Princed

Chapter 9

The night the goblins stormed the castle, Irenie's heart was pounding uncontrollably as if it was about to part her ribs. She was small, so small, once again a child of eight and the world was crumbling all around her as the dreaded goblins rose up from the mountain and overtook the castle.

A bang from her room door erupted in the princesses' ears and she spun out of her chair, her tiny heart beating so much faster it hurt. However, when she saw who it was that entered her private sanctuary, tears nearly leapt from her eyes.

"Curdie! You're here!" she exclaimed, running to him with both arms outstretched. They wrapped him in a tight embrace but the boy was almost wriggling to get out. "Irenie, the goblins are here."

Curdie brandished the enormous sword in his grasp as he pulled back to the door, but swords and other weapons never really did all that much damage to a goblin if you couldn't hit their feet.

"You have to stay in your room, lock your door," he said, trying to put a smile on his features. "I'm going to help fight them off."

Irenie's chest became too tight for her to bare now. "Can't I come too?" She pleaded helplessly. The princess would have stayed in her room or gone with Curdie to the very deepest places of the goblin infested castle, but she couldn't be alone. Why did she feel like such a coward? Always hiding behind people like she had been hiding in her room.

"No, you have to stay here, where it's safe." Curdie spun back on his heel and nodded firmly to the princess. Still, she had been sort of glad Curdie had asked her to stay behind.

Princess Irenie took several steps out of her room. They seemed so small at the time, she hadn't even thought about some shadow slinking past her senses. She was so on edge she thought even a scurrying mouse would have made her jump.

"You will come back, won't you?" Irenie asked, her tiny legs shivering. She wanted him to catch her, for someone to catch her, because she was going to fall.

Curdie flashed a daring smile and rose his sword above his head like a proper, courageous knight. "I'll be back... and that's a promise!"

But then he was gone and Irenie quickly backed into the room, her hands shaking as they locked the door. Blurry shapes that were indeed the key in her hand and the door handle swam in her vision as she tried to hold back tears.

She should have been braver than this! Irenie wiped a hand over her eyes and turned back to her vanity and mirror. She was the princess! She should have been brave...

Irenie's eyes went to the mirror, expecting to see the sad, whimpering princess she knew herself to be, however, that wasn't all her mirror revealed.

It was like watching through a window except on the other side there was a girl that looked exactly like her and behind the girl was the most horrifying creature she had ever seen. Irenie wanted to cry out, to warn the girl in her vanity mirror.

A small whimper escaped her mouth, and princess' eyes went white with fear. The goblin standing behind her grinned gleefully, the peculiar pink hair bristling as he leaned nonchalantly against the stone frame of her door.

Irenie spun around to reveal the goblin she knew to be Froglip, the same one she and Curdie had escaped when they had been trapped in the mountain.

Except there wasn't any Curdie now.

A scream leapt out of Irenie's mouth, her hands going up to block it except this was the perfect time to scream. But no one would hear it. Everyone else was fighting off their own goblins and it was just her and the Prince of Nightmares behind a door she, herself had locked.