The Crown

Chapter Twelve

The room is silent as a figure emerges from the large flame.

With her hands in her pockets, Beatrice walked away from the table and followed Tori into the cleaning supplies closet. She stepped in after Tori, both of them entering into the dark space and toward the room with peeling paint. Sitting there was Matthew, who looked back and stood quickly at the sight of his new trainee.

"Thank you for being in your uniform. We can get started right away then," Matthew motioned for Beatrice to follow him through a door and to a spacious room.

"Before we do," Tori interrupted. "I fear we have bad news."

Matthew sat at the edge of this desk while Tori explained how little information the two of them are able to acquire. Matthew sighed and turned around to sit back in his chair. He pulled out another golden folder, opening it slowly.

Beatrice leaned and peaked at the contents; a picture of Tobias and information listed below. 

"I was afraid this might happen," he confessed. "I will fix this. We will protect the people in this castle."

Tori and Beatrice watched as Matthew stood and walked out of the arena, clutching the folder in his hand. 

Tori turned to the new recruit. "Now that that's being handled, we can get you started on training. Might as well since you are unable to retrieve anything valuable," She looked around and pointed to a row of punching bags. "Get started over there; I will join you in a little bit."

"I'm curious," Beatrice confesses quickly. "Is there any way of knowing who belongs to the organization outside of this arena?"

Tori chuckled. "Unless they're doing a really bad job about keeping their agency a secret, you wouldn't know. You'll see some of them here and training. Look, one of them is training over there."

It's a man figure; the only man she was waiting for. He extended his hand.

Beatrice walked over to the boy her age currently attacking a punching bag. By the look of it, he was struggling - his punches were blatantly weak. Beatrice stood next to him and waved. 

The boy stopped and turned, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Hey, I'm Al," he stuck out his hand. "Well, it's Albert but in the midst of an attack, if someone were to call my name, I think Al is easier and quicker than Albert."

Beatrice smiled and accepted his hand. "I'm Beatrice. Should I change my name?"

Albert nodded. "You should."

She nodded back, pensive. "Then ... my name will be...Tris... I guess."

Albert smiled and extended his hand once more. "Well, Tris, welcome to Royal Protection Program."

She grabbed the hand in front of her, letting it hoist her body back up and letting her stare into the beautiful eyes she had become accustomed to.

"I haven't seen you before, you're new right?" Albert asked as Beatrice positioned herself in front of the punching bag.

"Yes, I am. And you are-"

"New."

"What made you accept?" she asked curiously.

He shrugged. "I think it's important to protect people. To stand up for people. That's what the agency is supposed to do, right?"

Beatrice nodded and smiled. She lifted her arms in front of her face, pulled back one of them, and lunged to the red stuffed bag in front of her.