[Just a warning that this chapter gets a little violent. I'm not sure where you all stand with it, but I just wanted to put it out there. If you don't feel like you want to read something like that, I totally understand. I love you all !! ]
Felicity and I were in the bathroom when it happened. I was re-applying lipstick and Felicity was twisting her hair into a bun.
The next thing we know, the sirens are going off and screams ring through out the palace.
My eyes widen as I look over at Felicity, who remains frozen in her spot.
"A rebel attack?" I ask no one in particular.
"But... There hasn't been one in years." Felicity says, still stunned and frozen.
I look toward the exit and then back at Felicity.
At the same time I say, "We need to get out of here." Felicity says, "We should just stay in here."
"Felicity." I say sternly and bend down to slip off my heels. "If whoever is attacking finds us in here, we're dead. We have no where to hide, no where to go."
Felicity's body is no longer stiff and tense. She's shaking uncontrollably and hugging herself. "I-I- Can't. What if we get shot?"
"At least we have a better chance out there than in here." I say and grab her hand. I squeeze it in a comforting way. Of course I was going to let out some affection. She was scared and probably on the verge of having a panic attack. I'm not a totally cruel person. I show compassion when it's needed.
"It'll be okay." I say. "Come on, if we make a run for it we can find a guard or something."
She stares at me quietly for a few moments. Those moments drag on, like she's battling this decision internally. Hell, she probably is.
A loud gunshot startles both of us and Felicity seems to have come to a decision.
"Okay, come on." She says in a shaky voice.
Still holding her hand, we both slip out of the bathroom. The hall is dead silent, and there isn't a person to be seen.
I nod my head to the right and let go of her hand. We walk slowly up the hall in our feet. I had to admit, even I was a little scared. The dead silence-
The silence being broken by a gun shot and a blood curdling scream.
Felicity whimpers by my side and I tell her to be quiet. We couldn't be caught.
I run even faster around the palace, looking for some place we could hide.
Foot steps sound from behind us and we both tense. I whip around the corner and press myself against the wall. Felicity follows suit as we listen to the sound of footsteps.
"Cordelia," a chilling voice sings. "Come out come out wherever you are..."
Felicity's eyes grow wide with unshed tears she she turns to face me. My heart stops and so does my breathing.
It wasn't a prince calling me. I would know their voices anywhere. It wasn't Michael or a guard, because I doubt a guard would risk making any noise. Guards are supposed to protect and take down whoever gets in their way. If they make noise they aren't exactly stealthy.
No. It was not a guard nor anyone from the palace. It was a rebel.
"I'm not sure where you could have gone," the unfamiliar voice says. "I just saw you scurrying down the hall moments ago."
I look around me for a possible weapon, and on the skinny table next to me is a thin vase.
It will have to do. I didn't come all this way just to be killed by a rebel who thinks violence is the only answer. Honestly, I always thought the rebels were morons. They need to think more politically rather than violently. I bet they would have gotten what they wanted a long time ago.
I quietly stand up and grab the vase from off the table.
As the footsteps grow dangerously close to our hiding place, I know we won't be able to avoid this.
I position myself against the edge of the wall and listen closely to the steps.
Felicity slaps my leg but I ignore her.
"I heard that. You two are horrible at-"
I swing the vase out and it shatters over the boy's head. He crumbles to the ground with an audible moan.
"Cordelia!" Felicity screeches and my hand shoots out to grab her wrist.
"Shut up," I hiss. "They are looking for me so don't be a beacon of light for them."
She nods, understanding. "Okay," She whispers. "Sorry."
I pull her down the hall quickly and we try to be quiet. It's hard because I wasn't sure if we were running toward danger or away from it.
We round another corner but this time Felicity was the one to act. She grabs my arm and digs in her nails before pulling me against another wall.
I slightly nod as a thank you and the look she gives me tells me she understands.
"Find her." A harsh voice whispers. "And kill her. We need a statement. A message to send throughout all of Illéa. I will not be associated with rebels."
"Yes sir." Two men say at the same time.
"Get out of my sight." he says gruffly and I hear feet quickly scurry away.
I was surprised how calm I was acting. I guess when you play a part for so long you become it.
When all the footsteps fade away I take that as my cue to leave. Felicity and I run down the hallway, searching for someone. There wasn't a guard to be seen which started to worry me. Where the hell was all the security? How was I supposed to keep both of us alive? I had no idea where a safe room was. And I shouldn't know anyway because that's the point of a safe room.
