Forgotten Memories

Chapter 14

*Charlotte's POV*

After Charlotte had calmed down a bit in Sean's arms, he gently led her out of the room towards a cozier room with a fireplace; she almost forgot she was still underground. They sat down in chairs set up next to the fireplace and Charlotte curled her legs underneath herself.

"So, I am not saying that I don't want you here, because trust me I do, but why did you come back?" Sean asks hesitantly, clearly not wanting to scare her off but needing an answer nonetheless.

"Well, first of all, I never wanted to leave here, but I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know who to believe. But as for why I came back, it's a bit more complicated. When Scarlet brought me back to the castle, blindfolded nonetheless, I didn't go inside right away. I sat on a tree stump and tried to clear my mind. When it didn't work, I snuck into the castle and started cleaning."

When Sean laughed at that she felt the need to defend herself. "It helps me think, okay?"

"Continue on," He responded with a goofy smile.

"Anyways, I started cleaning and somehow I stumbled upon this polaroid that had been placed behind my chair. I got a weird feeling, but I shook it off and kept cleaning. After a while, I found another one and I knew it wasn't a coincidence, so I started looking for them. After an hour or so, I found over fifteen of them. Then long story short, I stared at them until I started to remember everything, but my brain is still a little foggy."

Sean nodded his head as she finished her story, his mouth was set in a line but his eyes were a bit mischievous.

"Okay, my turn to ask a question, and I need you to answer truthfully. No games, Okay?" She asked, pausing to give him time to answer her. He nodded his head and she continued on.

"Did you leave those polaroids in my room?"

"Honestly, no, I didn't."

"Okay...Did you have anything to do with it?"

"Yeah..." His mouth turned upwards the tiniest bit.

"Sean!" she exclaimed, "Spill."

"Fine, fine, fine." He countered, "I planned the whole thing the day after we met at the stairs and you didn't remember me. I couldn't stand the lies and the deceit, you deserved to know."

"That is actually really sweet," she said giving him a playful shove to the shoulder, "but didn't you just say you didn't leave the polaroids in my room?"

"I wasn't lying. Yes, I planned the entire thing but *technically* I didn't put them in your room, I had Des do it." His face broke into a smile as he couldn't keep a straight face anymore.

"Ugh, you are definitely a goof," she said as she got up and walked over to his chair to hug him, "But I know I couldn't have done it without you. So, thank you."

"Of course, Char."

"Second question, how did you end up here and why? And it seems like you are kind of the leader, how'd that happen? And what does it really mean to be a rebel? And where are Matt and Carson, are they rebels too? What's going to happen to me?" Her questions fade at the realization that she knows absolutely nothing about her near future.

"Hey, slow down. You are going to be fine. Do you hear me? You are going to be okay." He reassured her. "Matt and Carson are here with us. They are rebels and they are completely okay. I ended up here after we got lost in the woods. When we got back to the castle, I was disappointed in the King and the royal guard so I took a walk in the forest and Scarlet found me and told me about their mission. I don't know that I would call myself the leader, but I guess I have raised ranks a bit since I first came here. We don't really have a designated leader."

As he said that, Scarlet happened to be walking by the room. She stopped in her tracks and leaned her head in the door frame. "That's a lie, he is pretty much our leader, he was practically born for it." She gave Charlotte a wink and continued on her way.

Charlotte raised an eyebrow at Sean. "Why haven't you guys made an act against the capital?"

"Well, actually, the entire reason you came to the castle in the first place was the death of the other Princess Charlotte. What the King didn't tell you, or any other citizens, was that she died from an attack of another group. The reason we haven't made a big attack on the King is partly because I focused on saving you, and partly because we needed a symbol."

"A symbol?"

"Let me show you?"

There was another question looming over her head, but she was too afraid to ask it. She still didn't know how she got in a coma. Instead of asking, she quietly followed him back down the maze-like halls.

***

Charlotte stared at the huge board that covered the wall of what Sean called the mission room. On the board there were plans for taking over verification day and for numerous other indistinguishable plans. There were castle floor plans, images of secret underground tunnels, and maps of the capital city and the surrounding land.

Her head spun just looking at all of the different information, let alone trying to decipher it. "What are we doing here, what does this have to do with the symbol?"

All he did was point towards a drawing. She could instantly tell it was his work, but it took her a while to take in all of the aspects of the drawing. The main piece was a sketch of a woman. She was wearing leggings, a tight black shirt with a barely noticeable bullet-proof vest, and a black, hooded long sleeve cape that was tied like a cardigan and tipped with red, the color of Trordon. She had tall black boots and two straps around her right thigh to hold knives. She looked brave and strong, everything Charlotte had tried to be as crown princess.

Surrounding the sketch were symbols that she assumed Sean had designed for the rebels.

"Oh, this is for Scarlet, isn't it?" she said, excited to have figured it out.

"No," he responded with a laugh. "Actually, we all had someone else in mind to be our symbol."

"Oh, who?" she asked confused.

"You."