I took in a large breath as I stepped down from the last step. It was time. I was taking way too long to tell these people the real reason why they were really here, so it was better I told them now for them to get a better understanding of what was going on. As their classmate and friend, I'm sure they were to trust me without questions, although I did admit it'd been a while since we really gathered together like this.
"Guys, may I please have your attention, please?" I requested as I stepped up to the front. One by one, each of their heads turned around and faced me, all of them silent and waiting for me to start what I wanted to say. "Listen, I have to be honest with you, after all, we are friends, right?" I saw some of them nod, which relieved me, but seeing Lila in the back, just folding her arms with a glare ruined it all. "I never planned a party for any of you. I know what you must be thinking: 'well then, why does it look like a party?' But. . .this isn't the real reason why we brought you here.
"There's. . ." I forced the words out. ". . .a murderer lurking around in Paris; a psycho, someone who doesn't care about what happens to human beings as long as she sees blood. No, she's not a vampire, and no, I'm not making this up. These recent deaths that happened weren't just coincidental. They were all done by the same person. I can even show you proof, but I seriously don't want to take the pictures out now; you can look at them later. Anyway, that murderer. . ."
I searched their faces with my eyes; they all looked somewhat the same; confused and shocked with my words. "You guys are in danger. At least, one of you is, but we don't know who this murderer is after yet, so we thought it was better to just keep all of you in here until this all dies out. I promise each of you that we will fix this soon, and you will be brought back to freedom of walking around Paris without fear. I-"
"I knew it!" A new voice made me jump, and when I looked over at the corner, a police officer suddenly crawled out from under a table. I must have been too focused that I hadn't even spotted him there. He started walking towards me, looking suspicious. "You knew everything, yet you weren't even willing to inform the police. You know who the murderer is; you know who we're dealing with here. Why don't you ever think 'oh maybe, if I inform the police, things will be 100% times easier.' Do you always have to do everything yourself?!" I growled silently at his words. "I mean, I get that you're ruler of this place and all, but this is serious. People's lives are at risk-"
"AND YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW THAT?!" I shrieked at him, before I started making bold moves towards him. "You don't think I know that? Ever since this position was handed over to me, my life literally became a mess; I didn't try to fix everything myself. I have my friends who believe me and are willing to help me. If I had went over to the police, none of you would have believed me at all!" I stopped right in front him and my face changed into a glare. "How the hell did you get in?!"
The officer looked me in the eyes, before he broke eye contact and pointed over at someone. I turned around, my eyes getting wider when I realized he was pointing at Lila. Lila, on the other hand, had this smirk on her face as if she had won something. I started walking over to her, a little angry that she had done this behind my back. But then again, she was Lila. I hadn't wanted to leave anyone behind, no matter how much I despised that person, because a true ruler would never do that. This is why I accepted Lila here to be safe. "Listen carefully and closely. I don't understand what your problem is, or what your motive is, but this ends now. I'm sick and tired of your childish behavior. You have to trust me on this. The more people know of this situation, the worse it gets. This is not child's play!"
"Oh, I know that, Marinette," Lila let out a small giggle as she tapped a finger on my shoulder. "Or, should I call you Your Majesty? Telling from what you just did back there, I can see that you've become so bossy. Became such a spoiled brat after the crown was being placed on your head, huh."
"Can it, chunky cheese. You're not staring at a mirror!" I slapped her hand away and turned back to the officer, completely forgetting about all my classmates. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I'm stressed. I'm tired. I'm scared. I didn't want people knowing this because I was afraid that would immediately make them a victim. Now that I really think about it, everyone in Paris are all victims because she could attack at any given moment. I was afraid no one would believe me, because. . . here's the catch. The murderer is my damn twin sister!"
Everyone around me gasped, and it was when I was pulled back into reality and remembered my classmates were still here, looking shocked and confused, but mostly shocked. I hadn't wanted to scare them at all, even though I knew this whole thing was creepy; I just wanted them to know that they came here to stay and be safe, keeping away from harm.
"I need you all to stay here. I promise we're going to fix this. There's a bunch of us; there's only one of her. You're going to be living in this palace," I pointed at a random maid, "she'll help you with your rooms. Show them the empty bedrooms, and have them pick which one they would like. That's an order!" I folded my arms as I watched the maid quickly nod and started leading the way. I noticed one girl stayed behind from the group though, and I turned around to face Rose. She had always been the sweetest, the cutest and the little kid in my classroom, always needing help with everything, sometimes being naive over things, but most of the time, just bringing a smile up on people's face. The last time I ever saw Rose was when I was being crowned queen; she'd come to my Coronation Oath. "Rose, is there a problem?"
