ANTHONY FELT HIS LEGS GIVING OUT but he held his ground and tried to stand up straight without a hint of fear, but failed. Henry's neck was close to bleeding. The short but sharp stiletto blade aimed for his neck. Henry groaned slowly as the knife slowly pushed on his neck. Anthony's neck was traced by another person who seemed to breathe harder than usual. It was hard to see who held a knife on Henry's neck because it was dark. They were also wearing black outfits, blending in the darkness.
The door opened. Illuminating the inside and revealing a silhouette of a fat man. The person took a step forward and laughed. It startled both of them. He signaled to men holding knives. The knife holders covered their heads with a black bag. Unable to see anything, Anthony was worried about Henry who hadn't let out a single sound. Anthony was frantic. He knew that if they were to refuse they would be killed in an instant. He came to a decision and just followed what they said. They were tied up, tightly hurting each of their wrists.
The door behind them closed and locked. They kept walking for a while before the knife holders pushed them onto the floor, bumping into someone else. They groaned and complained. "Watch it," a voice spoke. "I got sliced in the arm." The voice sounded familiar to Anthony. The person was still groaning since he got sliced and continued to talk silently.
"Alejandro?" Anthony meekly asked as to not draw attention from the imposters. The two had recognized the other. Elijah joined in the conversation resulting in Henry joining too. They were filled with murmurs and shushes. Their conversations were filled with questions and talks of what happened. Elijah explained what happened in the dining room.
"After you both left, Athena collapsed in her seat. Her head banged on the table and Alejandro stood up to check on her when a breaking sound from the glass filled the room, he then got hit by an arrow from outside." Elijah started.
"But I thought there was nothing outside but a view?" Anthony asked.
"It is," Elijah replied. "The one who shot the arrow was someone on the same floor as the dining room view." He continued to explain that they were then surrounded by imposter maids and servers just as they had suspected. The King was held captive first, resulting in the Queen to arise from their seats and try to take back the King. The King struggled to get free but was beaten up in the head before falling to the floor.
Elijah turned to Alejandro who had a bleeding arm, covering it with cloth, trying to stop the bleeding. Alejandro shortly fainted from the loss of blood. Elijah placed Alejandro on his back and fought together with the Queen. Punches and hits were received both ways. Deflecting and avoiding hits was the top priority of Elijah since he was carrying Alejandro at his back. The crook they were fighting had struck Elijah with a final blow, making him unconscious within seconds. The Queen was defeated shortly after Elijah.
The crook stepped on Alejandro's arm squeezing it, causing it to bleed even more. Elijah regained consciousness when he heard Alejandro groan in pain. He held the crook's leg and pulled it, causing him to fall backward and hit the wall with his head, knocking him unconscious. Elijah slowly sat up and held Alejandro in his arms. He squeezed him hoping that he was all fine and just fainted, nothing more. The door opened and a few more impostor staff came in. Elijah gave up and closed his eyes, tired. One of the men took the four who had been knocked out.
"That's what I remembered," Elijah finished. "I don't know where Athena and Eric went but they should be safe." Everyone became silent, hoping that they would come and rescue them but it would be dangerous too. Someone's footsteps echoed as that person walked. It got closer, closer, and closer. The person paused in front of Anthony. He heard him exhaled.
"Who are these nobody?" The person spoke.
"They were eating together with the royal family," Another spoke.
"So they're guests," The person seemed to be the mastermind behind all this. A grunting sound could be heard not more than a person away from Anthony. "Ah I'm sorry for that Your Highness," He walked to who seemed like the King and let go of the cloth stopping him from speaking. A final groan came out of the King's mouth as the person took off the cloth.
"Turn the lights on," The mastermind said. Everyone squinted, eyes still adjusting with the lights on. Once Anthony got used to the light, he observed his surroundings. It looked like a basement of some sort. A large steel door stood behind the mastermind. The walls seemed old, the place looking dilapidated. A single light bulb stood atop everyone giving light to this terrifying situation.
"Why are you doing this Lord Timothy?" The Queen scowled at the person who seemed to be the mastermind. "Haven't you done enough to cause trouble in the kingdom? Stop it this instant." The King seemed to be distressed in the situation, anxiety making him speechless. Lord Timothy just looked at them with dominance. Despite shaking in fear, the guests' kept their mouths shut, afraid of what would happen to them.
