Bluebirds Without Wings | Julie and the Phantoms

Guilt

Julie stood still, Reggie and Luke talking words amongst each other that she didn't pick up. King Caleb was in her castle, and he was trying to negotiate people like cattle. People were going to die if he didn't walk away satisfied. She felt herself wanting to cry. She couldn't do anything anymore. Did she do anything at all? "Princess," Luke said, grabbing her by the hand and bringing her back to real life. "We have to go hide." Julie just nodded. She could hear Luke and Reggie telling each other to stay safe. Luke's hand squeezed hers as he pulled her to the secret hallway door, the one she had used ages ago to sneak out to the club.

They walked through and took steps to the lower parts of the castle, past a hidden door and into a secret wine cellar that wasn't revealed to Julie until recently. Luke turned on the light and Julie could see her go bag stacked on one of the barrels. He let go of her hand, but Julie grabbed his back, not saying a word.

They stood still and Julie looked up at him. He checked his phone every few seconds, but he would shake his head. "I'm not sure what they're doing up there," Luke said. Julie stared at him for a few seconds and then realized that most of the tunnels wrapped through the entire castle. Her very paranoid ancestor had them built when the kingdom was being established. She opened the door, and Luke let go of her hand to shut it closed by reaching over her. "What are you doing?"

"Let's go listen," she said, looking up at him. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I thought these walls were sound proof," he told her. She shrugged and tried to open the door again, but he wouldn't move his hand. She tugged on it, but his stance was firm. "Princess, please let's just stay here." She looked up at him and frowned.

"I just want to see if we can listen. If we can't, we'll come back." He stared at her and she looked back, making sure to hold his brown eyes. He struggled to keep his face face blank until he eventually sighed and removed his hand. She smiled and opened the door, picking a direction leading to the side of the castle where her dad's office was. She assumed he'd be received there.

The walls were made of grey bricks and they weren't decorated at all compared to the hallways on the other side of the walls. She wondered how many more rooms in there she hadn't uncovered. After walking a few more steps, she saw a oak door that would lead to the office hallway and knew it would move a large mirror that was in there. She was close.

She pressed her ear against the brick and knew it was almost futile. She felt Luke's hand on her shoulder and when she turned to look at him, he was pointing back down the hall. She walked with him and they pressed their ears. He whispered, "Can't hear what they're saying, but they're there." It was muffled voices and if they could hear then, it meant that they were yelling. "That's King Caleb's voice." Julie could pick out his voice as well as her dad's. They were haunting in this subdued form.

"You know," Julie whispered, one of her hands pressed against the wall. "Carlos and I aren't allowed in the same hiding place during emergencies. Just in case one of us dies, there's still one to spare." Luke put his hand on top of hers, taking her aback. He didn't look at her, but instead he closed his eyes as if trying to listen better.

A gunshot on the other side threw them back to the floor, Luke crawling over to her and rushing to get them both up on their feet. Julie wasn't even fully standing when Luke had her running at full speed back to the cellar to hide. In meetings they were told to hide in there until they were picked up by a guard and Julie had no idea how longer they would have to be in there for. A tear fell all the way down to her chin by the time Luke walked her inside the cellar, shutting the door behind them. Julie fell to the floor as Luke locked it, and she stared down at the stained cement floors. It was like watching her mom die all over again.

"Hey," Luke whispered, sitting down next to her. "It's okay, alright? If something happened to your dad they would've barged in here already to get us." Julie gave him a small smile, knowing he was just trying to make her feel better. If they had gone in there, they would have had her take the throne before her next breath.

"I'm so tired of this," Julie whispered to him, staring at him. He looked sad with her and every few seconds, his leg would bounce but he'd catch it and stop it. He was nervous, too. "I hope Carlos and Reggie are fine."

"I'm not too sure about this, but I think they left the castle already," Luke told her. They needed Julie as backup for her dad's immortality. They wouldn't let two monarchs die back-to-back. And if she did get killed, they'd forfeit and Carlos would inherit a bloody kingdom. Nobody really planned on dying, but they prepared for it anyways.

"I think I'd feel too guilty to leave. There's refugees in the city, and instead of helping them..." Julie's eyes started to water, and she felt her throat get in a knot. "I'm here. Hiding." Luke sat closer to her and put an arm around her, although he seemed nervous with his shaky leg. Julie leaned into his chest and could hear his heartbeat at the proximity she was to him. It didn't slow down in the few minutes of silence that they had. But he helped her relax a little and pull apart from the body of her throne.

Luke's phone buzzed, and they both pulled apart in an instant, Julie remembering who she was and who he was to her. He checked it and he stood up, holding out his hand to her. "No time to feel guilty, Princess. We have to go."

-

The two snuck out the castle like they had been told to and found a car waiting for them with a driver Julie had known her whole life. Without saying a word, they took backroads of the castle town, leaving in a direction Julie wanted to remember. She wanted to swear she had passed by certain orchards and grassy plains with her family before, but she could had been lying to herself for the purpose of nostalgia. It already felt like her dad was dead and all she had were those memories of the four of them alive. She already didn't know how she was supposed to live her entire life without her mom. What if she lost her dad, too?

Julie and Luke sat in the backseat, her go bag in between them. She wanted to reach out and hold his hand but all she could do was stare at his side profile as he looked ahead. He had a wonderous look on his face as if he didn't recognize anything.

She asked him, "Did you pack a go back?" He looked over at her and nodded.

"It's in the trunk. Had it put there a week or two ago. I don't have many things, though, so it's small." Julie nodded and looked up ahead. They hadn't passed a town in a while, and it was all pastures.

"Benny," Julie called to the driver. "Where is the safe house?"

"I can not say, Princess," he said before whispering, "just in case they are listening." He pointed at his phone on the dashboard before paying attention to the empty dirt roads that lay ahead. Julie looked down at her phone Luke had her put in airplane mode and turned it off. Luke chuckled to himself when she did it.

"Luke," she asked him, "do you have a last name?" Luke raised an eyebrow. She could had sworn her dad said it once a long time ago, but she was so red with anger she blocked it out. She just thought about a seventeen year old named Luke who was hired to die for her.

"Patterson," he replied. He looked at her for a moment. He seemed more relaxed, his eyes less bloodshot and more sweet. "Do you?"

"Technically, Molina."

"Molina," he repeated. "I like that." Julie gave him a real smile, warmth spreading from her heart and through her body. They didn't talk after that and Julie closed her eyes, falling asleep to the silence of her warring kingdom. She prayed in her sleep, begging for her dad's life.

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A/N: Technically it's Friday but I'm going to say it's still Thursday because I haven't gone to bed lol. I've had a busy school week and almost didn't update, but I wanted y'all to have this chapter.