The Three Kings

Chapter 16

"I wish someone
Had warned me
When I was younger,
Now I stay up all night and weep;
The ghosts of everything
You have loved and lost
Come back to haunt you in your sleep"

____________
Hannah
____________

When I woke next, the sun was hanging high in the sky. Sleep consumed me, and I had no sense of how long I was out. Though, the Kings had still yet to return.

I slid out of King Xavier's bed and glanced around his room. It was virtually empty. No photos hanging on the walls. No bookcases, but by the large library downstairs and in their study, I doubted they needed one in their room. There was a bedside table, but nothing was in it. Under the bed was empty. The bathroom only had a bottle of shampoo, a hanging towel, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. Nothing but the bare minimum.

Moving onto the closet proved to be a lot more helpful than the bathroom. Jackets were hung up, shoes were lined neatly together, and a dresser was pushed nicely against the furthest wall. I ignored the hanging clothes and went straight to the dresser. I knew it may not contain any hidden books, but there was bound to be something stuffed between the articles clothes.

I took out the drawer and dumped the contents onto the floor. Nothing but shirts. Quickly, I stuffed all the shirts back in the drawer and put it back before moving to the next one. It was just as disappointing as the first one. Only pants and a couple of pairs of shorts fell out. I stuffed the back in and moved onto the next.

The contents that occupied that drawer, forced me to take one long and uncomfortable look, then my face flamed red, and I slammed the drawer shut. Never, in my entire life, had I ever had the opportunity to look at...toys...of that nature. My face flushed again at the thought of who they would be used on.

Taking a moment to recover, I opened the fourth and finale drawer, praying to the Goddess that it wasn't anything...explicit. I breathed a sigh of relief when it was just his underwear drawer. And apparently, he was a boxer man. I hesitated a minute before putting my hands in and digging around. It only took a few seconds before my fingers grazed something that didn't quite fit with the rest of the items in the drawer. I gripped it and pulled it out.

It was a large manilla envelope.

At first, I didn't know whether to feel disappointed or not. I was expecting something more, but after quickly dumping all the contents out, all my disappointment slowly disappeared as pictures--photographs--fell out. Grabbing one, I turned it over and felt my eyes widen in my head. Three boys--teenagers--stood together, arms flung around each other, as they wore bathing suits, and stood on a beach in front of a large body of water. Big smiles graced two of the boys and the third boy only had a small tilt of the lips on his face. I knew instantly that these three boys were the Kings. One, I didn't recognize stood in-between the younger versions of King Alexander and King Xavier. The third boy, I assumed was their brother, King Sebastian.

King Alexander and King Xavier looked so different and yet so similar. Sometimes I knew it was them and sometimes I couldn't tell who they were.

I picked up another photo and stared at it long and hard. It was a similar photo, most likely taken that day or sometimes. Five teenagers occupied the photo; The Three Kings and two unknown teens. A boy and a girl. They looked extremely similar to the Kings, only slight differences like the shape of their face or nose, different hair color, small stuff like that. But none of that discounted the fact that they all looked like they could be siblings. They have to be related in some way or another, but nothing in any book I read mentioned any past King having other relatives other than their parents and twin brother.