“Hey Eliza?”, Nicolas shook the princess in an attempt to wake her up. “Hey Eliza, this is not your room”, when he got no reaction from all of the shaking, he decided to carry her back to her room.
It was just close so it did not take long.
“Selene?”, He knocked but there was no response so he decided to open the door. “She’s not here, she might have just ended at Anton’s room after all”, he thought as he laid down Eliza at her bed.
After fixing her bed, blanket and all, he decided to leave, but Eliza did not let him.
“Hey Nicolas”, she said pulling the prince by his hand then wrestled him down the bed as she sat. “You know, Selene taught me that an average human body is 60% percent water”.
“So? what about that?”, Nicolas replied while getting confused on why she would brought up a topic like that as he tried to get up. But Eliza’s whole weight prevented him to quickly do so.
“Since you are 60% water too… can I take a sip?”, Eliza blurted, pinning him down again.
“Take a sip?… If you’re thirsty then I’ll get you a drink”, Nicolas replied even more discombobulated.
He tried again to forcefully stand up but he was stopped on his tracks as Eliza went in for his lips. He stiffened like a dead log on the forest floor.
“What are you doing?”, he whispered in panicked pushing the princess away.
He finally got the chance to stand up so he rushed for the door but Eliza caught his sleeve.
“Do you like me Nicolas?... or did that kiss did not even reached your heart nor melt your cold demeanor even just a little?”, she blurted.
“Your just drunk, let’s just talk tomorrow”, Nicolas replied trying to dismiss the question.
“Answer the question!”, Eliza yelled as she tightened her grip.
Nicolas just provided silence.
“Right, that’s what I thought…”, she let him go. “Just so you’ll know I opened that box…”.
“Why would you do that?”, the prince asked.
“I’m not done talking yet…”, she tucked herself to the bed. “I opened it because I thought it’s for me. Why else would you prevent me to see it if it’s not a surprise right?”, she tried to laugh.
“But I was wrong, as I picked it up I already knew who it was meant to be, or at least who once took possession of it”, her voice began to falter as tears fell down her cheeks.
“If I remember correctly, it was hers right?”.
“How can you be sure?”, Nicolas asked.
“For the second time, I’m not done talking!”, she again yelled.
“I know because although we are still young that time, from the other side of the table I saw how bright your smile as you looked at her. It’s a smile that I never once saw when you look at me even if you did”.
“You were there that night?”
“I’m sure it’s hers because you’re holding that hair clip when you got back from outside, blood stained and all. The night when you laughed at her mother as you said that she died. When you slashed your father and almost killed that boy”, Eliza explained not paying attention.
“What did you say?”, Nicolas asked as he felt terror down his spine.
“Don’t you remember?”, Eliza’s tear flowed even more. “I was also there, have you not notice me?, am I too irrelevant to be noticed or you just casted it away sealing it at the back of your mind?”.
Something from the depths of Nicolas’s mind came to light and it’s starting to give him a headache like the ones he had a few years back. He was haunted by the bottle that he sealed with a lid for too long that it’s now starting to break.
“Is that why you can’t answer my question?, you like her don’t you”, Eliza blurted as she covered herself with the blanket, failing to notice Nicolas whose trying too hard not to have a break down on the floor.
Nicolas felt like crying as the memories he tried to run from but never really forgot finally caught up to him, but still, tears does not seem to come. All he felt was his head turning and his chest being punctured and it hurts as he tried catching his breath while leaning against the wall.
“She’s already dead Nicolas, at least let her finally rest in peace! I’m here for you and I’ll always will, why don’t you open your heart”.
“Shut up!”, Nicolas yelled back causing a brief silence and all can be heard was the Princess’s sobs.
“She’s dead! Just accept that!”, Elizalina whispered.
Without any other words Nicolas ended the conversation there. He got up, opened the door, and slammed it shut. He’s first impulse was to go to the old well to clear his mind beside the pond but the echoes of the past is already screaming at their peak.
“She’s already dead!”, it drilled in his right ear while the laughs of the man who’s cause of this all can be heard on the other. Nicolas felt dizzy as he stopped and sat on the steps.
He took a deep breath. His hand to clenching his hair, while the other on his chest trying to stabilize his breathing. When he heard voices coming from below, he took a peek down saw the two Kings. He tried to hide.
“It’s nice to see your kingdom finally on its feet again”, King Ferrol congratulated Nathaniel.
