A Hidden World

Part 16

Rose simply could not sleep. She kept tossing and turning and when a torch shined on in the bed next to her, she gave up trying. She was royalty! Why wasn't she treated in a special posh hospital where you didn't have idiots turning on their torches at 3 AM?! Or at least in a place where she had her own room? She propped herself up using her skinny elbows and squinted as she turned to look at whoever it was in the bed next to her. A gasp escaped her lips as she saw who it was. 

Lucy. It was Lucy..

She half wanted Lucy to notice her, but at the same time, she didn't. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the torch, she saw that Lucy was reading something. Was it a necklace? She couldn't tell. Her decisions on whether Lucy should see her or not were made when Lucy rolled over onto her side with her back to Rose. Not purposely, of course, as she didn't know Rose was there. But she still turned her back on a princess. A princess! Of all people to turn your back on! A princess! Honestly. Some people were just plain rude.

Rose thought about her argument with Lucy, and if she should have reacted the way she did. She was a bit dramatic, and had taken what was probably an overlander joke seriously. She knew she could be stubborn sometimes, but she had never been so unkind to anybody before. It was unlike her to behave in that-

"WEEEEE-WOOOO!" Rose shot upright. The war alarm! Someone was waging war on the city! Suddenly, a thought surfaced in Rose's confuzzled mind. Lucy! She wouldn't know what was going on! As she turned round to look at her, Rose saw Lucy was sitting bolt upright in her bed, clearly scared by the frightened reactions of others.

"Lucy!" she cried. "It's alright! Don't be scared!" Lucy's head swung round wildly before she found Rose in the bed next to her, and held her gaze for a moment or two, before looking at the floor with a sad expression on her face. Rose felt immediately guilty. She jumped out of bed, and shook Lucy's shoulders. Lucy looked up. "Look," she repeated, but more quietly this time. "It's alright, ok? Don't be scared." Rose looked at Lucy's pale face, and watched a tear fall from her eye and roll down her cheek. She felt more guilty than ever. Because she knew it was her fault.

But right now wasn't the time to be acting all sentimental, and she had to pull herself together. For Lucy's sake. She grabbed Lucy's shoulder again, and pressed her face against hers, so Lucy could hear her over the din.

"I'm going to tell everybody what this alarm means. Listen, it's important." Lucy nodded, and followed Rose as she ran into the main visitors room of the hospital, where all of the other patients were gathered in a whispering, terrified bunch, their eyes wide as pleading puppy dogs.

Rose looked around for a second, before climbing up and standing on the tallest table she could find.

"Everybody! This is Princess Rose speaking. PLease listen! You all know what this alarm means. It means the city is in immediate danger. Hopefully, you have all done a drill before. If you haven't, it means we evacuate in neat, silent lines. We wait for a member of royalty's orders, in this case mine, and they tell us what to do. I want everybody to find a partner. Don't be picky with it; this is a matter of life and death we're talking about, not a silly child's game."

Soon, everybody except Lucy had a partner.

Guys it really means a lot to me that you are reading this, thank you so much!!
Who likes it so far, and what do you think is gonna happen next? What you you want to happen in the future? Any ships?