Chapter 25 to ???

This is the Fourth part of Testing For Hope!

Chapter 25 - Hello My Old Friend ▶︎

I watch the woman leave. She looked so familiar, but I can’t remember where from.

Suddenly, pain was searing through my head. I clutched my head and soon the headache left, but when it left me, the world didn’t seem like the world anymore.

I feel so dizzy…

Maybe I’m tired. Maybe I just need to go back to the castle and rest up for tomorrow. Isn’t Pariz coming home tomorrow?

“Hey guys? I’m gonna head home now.” I say as I turn over to Vanessa and Daphne, only to see them shoo me off while they continue on giggling about the woman that was just in the room.

“What did she say her name was?” Vannessa asked Daphne, clearly interested in the drama going on in our dull friend’s life.

“I think she said her name was Myste- or… Oh! Now I remember! Her name was Hysteria.” Crack. “Kind of weird, but she is a witch.” Yet another.

There it was. There was no mistaking it. She is alive.

I reached out behind me while walking backward, eyes searching all over the room for any way that what she just said was a lie. Like she said, Hysteria is a very witchy name. There are probably plenty of Hysterias that are witches.

No.

That was her. I know it was.

My hand finally grasps the door and I turn around quickly and practically run out the door. I look at the ground as the world starts spinning, seeing watery boot-prints on the floor leading down the stairs.

I start running down the hallway the opposite direction of the only escape from the floor. The world starts blurring. Through my tears or from my head spinning, I can’t tell, but the floor starts closing in. I take one last gasp of air as I drop to the floor.

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???~

Falling. Failing. Flailing around, my body goes. Plop.

Darkness surrounds me in the water. I can’t go down though. My body never goes under the current for me to take off in the ways that keep me calm at times like this. Instead, I’m surrounded by nothing. Nothing. No One. No One at all.

My breathing quickens as I start drifting towards the shore. I end up having to crawl myself away from the ocean as it tries to keep me there forever.

I look around the beach and see that is all that is there. I turn back around to where I got out from and see a figure reflected in the surface, but it is not mine. I stumble back before regaining my composure and peering back at the water, seeing Hysteria looking back at me. She is not alone though. Daphne is next to her. They’re kissing again.

Pain sears through my heart as I start crying.

As I wept, all I saw was a bunch of blurry images going through my mind. The betrayal. Except that isn’t what it was, was it? My mind only lets me see her face. Her face as she dreams. Her face as she screams. Her face as she cries. Her face when I left.

Then there was more.

It is her face still, but different. Older.

Her face when it is covered, but still smiling. Her face when she is in love. Her face with Daphne.

I start crying even harder now. My tears leaking off my face like a leaky faucet. They swam themselves towards the sea, as I couldn’t bear to look back at everything there.

Why? Why must closure continue to betray me? No matter what path I took, I feel as though this would have always been how it would end up. Alone.

Suddenly the darkness starts to lighten up.

There were cracks of light in the sky, illuminating a brighter day. On the other side, I could hear voices saying something. Calling out for someone. I wonder what they are saying.

“Wake up! Come on Sofia! Don’t do this now!”

“WAKE UP!”

Chapter 26 - Stop The Noise ▶︎

I shot up into the humid air.

The person calling for me was Vanessa. She was trying to shake me awake and now she is holding as if I’ll slip away again.

Behind her is Daphne. She looks concerned, but I can also tell that she is trying to conceal it, so I wont say I saw a thing.

I hug back Vanessa, breathing deep, still reeling from the terrible nightmare. When I finally calmed down enough to let go, I took a look around and saw I was in the hallway not to far away from the door of Vanessa’s place.

I guess I didn’t get that far.

I then start hearing footsteps go up the staircase and one of the only people who know who I truly am emerge from behind the bannister. “Sofia! I knew I would find you here! The knighting ceremony is today isn’t it. Are you good to do it without the rest of us there?”

Upon hearing the news, it dawned on me that I had never told Daphne who I was and Vanessa didn't know that I had other plans for this evening.

“Your who?”

“What is he talking about?”

With one last deep breath, I got up, my legs unsteady from the fall to the ground when I collapsed. “I need to go to the knighting ceremony. As their ruler, they need to see me every so often in public, with or without the king. It just so happens that this was the only event that I could not turn over to one of the other members of court.”

“Oh My Hubain! You're the Queen?! I know the Queen?!” Daphne looked like she was about to burst out of excitement.

“Yes she is the Queen, you dimwit! Where did you think she was going all the time? The chess club down the street?” Vanessa snapped. She then turned to me. “And you! Why didn’t you tell me? Now I have to get all ready to go!”

“No!”

