The Princess Who Returned

Chapter Fourteen

Lily
Everything happened very quickly, one moment we were flying over a field of flowers and a cave labelled library, the next we were in front of the cave and finally I was inside which would have been great if there was something other than darkness inside which wasn't the case.

This place was no library, it was death trap and I would be one of it's latest victims if I did not get out of here soon. I could feel it and I was not going to ignore my gut this time but before I did anything else. I had to warn Tristan so I yelled facing the place where I last saw the door, "Don't come in here. This is a death trap."

I had no confirmation of the message reaching him which I found unsettling but there was nothing I could do either way. All I could really do was hope. I had done the best I could to protect him in some way. Now I had to focus on myself.

That was a bad decision because, focusing on myself meant focusing on this situation and this situation caused me to panic. Just why had I agreed to his risky plan?! Why had I not followed my gut feeling which screamed stay away?!

Now not only did I have to worry about Ophelia waking up and finding out that I had woken up but I also had to worry about losing my life here in this dark, dreary cave.

Not a great situation at all, how I wished Tristan were here now because even if this whole situation was his fault, it would still have been comforting to have someone else around and it just so turned out that there was someone in here because just as I had wished that Tristan was around I heard a voice, a very familiar voice.

A voice that I never thought I would hear again. The voice of my best friend Aasha who was no more but was somehow here. That should have been fishy but I was not in my senses and ran desperately towards the voice.

I had somehow convinced myself that she had never died but was just trapped in here, that everything had been a bad dream. Sure enough I saw her standing with her arms wide open to receive me. I was overjoyed and ran even faster but when I reached her and hugged her she pushed me off. I looked up confused and hurt and saw that the smile on her face had all but disappeared. "W-what happened Aasha? Why do you look so mad?"

She just glared at me and my confusion only increased. I hadn't done anything to make her mad and she wasn't willing to explain. When she got no reaction from me she looked frustrated and disappeared.

When she disappeared, my heart broke all over again and I started sobbing uncontrollably. I now knew that it wasn't her but it still hurt so to console myself, I took the locket out of my pocket. It was a miracle that Ophelia had not taken the locket from me but I was grateful.

I opened the locket and stared at that picture of us both as four year olds on the 26th of February. It was the first picture we had ever taken and was taken on the day she discovered the shocking news.

Earlier this picture would have filled me with guilt at how oblivious I was then and now but after completing the tasks and spending some time in my head because of my body being controlled by Ophelia, I no longer felt guilty. I no longer felt guilty?! I actually no longer felt guilty?! How had I not realised this earlier?! Despite my current situation I smiled.

I felt invincible because from what I had seen so far it looked like this place fed off your guilt and since I was not guilty of anything anymore it could not hurt me. I would make it out because this cave had no control over me. With hope renewed I got up and continued my search for the exit.

Even if this place had no control over me, we were still on a time limit and I had to get out of here sooner rather than later. That was when I saw the exit, I knew it was the exit because it was the only source of light in the room. Overjoyed I ran towards it but instead of finding myself in the field of flowers.

I found myself in front of my castle in Yale with my mom wearing her beautiful black gown with her waist length red hair made up into a braid with her arm in dad's. Dad was wearing his silver plated armour and his brown hair was as shabby as ever. To his right was tall, lanky Richard with his neat black hair and blue eyes, on his right was tiny old Mrs, Kale with blue eyes and sunny, natural blonde hair mad up in a bun, then there was Doctor Francis still in his doctors uniform and looking as serious as ever.

They all looked like they were waiting for something, probably me. Was I back home or was this another trick by the cave? I sincerely hoped it was the former but that could not be possible, could it? Why would he bring me here if this was an exit? He still seemed determined to keep his life when I saw him earlier which was probably why he brought me here. Maybe he didn't know of this exit? That was still a possibility but then why would Ophelia allow me to come here. There was absolutely no way she wouldn't know.

My thoughts were interrupted by my mom's voice, "Lily, is that you?" I teared up with happiness, never realising just how much I had missed her voice until now. Who cared if this was fake, if this was a trick. Even if this was an illusion they were here now and they were talking to me. I just wanted to enjoy this feeling even if it was just for a few minutes so I ran towards them but the closer I got, the darker their face got with negative emotions.

This time however I understood their reasoning for the hatred. I did not want to believe it and kept trying to deny it since they weren't telling me the reason. I told myself maybe they were overcome by anger at how I had disobeyed them which was much better than what I thought was the reason but then they said it and the wall of denial I created crashed.

My mom was the first one who spoke, "I am really disappointed in you Lily. How could you let us down like this?" then my dad spoke, "Yes, how could you take us for granted?!" he was followed by Richard, "Why were you so blind?! Why did you ignore us like that?! Do we really mean nothing to you?!" he was followed by Mrs. Kale, "Princesses especially Aasha's friend should not act like this. What do you think she would think?" finally Doctor Francis spoke, "Aasha never had much of a support system but you had so many people around you, yet you still had the audacity to think you were alone. You should have been in Aasha's place." After those lines all of them said together, "I am glad we can now forget you." 

Everything that each and every one of them said was hurtful but nothing hurt as much as what doctor Francis said. Unable to handle anymore I ran in the opposite direction trying my level best to run away from the truth.

The people themselves didn't move but their voices followed me and no matter how much I tried I could not block them out. If I covered my ears, I heard their tirade of criticisms in my head.

No matter what I did I could not escape, I could not ignore these and I was going crazy. I no longer was able to focus on my surroundings and bumped into someone, I didn't know who but I didn't care. I just wanted the voices to stop so I screamed to the person, "PLEASE STOP THE VOICES IN MY HEAD! I don't care how you do it just do it!" with that the voices grew louder and I started sobbing even louder but then I heard another voice piercing through the many voices in my head. The voice asked me, "What are they saying?" It sounded familiar but I could not quite place it.

All I knew was that I could trust this voice so I repeated the things the voices said to me to it and immediately felt a pair of arms around me while the voice kept whispering, "It's okay."  The other voices kept getting fainter and I finally knew who the voice was and opened my eyes which had been closed tightly.

It was Tristan and the voices had now completely stopped. There was no denying it, there hadn't been for a while now but Tristan was a friend, a close friend and someone I would miss even if I got to leave.