“Yes, and it’s all thanks to your assistance that I can finally repay you for your help”, King Nathaniel replied as they swayed left and right on each step.
“Oh don’t worry about that. All I want is to make our kingdom’s bond to be strong, but it can be stronger, if you know what I mean”, Ferrol stopped to take a break.
“This again?”, Nathaniel whispered as he waited for the fat king.
“Well? Didn’t you said yes the first time?, you even risked bringing your son so that he and my sweet daughter can be close enough”, Ferrol hiccupped. “Close enough for a marriage”.
Nicolas heard them from above. He felt Goosebumps on his skin but still he kept silent.
“It’s true, one marriage can be the answer to this all”, King Nathaniel agreed as they started walking again.
“If I did not know you, I would think that your using your son as a payment”, Ferrol laughed and Nathaniel seconded as they walked pass Nicolas who was silently hiding in a corner.
That last joke took a toll on his tolerance and capacity.
“Payment father?”, the prince emerged from the shadows.
The kings were fairly shocked as if their hangover had been lifted. All there’s left is their shocked faced.
“What are you doing here Nicolas, it’s already late”, Nathaniel replied although startled.
“What am I to you father?! A live stock?, born and raised just to be harvested at the right moment?”, he yelled.
“I was planning to tell you in time”, the king replied while shaking as Ferrol froze in place unable to move.
“In time?, When is that? When you already left me no choice again? When I am unable to say what I wanted? When you refuse to hear what I wanted to say?”
“When…”, Nathaniel tried to reply but was cut immediately by his son.
“I trusted you with everything that you made me do even if it’s not in line with what I want. I believed that you really have brought me there to learn, why didn’t I realized your ulterior motif”, the prince laughed.
“Listen first Nicolas!”, The king yelled.
“You’re the one who should listen father!”, he yelled back.
His eyes were burning with anger and Nathaniel was pretty sure it was the same rage as that night. Once again, he felt scared again. “I just want what’s good for you!”, he tried explaining as he backed away together with Ferrol.
“Deciding about my life without me knowing? You don’t know what’s good for me father!. You’re just doing things that you thought was good for you and you’re just using me as an excuse!, I am not just an expendable pawn you feed to your enemy on your game of chess. I have a voice that you did not even cared to listen”
“Listen!”, Nathaniel again yelled.
“Shut up! Just to remind you, everything that you see in me right now is all your fault!, Scolding me for almost everything I do be it right or wrong, disregarding my feelings because you’re too angry to consider others, and getting angry with me just because you are angry with something or someone else”, Nicolas said as his eyes started to glow blue.
“Where is the ‘good for me’ in that father? All you think about is this Kingdom! A little bit of care for your son wouldn’t hurt you!”.
King Nathaniel was directly hit by those words as he backed away even more. But these thoughts still bothers him, “There’s those eyes again”, as he started to get worried.
“Nicolas?, what is happening here?”, Queen Cynthia asked a few steps away from where the Prince is standing.
Nicolas too was startled and he’s rage dissipated into worry and sorry. He’s eyes went back to normal as he looked around and finally, the scared look on everyone’s faces registered to him. That’s when he realized that he had gone too far.
He ran back to his room, locked the door, and placed a chair under the knob before sitting beside the windowsill. The panic that he’s trying to suppress had also gone out of control.
Though tears did not come, he felt his chest aching as if it will burst from all the emotions he’s feeling while at the same time his head feels like it will split in two as he reminisced what happened that night with no cuts or forgotten scenes.
It was a painting with blood and agony as the pain. He was the painter and canvas as he watched himself make each stroke as it came to life, clear and vivid.
He paid no attention to the knocks outside. More like he did not hear any of it. By the morning came when the King and Queen ordered the servants to forcefully open the door, he was gone. His cabinet was trashed along with other belongings. His bed was out of place and they found the passage way that Nicolas tried to tell the King from years ago but did not care to listen.
All they found at the table in the middle of the secret room was a note.
Mother,
I am sorry if you need to see such thing on your most important day and I’m sorry for leaving without any notice but a letter. But I can finally answer the question father asked me from years ago. Yes, I can finally remember as bright as the fireworks that night, the color of the blood of the one’s I killed. I am neither such a good son nor a person after all.
As for my leave, don’t even bother looking for me. I will be fine. Things will be better if I leave now, that bearded man will come back for me again and it’s better if this Kingdom will be spared from such tragedy.
Worry not because I’ll someday return when I’m finished with my task.