"I was supposed to cause a scene at dinner," He said. "But you all notice the imposters in your midst." He made it sound as if it was difficult for them. The usual evil conversation between the villain and target started. Lord Timothy had kept all the hatred he felt towards them within himself, knowing that his anger would soon be too much to keep. Henry turned his head left and right, squirming his hands, trying to find something.
"It would be useless for you to find a GPS tracker on you," Lord Timothy smirked, amused with Henry's dismay. "I took them all off from the royal family members". Henry groaned in disbelief.
"It's okay. I'll get us out of here," Henry whispered to Anthony. At that moment, he felt powerless. He felt like that because he hadn't thought of what would happen to them. If someone he knew was in another situation where he got kidnapped, what would he do?
"So you were going to kill us all in dinner?" Henry sounded annoyed.
"That was the plan," Anthony's nerves started to tense, feeling anxious more than ever. "But you have guests and we can't leave someone alive." Lord Timothy planned to put all the blame on one person. Princess Athena. It all made sense to Anthony. Everyone knew the princess was capable of defeating the royal family herself and Lord Timothy used that to their disadvantage. Saying that she was crazy and a problem child ever since she was born.
Anthony turned to Henry who was furious. Henry explained everything to him about Athena's strength, which was supposed to be kept in secrecy. Anger burned within Anthony who knew Athena as a friend and a younger sister.
"Let's not waste time and kill you all now," Lord Timothy signaled a lackey standing by the wall to come forward, taking out a sword and passing it to him. The lackey positioned the sword behind the King's neck. Lord Timothy gave a chilling smile, looking around at his prey. He held out a hand. The King opened his mouth and spoke, "What do you intend to do once you kill all of us, Timothy?"
"We'll see once you all do," Anthony's hair stood up in fear, backing away. Alejandro shrieked and turned away from the sight. Elijah moved in front of Alejandro, covering him completely from the view. The Queen's face stayed neutral, unfazed even but the look on her eyes said otherwise. Henry didn't try to conceal his anger and rage towards the person who was family to him.
"Goodbye Claude," Lord Timothy dropped his hand, giving the signal to the lackey to strike and end the King's life. It happened all too quickly. Anthony just wanted to have dinner with the people who invited him. He didn't know why he needed to die or why someone in front of him needed to die. It was moving all too quickly. Alejandro screamed for it to stop; Elijah squinted his eyes, hoping it would stop; Henry clenched his fists into a ball and squirming his wrists up and down, trying and hoping the ropes on their wrists would loosen.
Anthony felt streams of tears tracing along his cheek and his jaw. It was all too familiar to him. Someone he knew, getting killed in front of him His eyes widened with shock upon hearing the sharp sound of the sword slicing through the King's neck. Anthony lifted his head and screamed 'NO' as loud as his vocal cords would let him. Everyone paused their fearing, shrieking, and covering their ears. The scream of Anthony was ear-blowing. They could see how Anthony used his voice strongly. Two lines forming on the neck and straining clearly strained from shouting.
A shadow came swooping in and in a blink of an eye, a sword came flying in and stopping before the neck of the lackey. Heavy footsteps came running in and surrounded them. The other lackeys groaned as they were taken and cuffed. Was it the guards? Lord Timothy froze on the spot.
"Sorry I'm late," a voice came from the person who held a sword against the neck of the lackey. A shine from the saviors showed Athena's face. Her hair looked like it had seen better days. Her left eye half-opened, the other wet with what seemed like tears. She panted and panted, dropped the lackey, and leaned back to catch a breath.
"I'm sorry we were late," Another came to view and untied everyone. Guards came rushing in to arrest Lord Timothy and the others, others started to untie the restraints and guarded the door. Lord Timothy was then taken outside and eventually gone. Probably taken to jail. The second person who came in called the medics to help Alejandro. Anthony hadn't seen the guy before and started to worry once again. Elijah stayed beside Alejandro the whole time he was being treated. Alejandro had to reassure him, placed Elijah's hand on his chest making him feel his heartbeat. A few beats later he calmed down. He hung his head low.
