Changing Times

Chapter 2--The Murder

We all entered the room Jeromy had led us to. I felt like I was going to throw up, why were they bringing up dad's death again? My stomach sank, I knew it was not an accident like they told us. Someone's gun does not just accidently start killing people. I'm not stupid. But if this was a murder, it had to be the first in a long while, and I mean a long while—at least a hundred years. We were told that everyone is happy with their leaders, that they which us no harm. I know that's a lie because I'm not happy and I have it all. Why should anyone else be?

The room was completely empty except for the two men standing in it. One was tall and the other was very short, and they were both wearing what looked like expensive suits. This is weird because everyone in our kingdom is required to wear the same clothing, this way everyone is the same and there is no more division. Everyone has to wear the same clothes except for us, we are royalty, our clothing shows the world that we are important, that we are their leaders. I could tell by what these men were wearing that they were important.

“It was a murder,” says one of the men.

Yes, his way of greeting is by telling us our father has been murdered. How polite.

“No, this can't be... Why would anybody do this?” cries my mother. She's fallen to the floor and has begun to cry. She loved my dad and they were happy together, well at least as happy as two people can be when the entire world is watching their every move.

Most of my sisters are crying, actually all of them are, everyone but me. I'm just staring at the wall, blankly examining it.

I wish I could cry in front of people, I really do. This way no one would notice me. I would just blend in, I've always wanted to blend in.

“We don't know why anyone would do this, your majesty. All we know is that he was hired to kill and he won't give us the name of his boss,” the man sighs as he says this. He is obviously tired.

“We are going to have this building and all of your life's on complete lockdown until we find this man,” says the shorter of the two men. It's the first time he's spoken.

“We will have guards on every floor and on every door.”

“What about the ball tonight?” asks Sophie. Even though she just found out her dad was murdered she is worried about the ball.

“It's going to still be on, but we will have security on watch for anything suspicious,” says the smaller man.

“We wouldn't want to worry the citizens. If they found out there was a murder, well I don't know what we'd have to do,” says the taller man.

Then they leave. They don't even say goodbye, they just exit. It is common knowledge that you bow before you leave the queen, and they didn't. I've never seen anyone do this before, and it shocks me.

My mom is sobbing, and once they leave we all surround her telling her everything will be O.K. She tells us to leave, she needs some time alone with Jeromy, they need to talk.

We all leave the room and walk slowly to Madeline's bedroom. No one talks. It's weird hearing all of my sister silent, they usually never shut up. As soon as we enter the room though everyone begins talking at once.

“They must be mistaken, no one ever gets killed,” says Jordan.

“Yeah, why would anyone want to kill him anyways? He was like the nicest guy,” replies Sophie.

“Maybe they missed someone else,” suggests Madeline.

I leave the room, I can't stand hearing them talk about his death like it was no big deal, like it didn’t matter.

“You all right?” asks Bella, I guess she'd followed me out of the room.

“Yeah, just tired.”

“I know that feeling,” she laughs.

We walk in silence until we reach my dad's office. For some reason we both stop, and look in. Everything in the room has been turned over and every drawer left open. We both stare in awe until Jeromy comes.

He sees us and begins to run towards us.

“Nothing here to see, just some people looking into the death. Oh wow they're messy,” he says. Then he tells us we have to get ready for the ball and to go to the fitting room.

And yes it's only noon, it takes us five dull hours to get ready for some stupid ball.