The Devil's Whore

A Hidden Mission

Chapter 4>>> A Hidden Mission

A lovely dream fills the prince's mind. The dream features himself when he was a young boy and he can see his mother, father and oldest brother Ralfe in the dream too. The prince runs around the people that fill the ballroom. His mother is throwing another over-the-top party where she invites anyone who is anyone. She knows what to say, purchase, and show off to make anyone with a title or not jealous. Ralfe and his little brother, Johannes are dodging through guests and servants left and right. People gasps as small children dart through their conversations. Johannes runs from Ralfe and laughs as he darts away. Before he notices the Queen of Siam standing directly in front of him he runs right into her. His head is turned to look for Ralfe when he comes face-to-face with an old lady's wrinkled bosoms. She shrieks and falls backwards into the fountain that Queen Celine has placed there for this party only. Queen Celine yanks young Johannes by the arm and drags him from the ballroom until they are in the servant's hallway.

"When are you going to grow up, Johannes?!" She yells at the 7 year old. Tears form in his eyes from being embarrassed and frightened by his mother. His hands fiddle with his shirt front that has been ripped due to his mother pulling him from the room.

"You can't keep this up. You are royalty, everyone looks at you differently because of it, so act like it." Queen Celine says through gritted teeth.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The children were never allowed to call their mother mother. It must be ma'am or Your Majesty. Still to this day her children are not allowed to call her affectionate terms. But as Johannes got older he called her whatever he liked: queen, majesty, old lady, mum, mother. Anything.

"Now I'm going to go back to the party and you are to change immediately. Then come back in there and formally apologize to the Queen of Siam. Understood?" The Queen uses her mother's tone once more.

The little boy nods his head with tears falling from his eyes faster than known possible. His mother groans in frustration and turns to leave. She shuts the door behind her and that's when he darts. Johannes runs as fast as he can down the hall. He takes the shortcuts he's committed to memory and runs for the fresh air of the sea. Once outside, he runs through the trees and tall grass fields and over fences getting cuts and bruises along the way until he reaches the dark beach. The white moon glows onto the water and illuminates the beach well enough for him to see, but not well enough for anyone to see him. He crumbles onto the sand and stares at the stars. He can hear the music from afar but tunes it out to hear the sounds of the ocean. They crash over and over and soothe him to sleep like a lullaby would, if he was ever sung lullabies as a child. The breeze is cold and-

What feels like a bucket of water falls on top of him and the prince jerks awake. He shivers as the freezing air hits the wetness of his clothes and now he is definitely awake. The prince looks around and he's still trapped. Trapped behind four walls and hungry. Two things he's never really experienced. His stomach growls louder and louder until his head starts to hurt from the fatigue and starvation. He regrets leaving the castle and regrets not trying to fight back in his room. The prince feels like if he admitted if he was the prince he would surely be killed, but it seems like no matter who he is, she wants to kill him anyway. So it's still better not to say anything because knowing pirates they may try and hold him for ransom and he doesn't want his family to go through that hell. Actually, come to think of it, he's never known a pirate. Only what he's heard in stories and read in books. Since the Captain was careful about taking him from the castle his family probably believes he's run off again. Which is good, because the Queen doesn't need to worry anymore than she already does.