The Dual Vow Games(Novel: Book 1)

To those reading this I first I started writing this in 2024 and I finished writing it in 2026.

Chapter one

I gather water from the freezing cold lake. My black hair blowing in my face under my warm fluffy hood. I have to do this everyday. It’s the only way me and my father can survive the freezing weather. Otherwise, we would die of thirst.

I take a deep breath as the water makes my fingertips numb. I always come back cold from head to toe. That's how cold the water is and its coldness spreads very quickly. My mum used to wrap me in a warm blanket with various colours of black. She died when I was five, almost six. I become upset whenever I think of it but I try to stay strong. In this weather, especially when you are out in the wild, you have to remain strong. In case there’s any nemesis lurking nearby. My father taught me this many times.

I take the silver flask out of the lake and check to see if it’s full. It was just below the very tip of the top. I put the shiny silver lid on and walked back to camp. My soft brown boots making footprints in the snow.

As it's always snowing, I know how to survive out in the arctic all by myself. Especially now that I’m old enough to ever since I turned fourteen last month.

I step inside me and my father’s tent. I run straight to the back of the tent when I see a familiar sick and weak face. My father, who has been sick since my birthday, has gotten worse since I was gone. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at first aid I could tell because the rhythm of his breathing has quickened. It sounded too inhuman. The only thing I know about someone who is sick is to keep their fluids up and that they get plenty of rest. I give my father a sip of the flask whilst nostalgia fills my head about my dad being well again. 

I do my daily checks on Father. My Mum's friend taught me how to check someone’s blood pressure.I didn’t want to know but she basically forced me. As I did it, I realised that he has hypertension. The one thing I feared he would get because he hasn’t been getting much exercise since mum died. This would explain all the chest pain, dizziness, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, and anxiety. There is one symptom of hypertension that I don’t know and I can’t figure it out. Father doesn’t seem to have any other symptoms so I try not to worry so much.

Ever since father has been sick, I had to do all the chores and cleaning. A lot of the time, I feel bewildered because I’m not quite sure how to do things but then I get the hang of it eventually. The one thing that I really struggle with, is getting food. We all have to hunt for food and there are some people that sell food in their tents but it's not food that is safe to eat because some of that food is expired and it would be very hazardous to give father expired food because I'm not entirely sure what it will do to him.

Fortunately, I’m very good at shooting with a bow and arrow. It’s my speciality so I’m often able to catch small prey like a rabbit, and sometimes if I'm lucky I might catch a deer. On the unfortunate occasion, I might come back home empty handed because I couldn’t find anything and whenever that happens, father becomes dejected because he yearns for a nice bit of meat. We usually have bread and water when that happens. Normally, I would make going to the shops my last option and it always stays that way because other than the risk of father, I also have no money. My father and I are one of the poorest in the village. Most of the village is poor and only one or two are rich. On the other hand, our village is very small and does not have a very big population. There are only about 40 to 50 of us all together.  We used to be a very big population once upon a time but that was a long time ago and we lost a lot of people in the great war. The youngest alive during the war were 20. I wasn’t alive at the time since it was more than a decade ago. 

I grab my bow and quiver of arrows and put them on along with all my hunting gear. I knew I had to take the risk of leaving my father here all by himself again. I’d normally ask a local villager to watch him but today he’s busy so father will have to be on his own for a while.

“Goodbye father.” I say in a soft whisper.

“Goodbye Annie.” Father says in a soft whisper back. He said it quieter than me. I just about heard him. His voice was weaker than I remember.

I anxiously left the tent and began to walk towards the vast, tall forest. 

I searched and listened for any signs of movement from a rabbit or deer. Nothing, just the silent stillness of the forest and the sounds of birds singing. I looked straight ahead and noticed a sign on a tree. I walked a bit closer and noticed it was a circle with a dot in the middle of it. It was the sign that us hunters used to let other hunters know if there is danger here or if there are any animals or not. The other hunters are different to me. I’m a lot more skilled in hunting than the others but they struggle a lot and I never associate with them, I just get on with my life. I've never even had friends before. When it comes to archery with the other hunters, they can’t even shoot straight! The arrow would just land right in front of them. Whereas I can shoot a deer from 3 miles away.

I examine the sign more closely. We call it the hunter’s mark. There are various ways you can work out what the other hunter is trying to say based on how big or small the dot is. If the dot is big it means there is danger here. If the dot is medium sized it means there are no animals and if the dot is small it means there are animals. Unfortunately for me, the dot was medium sized. This made me more anxious. How could I possibly look after my father if all he gets to eat is bread and water? The bread is almost finished. I was hoping to find at least a rabbit or two. That would last us until tomorrow evening at least. 

I knew I had to stay strong but I couldn’t help it. I fell to the ground purposely and started to weep. Luckily for me, the trees should shield me from any eyes of the nemesis, I should be fine. I pulled myself up and rubbed my eyes. I searched in other areas one last time before going back to camp.

My father was yet again dissapointed to see that I came home empty handed and I noticed that his breathing sounded even more inhuman. 

At times like this, I wish for a bit of money. I can’t afford to pay for a doctor. You have to have about £20 and I only have £1. I sat next to my father and said in an almost upset voice “How are you feeling father?” Father moans in pain.

“Not too great.” He struggles to say. “My head is pounding. I feel so dizzy…” He turns his head and vomits in his vomit bowl. I feel his head. It was warm.

I put a cold cloth on it to cool it down. I then turn my attention to preparing bread and water. When I got the bread out of the packet, I observed that there was only one piece of bread left. At first,I thought about halving it but then I thought father needs it more than me. So this time, I only got one plate and placed it there. I fill two cups of water and hand the plate and water to my father. I sit in the corner of the tent near the entrance and sip my water as father devours the bread and water very slowly, very weakly.

Later that night, I was clutching my tummy. I was starving. My father and I only eat one meal a day as we don’t have enough food for two meals or more. I hadn’t eaten the day before because father was extra hungry so I gave all the meat to him which meant that I didn’t eat anything. Father hasn’t noticed that I’m starving myself for him. He is too sick to notice anything anymore. My mum’s friend has realised that I look a lot thinner and slim than usual. She’s always asking why but I don’t trust her so I just act like I don’t know what she’s talking about.

As I struggle to sleep, I hear the village singing their night song around a campfire. I slowly creep out and join them. Making my footsteps as light as possible so father won’t hear a sound in his sleep.

Chapter two

The distress alarm in the village went off. Everyone came out of their tents except for father since he was too weak to even move.

  The mayor of the town was standing on the medium-sized hill just on the edge of the village. “May I have your attention please?” Mr Mayor said in a deep voice. “Thank you. Now I have a very important announcement to make. Unfortunately, there are no more rabbits or deers in the forest. They all fled because something startled them last night . I’m very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Goodbye.” The mayor left everyone panicked. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. “Father needs food if he’s going to survive.” I thought. “What do I do? What should I do?”

After a few moments of panicked thoughts, I decided that I would have to buy meat from the shops. As for the money, I would have to use my father's emergency money without him knowing. He would be devastated if he were to find out I used his emergency money especially without permission so I’ll have to keep it a secret and somehow find a way to replace it. I sneak back into the tent. Father didn’t notice because nostalgia was taking over his mind in his sleep. I could tell by his face. He makes a certain face whenever this happens. I open my father’s confidential draw and search desperately for his money. Eventually I found an envelope which said it was confidential! DO NOT OPEN!

I examined the inside and found what I was looking for.

I grabbed and put on my coat on the way out and anxiously left the tent.

“Nice to see you, Annie. It’s a bit unusual for you to be buying things from here.” Says the shop lady. “Why did you change your mind?”

I hated telling people things so I just said once I got what I needed “Good day Miss Lobeling.” I left, ignoring her question. She glared at me rudely as I turned around.

That night, Father was vomiting constantly. Non-stop. I didn’t know what to do. I started to panic but I also tried to remain calm. He told me many times “Leave me be. I’ll be fine.” In the end, I decided to sit in the corner and wait until he stopped. I fell asleep before he even had the chance.

When I woke up, I weeped so hard that all the village neighbours came to see what's happened. When they saw what I was crying about they started to sniff but pretended that a little bit of dust got into their eyes.

The next sunrise, everyone was doing preparations for speeches, burial, where the burial is going to be and I just stayed in my tent out of the way of everyone. My mom’s friend fussed about what I was going to wear. I kept telling her “I know what I’m going to wear Aunty.” My parents said I have to call her Aunty. “Don’t worry.”  Really I didn’t know but I just wanted her to leave me alone so I could have some privacy of weeping. 

I decided to wear my mum’s favourite black dress later that night. I tried it on and it fitted me perfectly. The black frills in the middle matched my curly black hair and the simple overflow covered my legs and feet completely that you couldn’t even tell they were there. The top part had a collar that covered my whole entire neck and the long sleeves covered my arms and hands. I kept the sleeves like that because I like my hands hidden and it was also very comfortable. 

When the day of the funeral arrived, I decided to leave my hair out but do a bun at the top as my hair style and I brushed my fringe to the right side of my forehead.

When I came out, Aunty moaned at me about my dress looking too simple. She said to change it immediately but I refused to do it so she gave up in the end. After this happened, she tried to put makeup on me but I backed away so she stopped.

“Right, now Annie you have to say a few words at the funeral.” Aunty clears her throat and examines a rusty, wrinkly, old paper. 

“You can’t force me.” I say firmly.

“I can and you don’t have a choice.”

“I just won’t say anything then when you expect me to say something.”

“You have to listen to me because once your parents are dead, in both the wills it says that I have to look after you. Until you become of age.”

“I’m of age already. I have been 14 since last month.”

“Aah you come of age when you are 15.”

“That's not fair!” I huff and puff. “I’m a teenager. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“I will look after you whether you like it or not.”

“Fine, do what you want!” I say angrily. “You’ll regret it in the end.”

I walk off to where the burial is happening.

Chapter three

Just like Aunty said I had to go and live with her. Even at the funeral she forced me to say something by pinching me and saying she will make my life miserable. So I had to say this “Are beloved Archid dead of a most terrible sickness.” Father’s name is Archibald. “R.I.P”

Over the next few months until my birthday, I spent the rest of my time planning my life when I get out of the home of my wretched Aunty who treats me horribly. If I don’t do my chores properly, she’ll starve me. This is bad for me because I wasn’t eating enough before. This made me look very bony. By my fifteenth birthday, I was so skinny you could see my bones and there wasn’t even enough skin on my bones for them to look healthy. Aunty kicked me out of her tent as soon as it was sunrise. “You're 15 now so you can go.”

By mid afternoon, I walked as far as the lake where I used to get the frigid water from. I was eating a sandwich whilst I was walking to make myself not look so skinny. I devoured four sandwiches in a row because my hunger was great. This made my bones have more skin on them but you could slightly see my bones if you look closely. 

When Aunty was starving me, I was so close to dying of malnutrition. Luckily for me, my birthday came before malnutrition took over.

My plan was to go to the place my father grew up in Malaysia. I can speak fluent Malay because Malay was my first language. My father taught me when I was two. I've also got some grandparents that live on the beach and I have about £198 left from father’s emergency money. Counting the one pound I had, that’s £199. So I’m all set. 

It's a long way to Malaysia. My father told me it’s about more than 5,000 miles. I don’t know where exactly it is but as long as I keep heading north, I should be on the right track. It’s more frigid and hazardous at day time. So I sleep during the day and walk at night. I try my best to entertain myself at times when I’m dejected or my arms are throbbing and I’m bored. 

At night, there are wolves that roam around the arctic so I take the east side. The one place the wolves do not go.

As I was walking along the eastern side of the woodland edge, I saw something far in the distance. It was too far away for me to make out what it is but I could hear. I was startled as soon as my ears picked up the sound of what it was. A WOLF! Roaming around the eastern side. Why? It shouldn’t even be here. Unfortunately, for me the wolf was running towards me, it smelt me from 1 mile away. I was running to my left, I didn't know if it would lead me astray but it was a matter of life and death. Just when I thought I had outrun it, the wolf jumped on me and I fell to the ground and hit my head on a very hard rock. Darkness took over me. The wolf’s teeth were the last thing I saw.

I woke up a few hours later, Strangely i found myself in a hut instead of outside. For a moment, I thought I was hallucinating but then I pinched myself and I was still in the hut. I quickly observe my surroundings. There was a fire glowing bright with embers flicking around near it. A medium sized brown bucket was near the fire so close it could be burned if it was pushed an inch forward. A tall slim lady walking towards me interrupted my observations. I noticed that she was somehow chubby and slim at the same time. She had a faint scar covered mostly by hair on her forehead.“How are you feeling?” she asks in half a soft whisper and half in a soft voice.

“Who are you?” 

“I am Halima of the north. Daughter of the great king. Princess of Iceland. May I ask but who are you?”

“Annie.” I say without smiling. “How did I get here?”

“I saved you from the wolves and brought you here. You should be careful. You hit a rock really hard on your head so you might have a concussion.”

“I’m used to headaches and nausea anyway. I used to get them when I was little. Are we still in the arctic?”

“No.” Halima says. “How old are you?”

“How old are you?” I don't want to tell a stranger my real age.

“15. I’m quite short and skinny for my age.” She looked too tall for her age to me. If anything, I should be one the one short for my age as I’m half her height.

I decided it would be okay to tell her my age since she told me hers. “I’m 15. If we were not in the arctic then where would we be?”

“We are in the ancient land of the forest. I thought of taking you to my home in the arctic but I could tell by the way you were dressed and the things you were carrying with you that you were trying to get out of the forest. Also quite a few times you were having nostalgia in your sleep. Where are you going? I could help you?”

“I’m going to Malaysia. The place where my father grew up. I have grandparents there that live on the beach.”

“Can you speak Malay?”

In Malay, I say “You can help me if you want but be warned it's a very long journey.” Maleficent replies back in malay. I was shocked she could even speak it. She says “I’m coming either way.”

“You can speak Malay?” I say in a soft whisper.

“I can speak more than 15 languages.” Halima replies. “I have a lot of spare time.”

