More Than This

chapter 4

Emily's POV

I ran out to the garden to breath, it was starting to get a bit suffocating in there. In my garden, I feel a little bit more free, almost as if I didn't have the curse. With the cool, Australian summerair softly blowing  towards my hair .

Is that what my parents wanted to talk to me about? Well they obviously didn't want to talk to me about how I was, they never do.

I decide to push it to the back of my mind and get down on my knees and weed my flowers. They were my favourite, red roses.

Even though I couldn't sees beauty, there was something beautiful in the way they blossomed and grew, something majestic about them. It's the only kind of beauty I can see, that's why I spend hours in here, looking after these....things.

 This is my only way that I can get away from my life as a princess and have hope.

I stand back and look at my masterpiece. Erm......not really.

The stem looked like some wire sucked in green goo. The petals were crusty and looked desperate for some water.

The only thing that actually looked alright was the thorns. They stood proudly on the stem, with a dangerous look on it.

I wish I could see properly. I might as well been born blind.

In frustration I grab a couple of them and rip them of the ground. Red blood appears in my hand immediately, I wince in pain. Blood, so much blood.

I quickly run in to find go Sarah.

"Sarah!" I yell, I gulp, trying to hide the panic in my voice. "SARAH! Get of the accursed youtube and come and do your job!"

"I'm coming!" She yells from the top of the stairs. Her cheeky face quickly appears as she hurries down stairs.

I bet to everyone else, she is pretty. Probably even beautiful. Her brown, dry locks are probably look silky, falling effortlessly on her shoulder. The empty lifeless eyes she has are most likely a bright brown, with a spark in it.

"Yes, princess?" Sarah must probably be creeped out by my staring. Oops.

I show her my hand, this is her strong point. At once she gets to work. From her pocket she takes out a pale pink, little sack. From she gets some dust.

Her dead eyes scrunch up dramatically as she carefully sprinkles it on the wound. She once told me that magic is dangerous and any mistakes could have severe consequences.

She then softly places her hand on mine. This is when the magic happens, I suddenly feel a tickle and then a  sense of relief in my hand and know I've been healed.

"Thanks," I say casually, ready to walk away, but her dry looking (but surprisingly soft) hands grab my arm. A bit too roughly, I say.

She can't touch me like this, I scowl at her.

"Erm, sorry princess, but I have some urgent news for you. You are needed in the situation room," her voice is tight and urgent, not really like her.

"I told you, I'm not going to marry Gaston. I'm not going back home either!"

Her face relaxes slightly and she laughs. She laughs!

"You aren't going to get married now, sure it's happening sooner than we had expected but not now. You're not ready yet." She explains through her laughs.

Not ready yet, eh? A plan starts to form in my mind.

"Just take me to the stupid situation room!" She puts her hands up in surrender. " I really hope you're not going to waste my time again."

"Of course not princess," she bows her head down at me and laughs, before scurrying along to lead the way.

Sarah, I shake my head, my mouth twitching into a small smile.

I follow her down the dark, wooden corridors. There are paintings on every single wall of my ancestors and family. There are no paintings of me though.

I have tried taking them down a countless time because in reality they're really creepy, I fell like ghost are staring at me, but every time I did they would always appear an hour later. That would creep me out even more, so I just left them.

Stupid magic.

My hands go over the wooden planks on the walls, feeling the rough surface.

When I was a kid, I used to pretend there was a secret passage here and all I needed to do was find a trigger. I wasted hours here trying to find an escape, hopefully find a family who would love me for who I was. Not just my title.

Of course I never found one, and even if I did, there would be a protective shield. Made to keep me in as well as keep danger out.

We reach the end of the corridor, which is actually quite long. There are guards there ready to open the doors for us.

I never understood why my parents decided to get guards here. All they ever do is open doors, they don't actually do any um guarding.

Who would want to hurt me, a forgotten princess. I'm simply not important enough.

As I walk in everyone stops their conversations and stand up respectively as I walk in.

The situation room isn't as grand and important as it sounds. It's just a small round table in a room near the kitchen, almost like a dining room.

There are only 4 other people there at the table. Carly, Cook, Carlos(my stylist for important events), Fredrick (my housekeeper).

Carlos who is an elf (yes, an elf) stands up.

"We have a problem," Carlos states.

"Well obviously,otherwise I wouldn't be here. Would I?" Carlos quickly shakes his bald head side to side.

"No princess, I wouldn't want to waste your time, princess. Sorry, princesss." I roll my eyes at his behaviour.

Out of all the servants here I think Carlos is the most scared of me. He sits back down, his face blushing with shame.

I feel a bit bad, but oh well. Cook stands up to take the attention away from Carlos. Cook is less scared of me, she's a plump, round lady with a short temper.

She is the closest thing I have to mother, she is the only one that bothers to correct me, or tell me off.

"Carlos didn't mean any harm, princess," She tries to reason. I shrug lazily. "Our cloaking shield has been fading the past few week." See, straight to the point. "We hadn't noticed until today and its completely gone."

"And? What do you want me to do? Do I look like a fairy too you? It's your fault anyways, you guys should have noticed it before. This is what you are paid to do."

"Yes, we know this but you need to know that this won't take a minute or two to do. Or one fairy," she explains. "A cloaking spell for a house this big will probably take a day and we need more fairies. What should we do?"

"Have you talked to my parents yet, they are the ones that deal with this stuff," I point out annoyed. What did they say about not wasting my time?

"Yes, we did. This morning in fact. They are sending new fairies tomorrow night. They also said that you decide what to do until then."

Tomorrow night? A whole day without a shield, a whole day without something trying to keep me in.

This is perfect, tomorrow morning I can escape this stupid nightmare! I just need to be cunning, they must not suspect me at all otherwise they will stop me and it will fail.

"Do what ever you want, I don't care! I'm only 17!" I shout out angrily at them as I walk out dramatically. I even slam the door too.

Tomorrow I will escape this place and start a new life