Then it dawned on me as we pass the empty library.
"Felicity, come on." I say. "I have a place where we can hide."
I rush over to the door that led to the hidden library.
I was with Forrest last night, searching through more books. I remember that he forgot to lock the door on his way out because we were too busy arguing.
I shove the old door open and Felicity and I slip in. I quickly shut it behind us and take a deep breath. "We should be good in here." I say.
Felicity asks, "What is this place?"
I nod my head up toward the direction the stairs lead up into.
"Are you sure these are stable?" She asks and I smile a little.
"I'm positive."
We walk up the stairs and the floorboards creak after each step we take.
Finally we're up in the library and I take a look at my surroundings. It looked the same as usual.
Quiet and unmoving.
"What is this place?" Felicity asks again quietly as I walk straight over to the window.
The small window with the beautiful view that could see everything happening in front of the palace.
My heart dropped in my stomach when I saw dead bodies littering the ground everywhere.
Few guards I recognized as our own were still shooting, trying to hold off hundreds of other men.
This was no rebel attack.
I notice Felicity looking over my shoulder and I turn to face her. A single tear falls down her cheek and she sniffles. "Do you think we're going to die today?"
I straighten my back and try to give her the most confident look possible. "Maybe we will, I don't know. But I'm going to try my damn hardest not to. And you should too."
Felicity furiously wipes the warm tears pouring out of her eyes. "Okay. I will."
I give her a smile. "Let's just stay here until we come up with another plan."
She nods then begins to take a look around, most likely to distract herself from what is going on around her. I couldn't blame Felicity, really. I am just as scared as she is, as hard as that is to admit.
What I've learned from my observations of people over the years was that we all feel the same way. Deep down, it doesn't matter if one is brave or one is a coward. All of that? Those are just adjectives. It's how one reacts to a certain situation that we should really be looking at. You can argue that's the exact same thing, and I'll admit it sounds pretty damn close. But the way a person learns to handle something is much more than a label placed on their head.
Of course I had to think like this now. I was probably staring off into space at the current moment. But I didn't have my journal with me and there was no where to write any of my thoughts down.
I feel my fingers twitch at the thought and I clear my throat to clear my mind. To snap me out of the current state I was in.
"Cordelia, why aren't we allowed up here? Or at least, why were we never told about it?" Felicity asks as she pulls a book from the shelf.
I sit down on the old dusty chair and shake my head. "I'm not actually positive. I think it's mostly to hide fatal truths from people. Who would want to hear that King Maxon is actually a psychopath?"
Felicity giggles a little and slips the book back on the shelf. "That's very true. But do you think all that information is hidden on these shelves?"
I nod. "Yes, I do."
"Than why not make it more... Secret?" She asks as she takes a seat on the ground.
"Because sometimes the most obvious places are the least susceptible."
Felicity looks over at me with a confused look. "How do you mean?"
"If I had a key that unlocked the door to all my secrets, I would place it right on my shelf for everyone to see. And you know why?" I look over at her.
She shakes her head.
"Because no one would suspect that such a powerful thing would be out in the open. It could be a key to my jewelry box for all anyone knows. People assume I've hid the important key away so no one can find it. When people are looking for something, it's actually much easier to find."
Felicity laughs. "So I guess if I hid my diary in plain sight no one would bother it?"
I laugh with her. "Well, if it was fuzzy, neon pink with big bold letters spelling out "DIARY" I think you would be out of luck."
"Shoot." She says with sarcastic disappointment. "Never mind then."
We were laughing quietly, but not quietly enough. The door burst open and the first thing I did was shoot up and grab the small, round table next to the couch, ready to attack.
My heart stopped when I saw it was only Forrest. Disheveled dark hair and frantic eyes. He looked almost like an animal.
"Cordelia," he sighs with relief and storms over to me.
I back up instantly, afraid he was going to actually attack me. In my defense, he looked about ready to pounce on anyone.
But instead he grabs my arm and pulls me to him, which stuns me even further. Another thing that also shocked me was how easy I seemed to fit with him.
He wraps one arm around my back and places the other on top of my head, pressing it against his shoulder.
"You scared the actual living shit out of me." Forrest says into my hair as he protectively holds me to him.
"Sorry," I say quietly, because honestly I don't know what else to say.
"You weren't in the safe room with all the other girls." He says, still holding onto me. "I looked in almost every one on the first flo-"
I snap away from his arms and glare at him. "You risked your life to come looking for me?"
Forrest narrows his eyes. "You seem angry."