“What languages can you speak?” I ask curiously.

“Arabic, Somali, Malay, Mandarin, English of course, Japanese, Welsh, Spanish, French, Russian, Dutch and German and a few others. What about you? How many languages can you speak?”

“I can speak the same languages that you can speak except that I’m not that fluent in Dutch but I’m almost fluent.” I wipe my nose with my sleeve. I looked down at my hand and it was covered in a bandage that was leaking with blood.

Maleficent must've read my mind because she said “I don’t know how you hurt your hand but I think the wolf must have bitten it as there were very deep bite marks on it with a tooth stuck in it that was half broken.”

I try to sit up but I wince as my head starts pounding so I lean my head on the edge of the sofa so the pain stops.

Maleficent changes my bandage and throws the old one in a green bucket at the edge of the room.

“How long have I been asleep for?”

“A few hours.”

“I've got to go.” I hold my tummy as pain starts to come in.

“I told you I'm coming whether you like it or not.”

“Fine you can come just don’t get in my way.” I hate people who bother me. I’m the type of person who likes to just get on with my life without any interruptions. 

“Are you sure you're okay to go?” Halima has a worried face on.

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you. Now are we going or not?”

Halima doesn’t reply. She simply gets up and grabs my things and her things as she puts her things on. She hands me my small brown bag that fits just about anything and that I have had my whole entire life. The inside of the bag is very vast. Maleficent has a similar bag to me, just a little bit different. Hers is black instead of brown and isn’t very vast on the inside.

Halima tries to help me stand but I shove her away and walk towards the door slamming it behind me not thinking for one second to hold it open for Maleficent.

She comes running after me and tries to start a conversation but I answer her question ending it really quickly when Maleficent realises that I don’t want to talk, she stays silent. I preferred this because this means that I have time to think.

I let all the thoughts come into my mind. Letting my mind wonder. I think about my father and remember all the happy days we had together like the time he got me my favourite notebook with all my favourite things drawn in it for my ninth birthday and the time when he took me swimming and taught me how to swim but then, I started to think about my Mother and how she taught me everything I know and taught me how to speak lots of different languages(except for malay). I sometimes become dejected when I remember that I can’t remember her that well. Everytime her face comes up in my mind, it is very blurred and not very clear.

I look up at Halima. Her face looks upset. I feel bad and say “So how come you're not with your father who is king?” I sniff. Trying not to sound upset or devastated.

“My father is dead.” Halima has tears in her eyes. “He died four months ago.” she says after pausing.

“What about your mother?” I say.

“She died when I was 2 months old.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that .” I say. Trying to sound comforting but I’m not very good at it.

“My parents are dead too.” I say. “My mother died when I was five and my dad died a year ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Halima says sadly. 

This makes me feel bad for not being nice to her before. I thought of apologising but then I wonder whether she will accept it or not. “I’m sorry for not being very nice before. I didn’t mean it, you know.”

“Apology accepted.” Halima looks slightly happier.

“How did you learn all those languages?” I say with curiosity.

“I had a tutor since I was five who taught me everything I needed to know like writing and reading. He also knew all those languages and taught them to me. What about you?” Halima says Miserably.

“My father taught me .”

Chapter four

About two or three hours passed and we walked about 15 miles of the forest. I don’t actually know how to get to Malaysia so I wasn’t quite sure if we were astray or not but right now it didn’t really matter because I was focusing more on what was ahead of us. A Vast, grey rock that was blocking the pathway. Halima didn’t seem that bothered about the grey rock; she just simply  jumped onto the rock about two metres high! And climbed to the top, she waited for me when I was about an arm length away from her, she grabbed my hand and pulled me up we both jumped down together. 

“How did you do that?” I say.

“Do what?” Halima says with a confused expression on her face.

“Jump two metres high?”

“My father taught me.” 

She acted like it was a normal thing to do but it wasn’t. I looked at her and then the rock and then at her again.

Halima looks at me confusedly but then she shrugs and grabs my arm and links it. I looked down at my arm where she linked it. It felt strange. No one has ever linked arms with me before.

Once the rock was out of my mind, I came back to the thought that I don’t know how to get to Malaysia. I look at Halima. “Do you know how to get to Malaysia?”

Halima sniffs and shakes her head. Still linking my arm she opens her bag and gets a map out showing it to me. She points to where we are and where Malaysia is. It wasn't too far but it didn't look like we would be getting there any time soon either.

Halima takes another look at the map. “Let’s try to walk a bit further. It’s almost nightfall and this is one of the most dangerous parts of the forest to be in at night.”

I nod and we start to walk. 

Nightfall comes, and we have reached a lake where Halima comes to get her water from. I start to make a fire and maleficent starts to prepare a little something to eat from things she had in her bag. Once the fire started, I leaned against a tree watching it as the embers of the fire went into the sky. Halima sits next to me and hands me a salmon and butter sandwich. I’ve never tried one before and I read in a book that it tastes gross but I didn’t want to be rude so I ate it and it actually tastes surprisingly delicious. “Tomorrow morning, I want to see if we can walk as far as the mountain in the distance.” Halima says with her mouth full.

“That's very far.” I say sizing up the mountain.

“We can do it.” Halima says. “We just need to get up early and not stop walking. If we get as far as there, that means we can rest a bit and should be out of the forest by midday.”

“Okay.” I say. We both fell asleep once our food was devoured. 

The sun rises and all the nearby birds tweet songs , waking both me and Halima up. “Let’s go Annie.” Halima gathers her things she used to make the sandwiches and puts them back in her bag. She grabs some spare firewood and puts that in her bag too. She then grabs my arm and we walk straight ahead towards the lake stepping stones careful not to slip as we step on each one.

I caught one fish or two with my bow and arrow as I'm very good at balancing whenever I'm shooting no matter what I'm doing. However, I noticed that Halima was watching me closely and then gets out an old and frail notebook and quickly scribbles something down and then puts it away as quickly as possible. She looks up at me with a frown on her face but then she smiles as though nothing happened and then starts to make her way to the other side of the forest. I trail after her whilst shoving the fish into my bag and putting my bow over my head. “What’s that notebook?” I ask.

“That's between me and my notebook.”  She runs the rest of the way to the mountain.

“Right time to climb the mountain!” Halima says. She all of a sudden stopped running. She didn't seemed tied or running out of breath at all. She ran for at least 2 miles.“Ready Annie?"

I gulp. “Nope, definitely not ready.” I thought. Heights are my worst fear but I just nod as I wasn’t planning on getting laughed at today. Halima gets a rope out of her bag and ties it around me and her and then secures a hook that's at the end of the rope. “Step where I step.” She begins to say. “This mountain is very steep and slippery. Especially if you have never climbed one before. You have climbed one haven’t you?”

“Not as big as this one.” I thought. Father used to make me climb mountains when I was 13 but those ones were half or a quarter of the size of this one. This one was 100 times bigger. I felt like I was looking at mount everest. In fact, I could be  because who knows what kind of mountain this is or where we are?

As we begin to climb, I take deep breaths and mutter to myself. “You can do this. It's just a mountain. At least you're not getting eaten.” A few times I slipped but managed to hang on, my heart froze each time I slipped. “How massive is this mountain?.” I thought. “We have been climbing for a while now I’m sure of it.” By the time 30 minutes had gone by, there was still a quarter left for me, as Halima reached the top 10 minutes ago. She's keen for sure. She pulled me up when I was hanging off the edge of the top. I sit holding my breath.

“What a view.” She says whilst scribbling more  in her book. In fact, she was right, you had an amazing vast scenery view from the top but then it made me feel nauseous when I realised how high up we were. I turn around and vomit. Maleficent looks at me disgustedly. I didn’t mind that she did that because I've had the worst looks at me before. 

Chapter five

I felt tired and felt like I was going to fall asleep. When Halima said that we could rest when we got to the top of the mountain, she lied because we just continued our journey and it’s night time and we are still using our legs! I felt the fury burning inside of me. “You are the most strange and annoying person I've ever met.” I say under my breath in every language I know. Luckily, I said it too quietly for Halima to hear. She was too busy writing in her book to hear anything or look where she was GOING! She wasn’t looking ahead of her, and if she didn’t look any time soon, she would fall right off a cliff edge. I tried to warn her but… “Halima!” I screamed. 

I walked over to the cliff edge and looked down,she was at the bottom and she definitely wasn’t unconscious but I couldn’t tell whether she was dead or alive. She had blood on her arms and cuts and bruises everywhere. Dead or alive, I still had to save her, I couldn’t just leave her there. I couldn’t. I looked around, I saw a steep path and I began to run as fast as I could down the path trying to pace myself at the same time.

I slipped on a rock making me tumble forwards. I didn’t fall very far and only hurt my ankle. It was a bit sore but otherwise, it seemed fine. I think. I stood up and limped to Halima, she was at least a mile away from me which made me realise just how big this ravine actually is. My ankle seemed to be worse than I thought. With every step pain shot through me from my ankle to my leg. But I didn’t care. It’s just a little pain.

I dropped beside her, nursing my ankle. I took a look at her injuries and realised that the only bad injury she had was her head. A little bit of blood was coming from it. I took my first aid kit out of my bag and cleaned her wound and then I wrapped a bandage around it. 

I then observe my surroundings. There was a dark cave in the middle, with a very clean-looking stream beside it and opposite was what looked like a staircase but they were too steep to climb. The path I just came down was too steep to climb. Behind me, was a forest that didn’t end. I looked down. “All the water has dried up.” I said to myself but I soon realised that the water hadn't dried up because of the way the ground looked. Something happened here. I couldn’t tell what or when but I knew something happened because I had this feeling. I've had these feelings since I was 13 years old. Like I just know something without being there.

“Mmm… Ann.. Ouch..ie.” Halima says. “What … Aaaa… ouch… happened?”

“Halima!” I say my voice trembling with worry. “Are you okay?”

“Mostly I think. Where are we?”

“In a ravine.” I sigh. “With no way to get out.”

“We go through this cave.” She says confidently. 

I wasn’t sure but I agreed to it since we didn’t really have any choice. I help Halima up and we both walk towards the cave supporting each other, my ankle reminding me how much pain I'm in.

Chapter six

I considered whether we should turn back. I didn’t like the cave. It was too dark and I could tell there were spiders because I got the feeling again. I’m arachnophobic which makes it worse for me because it means that I’m afraid of spiders but I didn’t dare tell Halima this, we may know a  few things about each other but the one thing I would never tell her is my fears, I don’t need another person laughing at me.

“Are you ok?” Halima asks after a bit. “You look stressed.

“How can you see?” I say not hearing her question.

“I can see in the dark.”

“What is she?” I thought. “First she jumps really high and then she can see in the dark?” I pushed all thoughts of 

Halima to the back of my head and focussed on the light ahead. 

 We step into the light, and I almost throw myself onto the ground so I could appreciate the grass but I decided against it since Halima would probably think that I’m a weirdo. 

“Right Annie.”Halima says with a slight bit of pain in her voice. She was leaning on me so she wouldn’t fall as she was very dizzy. “Would you like to go left or right?”

“Which way is quicker?” I ask.

“Right.”

“Come on then, what are you waiting for ? Let's go.”

We walk to the right, avoiding the sharp rocks that could prick through your feet if you step on them in the wrong way or on the pointy bit. I noticed Halima chuckling quietly to herself. Weirdo.What kind of person have I met? 

When we stopped to rest I fell asleep.

I was walking through a gate with mist around it and the howling of the wolves in the distance made me shiver. I noticed a figure in the mist, dressed in black. It didn’t look human nor was it an animal. 

The next thing I knew, it was standing next to me and said “Well done you have arrived, I have been waiting for you.” I tried to make out its facial figures but the mist made it unclear. “You must make it here before the next blood moon or things you cannot possibly imagine will happen. The girl who is with you follow her to the stream of everdon  but then you must simply leave her in the night.” It paused for a moment as though it was thinking of what to say next in its creepy voice. “If you do not she will lead you astray. She is a princess but an evil one that is and she would simply t…”  

I woke up. Processing the dream I just had. Was it real? Was it actually a dream? It can’t have been real could it? Who was that figure and what did it mean? I must leave Halima. I can’t leave her. Can I?

I push all my thoughts to the back of my mind to deal with them later.

I lay back down resting my head on my arm looking at the stars in the sky. It seemed to be a lot brighter from wherever we were. Back in the arctic, you can see the stars but they weren’t that bright. One thing for sure though they were definitely bright enough to guide you in the dark so you could see.

I look at Halima. I observed the way she was breathing, smiling, the way her hand was positioned on her face. What deep dark secrets do you possess? Halima? What could you possibly be hiding from me? I look down at her hand. The way it was shaped. It looked familiar. It looked like… No! It couldn’t be could it? Her hand is shaped the same way the Nemesis's the arctic was.

Chapter seven

All my views changed completely. How could I possibly trust her? I can’t believe I let myself open up to a person I don’t even know! It’s only been a few days, weeks? Who knows?

I then think back to what the thing said in my dream. “Follow her to the stream of Everdon."  Where is that? I looked down at the map that was in Halima's hand. I snatch it as carefully as possible, not caring to be nice to her anymore. I open up the map. Holding it for the first time ever felt weird but nice. I  give it a quick scan reading the blurry words to find the lake until… “I found it. Yes!” I shout but then I remember that Halima is asleep and realise what I did. I look at her. Her eyes slightly open but then they close again. She didn’t seem to stir. I sigh and continue looking at the map. The lake symbol wasn’t far from a symbol that I think represents where we are. “I could make it there by sunrise.” But then I remembered that I have to let Halima guide me. Just when I was about to lay back down, a sharp pain went through my back and then I dropped to the floor. The last thing I saw was Halima waking up, staring at me and then giggling. “Thought you could escape did you?” She says. 

When I woke up, I wasn’t in the forest anymore in fact, I had no idea where I was but one thing that was clear is that, I was tied to a chair with my hands behind my back and as soon as I realised I could feel there was no way I could untie them. That's it. I’m finished. 

