The Runaway

Chapter 5

The king told me to leave. Now the guards are walking me back to the lonely cell.

I'm not a child. They don't need to guard me like I'm going to run away. This place is a maze with no clear way out. With my luck, I'd fall down some stairs and break every bone in my body.

They lock me in the room once again. I lean my head on the door and look at the granite floor, my scuffed shoes and poor dress that's tattered. If only the windows opened. They're so tall and beautiful but useless.

I walk over to the bed and lay on it like a star. Sleep should fix this; it always has before. Not the past few days but hopefully this time it does.

*Some hours later*

It didn't help. I now know every line in the ceiling.

There's a knock on the door. I prop myself on my right elbow, facing it.

"Come in..."

The door quickly opens with no hesitation. There stands the same mystery man.

"How are you, princess?"

I lay back down. My arm feels as if it'll pop off.

"Utterly amazing, random stranger man."

He walks around the bed and sits on the edge.

"Come here."

He pats the spot next to him.

"Why?"

"The bandage needs to be changed."

I sit my lazy bum up and scoot next to him. Now my dress is messy. I pull it back over my legs. It's a little cold here.

He slowly grabs my forearm and holds my arm straight out. His leather gloves are cold. He takes a little, curved knife from his sleeve and cuts the bandage.

"Why is there a knife in your sleeve? Has it ever stabbed you?"

He nods and takes off the cut wrapping. There is a partially closed hole and blood visibly showing on my skin and the bandage. Oh, why did I look?

He folds the wrap in itself and puts it in one of the many pockets. He then stands up and holds his hand out to me. I grab it and he pull me up, then walks to the bathroom.

The bathroom is all black, of course. Their theme is very consistent. The walls are dark green. It contrasts with every other room here I've seen.

That's not many.

We walk over to the water falling against the wall. He turns around, grabs a cloth, puts it under the water and puts it on my arm.

"Hold it."

I hold the wet cloth on my arm. He disappears. I want to teleport too. One of the many things I didn't inherit.

It isn't very common in my kingdom anyways. Supposedly there's only 5 elves that can teleport. I never met one.

Except now.

The only light here is through the windows. Even through the high rise of the sun it isn't very bright inside.

A figure appears next to me, giving me a heart attack.

"Don't scare me."

"Sorry princess."

He walks around me and starts unrolling the bandage thing. My arm hurts from being in the air so long. He shoos my hand away and took the cloth off. I look away. Oh, the mirror is so mirror-y.

"What is teleporting like?"

"I don't know."

What a disappointing answer.

"Does it feel like anything?"

"No."

"How does it work?"

"Think of where you want to be and you're there."

"So, you could go anywhere?"

"As long as I know what the place looks like."

"That's so cool."

He hums and tucks the bandaging in itself before disappearing again. I look out the window. There is still no music, colorful lights or anyone. Is it deserted?

Footsteps approach behind me.

"Come on."

I turn around. "To where?"

"Somewhere."

He is so bad at answering questions. Even so, I follow him to wherever somewhere is. The hallway is darker than before. Out the windows I can see the ends of the sun being in the air. It looks as if it'll set soon.

"Is the sunset here pretty?"

He stops walking and looks out the window.

"I believe so."

We keep walking.

"What did you do today, princess?"

"Stop calling me princess and I did top secret things that I can't tell you since you won't tell me anything about yourself. We can both be mysterious."

I'm being so improper right now. I've been improper my whole stay here. Ma and pa would be disappointed. There is silence for a long time. How far away are all these mystery places?

The sounds start buzzing in my ears. We're near life, not deafening silence.

"Why is it so lonely here?"

He faces me for a minute, I can see the silhouette of his nose and chin.

"It isn't lonely here, there is much life as you can see, princess. We're just lonely here."

That's so sad. The king can't be good at his job. Yes, the kingdom and architecture is beautiful but these walls feel hollow. No one stops to chat. This place is a ghost town.

We approach another set of sky high, black. wooden double doors. He pulls one open and waves me to go in.

It's the kitchen. Of course, it's black and is extremely tall with the roof carving inward. There are pillars around the counter with arches between each one, a giant granite counter island. The giant stove has a giant hood over it. The windows are tall, and the inside balcony has a black metal fence. The floor is wood. There is a giant chandelier over the island.

"Are you a chef?"

The only time I've gone to the kitchen was to get more grapes. That was about it. Only the chefs and servants are in the kitchen.

"Today I am." He walks to the cooler. "What do you want?"

"Honey."

"What else?"

"More honey. I like manuka and blueberry honey, or strawberry, orange."

Oh, I could go on for hours.

"You need something else, too, love."

He goes through cupboard by cupboard till he finds a golden jar. He closes the cupboard and slides the jar to me over the counter.

Goodness, this looks amazing. If no one was around the jar would be gone soon.

"Well, honey goes with everything. What do you like?"

He quickly turns around. A strand of hair falls from his hood, it's very light from what I can see. Everything and everyone is opposite from home. Everyone at home has either reddish hair or any dark color. There aren't many blonds either.

"Raspberries."

"Oh, that's cool. We could make our own version of chocolate covered strawberries."

He stares at me for the longest time. It makes me uneasy.

A/N: thoughts on mystery guy?