Royal (Camren)

8

That's when Lauren realized what was going on.

All the people that had gone down, they all had the same drink.

Lauren ran to find a microphone. As she passed Justin, she said him about to take a drink. She smacked it out of his hand.

She then declared very loud into the microphone, "The drinks are poisoned. Do not take one. If you already have, it may be too late... I think its only the red drinks, but just to be safe, don't drink anything."

Everyone went silent, looking down at everyone on the ground. They knew Lauren was right.

Lauren looked around the crowd, trying to spot any possible suspects, and her eyes stopped on a hooded figure. The person seemed to be male. He was about average height. He seemed to be trying to leave. Lauren made her way towards him quickly. She followed him out of the area, and into the woods.

Lauren grabbed him and threw him to the ground. "Who are you?"

The boy looks up through his hood at her, and shoved her off. He got up and took off running.

Lauren ran after him, tackling him and he kicked her.

"Tell me who you are!" She demanded, punching him in the jaw.

The boy rolled over, now on top of Lauren, and put his hands around her neck. "The name is Austin. And your little... kingdom? It's gonna be mine after I'm through with you," he muttered as he tightened his grip.

Lauren gasped for air, and tried to pry his hands off, but he was too strong. Lauren punched him in the nose, and his grip loosened, but not enough for her to breathe.

"Let... go," she gasped, but Austin tightened his grip.

Lauren punched him harder in the nose and heard a crack. She broke his nose. Austin fell back, letting go to touch it. He got up and tried to hit Lauren, but she dodged it, and punches him in the jaw. She then tackles him again, and begins delivering blows to his face, her knuckles slowly starting to bruise.

She stopped when she realized she had knocked him out.

Lauren stood up, grabbed him by the hood, and began dragging him back to the castle. She was going to throw that little shit in jail forever.

When she got back to the castle, the guards to him away to the dungeon. Lauren went to find Camila, and found her sitting in Lauren's room crying, with Ally, Normani, and Taylor comforting her.

Camila looked up and saw Lauren. She jumped off the bed and ran to her, and sobbed into her shoulder. "Who did this?" She cried.

Lauren hugged Camila. "I followed a guy out of here. He was average height. He has black hair, blue eyes. He looked around 20..."

Camila frowned. "Was his name Austin?" She asked, starting to feel uneasy.

Lauren furrowed her eyebrows. "Uh... yeah..."

"Oh no..." She muttered.

"What?" Lauren asked, confused.

"He... He was an old friend. He was in love with me and I rejected him. He said he would get revenge. This was like... four years ago," Camila said.

"Well... He's in the dungeon right now. I knocked him out. Once I get complete confirmation that he did this, he's going to be executed."

Camila nodded.

"We're gonna go check on him. He has a... way... of persuading people. He's manipulative as fuck," Normani said.

"Language..." Ally scolded as they walked out.

Lauren turned back to Camila. "He will pay for this. He poisoned our parents and so many others. There's no telling if they'll n okay or not."

Camila looked up. "You seem to be handling this well."

Lauren sighed. "Not as well as you think," she mumbled.

Camila grabbed her and and frowned. "It'll all be okay."

Lauren smiled sadly. "I hope so."
-
"He escaped."

Lauren frowned. "What do you mean, he escaped ?"

Ally sat down. "We went down to the dungeon and asked a guard where he was. The guard led us to his cell... but he wasn't in there. The guard panicked and kept us there for 20 minutes. He said he wants to make sure Austin wouldn't attack us. We came up as soon as he let us go. Well... I mean, we were escorted. But yeah..."

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck," Lauren said.

"Language-"

"Now isn't the time to scold her for cussing, Allysus. There's a psychotic murderer at large," Camila said.

Lauren frowned. "Wait... who's going to run the kingdoms..."

"If our parents don't make it, then we're go in to need new rulers... Lauren, we're next in line," Camila stated, and Lauren's eyes widened.

"We'll talk about this later. We need to find Austin," Normani said.

"Hi, ladies," he said from the corner of the room, slowly walking towards them.