Chapter nine

My eyes slowly open with some struggle. As soon as they open, a figure walks up to me and says “Are you ok?” I try to open my mouth to say “Well other than the fact that I nearly got chainsawed to death, I’m fine,” but my mouth struggled to say those words, but somehow whoever spoke seemed to have read my mind because they said “That chainsaw did a lot more to you than you think.” It paused. Stepping forward into the light so I could see its face. The figure from my dream! “It was inches away from your heart and made a very deep cut. I managed to save you before it did any real damage to your heart but you just experienced something extremely painful so you need to take it easy for the next few days. It’s probably best not to get up for now or you will put yourself in even more pain.”

“Who are you?” I say. “You were in my

 Dream. What were you trying to tell me about Halima? You never got to finish your sentence.”

“I’m Ben.” He pauses. “I was warning you not to be with her, not even trust her. If you continued your journey with her she would have led you to her fortress where she would have teamed up with my brother Henry to do whatever they can to kill you.”He examined his fingers and then looked at me as though I was five years old. 

There was silence between us for a moment. I was processing everything I just heard. Ben was well to be honest I don’t really know what he was doing. I couldn’t see from where I was angled. “Your brother. He’s the one with the chainsaw right?” My voice goes croaky. It was still recovering from the shock of what just happened. Ben nodded. 

“How do I know I can trust you after what I just experienced with your brother? Why did your brother bring me there if Halima  was going to bring me to him?” My trusting levels were slowly going back to normal. I’m the same old me again who doesn’t trust anyone. 

“If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already. I don’t know the answer to your second question” Ben doesn’t smile. He stares deep into my eyes and for the first time, I notice the sadness in his dark blue eyes. They looked as though all the life had been drained from them. “Has he experienced trauma?” I thought.

“I have experienced trauma.” He says. My jaw drops. He ignored my jaw. “My brother. Henry. He tried to kill me with a knife when we were four. A shock went through me that day. I never knew my brother was capable of such a thing but today I saw just how far he would go to get what he wants. I've been afraid of him ever since that happened but today, I… I seemed to have courage and bravery in me that I’ve never had before.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that.” I whisper. 

Henry is a psycho! He should be in an asylum.

“You're right Annie Johns.” He looks at me and notices the shock on my face. “Telepathy. That’s how I got into your head when you had that dream and how I've been reading your thoughts. I have telepathy like you.”

“What?” I almost screamed. “I… don’t know what you're talking about. I don’t have…”

“You do.” He smiles for the first time but there was still sadness in his eyes. “Don’t you remember when you accidentally read your mother’s mind when you were two.” I nod. I never forgot about that moment. I was so confused about what happened as I didn’t understand but as I got older, I ignored it thinking that I must have dreamt it. “You don’t know how to control it but I can teach you.”

Chapter ten

The next few days I spent on the sofa. The big brown sofa With a battered blanket for the only warmth as every other part of the sofa was freezing. 

I look at Ben. He was looking down at his hands. Examining them. For the first time, I noticed he had cuts all over them. “Must be from the chainsaw.” I thought. Ben looked up at me. He nodded. “Are you always reading my mind?” I thought. Ben nodded again. 

“Teach me please.” I mumble. He nods but then he says “When you're ready and when you get better.”

“Why is your brother evil and you're not?”

“That's a long story and I'll tell you another day.”

A few weeks went by, I slowly started to recover from my injuries and Ben started to teach me how to read people’s minds as I could now walk without wobbling or tumbling to the ground. He kept telling me “Relax your mind and focus hard on what you're doing. If you have any thoughts it can distract you.” I kept trying and   trying listening to his advice but each time I failed. I got angry with myself. I felt like I was going to throw a tantrum. How could I not do something so simple as reading someone's mind? It’s not that hard is it? Ben told me each time not to get frustrated as my anger will make it more difficult. One time he said to me, “It’s not something that you will get straight away. It took me three years to master it. Keep practicing, you’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

Each day that passed I could feel my strength returning to me and after what I thought was a month, I said to Ben. “I have to go.”

“You can’t.”

“But I have…”

“Henry is looking for you. He won’t try to get you when I’m with you but when you're alone he will get you.”

“Why does he want me? What does he want to do to me?”

“He wants you dead!”

“Why?”

“Because there's something that you need to do in the future and he doesn’t want you to do it.”

“What?”

“You will learn in time.”

I lie down on the brown sofa and close my eyes. Why has my life become such a mystery all of a sudden? First Halima who apparently was going to betray me, then psycho Henry seems to not even care about his own brother and now Ben. Who seems to be an absolute mystery and doesn’t like to explain things to me that ends up with me having lots of confusing questions. I examine Ben. I examine his facial features, his hair. He had fair dark hair. Black. A fringe that was up to his blue eyes. Blue eyes my mother’s eyes. His face was round and peach. His cheeks had just about a hint of red. He looked 16 or 17 around my age basically but his blue eyes made him look older so maybe he could be what like 19, 20?

“17.” Ben mumbles. “I turned 17 October 25th.” That's my birthday! Ben smiles. I smile back. 

After a while he said to me “Follow me.” I get up automatically and stumble after him. He leads me into a basement that was hidden under a trap door. The trap door was hidden under a carpet. I let myself fall into it and I almost landed on a heap on the floor but Ben caught me and held my waist to support me so I didn’t fall over because of the pressure of the fall as he could see the pressure made my injury pain me. He lets go of my waist and beckons me to follow him to the edge of the room. When he reaches the edge of the room, he pulls a cord and a huge what I think is a curtain pulls upward like blinds I read in stories. Underneath the blind I expected a window to be there but no it was a… well I’m not exactly sure what it was but I could definitely tell that they were images. Ben began to talk as soon as I came and stood next to him. “My brother believes this story about a young king who had these mystical powers and had to hide them before he died so he hid them here. Where we are and my brother plans on getting those powers on the next blood moon because legend says anyone who wields those powers will become the most powerful being to ever walk the earth but what my brother doesn’t know is that it’s impossible to do it. So he plans on burning the area so the powers will come to him as he thinks but what he doesn’t realise is that if he burns the area, the area will be destroyed forever and never will a single plant or animal ever be able to live here again and it will destroy the world forever but that's where you come in and…”

“Where exactly are we?” I take a breath not regretting the fact that I interrupted Ben. “And what has all this got to do with me?” 

“We are in…” Ben hesitates. “Let’s just say we are in a field of some kind and me, you and Henry are the only people around here for miles and for your second question I was just about to say. So you have the power to stop him. You are the only one who can stop him.”

“But why? Why can’t you do it? You are his brother after all.”

“No. My brother is capable of a lot of things…”

“Yeah I noticed.”

“I can’t stop him but you can. He knows my weaknesses. He will go to extreme circumstances just to use those weaknesses to kill me but he doesn’t know yours. I know his so I can teach you. We have two weeks so I'll teach all you need to know.”

“Does your brother have the same powers as you?”

“Yes.”

“Then he will be able to read my mind wouldn’t he?”

“I’ll teach you how to block it.”

“Well then what are you waiting for? Teach me.”

“I will but tomorrow. Meet me here at 04:00 am tomorrow morning and we will begin but right now I need sleep. I’m exhausted. Good night.” Ben left. I don’t follow him. I stare at the spot where he was standing. 04:00 am. Is he serious? That's my precious sleep time! I groan in my head and leave the basement.

Chapter eleven

I practically forced myself out of bed the next morning. I had to remind myself constantly before I went to bed to wake up before 04:00 am so I would have enough time to get ready but when I woke up 3 hours before that morning, my eyes refused to close. So I spent the next two hours thinking. Most of my thoughts were about trusting Ben. Could I really trust him? How far will he be willing to go to help me? Does he really want his brother hurt or dead? I also kept replaying memories of my mother and father in my head. Mostly of my father since I don’t have many memories of my mother sadly. I always cry at the thought of that but something in me stopped me from doing so. I’m not entirely sure what it was but whatever it is, I decided to keep it in me because it could be very useful. Maybe it might give me the courage to finally believe in myself and  have the confidence to defeat Henry. Not kill him. No. I would never kill someone. Never. I check the time on my watch. The one thing Henry didn’t take away from me. He took my bow and quiver of arrows.  He took my bag too. My watch was a gift from my mother. It was hers. She gave it to me an hour before she died and I've had it since. It does make me wonder though why Henry didn’t take it. This watch is worth millions of pounds  if you sell it to the right person. Did he not see it? Impossible. He must've seen it when he tied up my hands with wire. Could he have possibly not noticed it was a watch? I push the thoughts of my watch not being taken to the back of my mind and climb out of bed since it was 03:00 and after brushing my hair with my fingers as best as I could since I couldn’t find a hairbrush anywhere, I braid it and make my way to the basement.

I expected not to find Ben there but he was there and he turned to look at me from whatever it was he was doing.

“You're early.” He whispers after staring at me blankly for a few moments.

“Yeah.” I say. Not quite sure what else to say.

“Well since you're here so early we might as well start.”

“Hmm.” Again. I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Ok.” He clears his throat. “I wrote some instructions on how to do certain things so you can practise in your own time but for now…”

A frown forms on his face and he stares at the floor for a moment. Then he looks up at me and shrugs the frown off as though he never did it. “Try to make this pencil in my hand float. It’s a power I know you have and you need to master it as it might prove useful.” I have floating powers too now? Where did he get the pencil from? It wasn’t in his hand before was it?

I focus on the pencil and try. It didn’t work. What am I missing? Maybe I need to say something. Float I mentally say. Maybe I need to put my hand out? I put my hand out but it still didn’t work. What am I missing? 

“Try imagining a rope and imagine yourself pulling it.” Ben says. I try. Nothing.

“Maybe I don’t have floating powers after all, Ben.”

“You do. I know you do.”

How? He can read my mind so he should be able to read my confusion on my face and in my mind.

“You won’t remember this but you did it one time. You were too young to remember.”

He’s right. I did it one time. I never knew I actually remembered it but there was one time when I was 10 months old I accidently made my bottle of milk float into my hands.

“Wait. You remember? How?” Ben's face looked so bewildered. I wasn’t sure it was even possible for someone’s face to look that bewildered.

“I have always had a photographic memory and I think If I try I can remember a few things from when I was a baby but not everything.” It didn't seem as much as a shock to me. Sometimes I start remembering things from when I was really young. Younger from the looks of it then most people can remember. I always thought that everyone can remember things that young.

For what I thought must have been longer than half an hour Ben looked at me with his very bewildered face and then he looked away. “Try to remember what you felt when you used your powers and try to feel that now.” For some strange reason Ben suddenly looked very frightened. 

I push Ben’s frightened face out of mind and focus on 10 month old me. I tried to remember the memory but it was slightly blurred. I saw myself in a room by myself and I looked at the milk bottle which was on the side. I suddenly felt hungry and I playfully put my hand out and then the next thing I knew the bottle was in my hand. Since I was a baby I obviously didn’t understand what happened. After that moment though I seemed to have forgotten the memory and never made things come to me like that again.

I look at the pencil in Ben’s hand. I focus my mind on every memory when I felt hungry in my life. I imagine I’m pulling the pencil like rope and I channel the memories into the rope I’m pulling. The pencil slowly starts to float out of Ben’s hand and rushes towards the air and lands in my outstretched hand.

“Well done Annie. Keep that up and you will end up mastering  your powers sooner than you think.

Chapter twelve

My powers slowly start to become easier to use. The more I use them. 6 days go by and I've mastered my floating powers which Ben says is called Telekinesis. I’ve managed to be able to read Ben’s mind and his thoughts are not nice which is probably the best way to describe it. Now I apparently need to learn to read someone’s mind from long distances or learn how to listen out for thoughts that could be miles away from me or somewhere nearby.

So far I haven’t made any progress. Ben isn’t of much help either.

One morning, when I came into the living room, anyone I met could probably agree with me that it looks like something from the 18th century and nothing like the 21st century. I saw Ben lying on the sofa. When he saw me come in he asked “How's your training coming along?”

“Not that great since I haven’t made any progress with telepathy yet.” I cross my arms and try to put on a facial expression that makes it obvious that I want him to help me. He takes one look at my face and says “You better get practicing then.” Um hello I need your help!

“Yeah I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

“Why not?”

“I’m busy remembering stuff. It's far more important.”

I never asked Ben for help again after that day. If I want to master my powers I’m going to have to do it how I learnt how to do most things in my life. Learn to do it by myself.

I practise morning and night. I don’t get much sleep but I’m kind of used to it since I used to stay up a lot of nights when Father was ill.

By the time a whole week went by. I mastered most of my telepathy and Ben started to teach me how to defend myself and how I can outsmart Henry. Apparently his weakness is that he is allergic to salt. As soon as he touches it, he drops dead. Ben says he doesn’t have any salt though because apparently for most of his life he didn't know what salt was.

When Ben tries to teach me to defend myself I tell him that I already know how. My father taught me all kinds of martial arts. Taekwondo, karate, jit ji su and others too. Ben seemed surprised and he said that he doesn’t read the parts of mind that involve my memories since it could have things in there that are personal. Nice to know I get a little privacy.

Chapter thirteen

The day where we… I have to defeat Henry decided to show up quicker than I wanted to. This morning I was lying in my bed dreaming about my mother and now I’m getting ready to fight someone I don’t know, someone I’m not sure I can kill if I needed to and someone who is a psychopath and would kill HIS OWN TWIN BROTHER!

A Trumpet blows frightening me. I ran to the only window in my room. It’s normally very hard to see out of but today it was somehow clearer. There were at least 20 soldiers all wearing black uniforms with Henry at the front as their leader. He had the same uniforms but the only difference was he was wearing a ridiculously big crown on his head and a red sash. 

Someone handed Henry a microphone. The microphones feedback screeched and it ended up making my ears beg for mercy. Henry began to talk into the microphone louder than necessary. I guess he thinks we're all deaf. “Hand  over Annie Johns or I will burn this building down to the ground. She can either surrender peacefully or go down with a fight with me and my 20 soldiers. You have 2 mins. I advise you to decide quickly for your own sake.”

No way am I going to let Henry burn his own twin brother in his own house. I will surrender myself but I’m not going down without a fight. I will do whatever is necessary to bring Henry and his army of soldiers down. 

