Third In Line

Chapter Twelve - Run

The sound of the large oak doors closing behind them echoed all the way down the corridor, but once it vanished there was no other sound except for the very distant madness that was following their parents around the building. Now that they were alone, the building practically felt abandoned, as if every single person inside the home had been sucked away to help with the royal visit. Ellie and Alex were free to explore on their own without the eyes of the world watching them.

"What now?" Ellie asked.

Alex looked at her despairingly "You're asking me?"

"You're the one who came up with the escape plan!" she replied.

"Oh so we go through one door and suddenly I'm the mastermind?" Alex barked back at her sarcastically.

Ellie glared at her sister in frustration "No, I just thought you'd know what to do next!"

"I'm just about as clueless as you are Ellie" said Alex, thrusting her arms about in frustration.

"Mum and Dad should have noticed we were gone by now" Ellie thought warily.

Alex looked back at the large oak doors that they'd passed through, hearing nothing on the other side. "Yeah, aren't they normally watching us constantly?"

"We probably don't have long until they find us" Ellie deduced, knowing that their parents would probably send the whole building after them if they went missing.

"Let's just take a look around. If someone finds us then we'll just say we got lost. It's not like they can punish us" Alex pondered, her voice clearly showing how uncertain she was.

The staff can't punish us but Mum and Dad certainly can.

Together they nodded and made their way down several of the home's empty corridors. The building was a huge sprawling complex, split into multiple sections which Ellie and her sister could explore as much as they wanted, but the looming threat of their parents finding them was still there.

They chatted idly as they made their way through empty class rooms and bedrooms, and with nobody to watch them or cameras to record their every move, they had a rare chance to be themselves in a relatively public place.

"Okay, hold on" Alex held her sister by the arm as they stopped outside another door. "I bet you this next room is a classroom"

"Of course it's a classroom, Alex. The last four rooms we went through were classrooms" Ellie declared confidently.

"Of course it's a classroom" her sister imitated her words with a terrible impression of Ellie's voice.

Ellie groaned, "Shut up"

Together they gently pushed the doors open to reveal the next room ahead of them, but what lay inside had them frozen to the floor. They had stumbled across a large open space, almost like a ballroom, but it had clearly been converted into a temporary press room. And with press rooms came...

"Paparazzi" Ellie whispered.

Even after the large doors had creaked as they'd swung open, the hundred or so cameramen and reporters still hadn't noticed the two Princesses standing right behind them. They were all engaged in deep conversations, or fiddling with their cameras and equipment, too distracted to catch Ellie and her sister on their little adventure.

I guess this isn't the entrance they thought we'd be using, she thought, feeling the relief flow through her.

At the front of the room was a podium with a microphone in place, every camera was trained towards it and every chair was facing it. Thankfully, they were all so focused in one direction that any other direction didn't seem to exist, including the one in which she and Alex stood.

Ellie reached for her sister's hand and found it without turning her head away, "Back away slowly" she whispered as quietly as she could.

Alex remained silent and followed her orders carefully, both of them making sure to keep their footsteps quiet as they turned around slowly and edged their way back down the corridor.

"PRINCESS! PRINCESS!" was the first scream to erupt from behind them, followed by an orchestra of "ELLIE! ALEX! GIVE US A SMILE!" and the sudden rush of a hundred or more feet charging towards them.

Ellie glanced back for a second, only to see a whole herd of reporters, photographers and cameramen swarming over chairs and tables as they ran towards the door at the back of the temporary press room.

We were stupid to think they wouldn't have noticed us. They clearly have supernatural stalking powers.

She didn't need to say anything to her sister. Just a quick terrified glance shared between them got their feet moving. They sprinted back down the remainder of the corridor and turned a tight corner, hoping to lose the reporters and hide away in one of the many rooms that they had already explored.

The once quiet corridors that they had discovered on their private journey were now echoing with the shouts and cries of the media pack that was chasing them. Only the bravest photographers stopped to try and snap a photo of her and her sister, risking being knocked over by one of the other rabid reporters running behind them.

"Sis! Stop! You're going to pull my arm off!" her sister shouted at her.

Ellie glanced at her sister as they ran side by side, and saw the pain on her face. She wanted to let go. We have to stick together, she reminded herself as she tightened her hold on Alex's hand.

"In here!" she shouted, pulling hard on her sister's hand to change her direction.

Together they barged through a set of doors, ignorant of anything that was inside the room. Thank God the door wasn't locked. As soon as they had entered, they turned around and slammed the doors shut. Ellie's hands were shaking as she fumbled around to lock the door, and eventually relaxed at the sound of tumblers falling into place.

"What are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked from some corner of the room.