"I'm sorry this happened to you," The miserable eyes of Elijah broke Alejandro's soft heart. Alejandro placed an arm around Elijah's shoulder, pulling him into a shoulder embrace. "It's all okay" Elijah refused to meet Alejandro's eyes, tears streaming down his face before giving another bear hug to Alejandro who winced slightly to the pain in his arm.
Anthony received a worried hug from Eric who looked like he was crying. He squeezed Anthony tighter before letting go and checking him top to bottom for any wounds. He soothed his friend and smiled. Though not reaching ear-to-ear, he was satisfied with the answer. Eric then ran to Alejandro who was still hugging Elijah. Athena soon came into view and sat beside them. She apologized again and again for not being able to protect them earning the guests 'no, no, it isn't your fault at all' which was true. They blamed the mastermind, Lord Timothy, for what happened.
Anthony shifted his gaze on Henry whose expressions were unreadable. His eyes were staring at his own father's dead body and his detached head. It was revolting to see. After covering the body and removing the restraints, the Queen was nowhere to be found. A person came in. Guards kneeling. The guests were stiff.
"I hope you all are doing fine," He spoke.
"They suffered wounds but they are well, Sir" Athena answered with respect before bowing. The person nodded. He called everyone to be moved to another room seeing how this room gives horrible memories. Anthony was disheartened. He felt awful not being able to do anything besides shouting.
He turned to Alejandro and Elijah who started to walk together with the guards, "I'm sorry for shouting". They didn't mind it. Anyone would want to scream at what was happening. Athena said something that relieved Anthony's awful feelings.
"Your scream helped us track you," Athena explained how all the GPS trackers they placed on each one of them were gone. It only happens when they would be underground but they didn't know where. They didn't want to waste time searching one by one, so they all separated only to be times with Anthony's scream.
Anthony sighed in relief. He held his stomach. It came to him that he hasn't visited the bathroom since earlier and was about to burst. He stopped walking and paused his position, closing his eyes and thinking about his life choices. His legs facing each other to try to prevent it from coming out. He was panicking. He had a horrible choice of wetting his pants or pee on the floor, he didn't want either.
He felt arms carrying him. He opened his eyes seeing Henry carrying him in bridal style. He froze. Confused about why it was happening. He begged Henry to place him down. Henry's face was still unreadable. He pleaded again to put him down.
"Just stay put and let me carry you," Henry's voice hinting that he was mad. Anthony gave in and let him. Henry started to walk, passing through the others. Alejandro called for Anthony's name but was silenced due to his about-to-burst bladder.
Henry started to run.
...
Henry knew where to go. Everything still felt blurry to him. He couldn't accept things that easily. Especially his father and Lord Timothy. He had always known Lord Timothy was an evil person but he didn't think that he would try to overthrow the kingdom. What was his real intention? Why would he do that to father? Why would the person who his father trusted the most, enough to not believe his daughter, stab him behind the back and kill him? Similar thoughts crowded his tired mind. His thoughts took a toll on his mind and stressed him out.
They finally arrived back in his room. He dropped Anthony, wanting him to follow him inside. After entering, Anthony once again explored through his eyes around Henry's eyes. Henry sighed, stressed and tired, and just wanted to sleep.
"Where's the bathroom?"Henry pointed the way to the bathroom in his room. He flopped into bed, raised both his arms, and laid on his hands before slowly closing his eyelids to rest. Seeing Henry's eyes close alerted Anthony to be quiet. His mind made him overthink, making him doubt himself. He'll have to take over the throne and he'll get busy. He opened his memories to when they were spending time in the cafe. It felt fun, calming, and free. He wonders if he would experience them once again.
He felt the edge of the bed being sat on. Knowing it was Anthony, he thought nothing of it. He slowly squinted and opened his eyes. Anthony had laid beside and stared at him. When they met eyes, Henry saw Anthony's face heating and turning red while looking away. Henry pulled back Anthony's face to look at him. He needed someone to be with, and he chose Anthony. His hand traveled down to his waist and pulled Anthony closer to him, wrapping his arms around him and drifting off to sleep.
"Let's sleep," Henry snoozed.