"Of course I'm angry! You don't risk your life for someone like me! You're the heir! That was incredibly stupid."
All of the emotion from Forrest's face disappears as he studies me. "Why wouldn't I risk my life for someone like you?"
I ball my hands into fists, about ready to rant to him specifically why he shouldn't have done what he did, but I forgot Felicity was in the room.
"Um, guys," She says in a timid voice and Forrest snaps his head toward her.
"You brought her up here?" He then turns to glare at me.
"What else was I going to do? Leave her?" I ask incredulously, that he was actually mad at me for saving someone's life.
"Now is not the time." I remind him.
"We should get out of here," Felicity pipes in. "And find a safe room."
Forrest's angry expression melts away as he nods. "Yes, we should most definitely do that."
Forrest reaches out and grabs my wrist before pulling me toward the exit.
"Hey, let go." I hiss quietly but he doesn't listen.
I look behind me to see if Felicity is following us, and I'm relieved to see that she is. I wasn't sure if she was going to back out or not.
The old wooden steps creak underneath our feet as we rush down the steps. We try to make the least noise as possible, but it's difficult.
We slip silently out of the door and Forrest turns around and quietly tries to close it. The door makes the slightest noise and I cringe.
Forrest nods his head in a direction that is not the door we entered in, and all I wanted to do was ask where we were going, but I knew I couldn't. I know we are heading to a safe room, my only question is how dangerous is it going to be to get there.
Forrest brings us to the back of the library where there is yet another door I had no knowledge about.
"Come on, this way." He whispers when I hesitate just the slightest bit.
He opens the door and we are back in an empty hallway.
"The safe room I was in is just down the steps." Forrest says.
"Will they let us in?" I ask, nothing above a small whisper.
"They will. My brother knows." Forrest says like that explained everything, but it's not like I could pull an all out interrogation.
We trail against the wall in a line. We were doing well so far, and I was proud of how determined Felicity looked.
And as much as I hated to label someone this way, she did look brave.
However, we all froze when a gunshot rang out. I couldn't help but turn my head in the direction it came from, and as soon as I did I wish I hadn't.
Michael was stumbling back, pressing a hand to his stomach as blood soaked his uniform. Then with a horrific noise, another shot rang through my ears as the bullet went straight through his head and he fell backwards, breaking the railing and falling to the first level with an audible thump.
I slap a hand over my mouth silently. I felt like I was going to throw up. My entire body froze and I already felt my eyes begin to tear up.
All I wanted to do was curl into a ball and sob, because all I could think about was Elise.
Elise.
And the worst part? She wasn't allowed to show any grief. How horrible of a prison that has to be, trapped in your own mind not being able to mourn.
"Cordelia," Forrest whispers close to my ear and I realize I'm shaking. "Cordelia," he says again and I look up at him.
"We need to go, or that's going to be us."
He was right. That was going to be me, or Felicity, or even Forrest if we didn't find a safe place to hide.
Forrest looks around the corner of the wall, and I hold my breath. He could get shot at any given moment.
Why did he have to be such an idiot? Why couldn't he have just stayed in a safe room?
He looks over at us and smirks. "Coast is clear."
I don't appreciate his smirking, but I don't argue when we descend the stairs either.
Unfortunately, we had to pass a big open space in the middle of the palace, and it still astounds me how Forrest got past without anyone seeing him.
I hear Forrest take a deep breath beside me before he slowly made his way out into the open space. I took a deep breath myself before I slowly followed him. Felicity wasn't too far behind me.
We were doing good when it came to silence, but the moment I saw Michael's dead body lying unmoving on the ground, drowning in a pool of his own blood, it was enough to make anyone weak.
And by weak, I let myself feel. Like actually feel.
God dammit, Lila. I told you to stay away.
Since I froze in my spot and there were warm tears flowing down my face, Felicity bumped into me and I stumbled forward.
It's not like I fell, or I cried or screamed. In fact, what happened next had nothing to do with actions or noise.
It had to do with time.
The extra minute I spent staring at a dead body and mourning a boy I hardly even knew was a minute that could have been used to get to a safe room.
"Ah! It's Cordelia!" the voice was cheery, but also chillingly familiar.
Familiar in the sense I only heard it about an hour ago.
Forrest was already at my side and Felicity began to tremble again.
I didn't get a good look at the boy's features before, considering I was too busy hitting him with a vase. But his eyes were cold and his hair was short, with the exception of the left side of his head shaved with some sort of symbol.
