The Crown

Chapter Seventy

King Julian walked back and forth in his office, going over thoughts and ideas in his head. He was repeating them to his secretary, who was jotting down everything he said. It was a form of a journal, and Julian found comfort documenting it.

The doors to his office opened and in walked a guard, "Your highness, your presence is required immediately."

"Where? I'm quite occupied at the moment."

"I was told it couldn't wait, my King. It involves your sister."

He didn't need to hear anymore. Julian waved his secretary away, grabbed his long red coat, threw it on, and rushed down the halls to the front door. Awaiting outside was a carriage with a doctor standing on the outside, his posture straight awaiting for the king. Upon arrival, the doctor bowed and waited until Julian entered the carriage to follow.

The doctor began speaking once the carriage rolled. "Your highness, I bring you bad news about the Queen. Her mental state has deteriorated even more - she calls out at night her late husband's name, accusing him of torturing her, King Tobias, and the Princess. This kind of exotic ideas she's been conjuring have been like this for a couple of months, and no matter what we do we're not seeing improvements."

"Does she understand that her son isn't a baby?"

"She hasn't shown signs that say otherwise."

"When we arrive, I want her released immediately."

Julian knew that Evelyn was getting her sanity back - what she was saying was the truth, but the doctor couldn't know that King Marcus was a psychopath. No one could.

"I don't think that's wise. She's not sane."

"Yes, she very much is. I think I reserve the right to judge my own sister."

The doctor pursed his lips and tightened his grip on the clipboard he held in his hands. "My king, you must understand- these allegations are...preposterous!"

"You don't know what goes on behind closed doors, doctor. Release her into my care immediately, I'm not going to ask again."

With much reluctance, the doctor obliged, promising to release her. When the carriage stopped, he exited quickly and rushed into the building. He told one of the nurses to fetch the queen and prepare her for release, which earned a confused look from the nurse. It didn't matter because she nodded and made her way down to the room where Evelyn was staying.

For the past year, ever since her big outbreak, Evelyn had been locked up in a room. Julian visited her every couple of days, and each time he went, it seemed like her condition was worsening. She was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, and then depression, and then she was officially delusional. For eight months, she had created a world where Tobias was still an infant, and Marcus was a good father. Of course, this reality hadn't ever existed - there was no where in time where Marcus had been a good father. Yet, to cope, she invented it.

And then, some time in the past two months, something had clicked in her and she remembered everything that happened almost twenty four years after her son's birth, especially the last five hectic years. The vivid memories of Marcus came flooding through, but instead of voicing out, she came quiet and dull. It was then that the doctor had diagnosed her with depression.

It was only a couple of hours ago, when the doctor had gone into Evelyn's room to take her weekly shot, did she get suddenly triggered and lash out. Evelyn fell over the bed and started screaming, identifying her doctor as Marcus and telling him the things she was too afraid to tell her actual husband. That was when he rushed a carriage to the castle.