I grabbed the sharpest thing I could find in my room which was a dagger. I tied it to the belt around my waist and I ran the fastest I’ve ever ran out of my room and down the corridor to the front door. Something in my path made me stop. Ben. “Where do you think you're going?” Ben says.

“I’m not going to let him burn this house down.”

“You will die if you go out there.”

“I am more than capable of protecting myself.”

I pushed past him and ran out the door slamming it behind me and locking it from the outside so Ben couldn't try to come after me. 

“Well ,well you decided to show up after all.” Henry says. He had a big smirk on his face. I so want to slap him right now to wipe that smirk off his face.

“Grab her.” He orders his soldiers. All twenty soldiers come after me and one by one I knock them all out. I kicked a few in the head. Some of them I had to lock their hands and then take them out since they were too strong. After two minutes had gone by, all twenty soldiers were lying on a heap on the floor around me. Not a single one of them were conscious. I made sure of that. I kick the one on my right just to make sure. He didn’t even move an inch. I then turn to Henry.

Chapter fourteen

The shock on Henry’s face told me all I needed to know about how easily I will be able to take him down. I can tell by someone’s facial expressions, body language and just the way they look in general how weak they really are. Henry from the looks of it is very weak. It looks like his powers will be his only hope.

Henry puts a hand in his trouser pocket and takes out a whistle. He blows it as hard as he can. 30 seconds go by. Nothing happens. 2 seconds go by and a very tall man appears behind me. All his facial features were hidden underneath a cloak. I could tell that he is very strong and it would take me longer than 2 mins to defeat him. 

He tried to punch me in my stomach and I was about to dodge it but I didn’t react fast enough. The force of his punch made me stumble backwards. I managed to keep my balance but the pain started to kick in. My chainsaw injury made my pain worse and I couldn’t focus my eyes on the tall figure in front of me. The tall man was about to punch me again but something made him stumble backwards too. Another figure approached and started to beat him up. Eventually the tall man got frightened and fled like a coward. 

What happened next I don’t know. Darkness took over before I saw what happened.

“Annie.” A familiar voice says. My mother’s. I must be hallucinating now. Did I hit my head? My eyes slowly open . Right there in front of me was my mother. I rubbed my eyes and she was still there. 

“Mother? How did…?” 

“I don’t have time to explain now but here’s one thing you should know. I never died. I have been alive this whole time. I will explain everything later on but for now we need to get to safrine. We gotta hurry, come on. How are you feeling? Do you think you’ll be able to walk?”

I tried to stand but sharp stabs of pain ran through me so I lied back down again.

“Hmm looks like we’ll have to leap there.” Mother says. I still don’t quite believe she’s real. I mean I can’t have been unconscious for that long and suddenly in a forest. Everywhere I look is trees and leaves.

“Mother?” Mother looks at me. Smiling the smile she gives me whenever she tries to show that there is hope. “You're real right? I’m not dreaming?”

“I’m very real. I’ll prove it if you want.” Mother picks up a rock and hands it to me. “If I wasn’t real and this is all a dream, that rock wouldn’t feel so real.” She was right. The rock felt rough like an actual rock would feel and it had smooth edges and marks too.

“I don’t understand how this…”

“Questions later.” Mother lifts me up despite me screaming in pain. She puts one of her arms around my neck to support me. She closes her eyes. Everything suddenly became spinny and I started to feel dizzy. Everything kept spinning and spinning. I became more and more dizzy by the second and I started to feel nauseous. The nauseous grew and grew to the point where if I held it in any longer I could probably flood a village with it.

Everything suddenly stopped spinning. It took a while for my head and eyes to process that they were not spinning anymore. 

When my eyes adjusted to my surroundings, I realised we weren’t in the forest anymore. In fact I don’t think we were even on planet Earth. 

The trees were a much lighter shade of green. There were houses everywhere but so much nature. The houses were the type of houses that would belong to very rich people. They were like mansions but much bigger. They were all the same colour. White. Although I noticed that each house has a strip of one colour going all around the house. Some had black, some had purple, some had pink, some orange, some even had teal. Which I didn’t even know existed. There was one thing that caught my eye though. In the far distance, on top of the lightest shade hills I’ve ever seen, was a castle that stood out from all the other buildings. It looked like a castle fit for a king. It was silver but looked very shiny like a mirror and if I was close enough I’m pretty sure I could see my reflection in it. It had far too many windows and not enough doors. Mother noticed my gaze and she whispered in my ear. “That's where the Queen lives. She’s the ruler of Safrine. I advised you to stay out of her way if you ever see her. She hates young people but I’m not sure why.”

Chapter Fourteen

After gazing in amazement at my surroundings and the Queen’s castle, Mother takes me to a house at the far end of Safrine or whatever this area is called. The house had the colour strip of hazel. Mother knocks on the door three times. The door opened but nobody was behind it. We step inside and a boy about my age materializes out of thin air. He had blond hair that looked very floppy on his head, blue eyes the exact same shade as mine and a too white face. Whiter than any clouds I’ve seen.

He looked like he was only 5 inches taller than me.

“This is Alex.” Mother says. “The school term starts in 2 months and he’ll teach you all you need to know so you can catch up. I also made sure that the school put you  in his classes so you have one person you at least know. Now I have some things to do. If you need me, I'll be in my office.” She’s not getting away that easily.

“Mother, you still haven’t explained everything.”

“Alex will explain he knows everything I know. I have very important things to do.” She disappears into thin air. Great, now everyone can disappear too. What next? Shooting flaming skulls into the sky? 

“Alex?” I say.

“Yeah?” He looked very nervous all sudden. Weird.

“Could you explain please?” Is my life ever going to stop getting more complicated?

Alex sighs. “You might want to sit down, it's a long story.”

Alex leads me to a living room at the far end of the corridor which just like the corridor looked white everywhere and expensive. The floors and walls must have been marble and the only thing that stood out was two arm chairs facing each other. Alex takes the arm chair furthest from me and I take the one opposite him.

We sat in silence for a while. Then after a few deep breaths. Alex looks up at me and holds my gaze. “Are you sure you want to know? If you don’t believe me, you might think I’m crazy.”

“In the past few weeks I’ve learned how to read minds and move things with my mind so at this point I don’t think there’s anything you could tell me that's crazier than that.” Alex looked down at the marble floor for a moment. The floor reflected the frown on his face.

He looks up at me again and clears his throat.

“Ok. Save questions for the end and um hear it goes.” 

Alex starts to fidget with his fingers. “When you were a newborn, your Mother was sent on an assignment. I’m not sure what it was but it was something like studying humans and something to do with that. Oh and just to clarify we are all not human were elves but anyway, at some point it got too dangerous and the Queen wanted to pull her out but your mother refused. She wanted to complete it since every other person who tried to do this assignment in the past failed and she was curious. Too curious. Curiosity can be dangerous if you're not careful. The Queen made a deal with her. If she married a human so she could blend in and she wouldn’t seem too odd and our enemies would find it harder to discover what she’s doing she can continue the assignment. So she agreed. 

Then well you know she married your father. He’s not your real father, your mother took you to the human world with her. Now when you were five, our enemies discovered where your mother was located. They hadn’t found out that she was married or that you existed but your mother knew it would be too risky if she stayed and as much as she didn’t want to, she had to leave or you or your father could have got hurt. So she faked her own death and came back here to Safrine. When she came back here, She knew she would have to bring you here at some point since your an elf too but she couldn’t when you were so young and she wanted you to have your “father” in your life for a little while so she decided that she would take you here when you turned 16 but then when your father died, she knew she would have to get you out sooner but then her enemies discovered you so she spent days tracking you. When she discovered you at Ben’s house she was glad since Ben is kind of like a family friend. When she found out about Henry and what he was planning to do. Her and a team of elves went to the place where the king’s powers are and yes the story is true he was an elf. Your mother and the elves put salt there so no matter how hard Henry tried he wouldn’t manage to get around it. Henry found out that they did this so he came to you and Ben to get revenge. He underestimated you and then got scared so that’s why he sent that cloaked figure at the end because he was too much of a coward to face you himself. Then your mother happened to be nearby and she saw everything. She decided that was her chance to take you here and so she defeated the cloaked figure and Henry ran off and she decided to take you to safety first since you…” Alex trailed off and started at where I injured myself. “Didn’t you need help from your mother to walk?” I nod. “Then how did you walk in here?”

“I forced myself. It was painful but I ignored the pain. Besides, it wasn't far.”

“That’s impressive.” Alex then looked bewildered but then he shook his head and the confusion went as though it was never there. 

“So how come I’ve never found out that I’m an elf?”

“You grew up around humans, how could you?” Makes sense but then there’s still some unanswered questions. Guess my life now is going to be full of questions.

“What happened to my real father?” It will take a while to get over the fact that Father isn’t my real father.

“Your Mother doesn’t want me telling you this but when your mother got sent on an assignment, your father was doing one of his own. His assignment was very confidential however and no one in Safrine knew about it except for the Queen and him. The enemies discovered him though and the Queen tried to tell him to stop the assignment but it was too late. He died. The enemies stabbed him in his sleep when your mother was out late one night.”

I didn’t know what to say or think. I never got to meet my real father. My real and fake father are both dead. One of them I believed to be my real father my whole life. What will happen to me next? I’ll discover that I can fly or laser people’s eyes out? Am I never going to stop discovering things about myself?

“I’ll give you some space to think.” Again Alex disappears on the spot. Can I do that? 

Chapter Fifteen

The next few days were…different. Alex is apparently my brother. Mother has been cooped up in her office and Alex has been showing me around Safrine. Alex also said that he was born two days before me because in this world it only takes babies two days until they have to come out and that you can have one baby after the other but it’s very rare. It is also very rare to have twins. All twins here are born two days apart or one but it’s very rare so most people don’t know about it.

Alex showed me these chocolates one evening at a shop called sweetins goods( the shops are not on roads or pavements, just grass. Alex says that they don’t exist in this world). The chocolates were so good and the packets had 100 in them. I had about 10 of them but Alex stopped me because when you eat them for the first time it can make you feel sick if you eat too much. 

For the next two months Alex showed me how

 Everything worked here and showed me where everything is. He also taught me everything I need to know for school. It’s fairly easy stuff compared to what you have to learn on earth. I went to school once when I was 9. I told my Father I didn’t like it and he took me out. Ever since then I’ve been homeschooled. Here though all you do is learn new ways of using your powers and you just need to know about the history of Safrine and thats it. Alex also taught me the language they speak here. I managed to learn it within three weeks and Alex said from now on he is going to speak to me in that language. I was glad. For some strange reason I had this feeling that the language was familiar. It was called seri and for some reason I feel like I have been speaking it my whole life.

Chapter sixteen

The morning of the first day of school came quicker than I wanted it to. I was anxious. It’s a new school on a different planet. What would I expect? Alex reassured me he would be by my side every moment of the day and if I ever had any questions or needed help with something, all I had to do is ask him. He also said not to be afraid to ask him. I could ask him anything. He promised he wouldn’t judge me. After all, all of this is new to me. 

Before me and Alex left for school, Mother said goodbye and gave each of us a hug. This was the only time she decided to come out of her office. 

Me and Alex stepped out of the house. Alex grabbed my hand and leaped us to school which is apparently teleportation and it's the thing where you materialise out of thin air. Alex helped me master it over the two months. 

I got a nauseous feeling as soon as my eyes noticed the school. It was like the queen’s castle except it was longer and wider and had a bunch of students near the gates and inside. The gates. They were dark black. A kind of black that doesn’t exist on Earth. They were pointy at the edges of the top. Pointy enough where they  could kill someone.

“Are you ready?” Alex says.

I take a deep breath. “Yes.” I say.

“I’m with you every moment of the day.” 

Together we walk up to the large black gates. The nauseous feeling grew larger. I forced myself to hold it in and I forgot about it.

At lunch, me and Alex sit in the corner of the lunch hall. Keeping away from everyone who wanted to ask me what planet Earth was like. I don’t know how but somehow the whole school knows me. I’m the planet earth girl. No one knows my real name. It’s annoying. Very annoying. Even my teachers call me planet Earth girl when they can’t remember my real name. 

“Annie?” Alex says. For once it feels nice to hear my real name. “How’s everything going?”

“Ok. I just wish everyone knew my actual name.”

Alex laughs. “I think you're stuck with planet earth girl.”

Maybe. A thought suddenly came into my head. How could I have not thought of it before? “Alex, how do you know English?”

“I don’t know English. One of my powers and I think you might be able to do it too, is I manipulated your brain into thinking that I was speaking English but really I was speaking seri. I do know a little bit of English because  mother taught me but I can’t speak it fluently.”

“Oh if I can do that you have to teach me.”

“Of course. You know I’ve always wondered but um I’ve heard mother say in english before to something she was writing. You are in great danger, she said. What does that mean?”

I searched for the seri words for it. “In seri it is Yane me.” 

“Oh. I never thought it would be that to be honest.”

Chapter seventeen

I was secretly glad when the hometime bell went at the end of the day. I was so close to snapping at anyone who called me planet earth girl. Alex and I ran to the fields near our house. Having a race. He got there faster than me but he only beat me by a second. A second!

I tried to convince him that it was a draw as one second doesn’t count but he refused. Saying that he still got there first so of course it counts. 

I turned to face the field and I was immediately amazed. I gazed in wonder as I started walking around feeling and touching everything. The grass was green but not a green you could find on earth it was mixed with limestone and teal. The trees had a hundred different colour leaves. Some of the colours I recognized and some of them I didn’t even know they existed. There was even one leaf that looked exactly like glass but when you felt it, it felt exactly like a real leaf. There were animals that I’ve never seen before but exist in mythical stories. Like sirens jumping in and out of the lake that  had a blue that looked too dark and light to be real at the same time. Griffins soaring high in the sky. Screeching loud enough for the whole universe to hear.

“Alex. This is amazing!”

Alex laughs. “I knew you would like it. Be careful though because not all creatures here are friendly. Just warning you.”

