Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 of that night came flooding back, running through her mind. She ran down the hallways she'd walked through for the past few years. Her footsteps echoed throughout the halls. Everything was a blur of gold until she burst into the painting room. She knew the spot where his painting was, remembered the conversation they had shared over it and the laughter that had followed.
She ran through same doors Kit and her exited on that night. She could hear his voice behind her, shouting. His footsteps too.
She kept running.
The sound of the bells rang out, faint in the castle walls but prominent when she burst through the doors to the garden. She ran down the stone path, torches and green hedges leading the way. It was cold, her breathing heavy. How ironic, she thought. Running at the toll of midnight, again.
It was raining, a faint drizzle that created small puddles in the path. Her wet hair clung to her skin, and the bottom of her white dress grew wet from the splashes of the puddles against it. She didn't pay attention to her shivering.
She wasn't who Kit thought she was. He surely knew that now. Maybe he was coming after her to confront her, demand why she hid herself.
She passed the door to the secret garden, the wall covered in vines and flowers. She contemplated stopping but in the heat of the moment, she just dismissed the thought. She heard the second opening of the doors.
She went to the last place she knew to go, the place where that night had ended. She found herself veering around the same corners, in the same situation she was in before.
She stopped at the top of stairs. She realized what she was giving up. The mystery princess would be no more. No more seeing Kit, enjoying the evenings and dances with him, no more of his smiles or kind words. It would all be gone. The large staircase stretched on ahead of her.
She took a deep breath, then hurried down the steps. She didn't know where she would go, into town maybe and or in the forest. She could certainly hide, but she couldn't run forever.
She would just be running away again. She hesitated on taking her next step. The rain fell down harder.
Then she saw the white cat at the end of the steps. Her blue eyes stared into Bea's, bright in the dark. Fairy Godmother was standing between her and the forest, between her and her escape. Bea could feel herself tearing up. She would be throwing away Fairy Godmother's good deeds, and all that she had done for Bea. Bea was afraid, she couldnt do it.
But then she saw what she thought was a smile on the cat's face.
Bea could hear Kit's voice and the echoing of footsteps behind her. But it was all faint. All she focused on was that same twinkle the white cat had in her eyes. Fairy Godmother had that look only when Kit and her first met.
Before she could wonder what Fairy Godmother was up too, she tripped.
It seemed everything happened in slow motion then. She felt one of her brown flats slide off, the same ones that she complained were too tight on her feet. The white cat only watched. She landed with a stumble. Strands of her black hair fell on her face as she regained footing on the next step.
Her eyes widened as her bare foot hit the cold ground, water uprising and the brown flat laying a few feet behind her. Kit's voice grew near. She could only look at Fairy Godmother in shock.
She couldn't breathe. She was frozen. The clock's bells chimed again, nearing midnight. The rain fell against the steps, the sound blending with Kit's voice echoing through the garden. She had to move. One more bell before it was midnight.
She turned around to grab her flat off the ground and then run. But it wasn't on the stairs.
Blue eyes met hers when the clock struck midnight.
