Falling Love

Prologue

Princess Joan's Point of View

Ten years from present day, Age 7

I shift in my bed trying to go back to sleep. I don't know why, but I woke up in the middle of the night. I was finally starting to shift back to sleep when I began hearing slightly muffled sounds. These sounds only seem to continue growing louder with the passing seconds. I sigh to myself and force myself up and out of bed.

"What's going on, is someone throwing stuff around or are the knights getting into fights with each other again? It's way too late in the night to be making this much noise. Guess mommy and daddy will be up too, hopefully they can take care of this situation easily."

I walk out of my room and down the hallway rubbing my eyes and yawning. My hearing leads me to where the sound is coming from. I turn the corner and continue my way to the stairs. The sound is less muffled here and I can hear the sounds of swords clashing. My heart starts beating a little faster and the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I pick up my pace and make my way down the stairs and find something horrifying. A huge fire has started on the other side of the room. As smoke is beginning to rise, a bad scent crawls into my nose making me gag. This isn't even the most horrific part of it. At the bottom of the steps there is only more chaos. My parents are fighting side by side with the knights and commander. They are fighting what looks to be demons. The scene terrifies me. I begin hearing a fearful scream mingling with the clashing of metal to metal and realize it's coming from me in fear for my parents safety.

"Mama, Papa, what is going on!?" I scream looking around wildly.

I couldn't understand. I knew we weren't on the best of terms with the Naphal Country. However, we were yet to be in a war. My parents turn to me and Mama runs to me as my father watches her back. He orders the commander to watch his back next, the commander nodding in response. Papa now starts running to me now with both of their backs being covered.

"Honey you need to get out of here, remember what we planned in case something like this would happen? You need to go now sweetie, we'll follow right behind you, we just need to take care of this okay?" My father says as he hugs me and kisses my forehead, whispering that he loves me. He then turns and runs back into the fight. I watched the fight, not wanting to leave. The commander was fighting one of them as another demon sneaks behind him and stabs him in the back. I can't seem to process what was happening and I stare at him as he dies. No sound is coming from me as pure horror and shock goes through my system. My mother tries blocking the view, but at this point it's too late and I had already seen too much.

"JOANN! Please, you need to get out of here now, listen for once to your father and I, and go. I love you so much and we promise we will find you after this, but you need to go." She starts pushing me and everything starts finally settling in for me. I nod my head to my mother as tears start dripping down my face. I hug and kiss her and turn to run. I hear my mother yell run one more time before a cry of pain comes after.

I run with blurry vision as tears drip down my face. I try running down the hallway, holding my breath so I won't breathe in the smoke that has somehow spread quickly to here now. I can still hear my parents screaming for me to run in my head, so I do what they say even though deep down inside, I feel like a coward. No matter the cries and wailing I hear, I keep running out of fear and obedience. Running down the now blood stained hallways as I see maids laying limply on the floor, they must have been trying to find me when I went to check out the sound, and if they are like this, then the enemies must be near. I reach the doorway to my room and enter quickly, slamming the door and locking it behind me. I begin pushing my dresser in front of the door with as much power as I could with my small seven year old body. I have to make sure I have enough time to escape and this is one of the only things I can think of to stall time for me. I need to slow down my pursuers as much as I can so they won't catch me, or I know I'd be the next one to die. I hate the thought that my parents had planned this from the start in case of things like this. I hate knowing that this actually has happened, I always thought it was silly. Turning around, I open my closet door and shut it behind me making sure it's locked from the inside. I grab my secret flashlight my parents hid in here for purposes like this, and get on my knees, feeling around the wall for a small keyhole. My parents had me do this multiple times before for practice so that it would not be so difficult. Finding it, I shove the little key into it and turn it, showing the secret hidden crawl space I have. The voices I heard before other than my parents now sound closer, screaming and yelling as if there are people at my bedroom door. I take my key and crawl into the crawl space, making sure that the door is closed behind me.