Chereads / Palace Life: The Rings of Secrets / Chapter 26 - Chapter 25: Nightmares

Chapter 26 - Chapter 25: Nightmares

Elizabella had gone home and started on her dress. She had finished her homework during the car ride. She also thought that she would just scrap her skit that she had planned to perform next week and ultimately did not even care about the tests that were approaching as well.

Her hands looked like they multiplied as they flew over the delicate fabric with her needle and golden thread. Within moments, what was once a blank fabric now had an intricate embroider design.

She worked diligently as she worked in her bedroom. She had her mannequin and the sample dress on it with the added layers she had quickly made over the skirt. All that was left was the top layer that she was currently working on and it was getting quite late into the night.

She yawned as soon as she added the last layer of the skirt and stepped back to look at her work.

"It is looking good, better and faster than I expected even. Tomorrow, I will work on the top and think about what I will do about the school performance next week. I can look through my jewelry collection to see if there is anything that would make this dress stand out more, but I must remember to not go over the top. Don't want to look like a vulgar princess."

She immediately got ready as she noticed that it was approaching midnight. She thought she had good timing with her work and was glad that the designers at least had something that was close to her original design, cutting down on hours of work.

For Elizabella, sleep always came easy for her; but since she left her father's estate, she has had her share of nightmares. Tonight, she had a nightmare. She dreamt she was drenched in blood while her hair and eyes turned black, including the white in her eyes. Normally, if someone woke up from that sort of nightmare, they would try to convince themselves that it was only a bad dream.

However, in Elizabella's case, if she dreamt this at night, there were no comforting words to tell herself, since she has indeed found herself in that state a few times in the past while she was awake. If anything, she will thoroughly look at her hands and clothing and if there are any black feathers around.

Once she is sure that she had not gone on a murderous spree, she relaxes as she tries to catch her breath and look at her dark ceiling. She glances at the time and realizes that not much time has passed.

"It is only half past midnight… but I am no longer tired…" she thought as she deeply sighed and realized that she was going to have trouble sleeping that night. "Well, I guess I can always go for a ride… those night owls are probably missing me as well. May as well go one last time before I am prohibited from going when I marry."

She threw her blanket off her and got up to change in her walk-in closet. It was much smaller than the one in her father's estate, but it was still considered decent for all her current clothes. She quickly found a white leather bodysuit and placed it on before straightening her curls in lightning fast speed while putting some colored chalk on her hair to change the color to royal blue.

She finished with some black boots and strode to the garage. Some of the servants who were patrolling saw her and bowed when she passed while another ran off to awaken the Head Steward, Josaf.

Josaf quickly got up and dressed before heading to the garage and caught up with Elizabella.

"My Lady, if you want to go out this late, please take someone with you," he urged as she looked through her holograph catalog of her bikes. "And your newest hoverbike has been tuned-up, so you have no worries if you want to take that one."

"Thank you, Josaf, I think I will take my newest baby. I do not need to bring anyone with me, but I know that you will still send someone after me. Just have them be kept out of sight. I want to see if I can meet up with some friends," said Elizabella as she picked a wine red, shiny hover bike with a white helmet while Josaf tried to keep a straight face with the mention of her friends.

"Well, just be careful. Those guys can be reckless at times. Remember that you will soon marry the Crown Prince, and nothing can happen to you before then," nagged Josaf as Elizabella gracefully got on her Beast series Dragon model and turned it on.

"I just hope that when she marries into the Royal Family that they have a better time restraining her old, dangerous habits… or that she will be mindful of her image and not be inclined to do this as her way of releasing stress," thought Josaf to himself as he watched her drive off.

Elizabella drove her hoverbike through an underground tunnel leading from her spacious garage. The long, brightly lit tunnel would finally exit to a dead-end street with two large boulders covering the exit next to a large wall that fenced her home.

She quickly took off into the sky as she headed to the Sky Highway where it was built for all hover vehicles to quickly lead them to their destination. The road on the Sky Highway was like a neon, translucent, sturdy material that would be mostly empty at night except on weekends.

Today was the start of the weekend so there was a bit more traffic than normal weekday traffic. As soon as she got on the highway, she began to speed, leaving a long strip of fading red light behind her. She sped up, zooming past other vehicles and from afar saw a group about seven hoverbikes, making her guess if they were the acquaintances she was looking for. Elizabella decided to call them as she touched her helmet, since she had them on speed dial connected to her helmet.

Soon, a ringing could be heard before someone answered.

"Well, if it isn't Miss Beauty. You decide to ride with us tonight?" a male voice rung inside her helmet.

"I need to relieve some stress. Where are we going?"

"First, where are you? We are already on the road about to start a race if you are interested. Winner gets a free meal at la Muraille where the finish line is. I know you like their food."

"I do indeed, and I think I am behind you guys, quickly approaching."

"Let us see. I will pop a wheelie and you tell me if you see me."

"Go ahead. If it is you, I will try to get next to you."

"Alright here goes."

As the vehicles go zooming past, Elizabella sees one of the hoverbikes doing a wheelie, making her go faster as she places herself next to the hoverbikes.

"Wow! Is this your new baby you were talking about? She is a beaut! And extremely fast! You need to let me touch her when we stop!"

"You can touch with your eyes, but you cannot ride her!" smirked Elizabella as they raced on the Sky Highway.

They continued on for a while as they seemed to try to pass each other and weaved through the other vehicles that were on the Sky Highway. Doing any tricks here was dangerous as any accident up in the air could lead to very serious injuries falling from so high. They were careful to not do too many as they focused on trying to catch up to Elizabella with her fast hoverbike. She herself was very impressed with the performance of her new hoverbike as she had not been able to ride it since she got it because of how busy she had been recently.

Their hoverbikes continued to speed even on their way to their exit to get back on the ground. The group of eight zoomed on the streets, leading to a secluded path that eventually went to a more populated area.

They stopped their hoverbikes as they each parked in the parking lot. Elizabella with her new hoverbike had won as she parked first and took off her helmet, revealing her long, royal blue straight hair and smiling triumphantly at the others as they parked and took off their helmets.

"How was she, Rankin?" asked Elizabella as she got off her hoverbike and stood in front of it while she posed heroically.

"When you said that you were actually getting this baby, I thought you were crazy! You really need to know someone in the Beast Club just to see if you can try to buy one," said a tall young man with light green hair as he eyed the new hoverbike. "Who do you know?"

"If you must know, the membership belonged to my uncle before he passed and gave me his nomination to join the club. Now I have first dibs when their latest models come out," boasted Elizabella as she did not mind being a bit rebellious with these friends of hers.

"Whistles! Well, she did perform very well tonight," said Rankin as his blue eyes looked up at her and smiled. "Well, I guess this means you win tonight."