Anybody But You

22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Vibe: Good News by Mac Miller 🙏🏼

"Seriously, again?" Lucy sighed, putting her hands on her curvy hips as Alice smiled sweetly. "You need to go home eventually."

Even though Alice had originally planned to live in her room forever, the embarrassment of what she had done quickly chased her away from everyone who had witnessed her psychosis. So, with the only person she knew living without nobles that would report back to the duke, she fled to Lucy.

Alice shrugged, scratching the back of her neck sheepishly. "The palace is so much nicer, though."

Lucy shook her head, "Alright, whatever. You're welcome to stay however long you'd like—but my parents haven't stopped pestering me for days about you." Rubbing her forehead she laughed tiredly, "I've seen them more this week than in my entire life. I mean, I bloody lived with them and bumped into them constantly and I still see their faces more these days."

Alice sighed, she could not relate.

Lucy looked at her, rolling her eyes, "Enough about me, how are you? Have you at least gotten out to see friends? The birds? The trees? Literally anything?" She asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Not yet. I like it in here." Alice slipped her eyes past the green ones, her focus turning to the beautiful room. Like her coming of age party, the room was filled with pastel pink and green and brilliant golds. "Did you decorate it yourself?" She hummed, happy that Lucy's time as princess wasn't at all comparable to her last life.

Lucy shrugged, her expression solemn, "One of the servants came by the night of the party—asked me questions and took inspiration from the things I liked."

Alice bit her lip, "I'm sorry I couldn't stop the engagement."

Lucy shook her head, "I think you've probably done a lot that I don't know about in order for me to be living so comfortably."

"Why do you say that?" Alice laughed nervously, picking at the chair as she sat down, avoiding her eyes.

Lucy hummed, stretching back as she fell into the soft mattress. "Prince Narcisse always scared me a little, you know? He puts on a charming face in the crowd, but I've heard so many stories about how it's all a facade." She spoke, making Alice's body react uncomfortably to her words as she tried to keep her heart rate down, "People used to say that whoever his bride was, wouldn't live to see the next morning. As far as I know he hasn't purposely hurt anybody innocent, but everyone used to whisper that it was just a matter of time for when he did."

Alice had never really thought about it before, did Narcisse have victims before her? Were there already victims of his living in this world? Or was she the first? Was she the 'matter of time' that they talked about? It made her shiver how unfair it all was.

But more curiouser, why did the past life Lucy cling so hard to Narcisse if she was so scared of him? None of it made sense.

"Do you think you'd ever cling to someone like that?" Alice couldn't help but to ask.

The questions and differences were almost too many and too big to believe that her last world had anything to do with this one. Did she fall into an alternative reality? What was going on?

Lucy laughed, "Yes, if I thought it might save my life. I even tried it the day I was brought here." She admitted, sitting up as Alice's eyes widened. "I went right up to his room and practically threw myself at him." Biting her lip, she scrunched up her face, "It was humiliating—I was all like 'if you let me live I'll do anything for you, your highness' and you should have seen that boys face." Giggling she fell back down, looking at the canopy over her bed, "He was all confused and rude like 'what would the purpose of me killing you be—do you plan on being a nuisance or something' and then he looked absolutely panicked as if he thought of something terrifying," turning to her side she looked at Alice with a suspicious smile, "Wanna know what he said, Alice?" She didn't wait as she kept going excitedly in bursts of tiny giggles and bad impressions, "He was like 'did Miss Alice tell you something? What did she say? What does she think I did? Lucy, for the love of god, I order you to tell me why she hates me!' It was quite honestly adorable even though he clearly wanted to lock me up like a prisoner and interrogate me." Lucy laughed loudly after imitating the prince's deep voice poorly.

Alice felt her cheeks redden from embarrassment, quickly changing the subjects. "Well... doesn't that just mean your fears were for nothing? I mean, how would I have anything to do with your treatment here?"

Lucy shook her red hair out with a thoughtful expression, "I'm not sure, but I've seen the looks in the royal family's eyes and it's exactly how people used to explain the prince's eyes were like—but when I saw the prince, they weren't as cold as I thought they'd be." Rolling around to her stomach, Lucy smiled as if imagining something lovely, "I like to think you probably saved him from a path that he was being told to go down. And I think because you got him off it, you saved me from something terrible, too."

Alice almost shivered. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe Narcisse was following some fate laid down for him just as she was following hers. And then they both ended up dead for it.

If she hadn't accidentally gotten Lucy to meet Godric, and if she hadn't taken up Narcisse's time during the party, would Lucy have gotten Narcisse's attention to the point where she felt as if she needed to throw herself at him to survive? Did Lucy feel like Alice's existence threatened her safety after he became sadistically obsessed with the living doll in his dungeon? Was that why she targeted her so badly? To save her own life?

Alice swallowed down the theory. Did that mean the two worlds really were the same? Could one person make such a huge difference in the lives of so many? And what exactly awaited them—another painful death, or a life worth living finally?

She didn't know anything, but she felt like maybe she was onto something... Like maybe revenge came in more flavours than just the one she originally dreamed about.

For example, maybe justice was one of those flavours.

~*~*~

A.N.

We're into our retribution phase. You got this Alice, you've already made so many great steps! Live prosperously! Get your justice—whatever that means for you.

Thank you for reading!

R.I.P. mac miller... I'm still so sad over your death :( what a cute man you were.