Half a heart, half a crown

E I G H T

I could no longer hear any footprints. The speed stopped. The door halfway opened. The time obviously doesn't stop, but I stopped what I was doing.

The person that stood in front of me, staring into my gaze right at this moment, is also the same person, who I depends on right now.

Before I even noticed, I was pulled into a warm embrace and my eyes filled with tears. Warmth consume into me and my fragile heart.

"Father.." my voice came out broken and shattered. I hugged him even tighter, I knew he's gonna be okay, and he will be.

"Magnificent, my daughter." He cried, "I love you, I thought I would never see you again, but I did. Thank god I did."

After what felt like hours, we parted. I went to close the door, carefully. We sat and talked.

"How do you even get here?", I asked, "it's dangerous, Father."

"I sneaked into the back door, and climbed up the ladder to the basement and come up to your room." He explained.

"How? How do you even know my room? And where do get this guard suit from? This ain't from Ameragonia. And-" I was cut off and another person opened the door.

Oh no.

The figure came and my eyes wide open.

"Old woman..." I whispered.

She did a curtsy to my father and I was shocked, confused.

"She helped me here." My father said.

"Old woman? She helped you here?" I asked.

"Your majesty, I used to serve at your kingdom since you was young, so I knew exactly who I would help and who I wanted to." She said, "I would never make your father disappointed."

"So you've known all along that I was a woman?" I asked.

The old woman nodded.

"Father, this place is very dangerous, you should be very, very careful."

"Magnificent, I'm bringing you back. Back to Ameragonia." He caressed my cheek.

"Father...." I didn't know how I felt right now. I knew I would go back, but just not now. I'm not ready, I didn't know why I don't want to leave, maybe because of I wanted revenge, or maybe because I can't stand to leave him. If I leave right now with my father, everything will go back to normal, I can live a normal life. But after everything I've experience, I don't want a normal life, I wanted to live a different life.

"Magnificent...my daughter, we must leave this place right now or else, we'll get caught." He squeezed my palm.

I have to keep my feelings aside, I would put my family first. First. Always been first.

"You can't, your majesty. She wanted revenge, for you and all of us, she must not leave." The old woman stated.

"No! She'll be dead if she stayed here! I don't want to have another dead child. I already lost one, I don't want to lose another." His eyes were mad with tears.

"Father... I won't leave you. I won't. We'll stay together, we will go back to Ameragonia and live a happy life with mother." I stated.

"Magnificent.. your mother.." his squeezed tightened on my palm.

"Mother..", I felt weak, "father, what happened to mother? What happened." I could feel my tears warmth my eyes again, "father, is mother okay? She need to be okay, I will go to see her."

My father shook his head, "your mother couldn't take it, she couldn't accept the fact that you're in a battlefield, she couldn't accept the fact that you are caught in a rebel castle alone."

I was quiet waiting for my father to continue, but he never did.

"Father.. how's mother?" I asked.

He breathe, "After she know you're in a battlefield fighting war, she passed out. She gets really sick and unable to sleep. Suddenly news got to Ameragonia and said you get caught. Your mother just suddenly have trouble breathing and the medic came but it's too late, her breathing stopped, the last thing she said was 'Make magnificent a good and yet a powerful queen'."

I felt dizzy all of a sudden. I was so blank out and tears blurred my vision. I felt like I am cracking, cracking into pieces. I felt like my heart stopped, everything stopped. It was too sudden, too sudden for me to hear this. I can't- I just-

"SOMEBODY BROKE INTO THE CASTLE!!" Voice echoed.

"Oh no!"

"We have no more time Magnificent, we have to go." Father stood up and pulled me to him.

"I have a way." The old woman said and we quickly opened the door quietly.

She took us to an empty hallways full of different room. I thought we would stepped into one of those room and hide but she pushed on a hideous square of wall and the entrance opened. Secret entrance?

We got in half way and when my father about to get in, the whole guards running towards us. 

"Father come in." I squeezed his palm so tight afraid he would leave me.

He looked at the old woman and said "protect her, no matter what happen, protect her at all cost." The old woman said "I will protect her, your majesty." Just that he releases my hand from his palm and looked at me one last time, "I love you, my daughter." He gave me a kiss on my temple and the entrance slowly close. "Please.."I cried, "father..I love you, don't leave me...." I was begging for him to stay. The old woman get ahold of me tight in her arms and hands covered my mouth. Father gave me one last look and through the entrance of peeking hole, what I saw in front of me was enough to kill me alive. Guards surrounded by my father and swords dive into him, blood bled slowly and painfully from his abdomen and they lifted him up with the swords. Through the hole, he looked at me with a smile. "Noooooooo!!!!!!!" I screamed through the old woman palm but it came out as a murmurs. Just that they dropped my father to the spotless floor that is now filled with bloodstained. His eyes slowly drifted away and his chest stopped moving. I stopped moving, my eyes were filled with painful tears. Oh god, oh how I wish this was all a bad dream, a nightmare, how I wish I would wake up and realize it's all a bad dream, but it's different. It's not a dream, it is reality, I'm seeing this clearly with both of my eyes. The man who I love and cherish the most, is laid dead in front of me. In front of a woman who can't do anything to protect her own father. I hate myself, for being so weak, for being a coward, for crying. The old woman kept on whispering things into my ear, but I didn't caught it, nor did I even bother to listen, because I felt numb, I felt senseless, I felt useless, I felt lifeless.

King Antonio pace through the hallways, he seemed to be taken back from what he saw. I guessed he noticed that the man who laid dead in front of him, is the ex-king of Ameragonia. Greg Anthony Dillionio.

My eyes wide opened when King Antonio gaze from afar unexpectedly met mine through the peeking hole entrance.

The old woman hand covered my mouth tighter and she said "don't ever forget this Queen Magnificent, one shall stand and one shall fall."

I nodded while my tear-filled gaze never left his dangerous pair of blue ocean eyes.