Sun streams through gaps in the curtains, lighting the dull, brown room into a bright golden colour. As beautiful as this is, it wakes me up leaving me to feel less than satisfied with the amount of sleep I managed to get. It was one of those nights where no matter how many sheep I counted, I just couldn't doze off and then when I did finally sleep I would wake up again within an hour. It's understandable really.
Yawning, I climb out of the hotel bed and make my way into the bathroom before Max and Jasper. I get ready as quickly as I can, washing my dark hair and then twisting it into a bun on the top of my head. I wrap a towel around my wet hair while I get changed. I decide to dry my hair back in the room to allow the boys the chance to use the bathroom. Who knows when we will next have hot running water?
Once I'm back in the room, I stand in front of a mirror and un-wrap the towel. My hair falls down my sides and slowly I begin to dry it. It takes a while due to its length but once I've done I stand back and just stare at my reflection.
The girl who is looking back at me is someone else. She is Princess Alexandria, the heir to the throne, the girl who used to follow every order from her mother until she finally got sick of it. She's the girl who stood back while her mother threw elegant balls feand would start conversations with possible suitors knowing that is what she has to do as the princess. She's the girl with the bright green eyes, a constant reminder of her mother, the queen who is slowly killing people. The girl with the dark hair, a reminder of her father, the late king with a bad reputation.
The girl looking back at me is not who I want to be.
Instead of dwelling on my reflection, I twist my hair back onto the top of my head and put one of my wigs on. I have quite a collection of them now, thanks to Max. Today I decide to wear a mid-length ginger wig with a full fringe; it's different to what I have worn so far. I feel ready to go.
This girl looking back at me is me.
Banging on the bathroom door with one fist, I shout "Are you two nearly ready yet? I thought we said we would leave as soon as we could?" I walk away from the door, feeling frustrated with the two of them because all I want to do now is get on a train and get as far from here as possible.
"We are here now. By the way, I forgot to give you these the other day." Max says while throwing a box over to me. I look down to see that it is a box of blue contact lenses. Without wasting any time, I rip open the packaging and place the contacts in my eyes. Luckily there are a few pairs of them in the box.
"Thanks Max." I say to him.
Curfew has been lifted so we make our way out of the hotel and onto the sun lit streets. To get back to the train station we have to walk back through the other villages and follow the trail down the mountains. It is quite a trek and because we want to get on the next train as quickly as we can, we walk as fast as we can. It is a struggle though with the sun beating down on us, making us sweat and slowing us down.
"Can you believe it is finally starting to feel like summer?" Jasper asks while we are walking through the villages which have the large houses and swimming pools.
"I know, it must nearly August as well. It is about time that we got some sun." I reply back realising I don't even know what month we are in anymore.
"Well when I was out buying more food I saw a newspaper saying that the date was the second of august so today must be the fourth I think." Max then tells us.
We keep walking through the heat and finally make it through the last, shabby village. It would have been easier if we had spent the night here. From the top of the trail, I can just see the roof of the train station, which is made out of glass. People are walking away from it and heading up the trail for themselves. I will be very jealous if they are staying in one of the hotels with a pool.
As I am walking, I keep my head down to avoid eye contact with people and to keep the sun out of my eyes. Nobody says anything as we walk through the large crowds which is a relief. Once we reach the train station, I turn around to have one last look of this place. The sun shines over the mountains and the sky is crystal clear, not a single cloud in sight. It takes my breath away. I don't have the opportunity to look at it for long though as I am soon dragged into the station by Max.
People are packed into every corner and there is barely any room to move. Shuffling through the crowds, we soon make our way to the ticket barrier and onto the platform. Trains are lined up everywhere you look; some are boarding passengers while others look like they are not doing anything at all. The train that is going to the Cold Lands and the Eastern Zone is sat waiting at the platform but passengers are not allowed to board yet.
I slump against a wall while we wait, keeping my head down and counting the cracks on the pavement.
"Thirteen," I mutter to know one in particular. "There are thirteen cracks in the pavement." When I look up, I see that Jasper is staring at me.
"Is there any reason we need to know that? By the way, there are probably more cracks in the station that you can't see love." he comments, causing me to stick my tongue out at him as if I was a child.
Rolling my eyes, I say to him, "I know that, I'm not an idiot. All I was trying to do was pass some time. I used to do it all the time when I was a child. Force of habit I guess. And what is with the new nickname?" I raise an eyebrow and ask him.
"I'm hardly going to call you by the other name when we are surrounded by this many people." Jasper lowers himself and mutters in my ear.
Just when he has finished, we get told that we are able to board the train. There are several stops on this route but we can stay on the train until it reaches the Eastern Zone. However with the original ticket that we purchases, we can only go as far as the Cold Lands before getting off.
They allow people to be boarding the train for about half an hour before finally setting off. We were lucky enough to one of the few four seat areas on the train. I sit next to the window and Max sits down next to me. I'm surprised at this because I thought he would want to sit next to Jasper. Resting my head against the cool window, I glance towards the outside and watch it all whizz by my eyes.