“Uh huh.” I didn’t quite hear what Alex said. Something about creatures? Being dangerous? I don’t know. But right now all I was focused on was my surroundings. I didn’t hear Alex when he started talking to me. I didn't hear him when he was asking me about my life in the human world. I didn’t hear the screeching of the griffin as it’s screeching got more aggressive by the second.

I didn’t hear anything on the way home when it was around 10:30. I was too engrossed in the memory of the hideout.

I was wandering around the house. Feeling and touching everything that was different compared to the human world. A figure appeared before me. My father. Human one. Or fake one I guess. “You have to accept your fate.” He says in a croaky voice. Bewildered, I step closer to him and say “What fate father?”

Father’s figure turns black until he turns into a girl about my age with hazel eyes and red hair. Maya. My best friend died when I was 9. “If you don’t accept your fate the world will be doomed forever. You and your brother must accept your fate.…”

Chapter eighteen

A pool of sweat surrounds me when I jolt awake. For a moment I’m panting and heaving trying to make sense of what I just saw. For a moment I don’t believe it. But after everything I’ve been through I know better than to think nothing of a dream like this. 

What is having a normal life like? Even my childhood wasn’t normal. I never fitted in. Everyone thought I was abnormal. They called me an abnormal snow girl. I loved the snow too much. If I had a life where I fitted in and my life was normal where would I be now?

Alex slammed the door open. “Oh you're awake. I’m sorry for going in like this but there’s something you need to see.”

His face was filled with devastation. Every step I take out of the room feels heavy and like extra energy then is needed is being deprived from me. My legs feel like lead as I follow Alex down the stairs. My arms feel wobbly and insecure as I follow Alex down the hallway. My arms don’t feel like my own anymore. They feel like someone has placed them there. My thoughts are all over the place as Alex opens the kitchen door and the door throws itself open. 

Tears leak down my cheeks but I don’t feel anything. I don’t hear anything. I think Alex tries to say something to comfort me but I don’t hear his words. My eyes and ears and mind are all focused on what’s in front of me. On what’s before me. Mother. Bleeding. Omnipresent. My gaze can’t be peeled off her. Her hair pulled out. Her eyes. Needles stuck in them. Her stomach. A chainsaw shoved in there. Chainsaw. The one thing that almost killed me. Everything that happened with Henry and the chainsaws and the gun rushes into my thoughts. The scene repeats over and over with me having no control to stop it. I’m no longer aware of my surroundings. My ears are no longer picking up any sounds. My sense of smell no longer picks up any smells. Every sense, every part of me is focused on the pain of when Henry shoved the chainsaw through layer and layer of my skin. The blood that was omnipresent surrounding me as the pain pierced my chest. 

I suddenly see blackness. My hearing seems to come back to me as I hear a loud thud. Everything goes black.

Chapter nineteen

I’m awake. I’m not awake. My mind and body drift in and out of sleep. The same chainsaw scene repeated before me. My senses go back to not working or not being aware. My body and my mind being enslaved in my own memory having no control. The only thing I could do was watch like a prisoner trapped in a cell with no way out. I suddenly see a chainsaw going through Alex as he screams for my help. I see the same fate for Maya, father and people I don’t even know. I then see my face. Streaked with blood. My eyes are carved out. A chainsaw is glued to the inside of my mouth. Blood poured from it. My brother. Alex. Dead. Blood poured from him. Every single person I ever knew died or alive pouring with blood. All these scenes replayed again and again in my head. My mind is enslaved to my thoughts with no control. 

I can feel someone shake me awake. I open my eyes slowly. Alex. His face. Panicked. Worried. Scared. 

“The queen killed her.” He mumbles. I almost don’t hear him. The queen? That can’t be possible. Can it?

“Alex what do you mean? Why would the queen…?”

“Because she’s not the real queen.”

WHATT?!!!

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am and I have proof.” Alex hands me an old and wrinkled piece of parchment. “This fell out of mother’s pocket.”

I quickly scan through it.

To your royal Majesty Queen Mary,

I am writing to you because I think you deserve to know before it happens but I am planning on overthrowing you in 2 months. If you do not agree to the terms below I will have no choice but to kidnap your child Ardian. (Alex as you now call him).

Terms and conditions:

1. When I overthrow you, you will agree immediately otherwise you will never see Ardian again.
2. You will tell the country that you decided to step down as queen and that I’m your sister and I’m next in line to the throne as Annie and Ardian are too young to be king or queen.
3. You will never attempt to overthrow me otherwise I will send my 5oo,ooo men to destroy saffrine forever.

I hope you choose to make the right decision and we can both come to an agreement. If you have any problems with any of this please tell me when I attempt to overthrow you.

Best wishes,

Maya

Ok. What did I just read right now? My mother was the Queen of saffrine?!!!! Does that mean I’m…?

“Alex how…What…Why…?”

“I know it’s a lot to take in but it’s there.”

“Maybe it’s not true bec…Maybe it’s just a coincidence that it fell out of mother’s pocket?”

“That’s a pretty huge coincidence Annie and besides it said Adrian and that’s my actual name but Mother always told me to go by Alex because apparently there are bad guys after me. That’s what she told me my whole life. So maybe it’s the queen.”

“Ok but then how come I don’t have some other name to go by.. I mean…Wait a second, how come I’m the child who went with mother to the Earth but you didn’t?”

Alex takes three slow deep breaths. Is he hiding something from me?

“When we were born I was kidnapped a week later. The mission Father went on was to bring me back. He succeeded but he got seriously hurt in the process and his injuries were too great for even the best elvin healers to mend and he died. Mother already took you to the human world by the time father got me back. Mother didn’t want to risk losing you too that’s why she brought you with her. I lived with a close family friend until mother came back. Annie I swear I wanted to tell you but mother forbade me she didn’t want to tell you so soon because she thought it would be too much to take in. I really wanted to, I swear but I didn’t want to disobey mother. She’s been going through a lot lately and she’s always been constantly worried. Also she’s been getting weaker and weaker. I think the queen planned this very well. From now on, we both need to be careful and try to find out as much information as possible before we decide what to do next.”

Alex looks at me anxiously. He’s probably worried that I might snap at him for not telling me all this.

“It’s fine Alex I get it. It seems we have all been through something in our lives in this family. Maybe it’s a family thing.”

Alex smiles slightly. “True.”

“Um 1 question though.”

“Yeah?”

“When you were kidnapped what did they do to you?”

“I can show you.”

“How?”

“We are twins so the part of the mind that reads someone’s head is stronger, especially when it comes to reading each other's heads. I will replay every moment of the kidnap in my head and when you read my head you will be able to see every moment. Ok?”

“Ok?” What else do I not know?

“Ready Annie?”

“Yes.”

“3.” I close my eyes and focus on Alex’s mind. “2”. All his thoughts surround me in one big circle. “1. you will see it any moment now.” Images start to play before my mind.

Chapter twenty

The kidnap of Alex(In Alex's point of you. Baby elves see and think  the same as human children above the age of 12 although the way they think is very basic not a lot of big words)

Father paces up and down the hallway but I’m not entirely sure why. His facial expression looks panicked. Is something wrong? He suddenly walks up to me. The movement was so sudden that it kinda scared me a bit.

“Adrian me and you are going somewhere safe ok?” He picks me up and starts to run. It's too dark for me to tell where my father is running to but I suddenly hear people shouting in a strange language I don’t understand. Then they suddenly speak seri. “I don’t care what you do to the man but bring me the child alive.” Bring the child alive? Are they talking about me? Father suddenly falls but he makes sure he lands on his back so I don’t get hurt. What happens next I don’t quite understand. All I hear is voices but too many to make out what they are saying. I hear my father screaming every 60 seconds. Are they hurting him? Someone picks me up and leaps me away.

The next thing I feel is pain in my arm. I cry out loud. I wait for the pain to stop. It doesn’t. It continues as a woman who I can’t see the face of says “I am Maya and you are going to be my hostage to bargain the Queen with. I mean I doubt you would understand a word I’m saying right now but sometimes I feel like I have to explain things to my enemy. It’s a habit I have gotten into no matter my enemy’s age. Unless elvin babies can speak and understand things very well. I know human babies can’t since I am a human.”

She’s human and she knows Seri? I thought humans speak some other strange language called englisy? Englie? Or was it English? God knows. I start babbling(baby talk) Maya looks at me as though I’m crazy. Has she never heard the sounds babies make?

The pain increases and it spreads from my head to my feet. I don’t know where the pain started anymore. Everywhere just hurts too much, that's all I know. My vision starts to blur as slowly my eyes start to close. The last person I see before I slip out of consciousness is my father taking me into his arms. The pain stopped. Am I being rescued?

Chapter twenty one

Present day. Back to Annie's point of view.

“Alex, you went through all that as a baby? I can’t… maybe going through a lot really does run in the family.”

“Yeah maybe.” Alex pulls the sleeve of his right arm upwards and I don’t even… a long red thin line connected multiple other red thin lines cover the whole of Alex’s arm and I can tell that the red lines go further than the bare skin exposed. The lines go under the parts of his sleeve cover showing that they are longer than the lines I can actually see with my own eyes.

“You know the pain I could feel?”

“Yes.” I remember very well as I could feel the pain. The way I was seeing it was as though I was actually there. Alex’s thoughts became my thoughts. His eyes became mine as though I was actually there experiencing it through his eyes. How strong is this twin connection thing? 

“Yes well thats what was happening when I was feeling the pain it was creating red lines on my arm which caused permanent marks. I don’t know why they did it 

because they had no reason to.”

“Well one thing we can say this proves that the letter is speaking the truth.”

“Yeah and I have a plan for how to stop the Queen. It all starts with the dual vow which begins in 1 week. Before then we have a lot of planning to do.”

“What’s the dual vow?”

“The first step to taking back what is rightfully ours.” A cruel smile forms on Alex’s face. Another thing I don’t know. Does everything I find out about myself always include the life of others or mine risked?

Chapter twenty two

Alex hands me a piece of paper with the words: “The dual vow”  written at the top in neat cursive handwriting. I read the writing below hoping it will explain what this dual vow thing is. If not, I'll add it to the mysteries I don’t know about myself.

Rules of the dual vow:

1. You must sign up with someone who will be on your team throughout the whole game.(of course it has to be someone you trust or otherwise they could betray you as the game may test your trust in each other.)
2. There has to be a maximum of  12 players as there will be three rounds of the game and 4 contestants will be eliminated each round. The last two players standing in the final round will win the dual vow.
3. The winners will be crowned prince and princess of  saffrine by the Queen.

The dual vow explained. One thing to tick off the list of mysteries in my life. “Alex, why is it called the dual vow?”

“Because it’s like you kind of make a vow to the person you enter the games with. All the rounds are deadly and they risk your life. So it constantly tests how much you trust them. Also that's not all the rules. Check the back.”

I turn the paper over and scan through the words written.

Additional rules to the dual vow that has only been added recently:

4. If the person you choose to enter the games with betrays you or you betray them, you will be eliminated immediately and banished from saffrine for all eternity.
5. There will be a ceremony after the final round where the Queen will crown the new prince and princess.( Before you were just given the crown by the queen but there was no ceremony)

“So if we lose we will be banished?” What? Just when I decided I like this world. Something gets in the way to mess it up?

“Not just banished. This part isn’t written in the rules but mother told me since the Queen blackmailed her into creating the game herself but you are also stripped of your powers and if an elves’s powers are taken away they become human and they die because humans can’t breathe on our planet. The banished bit is just a cover up to hide what is really happening.” This is some sick world. Does the queen even have a heart?

“One more thing.” Alex says. “From now on we will have to talk about the plan to overthrow the queen in our heads telepathically as we can’t trust anyone. Agreed?”

“Can’t other elves read minds?”

“No. Me, you and Ben are the only elves who can.”

“Ok. So what is our plan?”

“We are going to meet an old friend. Although if they don’t agree to help they might become an enemy.”

Sometimes I wonder how I am able to tell the difference between my enemies and my allies. I can’t trust anyone anymore. Is there anyone I can actually trust? Can I even trust Alex? He is my twin brother but I haven’t known him for that long. So can I? Can your own family members betray you?

Chapter twenty three

Alex leaps me to a part of saffrine I never would have guessed existed. It was the opposite from what I’ve seen. The grass was black. The trees were black and grey. The old, tall, battered house was black and white. Am I in a film from the early 20th century? “Alex, are you sure this is where we are supposed to be? This place is giving me goosebumps.”

“Positive.” Let’s hope Alex is right. We walk towards the 20th century house. I get this weird feeling in my stomach but I ignore it and force it to go away.

When we enter the house, I start to think whether or not this is all a big mistake?

A young woman who is in her mid twenties opens the door for us. She has dark but also kinda looks like light skin tone and a dark blue hijab around her head. Her dark brown eyes look sad and empty and full of despair. 

“Can I help you?” She says. Her voice is soft but also cold at the same time.

“Aisha?” Alex says. “Do you remember me? I’m Adrian. You knew my mother before she went to earth.”

Aisha looks at Alex thoughtfully. Brows furrowed in concentration. Her face suddenly lit up with realisation. “Oh yes of course how I could forget. You guys are the son and daughter of Queen Mary. The rightful Queen to the throne.” Both me and Alex’s jaws drop in shock. “Me and your mother grew up together as childhood friends. When she told the whole country a lie. She told me the truth. Now how can I help you?”

Alex looks at me. We both agreed that I would say this bit so we both say things evenly and one person isn’t doing all the talking.

“Our mother is dead. The Queen killed her. We need your help in a plan to overthrow her.”

“You better come inside where the eyes and ears of the enemy can’t betray are plans.”

Aisha leads us inside to a human looking house. It seemed perfectly normal to me but one glimpse at Alex’s face tells me he has never been inside a human house before.

We explain everything to Aisha from start to end and explain why we need her. She looks at us with a very serious facial expression and keeps this facial expression throughout the whole explanation. After we are done explaining. She says she needs to make a call and gets out a phone and stays right in front of us speaking rapidly fast Somali. It was too fast for me to understand what she was saying but the only thing I managed to pick up was “Ma fahmin.” Which means I don’t understand. She then for some strange reason started counting in Somali. God knows why. “Kow, laba, seddex, afar, shan, lix, toddoba, siddeed, sagaal, toban.” 

