The Princess (The Selection)

Chapter Fifty Five

I stand up from where I am on the ground. Ethan keeps his eyes and gun on me. I quickly survey the part of the enclosure that I can see. Then only way to exit is to go through the entrance their blocking. There are four wall. One, across from the entrance, is place concrete. The other three are made of tall bushes that are so close together you can't climb through.

"Any last words, Princess?" Ethan asks.

"Not yet," I say. A wicked smile claims his face. I take a step back and all three men step forward. The cycle continues until I'm leaning against a wall of bushes.

"Celia, did you ever think this was how it all would end?" Ethan asks. I shake my head. I keep my eyes focused on him, blurring out everything else.

"No. But if it is, I want some answers," I say. He laughs and lowers his gun. He looks to both sides at the men as if to ask them if they're seeing it.

"No. I'm not telling you anything," he spits. I grin to show power, that I'm not afraid. But really, I'm seconds away from calm exploding into a nervous breakdown.

"Why would it matter? You're about to kill me so it's not like there is anyone else I could tell," I say. He rolls his eyes and sighs.

"Fine. What do you want to know?" he asks. I think over my questions quickly, needing to factor out what is important and not important.

"Why did you know about all the secret locations in the garden? And so many places in the palace?" I ask. He shrugs and looks around like he might see the answer growing on one of the bushes or a bird flying overhead might drop it.

"Secrets. We could've done this part of the job, killing you, without having me inside the palace. It just made it easier for us to capture you. Us being inside the palace made it so we could find your greatest secrets. Things like the books your mother accidentally showed on the report," he says. He raises his gun and aims it on me again. I look my left side, hoping for escape plans to be wrote out. Although this isn't exactly what I see, a narrow path large enough for one person is there.

"Well, I hope your work was successful. Though, I highly doubt it was," I say, beginning to plan my escape route out in my head. I slide a few steps to my left, hoping he doesn't see what I'm doing. He just turns his angle slightly to his right.

"Nothing really successful enough to get me very far. It seems like Kevin was more successful with that," he says. They all walk closer to me, causing me to walk backwards down the path until I'm pushed against the wall across from the entrance. I still see guards fighting with rebels.

"Well, I'm very sorry about that. You're just going to have to suck it up," I reply. He comes down the path, the other two men filing in behind him. I slowly start to back up to the next wall. Then, I say, "But obviously you're just failing at being a rebel." I finish running down the path. They follow me through the all the chaos of the rebels.

I find a hidden staircase that leads up to the palace. They don't see it so I begin to jog up the steps. My high heels cause me trip. I glance behind me and Ethan and the rebels have found me. A familiar face that was running by the door sees me. He runs outside towards me. I look behind me again and the rebels are conquering the stairs.

I stand up, leaving the heels on the stairs. If this were a different situation, I would feel like Cinderella, not the princess running for her life. I begin to go up the steep stairs but my--once again--wounded ankle slows me down. When I reach the top, Flynn has weaved his way through and has reached me. He puts his arm around me and helps to weave through the chaos.

When we reach the palace, we have a straight away to several safe rooms, just not the one where my family should be at. Very few rebels have made it inside. The ones that have, though, are causing mass destruction.

"We won't reach the royal safe room. We have to find one meant for the palace staff," I explain. He nods and I guide him towards a vase. When I pull it forward, a door swings open. We walk towards it, but not before we here a gunshot. I try turn to the source but Flynn falls forward. I grab him before he can fall. A bullet wound is in the back of his calf. I put my arm around his shoulders to support his weight.

"How nice? I could get the two love birds here together," he says. I shake my head, tears brimming my eyes. This is not how I will allow either of us to die.

"You'll have to try harder next time," I say. I open the safe room up a little more and push Flynn in. Then, I run inside, sealing the door shut behind me.
Safe! Yay! Sorry I didn't post this chapter yesterday I was busy studying. I have the big "end of year" test today. I only take science this semester, though, so we're taking it now. It has everything from middle school science on it so I've been doing a lot of studying. Please comment and vote!

Disclaimer: Kiera Cass owns The Selection, not me.