An arrow.
"Nice seeing you again," He says as two other boys walk up behind us.
Before any of us knew it, one man punched Forrest in the jaw, causing him to stumble back. The other raised his fist to punch Felicity, but he stopped midway. They stared at each other for a moment, and the boy slowly lowered his fist.
I didn't know why he stopped. Maybe he felt bad for hitting someone defenseless against him, maybe he just didn't want to hit a girl.
I didn't really care at the moment and I didn't have the time to analyze their behavior. While all of this was happening I was grabbed by the hair and pulled against the boy who wanted to kill me.
Forrest went to hit the boy who took a blow at him back but the boy raised his gun and directed it at Forrest.
"I don't know what your deal is," I hear the boy holding me say, speaking to the one who wouldn't hit Felicity. "But you better shut her up one way or another."
"I really want to kill him, Axel." The boy pointing the gun at Forrest says.
"Absolutely not." The boy I now know as Axel says, pressing the barrel of his gun against my temple. "How will we ever make a statement if our statement is shot?"
I was seriously being defenseless? When have I ever, me, Cordelia, been defenseless?
Never.
I wasn't about to start now.
And it doesn't matter if what I do is stupid, because I was going to die anyway. I would rather go out fighting than beg for my life. That is weak, and I wasn't a weak person. I tried too hard and I tried my whole damn life to not be that weak person.
"Hey, you going to carry on with this? Or are we just going to stand here?" I suddenly ask and Axel presses the barrel harder against my head.
"Shut up."
"No." I respond, and my reaction seemed to surprise him.
"Excuse me, did you just say 'no'? Who is holding the gun here, Cordelia?"
"Obviously you." I say with an annoyed tone. "But seriously, are you going to tell us your entire plan on how you're going to 'make a statement'? Because if you are I would rather you shoot me now, your voice is rather annoying."
"Cordelia!" Forrest hisses, and I could tell how angry he was. I wasn't sure why he was so angry with me. He was a smart boy. He knew this would only end up one way, and if he knew me at all he would have guessed I wouldn't go quietly. Besides, maybe I could stall long enough for guards to come and save both Felicity and Forrest.
"That's a good plan, why don't I just shoot you now-"
I cut him off while he's in the middle of speaking and elbow him in the throat. I hear a stampede of footsteps and shouting from the opposite side of the hall. I grab Axel's shoulders and knee him where the sun doesn't shine.
But I was stupid this time and didn't think about the gun.
You know, I strive not to be naive but sometimes it's hard to avoid ignorance.
The gun goes off and I feel like someone stabbed me in the stomach.
Axel curses as shooting starts to go off down the hall, and him and the rest of his two boys run toward the exit.
I was afraid to look down at my stomach, because I knew what I would find.
"Cordelia." Forrest says in a serious tone. "Turn around."
"I'm fine." I bite back as a dozen guards run past me and toward the direction the three boys went. A couple stay with us, one assisting Felicity and the other looking over Forrest for injury.
I turn my head back around, and suddenly I lost all energy in my legs and collapse to the ground.
"Cordelia!" Forrest shouts as I hit the ground and I find it hard to breathe.
Being shot feels weird. You can't exactly feel it because your whole body goes numb, but the moment you breathe it's like swords piercing your skin all over again. Then there is the horrible feeling of drowning.
"Cordelia," Forrest says quietly as I blink and I'm suddenly looking up at his face. I feel hands press into my stomach and I whimper.
"It's okay, Lila." He says in a softer voice as he stares down at me with concern. "Nothing is going to happen to you." he adds with determination.
"This really hurts." I manage to choke out and Forrest smirks sadly.
"You're such a drama queen." he says.
I want to laugh but I don't have the physical ability to. His face starts to grow blurry and the world begins to spin out of focus.
"Cordelia," Forrest's voice sounds like he's talking to me underwater. "Cordelia, come on, stay with me."
You don't think of much before you die. You read in books all the time about how the character reminisces their entire lives.
Well, you can't really do that when your body hurts like hell and all you want is the pain to go away.
So it's safe to say, I wasn't thinking about much before everything went black.
*****
[A/N]
I know, I know. Another cliff hanger.
BUT EXCITING NEWS.
I am going to make a sequel for this story because It's too much to fit in one wattpad book.
I'm also really happy that some of you guys made cool edits! If you want to check those edits out, head to chapter 1 and chapter 18 !!
Side note: Someone asked what my instagram is, and my instagram is @maxonschreaves