Aisha puts her phone away. “Ok I have some good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?”

Might as well get the bad news done and over with. “Bad news.” Me and Alex say in unison. 

“Bad news is I can’t help you.” Great. This was all a big waste of time. “But the good news is I know someone who can. Your mother’s sister.” My mother had a sister? I have an aunty? Am I going to find out I have cousins next that I didn’t know about.

“Aridan.” Aisha says. “I assume you know where to go?”

“Yes I met her once. I still remember where she lives.”

Alex knew and he didn’t think to tell me? What else does he know that I don’t? Am I next going to find out that Alex and I have a third sibling? Who is the same age as us? Which makes us triplets?

“No.” A voice that was not my own says in my head. Alex’s. “We don’t have a third sibling, Annie. I said we will talk in our heads from now on, remember?”

“Yeah yeah I remember.” What is going to happen next in the big adventure of my life? 

“I guess we will have to find out.” Alex says in my head again.

Chapter twenty four

“No.” My mother’s sister is called Neima. “I’m not helping anyone if it’s to do with the queen. That woman ruined my life and I don’t want to be associated with her anymore.”

“Please aunty.” Alex says. “Isn’t there anything we can do to convince you?”

“No. Now please go.”

Maybe we are actually wasting our time. “Aunty Neima?” I say. Neima looks at me weirdly but patiently waits for me to speak. “I know that you don’t want to be associated with the queen but please can you try to understand why we are doing this? The queen she killed are mother. Your sister.” I take a pause. Trying my best to stop the tears which are gathering up in my eyes. Tears rolled down Neima’s cheeks. I looked at Alex. He too was trying to stop the tears. “If we don’t stop her Aunty more people will get hurt, more we care about, more we don't know. She will destroy saffrine mentally and physically forever if we let her sit on the throne. So please Aunty. Please help us. If you still don’t want to help us I won’t push you any further. But could you at least consider it? For me and Adrian?”

Aunty sniffles for a while and sobs. After what felt like forever she says “I’ll help you. What's the plan?”

After explaining the plan to Aunty, she dismissed the plan away and said we need a better one. The Queen would recognise us as soon as we stepped foot into the palace. She paces the room a bit and then turns back to us. “Wait here.” She runs out of the room and into what I think is a kitchen.

“Alex?”

“Call me Adrian. You're my sister, you don’t have to call me by my fake name.”

“Ok. Adrian?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you really think that we can actually take the throne back?”

“Yes of course.”

“But what if we get caught? What if…?” I didn’t need to finish the sentence. Ale…Adrian knows what I mean. 

“None of us will die.” I flinch at the word die. “When I found mother like um…you know she told me to protect you no matter what. She said to look out for you. To make sure that you know that you're not alone. You have me. I know you might not be used to a sibling because I’m not either but we will go through it together. That’s the advantage of having a twin. You go through everything together.” I nod. Of course, how could I forget? Although what If Adrian betrays me like Halima did?

Adrian grabs my hand and holds it tightly. “I would never betray you. Halima I promise.” I trust him. Even though that’s a pretty big promise to make. I trust his words. I promised him that I wouldn’t betray him either. Truth. Right?

Aunty Neima comes back like 1 or 2 mins later I think. She marches across the room carrying a brown basket bigger than her. She places it in the middle of the room and beckons me and Adrian over. By the time we reach her, she has the basket’s contents laid out in front of us. How quick is she? Is the room bigger than I think?

“Too quick.” Adrian’s mental voice tells me. 

“Some people have too much haste and not enough slow motion.” I hear Adrian’s mental voice giggling. His thoughts say “You're right.” looks like somebody has got a sense of humor. Adrian accidentally laughs out loud and soon after I start bursting in fits of laughter as well. Aunty Neima looks at us weirdly. We end up laughing again. Aunty Neima stares at us confused. Alex then explains that the only reason he laughed in the first place was because of my face. The way my facial expression was. I said the same reason as Alex which was true but I don’t know about Alex though. 

“When you two are done being weird, I want you to listen really carefully to what I’m about to tell you.” We nod in unison. “You are going to put on the disguises that I tell you to, then I will sneak you into the castle tonight and you will act like any other player in the dual vow games. I know it starts in a week but every player should be there before it actually starts so they can train you and this year’s dual vow will start a little later due to a crisis that has been happening so you will have 3 to 4 weeks to prepare and train. Do you understand? Any questions?”

I shake my head but Adrian says “What's the crisis?”

“It’s classified information. One of my spies told me but I can’t tell you.”

“If it’s something to do with the country then me and Annie deserve to know you know because we are technically a prince and princess of the country.”

“There's a rumor that humans want to war with us. The ones that somehow found out about us. Anyway, let's not get worried about things that don’t concern us.” Yeah sure I’ll try to get the idea of a war out of my head. I mean it’s literally the easy thing not to worry about.

“I agree with you 100%.” Alex says in my head. 

Before I could say a reply. Aunty Neima throws a bunch of clothes at me. She also gets out a bottle that looks like perfume but I could tell it’s hair dye. “Spray this on your hair and put those clothes on. Adrian you do the same.” She throws Adrian clothes and hair spray too.

I hoped I might still look like myself a bit after all this.

Chapter twenty five

Can hope run out? Because I think all my hope has run out. Maybe I should stop hoping? I might probably still do it anyway. Especially since I used to hope that my mother would come back to life when I was 7 or 8 just so I could see her face one last time. Although of course I didn’t know at the time that it can never happen since it isn’t possible. Sometimes though, especially since I saw my mother’s dead body and since I found out the queen killed her, I sometimes hope that she will come back one day alive and well. I’m starting to have my doubts now because what kind of thought is that? Why would a grown teenager like me think that when I know it can’t happen? I need to grow up and pull myself together. I need to live in reality. And not a fantasy dream that I've been hoping would come true since I was a little kid.

I did not look like myself after putting on the disguise. In fact, I didn’t even feel like myself. I gaze at the mirror that Aunty Neima shoved in my face seconds after the disguise was on. Adrian hasn’t finished putting on his disguise but I hope he hurries up because…Oh wait I should probably stop hoping since my hope seems to have run out. 

Dark red wavy hair hangs loosely around my shoulders instead of my usual black wavy hair. Instead of blue eyes, I have brown eyes. Aunty Neima practically forced the contact lenses onto my eyes since they refused to go on in the first place. I tried not to cry out in pain. My legs looked extra skinny with the light blue jeans covering them, the edges of it just about hit a little above my ankle. A black jacket covered me from waist up. A white t-shirt that I’m wearing underneath shows a little. “Looks like we both look a little abnormal today.” A familiar voice says. Adrian. I turned around and I forced myself not to laugh. I could see that Aunty didn’t bother to hide the fact that  were twins. The only difference between Adrian’s disguise and mine is that Adrian wore black trousers instead of blue and he wore a dark green jacket instead of black. His hair was dyed red and he had brown contact lenses in as well. 

“Operation overthrow the evil queen is about to begin.” Adrian says laughing with a bit of a cackle in his voice. I force myself not to laugh. “Did you turn into a witch in the process, Adrian?” I try to mentally say the thought without laughing or smiling before Aunty Neima thinks that we are both crazy or something. I didn’t succeed. I couldn’t help smiling. Luckily Aunty didn’t notice she was too busy fiddling with her too big basket. “Maybe I’ve been a witch this whole time.” He looks at me with an evil look in his eye. “He he he he.” 

I mentally giggle. Adrian can actually be funny sometimes. When he was teaching me everything I needed to know about this world he would crack really funny jokes and come up with the best riddles.  

Aunty Neima claps her hands together and says “Right. Are you guys ready?” Adrian and I nod. “Good. Now let's get go..”

“Aunty?” I say. “You know before how you said we are going to sneak into the castle, why would we need to sneak in if we are contestants in the game?”

“I can’t be seen. I’m very recognisable, don't bother to ask me how that’s a story for another time but we are mainly sneaking in so I’m not seen but as soon as you get to the castle doors state your name. Say you're a contestant in the games and they should let you through. Ok?”

Adrian and I nod again.

“Right then come on.”

Chapter twenty six

Aunty Neima refused to leap there saying that the castle has sensors which can detect leaping. So we had to walk from the very edge of the town, up a steep hill, past a forest that gave me goosebumps to arrive at the castle.  Me and Adrian constantly complained the whole entire time about how are legs felt heavy, how are feet ached, how are legs might fall off at any moment. Aunty Neima ignored us each time and walked on as though she didn’t have a single complaint, ache or worry in the world. She reminded me of Halima just like Halima leaped very high onto that rock and climbed the mountain rapidly fast. Why do I keep meeting people who seem to have abnormal qualities or inhumanly good at exercise? 

After what felt like eternity, we finally arrived at the towering castle. I think my eyes somehow deceived me when I saw the castle a few months ago with my mother seeing this world for the first time ever. It was silver but it looked like glitter had been spilled all over it, making it shine all over like a million glowing stars shining brightly in the dark blue night sky. Maybe the sunlight mixed with the sparkles somehow messed with my eyes making me see something else? God knows but I mean who cares anyways? I glance at Adrian. He didn’t look surprised or shocked. His expression was blank. How can a big castle designed like this not surprise him? There are no castles like this on earth as far as I know. “Have you been here before?” I whisper to Adrian. I don’t why I whispered it though. 

“Yes.” He replies. “On school trips.” He glances at me and gives me a brief small smile then turns his attention to the castle gates which stood towering proudly over us. Aunty turns to us pulling the hood around her face tighter just to make sure her facial features couldn’t be seen. “This is where I leave you. I wish you both Good luck and I hope that you win this thing for your mother, the country and your future.” She smiles and then runs into a nearby forest with dense trees. 

Adrian and I stare after her for a moment. Then I take a deep breath. “Are you ready Adrian?” I say. He nods once. “Let’s go.” He whispers. He says it so low I almost don’t hear him. Together we step through the gates stating fake names at the castle doors. Ana and Alran Kent. The guard lets us through without second glance at us. We step into the castle. Not knowing what lays ahead of us. No matter what, at least I have Adrian by my side.

Chapter twenty seven

A young boy and girl around me and Adrian’s age. Show us are rooms. The girl’s name is Lily. The boy’s name is Matt. They were both are escorts and also any questions we have or problems throughout the games. Lily was my escort. Matt was Adrian’s. The two of them look alike in many ways. They had the same hazel eyes, same round jaw line, same red cheeks, same full lips, same dark brown hair. Were they siblings? I didn’t want to ask. I wasn’t sure what their reaction would be. Sometimes people’s reactions take up the thoughts in my head. I think so much about what their reaction will be that by the time I decide to ask it’s too late. They're gone or doing something else. “Ana?” For a moment I almost don’t look at Lily when she calls me by my fake name. I look at her. “Mmm?” She examined my face for a moment. Deep in thought. “Are you ok Ana? You look worried.”

“Yeah fine. My facial expression doesn’t normally match my thoughts.” That was true to a certain extent. Lily nodded and for a moment her brow furrowed in confusion but then it was quickly replaced by a smile as though it never happened. 

We passed through endless corridors, the same brown, towering, dull looking doors, same too shiny floors that I almost made me slip because I wasn’t careful enough with my steps, until finally Matt pointed to Adrian’s room and showed him inside. Lily led me 3 doors down and showed me inside mine. I forced my shock away. The room was massive. It was half the size of the eiffel tower I'm pretty sure. The bed was in the far corner. A desk was beside it. The floors and walls were made of real marble. Both shining like mirrors. A huge mirror stood on the opposite wall of where the bed was placed. Although the one thing I loved the most was the balcony. I had my own balcony. I had my own balcony. I HAD MY OWN BALCONY!!!! It had a view of the whole of saffrine’s village. I could also see a beach and I wasn’t even near the balcony. The view was so vast that I could probably live in this castle for 3 years and I’d probably still be discovering things about the view. “I’ll leave you to settle in. I’ll come back in 20 mins to prepare you for the ball tonight. I’ll be outside if you need anything." My very first ball on my very first day here how exciting!!!! Are balls like the ones I read in books?

Chapter twenty eight

After admiring the view of the balcony, lying on my new bed, admiring the new mirror and desk, Lily comes back after 20 mins like she said she would. Although she doesn’t come back alone. She seems to have a small army of at least 10 to 15 people behind her. She shouts orders to them like “You get her clothes ready.” “You prepare her hair and make up products.” Some of them start measuring me and spin me around so many times. I have to fight through the dizziness and fog in my head before it makes me faint or worse throw up on someone. Next, they start attacking my head with the thinnest and longest hairbrush I’ve seen. One person starts whacking it on my head and Lily had to remind her that I’m a human being not some object that she doesn’t care about. If Lily didn’t tell her I might have ended up with a massive bruise on my head or a bump. After torturing my head, (Lily had to remind them countless times not to whack my head) they leave it hanging loosely around my shoulders and they slip a clip into place, almost poking my head. 

When their work was done, they led me to the big mirror. I fight my facial expression trying not to show my disapproval on my face. The last thing I need is for them to make me go through the process again. I was practically tortured to get to this point. My newly dyed hair sat on my shoulders as though they were sagging. A white frilly dress with a pink strip through the middle flowed all the way down to my feet. On my feet were these pink high heel shoes. Every step I took I almost fell backwards. I’ve never worn high heels. Father(fake one) always disapproved of them saying it’s torture for women to be stuck in those things saying how Mother hated them and told him lots of negative things about them. A hundred bracelets of different shapes, sizes and colours were all over my arms. They made my arms feel extra heavy. Hundreds of necklaces around my neck matched the bracelets on my arms. Maybe after all of this is over I can finally be myself again. Finally, live a normal life. Maybe? Although I had a lot of doubt in me as of course I’ve said it before my hope seems to be running out. 