Your son,
Nicolas Aquilos
Although worried, the Queen knows that she can’t do anything at this point.
Before the sun had rise, Nicolas had already prepared himself of all that he’ll need on a journey. He escaped through a passageway connected to the hidden room behind the book shelves. He exited at the side of the castle just outside the wall. The hidden door was camouflage under a rock, but enough effort would pry it open from the inside.
There were knights but he managed to get pass them when they go for rounds and change positions.
He found himself walking on the memorial built for the three casualties that night, Logan, Alisa, and the only knight who died on duty Leon Rubier.
The sun was still far from rising so he was surprised that a person was already busy tending to the flower beds around the memorial, together with a horse. He silently walked through the shadows as he decided to knock the person out so he can safely take the horse without a problem.
He took a large stone he found along the way. He lifted it up and brought it back down with full force on the person’s head but it did not go as planned. The person tumbled to his side but still managed to take the pale from his hand and shielded his head with it.
“You?!”, Nicolas uttered as he recognized the boy’s face. He was his age and he’ll never mistake who it was. “Lander”, he said.
“Your… your majesty?”, Lander replied, scared and confused.
“I should have gone for the kill if I have known it was you in the first place”, he called his sword, pointing it on the boy’s neck.
“Lo… look, Nicolas, I’m really so… sorry about that night”, Lander explained, already dripping with sweat. His hands are out in the air as he tried to get up.
“In case you have forgotten, your plead for forgiveness won’t bring Alisa back!”, Nicolas exclaimed as his sword glue even brighter. Lander knows how much hate that glow contains because he had seen it before thus he was truly scared for his life.
“I know that!”, he yelled back. “But please, I’m doing all I can to try and pay for what I had done. I have been training as a knight for the past two years now, hoping that I can at least atone even a bit for my sins”, Lander got down to his knees tearing up.
“Who cares about that?, don’t you know how much pain you’ve cost me and Head Maid Alisha? All you can do for what you’ve done is to die in my hands!”, Nicolas exclaimed.
“Please Prince, I know that what I did was unforgivable and the pain I had cost you is far from bearable. I don’t have a family that will miss me even when I’m gone but please understand. It’s not only you who was scarred for what I did”, he said lowering his head to the ground.
“I too had suffered the consequences for my actions, everyday!, for 9 years now. The town folks would call me a murderer, disgusting and all, but please. I’m doing all I can to obtain the forgiveness I can’t even give to myself”, he started crying.
“That’s why for the past years after this memorial was raised, I tended it in the dark, without no one even knowing. Hoping that I’ll at least see a spark of the light that I… no, we lost that night”.
“You expect me to believe you?, really?”, Nicolas laughed.
“No, I can’t ask you to believe your majesty”, Lander replied not moving an inch from the ground.
Nicolas took a deep breath before sighing, “Is that your horse?”.
“Yes”, the boy replied briefly.
“Good, here’s the deal, I will let you live…”
“Really?”, Lander looked up to him feeling relieved.
“I did not say you can talk, you dip shit!”, Nicolas yelled. “I will let you live as long as you never cross my sight again, and!, you never saw me, I was not here, and you saw nothing”, he mandated as he went pass Lander and boarded the horse.
“But… where are you going?”, Lander asked.
“That’s none of your business”, the prince replied as he rode the horse away.
After reaching the edge of the forest, he left the horse and then started venturing the forest. Based on the map that he had brought, it would at least take months to reach Drasyl when you follow the road. It’s because the road was made on safe terrains, far from cliffs and wild animal infested forests. Plus it is more convenient to travel town by town or kingdom by kingdom for supplies.
But Nicolas had a better plan in mind, thanks again to the map. He figured that if he traversed the uncertain path through the forest and mountains it would at least take him two weeks to reach the destination if he got lucky, that is.
“Adventure, here I come”, he whispered as he remembered the “Adventures of Beth”.
Thanks to the lessons he unwillingly took, he made it to Drasyl despite almost losing his life few dozens of times. Some are from mindlessly almost walking off a cliff and most from animals, hunger, and lack of shelter.
But despite all that, he made it out alive. Looked for the answers at Drasyl, occasionally shoplifting, and now, again on the verge of death as he sank deeper and deeper from the waters that he thought would save his life.
“Find him no matter what!”, Donnor ordered his men as he looked down the water fall from above together with Alice who knows she should be grateful she was spared but is more worried mostly from pity and vaguely by the fact that Nick might not be the thing they thought he was.