enough."
The longer I looked at the Queen, the more familiar she felt. Right, I had seen her in a dream before, the woman with the distorted face who laughed at me.
"I won't ever be scared of you," I spat.
"Oh and you got your mother's temper, I see, you won't speak like that anymore when I'm done with you."
"No, don't! Leave her alone!"
We all turned around to see Lissa standing in the cellar.
Oh no, how could she be so dumb? Until now I had been pleased thinking of her as safe. Why did she have to get involved? Then again, I probably would have done the same thing for her.
"Elissabeth, how generous of you to delight us with your presence," the Queen spoke bitterly.
"I won't let you hurt her!" Lissa shouted.
"Won't let me? Who do you think you are, child? But about your concerns, I won't hurt your precious princess, not until I'll chop off her sweet little head!"
Lissa seemed like she was about to cry.
"And do me a favor? That's very  uncharacteristically of you," I stated.
"Who asked for your opinion?" The Queen hissed.
"No one, I was just surprised. Because one would think you're more cruel than that."
She gave me an irritated look.
"Watch your mouth! I am the epitome of cruelty."
"Oh really? Well, chopping off my head is an easy death, if I think of awful ways to die, this is still manageable."
"Marie, don't! What are you doing?" Lissa stared at me in disbelief.
"Stop talking to me like that, brat!" The Queen watched me furiously.
"Jasper, she's starting to annoy me already, please drug her."
Jasper tried to grab my arm, but I bit him.
"Ouch, she bit me!" He exclaimed.
The Queen rolled her eyes.
"Jasper, get this under control, she's just a harmless teenager, for God's sake."
I gave him a murderous look.
"But she doesn't look so harmless."
"Jasper!" She snapped. "Don't make a fool of yourself!"
Then she addressed her daughter:
"Elissabeth, would you kindly go away now, you're not on my death list."
"But I won't let you hurt Marie! You have to fight me first!"
The Queen rolled her eyes again.
"Elissabeth, don't be ridiculous! You're not a fighter, you're a peaceful, sweet child, that has a rough past and a mental breakdown almost every day. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't fight me." The Queen laughed at Lissa and I could see how her self esteem slowly faded.
"But I fought you once!"
"Oh darling, you think that was a fight? You tricked me and were lucky that I fell for a lie, nothing more."
Lissa looked down to the floor, her mother had managed to make her embarrassed of herself. God, how I hated that woman.
The Queen turned to face me and gave Jasper a disapproving glare.
"I told you to drug her! Do I have to do everything myself?" She took the needle away from him. As I tried to get away, Jasper held onto me tightly.
The last thing I saw before I got unconscious, was Lissa's blue eyes full of sorrow.