Chapter twenty nine

When I stepped out of my room, Adrian was waiting for me outside. I could tell by his face that he too was tortured by servants who made him look the way he looks now. He wore a white suit with a black tie and black trousers as well as black shoes. “Hey Adrian? Is it just me or does there seem to be something wrong with the servants here and whacking people?”

Adrian giggles out loud. Lily and Matt were too deep in conversation to hear Adrian giggle and no one else was around. “I think you're right. My head may be sore for a few days now.” I giggle this time again. Adrian smiles. 

Adrian and I talked the whole way to the throne room where the ball was taking place which makes the long walk there go faster.  

I just hoped tonight would go well. Seems like whether or not my hope has run out, I can’t help hoping. Maybe it’s a habit that I’m too used to. Can habits go away?

Chapter thirty 

The ball room was crowded with people who looked young, some were older but not too old and some were even somehow old and young looking at the same time. Is that even possible? The colours were a blur. There was too much of a variety of different colours to make out what they were anymore. Too many bodies crowded together despite the fact the throne room was bigger than any  room I’ve seen. 

Adrian nudges me. I glance at him and he points to the corner of the room where a group of 10 people stood silently chatting amongst themselves. They looked much younger than everyone else. More nervous. More casual dress. They were the 10 other contestants of the game.

“Should we go to them, Adrian? Introduce ourselves. Try to make some allies perhaps?” I secretly didn’t want to but If I really want to win this thing I have to make an effort don't I?

“Ok but just make sure whoever you make allies with don’t get too close to them. Remember it’s a game and we are here for none but ourselves. Agreed?” I nod. We slowly walk over. I try to smile to hide the fact that I don’t want to be here in this crowded place. 

“Hello. I’m Ana.” I forced myself not to say my real name by accident. I really need to get used to my “name”. “This is my twin brother Alran.” I gesture to Adrian and smile. 

For a moment they all stare at us as though they are trying to decide what to think of us. But then one boy and girl step forward and introduce themselves saying they entered together. “Wayne Stonesfield." Says the boy. “Jess Maybelle."  Says the girl. Me and Adrian smile at both of them. “Nice to meet you.” We both say. 

As though that broke the silent awkwardness, one by one they introduce themselves as well as announcing who they are in the games with. “Maya farm.” One girl with big round black glasses says. “I’m with Angelica farm.” Angelica waves at us. Her big green eyes make her look angry instead of happy or normal. When each contestant introduces themselves. Me and Adrian smile or nod or say “Nice to meet you.” We say it as though it’s rehearsed something we rehearsed that we have been doing for years. There was this one girl who got on my nerves and I automatically knew that me and her were not going to get on. She had long curly blond hair hanging around her shoulders in a neat mess if that’s even possible. She had a menacing, cold look in her icy blue eyes. Her rosy red cheeks make her white face look too light and make her imperfect jaw line look odd. When it’s her turn to introduce herself, she walks up to me and Adrian proudly. Walking like she’s the most dominant person here. “I’m Ethel Gaunds.” She says whilst doing a mock bow. “Max Cromwell is who I’m here with.” Max stands next to her and joins her in the mock bow. What are these two? Clowns? Bullies? Or are they purposely trying to do this to make it seem like they have dominance over others or something. I made a silent promise to myself that I wouldn’t let Ethel and Max get in my way. 

“Can I ask you a question Ana?” Ethel says. I nod.

“What’s up with your nose? Why is it so fat and misshapen?” I force myself not to slap her across the face. I put my best smile on and make my facial expression as friendly as possible.

“I don’t know what you're talking about Ethel.” I say still smiling. “My nose is not misshapen or fat.”

“Yeah well I disagree.” She says. The next bit surprises me. She says the words “From now on I will call you big nose.” In English. How does she know English in the first place? And why is she saying it in english? What has she go to hide? How does she know if I will be able to understand? She suddenly looks at Max who stares at her and then says “I will too.” In very broken English and with a strong elvish accent.

“I don’t know who you think you are, Ethel but there’s no point speaking English so others can’t understand you.” Adrian says in English sounding very fluent despite the fact that he can’t speak it very well. “I suggest you speak seri so everyone can know mean words you said to my sister.” Ethel stares at Adrian for a long moment and then she dominantly turns her gaze back to me. 

“I’m very sorry. That was very disrespectful of me.” She says in seri in a mocking voice. “For anyone who didn’t understand the English I said, I said that I will call Ana a big nose.” Her gaze goes back to Adrian. “Are you happy now? I did what you said.” Before Adrian gets the chance to reply she walks off to the table with the drinks and pours herself a glass of juice. Max trailing behind her. 

“Adrian, do you think Ethel might be a problem?”

“Nah. She’s just someone who has too much insecurity just don’t let her intimidate or get on your nerves. She wants that kind of reaction from you.”

“You talk like someone who is very experienced, you know.”

“I had to learn everything myself in my life. Mother was always too busy. The family friend I stayed with neglected me.”

“May I get everyone’s attention to please?” Says a tall, skinny lady who had purple hair and a sliver, sparkly dress. When everyone goes silent. She continues. “Thank you. My name is Miss Jayburn and I’m the host of this year’s games.Now I’m sure you all know why we are here tonight. We are here for the 15th annual dual vow games.” She pauses. Everyone except for me, Adrian and the contestants start clapping and cheering. “This ball is to signify the start of this year’s dual vow games and the contestants who will be starting their training very soon. Can the contestants please step forward when I ask you to and stand up here with me?” She looks directly at me with a piercing, freaky gaze. “Wayne stonesfield and Jess may belle.” The two of them join Miss Jayburn, Wayne almost tripping in the process. They stand beside her and she calls the next two people. “Maya  and Angelica farm.” The two do the same as Wayne and Jess. Maya kept shaking and Angelica had to hold her arm to stop her from falling. Why is everyone suddenly so nervous? Do they know something I don’t? “Ethel Gauds and Max cromwell.” Ethel gives me a mocking smile as she passes and Max does the same when Ethel stares at him until he does it. What is up with this girl and her mock gestures?

“Adrian please remind me not to lose my temper when Ethel does her mock gestures.”

“Sure. Do the same for me please.”

“Ok.” Keep it together Halima. You’ve got this. The contestants come up one by one. All of them seemed more and more nervous by the second. I could feel my palms start to shake. My face suddenly felt really hot. Is it just me or is there a tense atmosphere? 

When me and Adrian’s names were finally called. We walked up to Miss Jayburn, she smiled and gave us an encouraging nod and then gestures to stand next to the contestants at the end Amanda Shons and Andy West. I nervously stand beside them trying to keep a straight face. “Relax Halima. We’ve got this alright? We will go through this together.”

“Together.” He gives my hand a comforting squeeze. I take slow deep breaths in my head. Adrian is right. I have got this. Ugh!!! Where is Halima who doesn’t trust anyone and doesn’t like people to get in her way when I need her? Miss Jayburn clears her throat to get everyone’s attention. Everyone looks at her with bored expressions. Some even yawned but covered it so no one would notice. I noticed people. You can’t hide it from me. Nothing passes my eyes. “Everyone cheer for the 15th annual dual vow contestants!” Everyone cheered unenthusiastically. 

After Miss Jayburn gave a really long and boring speech that I almost died on the spot from, everyone started to get into dancing vibes dancing around, laughing, drinking and eating. Everyone except me. Even Adrian was talking to one of the contestants laughing. I however felt exhausted and needed an early night sleep. At this rate though I wouldn't be surprised if this thing went on until 3 am or 4am. 

“Hello.” Someone beside me says. I turn to them showing no interest in whatever they were going to say to me. I was surprised when it was one of my fellow contestants. Maya. “Hey Maya.”

“I wanted to ask you something but I’m not really sure what you're going to say and at first I was worried and then I thought you know what I’m not going to tell you but then I thought it’s not going to harm me so why shouldn’t I? But then I started thinking….” Can you just ask me already? Great. Good to know that we have a chatterbox in the games. Well I supposed she can always talk to everyone to death to win the games. “I then thought It’s probably not anything that you will think I’m crazy for or a psychopath but then you don’t know since of course. I mean like god knows what goes in people’s heads am I right?...” She doesn’t wait for me to give an answer, she just continues. After 10 mins, her monologue finishes. She finally. FINALLY!!!!! Asked me the question. “Are you a confident person?”

Are you serious Maya? Are you actually being for real right now? You do a whole entire speech for about 10 MINS!!!!! And the question you were arguing to yourself about was if I’m a confident person. I fight the urge to snap at her. “I think so Maya.” I put my best smile on trying to hide my anger. I don’t think it worked as well as I wanted it to. Maya’s face was furrowed in confusion after staring at my face for a few long moments. “Ok.” She says. “I gotta go and do something. I look forward to conversations in the future with you throughout this game Ana.” I nod and say the same thing back to her. Yep definitely looking forward to it. The sooner. I get this game over with. The better. 

Chapter thirty one

I had to go through the torturous experience yet again when the servants were helping me get ready for bed despite my protests about getting ready myself. The same servant who whacked me last time seemed to do it extra harder this time. It seems like every time they are starting to see me less of a person and more of an object that they can poke at and experiment with whenever they want. I’M NOT YOUR TOY!

I wanted nothing more than to just throw myself on my new bed and sleep. I didn’t care if it meant sleeping in my frilly dress. I could deal with it in the morning. It will be tomorrow’s problem. But of course the servants had to painfully force it off me. If I get whacked one more time, I might suffer brain damage. I start to make a mental of list of all the things I’m going to do when this is all over:

1. Enjoy having a twin brother(Not that I don’t enjoy it now but you know enjoy it without the fate of the whole of saffron laying in my palms)
2. Read every book I…

Another whack on the head disrupted my thoughts. Honestly! Can these people not brush someone’s hair without whacking them? I mean is it that hard? Like seriously! “Remember what I said. Don’t whack her.” Lily says. Lily, instead of standing there, why don’t you try to do something or are you just going to watch me getting abused like you don't care at all? Gosh. The sooner I get this game over with, the better. 

Late that night, I was awakened by a nagging voice in my head. Getting louder by the second. “Trust no one! Be careful of Adrian!”  Is it telling me not to trust Adrian or something? Why is he going to betray me? He’s my brother he wouldn’t betray me would he? The voice suddenly came again but this time it kept repeating the words “Be careful of Adrian!  Be careful of Adrian!”  “Hello?” No one answered. Am I going crazy? “Be careful of Adrian!” the voice said again. “Why do I have to be careful of my own brother? Is he going to betray me?” “The Queen,”  the voice said again. “What about the queen?” Will I be put in an asylum if I tell anyone this? Do asylum’s exist? “Be careful of Adrian! The Queen!”  “You're not making sense. I don’t understand.” “All will make sense in time.”

“Can you be more specific please?” The voice didn’t answer. It stayed silent. I waited 20 mins, 30 mins, an hour. No answer. I gave up and went to sleep. There’s no point depriving myself of sleep about something that’s most likely not real and is probably making me go crazy.

Chapter thirty two

“Are you ok Annie?” Adrian says. He was sitting opposite me on my bed. We agreed to meet to discuss tactics for the game and how to confront the Queen best. But I should have known that Adrian would have noticed how I was a little distracted today. I was still thinking about the disturbing voice talking to me in the night. I was trying to make sense of it but had no luck figuring it out so far. I have been living with him the past few months and he must have memorised all my facial expressions, my normal behaviour just like I have for him. Should I tell him? Maybe he can help me? But what if the voice meant don’t trust him? Or what if it means something bad is going to happen to him? Or what if…? Ok stop Annie. Stop with all your what if’s. “Annie? You looked stressed. Whatever it is, you can tell me. You know.” 

“Adrian. Haven’t you already read my mind? Finding out what it is from my thoughts or something?”

“No if it’s something that you're thinking about and you are worried, stressed, or angry or whatever emotion it is but happy I don’t read your mind in case you don’t want to tell me but you can trust me. If you don’t trust me now is my chance to prove to you that you can.”

He has a point. I take a deep breath and tell him. Of course talking to him in his head. We can’t take the risk saying it out loud in case someone hears it even in the safety of my room. When I was done, I stared at Adrian’s expression trying to make sense of it. He looked like he was deciding something? I take a slow deep breath. Gather all my concentration and push myself into Adrian’s mind. He always reads mine so why can’t I read his? It’s fair isn’t it? All of Adrian’s thoughts swarm around my head and they spin around and around in a circle. I try to make sense of them and focus on the words spinning in the circle. “Is something going to happen to me? Is Annie able to tell the future? Or is it just visions? Or is it…someone putting the vision into her head like her dream with Henry or whispering in her head making her think she’s going crazy when really she isn’t?” I push myself out of Adrian’s mind. I now have a bunch of extra rhetorical questions in my head. Except they might never get answered will they? 

“Adrian?” Adrian looks up at me. He looked angry and frustrated but I could tell it wasn’t at me or because of me it was because of the bunch of rhetorical questions in his head. “Why don’t we take a break from all of this and do something fun as siblings you know? Balance out all these worries. Stressed thoughts. Also maybe I could teach you English. It might prove useful you never know.” 

Adrian nods. “Ok.”

Chapter thirty three

“What do you want to learn first?” I say. When I mentioned that maybe I could try to teach Adrian English instead of sitting there trying to answer rhetorical questions that neither of us had the answer for, Adrian insisted that I teach him the basics of English. “Actually.” I say. Before Adrian could answer. “Tell me what you already know. You said you know some English because  mother taught you right?” At the mention of mother, I have to force the tears out of my eyes. One glance at Adrian tells me he is trying to do the same. 

“Um. I know. Wait, give me a second.” He says speaking out loud instead of in our heads. I thought of reminding him to not speak out loud but then decided to leave it because if anyone was listening they’d most likely hear a bunch of english words that they didn’t understand and if they did what harm is there in teaching someone?

Adrian takes a deep breath and talks very slowly in english trying to make sure he pronounces the words correctly. “Hi Annie. I am Adrian. How are you?” He had a very heavy accent with a thickness to his voice when he said the words. I decided to reply back and see how much he will be able to understand and maybe just maybe we could have a little conversation seeing how much Adrian actually knows. “Hey Adrian. I am Annie. I am good. How are you?” Adrian furrows his brows deeply. Probably trying to make sense of what I said. He then smiles and says “I am good. What’s your favourite colour?” 