The words slipped past my lips before I could rephrase them into a nicer tone.

The look on her face reminded me too much of my face when I was told the same thing. I couldn’t knowingly let her up there. It's much too much for her. It was too much for me. It still kind of is. She belongs here, where she is safe. She can’t know what up there is like.

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13 years ago~

“No! No! No! That’s final, you aren’t going!”

“But mom!” I urged, “The world is so big and Siren City is so small.”

“But I can't have you going up there. We don’t know what they are like yet.”

“But I’ll be with you! The whole time, I’ll be attached to your hip! I promise!”

“...Fine… Get your stuff together then. We leave tomorrow.”

I ran up to my room and started packing. I was almost done when there was a noise coming from my window and the latch opened it wide. A figure came in and walked over to the bed where my suitcase was.

“Where are you going in such a hurry? Are you moving again? You know I’ll move too if that’s it. It’s just these little clothes for you to be moving…”

I turned around and saw Vanessa digging through the clothes waiting to be put in the bag. “Hey, quit it! I need to fold those, but I don't want them ruined.”

She let out a puff of disappointment at the missed opportunity. “So where are you going?” I turned back to my closet to grab more clothes.

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me!”

I looked back at her and let it out. “I’m going to the surface.”

Her reaction was immediate. She looked shocked, but in a good way. Like she was impressed with me.

“Running away from your mom then? There’s no way she would let you out of Siren City and both you and I know that.”

“Actually, she’s the one taking me. Along with Father, of course. They have some business to deal with in a growing kingdom upstairs.”

“Good luck then!”

“Why?”

“They’re looking for someone.”

“Who?”

“Well aren’t you inquisitive this morning?” She always loves using big words, “But I honestly don’t know. Just some whispers from sailors.”

Chapter 27 - Stop The Action ▶︎

I walked down the stairs to the kitchen. My mom was asleep at the table. She had seemed so tired when we first started planning on going to the surface. She tried to get past the guard doors, but they seemed to want something else from my mom.

At the door, I could see Vanessa jumping to be seen behind the tall back door. I walked over to it and left the house, making sure to close the door softly when I did.

“Where do you want to go before you finally leave?” Vanessa asked when she started walking down the street.

“I think you know where!” I said excitedly.

A few minutes later, we stopped in front of the new building on the street. The building was brand new and you could see people approaching it from all sides. Only one entrance wasn’t being used and we knew exactly where it was.

We ran around the side of the building and started climbing the ladder to the roof. Once we reached the top, we swung our legs over the edge and got our disguises on. A mask and wig is all that is needed for this place to not recognise you.

As soon as the masks were placed over our eyes and the wigs were situated on our heads, we went over to the door leading down the building using the staff entrance.

When we were inside we could not believe our eyes. It was so colourful, but it kind of smelled like hand sanitizer everywhere we went from the alcohol.

We went over to the dance floor and started dancing wildly, sometimes even close to a stranger. They didn’t need the money anyway.

The bar was so loud and crazy that we could only stand to be in there for a few hours and then we usually left. This time was different though. It seemed that mother dearest wanted a few drinks while her daughter was asleep.

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The Next Day~

“I can't believe you would do something so stupid!” Mom whispered to me, trying to stop herself from screaming so that the person in the front would not hear what was said.

The carriage pulled to a stop and the front of the carriage’s weight was shifted.

“You’re lucky I’m still taking you!” The door opened when she was done. A smile replaced the anger, but her eyes were still burning a hole through my skull.

“We have arrived. Would you like to be escorted inside to the throne room?” the driver said.

I looked past him and my mom exchanged a few words, no doubt her saying that they could use all the help that was given. The world above the surface was beautiful. We were much more inland then before, as I couldn’t see any water. I reached for the flask around my waist and took a long sip, feeling myself come back to the world around me.

“..Use all the help you can give us, with us not knowing the… human world all that well.”

The driver then started leading us up these big steps. My father was right next to me, holding my hand. He doesn’t really talk much but he is very nice.

The steps took forever, but when we got inside, the castle looked like a maze with the servant going everywhere and the only way to know where to go was the large group of people going to where the throne was supposedly placed.

After about 10 minutes, my mom was anxiously talking at dad and he had let go of my hand to calm her through physical touch. The line was taking forever, so I went back to the entrance and decided to climb the grand staircase at the end of the hall. When I reached another intersection, I just kept reaching for the one that went higher. Soon I was at the top of a tower that overlooked the whole kingdom.

I sat down on one of the steps and took off my bag. I grabbed a scroll and a pencil that was made to look like a quill. A gift from Vanessa.

I started drawing the kingdom to the best of my abilities.