"I. . .all this. . ." She grinned as she pointed around. "It just feels so unreal. I've always wanted to come over to the Royal Palace, and now I'm even living in it. But, I didn't want it to happen like this." Her smile slowly turned upside down. "I mean. . .to hear that there's a creepy murderer out there, it really creeps me out, and I definitely know that I'm going to have nightmares, but. . .I would feel much better if I was sleeping in the same room as my protector. Yes, you." She poked my chest. "In other words, can I instead just sleep in your room for maybe two nights, because that would really help me to calm down this terror inside of me. I hate it when I feel fear."
I let out a sigh. Just like I'd thought, I'd scared the crap out of some people. I was going to have to check up on them every single time, make sure they were all doing okay, and just convince them that everything was okay. "Listen, Rose," I reached in to take her arm, but immediately after I touched her, I felt myself falling to my knees. I could hear Rose in front of me, asking me if I was okay, but I didn't reply. Instead, I shut my eyes, and when I opened them again, I was in a different location.
Another memory, wasn't it?
But why was I getting this, especially from Rose? I looked around, and again, found myself standing right in front of a house. I quickly noticed it was the house Rose lived in, so I asked myself whether I was supposed to go inside or not. I didn't really get to think much into the question, because I instantly heard another voice. I turned my head around to see Rose holding a bag of grocery and humming to a song while skipping over to her house. I watched her while standing completely still as she walked up to her door, placed the bag down, and started searching for her key.
A sound was heard then, and both Rose and I looked the other way to see that a car had broken down nearby. Rose was quick to drop everything she was doing and rush over to where the car was, although I doubted she could even do anything to help. I followed as well, seeing that the car somewhat looked quite familiar. It was quite small, main color was blue, while these yellow and green lines were everywhere; it was quite a mess, I guess. Rose stepped up to the car, and called out, "hey, anyone here?" That's when a girl with huge round glasses poked her head out from the other side and greeted Rose with a warm welcome.
Bridgette!
"Oh my goodness. . .Queen Marinette, it's so good to see you!" Rose immediately got excited and rushed over. I could feel even more fear rising as Rose wrapped her arms around Bridgette, thinking she was me, but luckily, Bridgette didn't pull out some kind of knife and started stabbing the blood out of her. Rose actually managed to step back from her after the hug without getting hurt. I mean, it was great and all, but I seriously wondered why. Bridgette said she was after one of my classmates, and Rose was one of my classmates. She couldn't have just came over to Rose for no reason. . .or maybe, her car was really broken down. "Marinette, what are you doing around here? Is this your car? Wow, I was kind of expecting to you to be riding some kind of limo or something," Rose laughed it off.
Bridgette reached inside her car and took something out, then she handed it over to Rose. Rose's face changed from the excited bubbly woman she was to a terrified one. "A picture of my family. Why are they being tied up? What's wrong with them?!" Rose turned and looked over at Bridgette again, and this time, I could actually see her getting mad. It was rare to see Rose ever getting mad, but when it came to her family being in danger, it was understandable that she would be like this. "Tell me where they are right now!"
Bridgette took off the glasses she had been wearing and threw them off as if they were garbage. She then faced Rose, this time, a twisted smirk tugging up on her lips. "I want us to get one thing straight right here. I'm not Marinette. You could say I'm her twin sister, although, I really don't like being known as that." Bridgette stepped up forward towards Rose while Rose walked backwards. "Your family is in danger, Rosie. You don't want them gone, do you?"
Rose immediately shook her head and Bridgette's smirk only grew wider. "That's good to hear. Nobody wants their family in danger. I'll return your family to you after you've done something for me." She reached inside her car again and pulled something wrapped in a small blanket. I walked forward to get a closer look, and when the blanket was unwrapped from the item, I almost choked on my saliva to see it was a knife. "Nothing too big," Bridgette shrugged, while Rose looked like she was on verge of tears. "I just need you to use this on Marinette when you get the chance."
Rose pushed the knife away. "No! I'm not going to do something like that. You witch!"
"Wow, seems like Rosie Rosie loves Marinette more than her family," Bridgette chuckled. "It's okay, sweetheart. Let me help you out a bit." Bridgette took something else that had been wrapped in the blanket; it was this tiny, purple bottle. It kind of looked like some potion.
Rose seemed to be frozen to the floor because she couldn't move at all. I kept shouting for her to rush back home, call 911, but then I remembered that Bridgette looked like me, and people might misunderstand. Bridgette opened up the small bottle, before she grabbed ahold of Rose's neck, squeezing it a little, which got Rose to cough a couple of times. I didn't want to watch this, but I forced my eyes on them. Not even daring to move, but choking instead, Rose didn't try to escape out of her grasp. Bridgette turned the bottle upside down, and whatever was inside of it came out, landing right inside of Rose's wide-opened mouth. After that had happened, Bridgette let go of her neck and moved away, leaving Rose to cough for some time, before she looked back up.
Rose, what did she do to you? I watched as Rose gave Bridgette a nasty look, before looking down at the ground but taking her hand out. "Give it," she said. "I'll do as you say!"