There's nothing much to see to start off with, just empty fields that are not used for anything then the ones that are used for farming. After what feels like a couple of hours, we end up passing through a town, making our first stop there. The train does not wait as long this time and is moving again within five minutes. This time it seems that all we are doing is passing through different towns, all of them looking very similar. Skyscrapers are built up everywhere, some of them looking like they are made completely of glass. There are some buildings with giant domes for roofs and then there are some that look particularly older than the rest.
Those ones are my favourite.
They are made out of old-fashioned red bricks, with grand staircases leading to the entrances of the buildings. There are windows with balconies where you can look out at the town and admire it for yourself. It truly is beautiful.
Beauty does not last though.
Soon we are whizzing through fields that look like they have recently been on fire. Smoke is still present in some areas and there are tents scattered around everywhere. Peering my face closer to the window, I can see what looks to be dead bodies just rotting away on the field.
Jumping back I ask "where are we?" feeling horrified by my surroundings.
"I'd guess it is one of the rebel camps that have been attacked recently. It can't have been that long ago as there is still some smoke." Max answers and I turn my gaze back towards the window. I realise that he must be right because the place looks like an actual bombsite.
Our journey on the train is one that takes us through the night so we agree that we will take it in turns to sleep with one of us being on guard the whole time. Max agrees to be on guard first so I lean up against the side of the window and close my eyes.
Somehow, I manage to fall asleep but it takes a while. My mind is too preoccupied with the thought of all those people dead because of my mother. I know that the rebels have also killed many lives but if my mother had just listened to them in the first place then the situation would not be as bad. When I do sleep, I dream of trains on a never ending track that just keep going because they have nothing else to do.
I'm woken up to Max tapping my shoulder to let me know that it is my turn to keep guard. At first it is hard to keep my eyes open, never mind being on the lookout for people who could be after us but after a while, I eventually wake up.
Looking around the carriage, I see there are a variety of different people on the train. Some old, some young, some thin, some fat and some rich and some poor. Then I notice there is a palace guard on board as well.
"Shit," I say to myself and I quickly look away. I knew that there were going to be more guards around the towns but I never thought they would be on public transport as well. "Max, wake up, we have a problem." I shake his shoulder trying to wake him up.
"What, I'm sleeping..." he grumbles at me before resting his head back down on the table.
"Please Max, this is important. There is a guard on duty." I try shaking him again. This time Max mumbles something and then all of a sudden he raises his head when he finally realises what I have said.
"We need to wake Jasper up and then get off at the next stop. It's too dangerous to stay here." Max informs me.
I look over at Jasper who is sat across from us with his head laid on the table and has an arm stretched out in front of him. I reach forward and tap his arm, trying to wake up. At first he doesn't stir, so I try again even harder.
"What?" He asks sounding very annoyed.
Max moves over to sit beside him and explains the situation. While he does that, I look around to see if I can see the guard. He keeps walking up and down the aisles, patrolling, making everything is in order. He is also a guard that I have never seen before; he has dark 'hair which I imagine would be similar to Max's but he has it slicked back, making it look greasy. He then has a moustache that covers his whole mouth which makes him look quite sinister.
"How long until the next stop?" I ask, nerves building up inside me.
"It shouldn't be too long. The only problem is once we reach the train station, we won't be allowed to board another train until sunrise due to the curfew." Max explains to me.
I watch out of the window as the pitch black suddenly becomes very light, waking most of the sleeping passengers. We have arrived at the station.
The three of us very quickly stand up and exit the train, making our way onto the brightly lit platform. If I wasn't awake beforehand, then I certainly was now. There's a large clock on one of the tall pillars which says that the time is almost three in the morning. Internally, I groan.
There is nothing to do on the platform other than watching the time and counting the cracks.
"GET DOWN!" I hear someone yell at nearly half past four in the morning.
I look around me to see where the shouting is coming from, only to be met with scenes of fear and violence.
Surrounding us are rebels with large guns who are pointing them down at defenceless people. Screams echo all through the station along with the sound of gun shots.
Frantically, I look over at Jasper and Max who are sharing the same horrified look as me.
"Run!" Is what Jasper says and I quickly follow his lead. There must be hundreds of rebels that have infiltrated their way into the station and already there are hundreds of lifeless bodies on the floor.
The three of us head straight towards the trains exit, along the tracks, knowing then we will be on safer ground as there doesn't look to be any rebels there. It's hard to keep running when I keep hearing the screams of innocent people being shot down. It turns my stomach sick.
I see one of the rebels aim their shot at me but somehow I manage to dive out of the bullets way. The gun shots keep flying in our direction causing the three of us to keep dodging out of their way.
We are about to make it to the exit when suddenly there is a yelp of pain from in front of me and then Jasper falls to the floor.
He has been shot.
A/N: ooh what did you think of that ending??? What's going to happen next? So many questions haha!
Happy #RoyalWednesday by the way! I hope everyone is well. Did you have a good Valentine's Day? Or were you lonely like me haha?
If you are still in the Valentine's Day mood then I have a short story that I posted for Fingerprints in the Seasonal Stories book that you can always read ;)
That's all for today. As always, don't forget to vote and comment!