“Hello? I’m sorry, are you allowed to be here?”

I turned my head over my shoulder and saw a boy, much older than me or Vanessa. I had seen some girls around his height, but they were all teenagers.

“I wanted to get away.” I replied. I then turned back to my drawing, finishing up the rough details.

He decided that this escapism was an invitation for coming closer because he sat down next to me. “I wanted to get away, too. Mind if I sit here?” He asked, clearly not aware of the fact that he was not welcome. “That’s a great doodle! My parents say that the kingdom is in the eyes of the beholder, or the king. They expect everything to be perfect. They are even talking to other kingdoms, calling over the commoners from there, trying to make peace happen. I think that it is dumb though. Why have peace everywhere when your home is already all you should need?”

So he’s a talker. “Sounds really interesting…”

Wait.

“Hold on. Did you just say King?”

He looked at me confused. “Yeah I did. He’s my father, though he is a very foolish king.”

I shoved my stuff back into my bag. “I have to go.”

I then ran away. Back to my parents. Away from the crazy boy. There is no way he’s the prince.

When I got back to my parents, I grabbed my dad’s hand and kept walking with them, not daring to run away again.

After a while they finally got to the courtroom and were told to follow the guards into the sectioned off room and wait.

The room was very red, but the cushions of the seats were very comfortable.

Soon the King and Queen got into the room. I scrambled to my feet after the entry and bowed, almost letting my hair touch the floor with how low my head was. When my head rose up, I saw him. The boy was actually the prince. He seemed to have noticed me and waved me over to the couch.

I looked over to my parents for approval, but they were already talking to the Royals. I slumped over and walked to the couch sitting next to the prince.

“Guess I know who I’m choosing.”

Is this what hell feels like?

Chapter 28 - Journey ▶︎

“No!”

I don’t think I wanted to rephrase the words leaving my lips.

Daphne looked at me with shock and Vanessa… Vanessa looked angry.

“It's not safe and you know that. There is a reason I haven’t told you anything about the surface.”

“Yeah, but I thought that was about the girl,” Vanessa exclaimed. This is going to hurt. “You mean to tell me you have been lying for the past 8 years?!”

The difference between us two that happened all those years ago becomes much more apparent everytime we hide secrets, argue, and share life experiences. We are almost too different to work.

“I’m sorry. I thought that I could stop you from facing what happened then again. It is so much worse up there. The only reason I’m still here is because I use the palace lake to get here. I care so much about you and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you because of that.”

I could tell my eyes were welling up with tears and that she was hugging me crying as well. Daphne was standing in the corner, probably feeling awkward before she went back into the apartment.

When we separated, Vanessa spoke again. “I’m guessing you have to go now, don’t you?”

“Yup. To the Palace for me.”

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At the Palace, Two hours later~

“All Rise for her Majesty, Queen Sofia of The Sirens!”

I grabbed the hem of my dress with one hand and walked out onto the balcony while waving to the public. I took my seat next to the old, yet never dusty throne meant for a king.’

The rest of the Royals were announced for the ceremony and then it was my turn to speak.

Clearing my throat, I spoke to the public with my best voice. “Hello and Welcome to the Annual Knighting Ceremony of the Kingdom of FeriHeart. I’m so glad to be here for you lovely people and to be leading this year's ceremony while my husband is on leave.” A moment of silence passed for the king, “This year the most heroic acts our people have done will be awarded and one of the brave men will be awarded a position on the royal guard of our beautiful kingdom!”

Cheers erupted from the crowd. It is a good thing that I had done this before, or else I might have died of stage fright on the spot.

“Now let the Ceremony commence!” Somehow, there were even more cheers heard.

I left the balcony and disappeared behind the stage. My Lady-In-Waiting joined me with the badges in boxes along with General Pariz with her sword.

“Hello My Lady. Wonderful speech. I just finished counting and it seems that there were only 5 awardable acts this year. That is-”

“-2 less than last year! Sofia- Sorry- Queen Sofia, that is outrageous! Without the King, the rates of our people have gone down and soon there won't be anyone by Royals at events like these. And who even knows about that, even those numbers are getting low these days.”

“I’m well aware of the situation in the Kingdom.” I turned to them. “Things may get messy out there. Make sure to stay close to me and keep your eyes out. We don't know much about the people these days.”

After they both nodded, I turned back around and we walked out into the arena. The people were still cheering for the event to start. I looked over at the other side. When I made eye contact with the guards on the other side, they started leading out the 5 brave leaders of our community.

“May I pronounce Zavier Hamstrung, Grific Jasme, Ulsifer Sleden, Adam Badgen, and- Is this right? Really! - The last person seems to be Alicane Kale, a female.”