Kingdoms Lost //Merome Fanfiction//

Kingdoms Lost

"Shush, Alia!" Ryan interfered with the previous comment. "He can't know quite yet."

"Know what?" Matt spoke up, drawing a crowd of eyes in our direction.

Ryan cleared his throat and pulled out a paper from the pocket inside of his black suit jacket. He stepped forward from the group, and slipped a pen from the pocket as well. A pit of emptiness subsided in my stomach as I came to a terrible realization. I turned my head towards Matt who seemed to have the same aura of nervousness surrounding him.

"What... what is that?" I dared to ask.

"It's very simple," Ryan replied with a smirk, "All you have to do is sign this bottom line and we won't bother you again."

The group's ringleader paraded the paper over to Matt and I. I grabbed the paper with nimble fingers and read it over carefully, Matt by my side every moment. The first six words I noticed at the top of the paper: Dominion Contract of the Unsatisfied Masses. This was the contract that would plant the entire kingdom into Ryan's persistent hands. It basically meant that unhappy commoners could demand their monarch to sign a detailed contract, which would impose a new democratic government in place. I felt the pit of my stomach drop and shatter into a million pieces.

"Why... why would I sign this?" I questioned faintly, continuing to read over the document; my eyes were glued to the paper.

Ryan faced his assistant, grinning ear to ear. "Alia, you can tell him the reason now."

"We have your precious Mitchell!" Alia cried out slyly. When Mitch was brought into our conflict, I paid attention. "Twenty of our men are keeping him hostage! If you don't sign that paper within two minutes, then Ryan will give orders for our soldiers to kill Mitch!

"Tick tock, Prince Jerome," Ryan teased, cracking his fingers each second. "You don't have much time to choose."

I froze, only staring at the paper, no longer reading it. They were so clever to play with my emotions by threatening the only person I'd ever loved. How could I respond to this? If I didn't sign the contract, I'd watch Mitch murdered in front of my own eyes. Or if I signed the document and placed the limited group of loyal citizens in possible danger, it would only be to save one person. I hadn't been involved with a huge royal dilemma, so I shook with the unreasonable ideas twirling around.

It felt like four hours had already passed since I was given the contract. Still unable to come to a conclusion with only twenty seconds left, Matt begun to worry about my sanity. "Jerome, are you okay?" My advisor whispered. I sat silently as a conflicted Matt gently pulled our contract from my trembling hands. "I'm gonna do this for you," he told me even though I wasn't listening close enough to understand, "It's not gonna easy for the both of us, but for your sake..." Matt reached for the pen and signed my name onto the dotted line. "I have to do this for you. This promises that Mitch will be safe."

As soon as he recognized my signature on the document, Ryan snatched the paper and pen and shoved them in his suit pocket. He motioned four of his soldiers to raise Matt and I onto our feet. I gasped as my sense of logic snapped in place with the surrounding environment. Had Matt actually just signed the contract under my name to save Mitch's life? What had Matt done?!

As I expected, things went downhill very quickly. "My first order of business as ruler..." Ryan declared, holding my father's crown above his head. "I sentence Jerome Aceti and Matthew Nucciarone to banishment from Star City! They are never to return unless given permission from myself, which will most likely never happen!" The crowd howled and cheered.

"What about Mitch?!" I bursted over the volume of the rebels; Mitch the only person on my mind.

"He's not actually our hostage," Ryan remarked, "I tricked you. That's what McNulty's do best. You should know that, don't you Matthew?"