Chapter thirty four

When the sun rose the next morning, I was already awake. After Adrian left last night, my mind refused to shut off despite me forcing myself to try to sleep. 

My eyes kept opening and closing. A wave of exhaustion hit me. I tried to rub my eyes with water. It helped a little but not that much. Oh well. I will just have to survive. I mean one time I survived three days without sleep so what harm could one day do right? 

A sudden knock at the door jerked me awake. My eyes are not opening and closing anymore. I forced myself to remain calm and to look normal and not look tired. “Come in.” I say. It was Adrian. “You better come quickly. You need to see this.” He ran expecting me to follow. I ran after him. He led down several staircases and several corridors until we reached a crowd of people all circling around something. Adrian grabbed my hand and pulled me past all the people pushing and shoving through them. When we got to the front, It took every ounce of strength in my body to stop myself from running away in fright. Maya! She was standing in the middle with the Queen towering over her. The Queen’s hands were out in front of her. She was holding a small black ball and she held it at Maya’s chest. Maya seemed to be screaming in pain. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Either she’s in pain or…the device the queen is holding…. I’ve seen it somewhere…No! It can’t be. It’s the device that is used to strip someone’s powers away. But why? The games haven't even ended. Hasn’t even started in fact. The queen suddenly lets her hands drop. The ball in her hand pointing at the floor instead of Maya. Maya stops screaming. She stares at the queen with anger and fear for a moment but then she starts gasping for air. She clutched at her throat. Falling to the floor. Gasping more and more by the second. She then dropped dead to the floor. 

“Adrian? What did she…” Before I could finish my thought, the queen turned to the crowd. Everyone backed away a little. The queen clears her throat loudly on purpose and begins to talk rapidly. I just about managed to understand what she was saying. “For those of you who are confused about why this event had happened, this girl tried to manipulate people from her family who have played the games before into giving her every possible cheat code and strengths and weaknesses about the game. I do not like cheaters in my country.” It’s not your country women! “This is a warning to any other player who even attempts to cheat. If any other players in the games try, your punishment will be far worse than Maya’s. Everyone is dismissed." The queen turns to Angelica who was standing beside Maya’s dead body in shock. The queen pulls a simple knife from her pocket and stabs angelica right in the middle of her chest. Angelica gasps. A pained expression flashes across her expression. The queen twists the knife, shoving it in harder. She then pulls the knife out aggressively and Angelica’s blood splatters to the ground. Leaking out of her as though it wants to escape her. Angelica drops to the floor in a pool of her own blood. The queen walks away with a straight expression as though that didn’t just happen. 

I grab Adrian’s hand and drag us both away to the safety of my room. I make sure the door is locked tight and I lie on my bed staring at the ceiling. Adrian lies beside me. “Adrian imagine what she will do if she finds out we are committing treason!”

“We just have to be extremely careful from now on and let’s forget about making allies with other people in the games. What happened with Maya shows us that we can’t trust anybody. We are each other’s team from now on.”

Chapter thirty five

Just when Adrian was about to leave, a servant came into the room without knocking without even acknowledging that she was there. I almost screamed when she appeared before us. I was sitting on my bed. Adrian was standing and just about to walk to the door. The servant clears her throat very loudly. Everyone seems to love clearing their throat. “I have a letter from her majesty the Queen.” She turns to Adrian. “I suggest you read this as it applies to you as well.” She hands me the paper tied with a red ribbon that was behind her back and she walks out of the room without saying a word. Adrian sits back down and leans his head on my shoulder so when I open the letter he will be able to read the words. I slowly unrolled the paper and began to read.

My fellow contestant,

I am writing to warn you beforehand about the events that will be taking place in the next few days. After the most unfortunate and unexpected death of Maya  and Angelica Farm, I have decided that the Dual vow games will take place on the 19th of February 2045. I am doing this to avoid any tragic events that could happen due to the actions of Maya. Of course we do not want  any of the fellow contestants to attempt to do the same things starting the games earlier on will prevent this. Please come to the throne room tomorrow morning at 9:00 am sharp where all the contestants will be given their first challenge of the games.

Yours sincerely,

The Queen

The games are tomorrow. The games are tomorrow. THE GAMES ARE TOMMORROW!!!! NO! We were still supposed to have a few days. It can’t be tomorrow! It can’t be.

“Adrian, if we fail our lives are over.”

“I’m with you no matter what, ok?”

“Ok. Together?”

“Together.” I grab Adrian’s hand and squeeze it tightly. 

Chapter thirty six

It took a lot of persuasion to force my mind to calm down. I kept thinking of all the bad possibilities that could lead me to death. Once I persuaded myself not to think about that, I started thinking of all the bad possibilities that could lead Adrian to death. 

I took deep breaths and my mind finally cleared but not enough where I could go to sleep. It was the night before the dual vow games and it was nearly 2:00 am and my mind refused to shut off yet again making my lack of sleep hit me even harder. I tried to think of the happiest moments in my life but the negative side of my mind was stronger. 

After two hours of trying every possibility to force myself to sleep. My mind finally shut off and I managed to drift off into a deep sleep.

Chapter thirty seven

Every step to the throne room felt heavy. I almost felt like I was dragging myself there. I had to force myself to take deep long breaths in and out. I had to force my face to remain calm and neutral. I had to stop my senses from being on high alert. I had to stop every limb in my body from shaking.

If there is any hope in me and Adrian actually winning? What will we even do after we win? Adrian says he has a plan but will it work?

Chapter thirty eight

Interview on the players of the game(host: Jenny)

Maya’s interview(Happened before she died)

Jenny: Hi Maya I am Jenny I will be your host for today’s interview now can I start with how you plan to win the games?

Maya: Anyway possible

Jenny: And how do you intend to do that?

Maya: Silence

Jenny: Maya could you please answer the question?

Maya: Ask another question. I don’t want to answer that.

Jenny: What do you think of the games overall?

Maya: I think it’s a way to control us to show the whole country that the queen is in control and one foot stepped out of line we face the consequences. I hate the games and I hate the queen.

Jenny: We are on camera so please don’t say anything that….

Maya: I don’t care if we are on camera, in fact if we are on camera that’s even better because it means that everyone including the queen can hear. You hear your majesty? I hate you and your silly games.

Jenny: Maya I need you to stop saying these things when we are live ok?

Maya: And why is that? Does it ruin your silly little reputation or does it look bad on you? I’m not being told what I can and can’t think. I have the right to have an opinion on the queen and the games. Not everyone is going to like everything, you can’t control everyone who hates it.

Jenny: I never said that I want to control everyone who….

Maya: That’s the thing though you say you don’t but you end up doing it anyways.

Jenny: cut the cameras. Turn them off!

Maya: Oh is little Jenny scared that I’m going to make her lose her job? It’s ok Jenny you could always go home crying to mummy afterwards you know it’s not illegal.

Jenny: cut the cameras. Turn off the cameras!

Maya: poor baby Jenny wants to go crying to her mummy. It’s ok baby Jenny just let all your tears come pouring out ok? Everything will be ok.

Jenny: TURN THE CAMERAS OFF!!!!!!

Cameras turn off.

Chapter thirty nine

Angelica's interview(Host:Jenny) Happened 45 mins after Maya’s interview

Jenny: Hi Angelica I am Jenny and I will be your host for today’s interview. I would like to start with how do you intend to win the games?

Angelica: Silence

Jenny: Angelica? Could you please answer the question?

Angelica: Where’s Maya? What did you do with my sister?

Jenny: Could you please answer the question?

Angelica: Not until you tell me what you did with her.

Jenny: We put her where she belongs.

Angelica: What's that supposed to mean? Are you…

Jenny: Ok lets ask a different question shall we? Why did you enter the games?

Angelica: Why should I answer your question if you're not giving straight answers for my questions? Maya was right, this game is a way to control us and I….

Jenny: Please refrain from saying anything against the Queen or her country.

Angelica: Why? Because we are on camera? Because you might lose your job?

Jenny: Let’s move onto the next question shall we? What are you planning to do after you win the games?

Angelica: You are such an actor you know. You are literally putting on a perfect smile in front of the camera so everyone can’t see what you are really like. You're a wolf in sheep’s…..

Jenny: Angelica please refrain from saying anything that is not permitted to say in front of the camera.

Angelica: Are you like a robot or something? The way you speak and the words you say sounds like a robot as though the words were programmed into you and then when you don’t have an answer for something you would just cut the cameras to hide your embarrassment. 

Jenny: This interview is over. Thank you Angelica for being here today.

Angelica: Just because you decide to turn the cameras off that doesn’t mean you can change my mind about things. The real reason I came to the interview was because of something that I wanted to tell the world about….

Cameras Turn off.

Chapter forty

All the contestants enter the throne room and we line up in a perfect straight line in front of the queen who is sitting on her….my mother’s throne, my throne, Adrian’s throne. It won’t be hers for long if everything goes according to plan. What could possibly go wrong? I try my best to avoid the queen’s gaze in case I decide to get my revenge for the killing of my mother but I can’t help it. I can’t help looking at the fact that she looks so out of place on the throne that it doesn’t suit her and I'm pretty sure the throne wasn’t dark blue before. Mother hated dark blue. I remember her telling me when I was five. Did the “Queen” dare change the colour of my mother’s throne? 

The queen clears her throat and slowly rises from the throne. She walks towards us lifting her grotesque gown so it doesn’t drag across the floor. She stops 2 metres away from us and looks at us with a disgusted expression as though we have some kind of disease. “Contestants of this year’s dual vow games, as you know there will be 3 rounds. You will have a 20 minute break between the games. If you wish to drop out at any moment please do but there will be consequences. When I call out your names you will go to the room at the far side on the right side of my throne and go inside there you will face your first challenge.” She smiles. I could tell it was fake. She doesn’t care about us. Why would she? She doesn’t have any reason to.

“Good luck.” She turns slowly on her heel and walks back to the throne and sits down as elegantly as possible. One of her….my mother’s courtiers hands her a scroll. The courtier bows slightly and walks away to the window where he was originally standing. The Queen takes her time unrolling the scroll as though she is trying to taunt us. Hurry up women, we are not going to be here next century you know! She clears her throat extra loudly then she needs to and says “Ethel Gauds and Max cromwell.” Ethel walks proudly towards the door and Max trails after her. Ethel gives me a mock smile. She hits Max on the arm and he gives me a mock smile as well. I can see in his eyes that he regrets it. 

When the two of them disappear behind the door, I strain my ears to hear any sounds. Nothing. Just when I was about to give up, I heard an ear piercing scream. It sounded like it came from Ethel? All the other contestants flinch and some of them have looks of fear on their faces. I glance at Adrian. He looks as though he is desperately trying to hide his fear. For someone who doesn’t know him wouldn’t notice him hiding it but I noticed as soon as I looked at his face. 10 mins go by, we hear 3 more screams. A full 20 mins goes by and 4 more screams come. After another 10 mins, Ethel runs out, tears stream down her cheeks and her hands are covered in deep, dark red blood. Max comes out a few seconds after, there were no tears on his face but his hands were also covered in blood. There was a hint of fear in his eyes. “Please leave the throne room Ethel Gauds and Max cromwell. One of my guards will escort you to the break room where you clean yourselves up.” The Queen says, sounding bored. The two of them left the throne room with a tall, very old guard following them. The queen again unrolls the scroll slowly and says “Wayne stonesfield and Jess maybelle.” 

Each contestant enters the room and comes out with different things on them. One girl and boy came out with little baby spiders hanging on them. Others had food splashes all over them. Others had a bunch of flies swarming around their heads. My hands started to shake and I buried them in the folds of my dress to hide them. Show no weakness. Adrian noticed though. I could tell by the expression on his face. When there were no more contestants left but me and Adrian, the queen unrolled the scroll anyways and said are names anyways. I don’t see the point to be honest but maybe she’s doing it to annoy us or something? “Anna and Alran Kent.” The Queen smiles at us so widely that it just looked extra fake. We step through the door and it slams shut without me or Adrian touching it. The whole room was dark except for two chairs in the centre facing opposite each other with one single light hanging from the ceiling shining on the two chairs. A robotic voice says “Please sit in the chairs.” For a moment Adrian and I just stand there not moving a muscle but then I sit in one of the chairs and Adrian sits in the other. What will be hanging on me when I come out? The robotic voice says “A box will appear in front of you. It will have one piece of paper in front of you. You will ask your opponent those questions and they must answer truthfully if they do not, they will have to face their worst fears and possibly death.” Am I in a castle with a bunch of psychopaths? A box appears before us. Adrian and I lean over to see the words written. “You may start.” The robotic voice says. “You go first.” I say. Adrian nods. He glances at the paper and then clears his throat. “Have you ever lied to me?” Is this a test to spill all the deepest secrets to each other or something? “No.” I didn’t lie. It’s the truth. In the last few months, I’ve known Adrian. I didn't lie to him, not once. “Well done for answering truthfully.” The robotic voice says. 

“Have you ever lied to me?”

“No.” Why does Adrian look so panicked? There was some whirring sound and then the robotic voice said “You have not answered truthfully.” A gigantic spider appeared out of nowhere next to Adrian's chair and just stared at him. Adrian started at it in horror. His eyes wide. Why did Adrian lie to me? Why would he need to lie to me? The spider disappeared. “Please confess what you lied about.” Says the robotic voice. “If you don’t answer truthfully again the spider will jump on you and possibly might eat you alive.”

“Um.” Says Adrian. He sat on his hands so I couldn’t see them shaking although I already saw them. Too late. “You know how I explained to you about how I got the cut on my arm right?”

I nod. 

“Well the queen didn’t do it.”

“I don’t understand. You showed me what happened and it was the queen wasn’t it?”

Adrian shakes his head. “It was some kind of creature that’s from our planet’s nemesis planet. You know how I made you think I could speak English well, it did that with its appearance. It tricked my mind into thinking that it was the queen when really it wasn’t and the only reason I know this is because I kept getting glimpses of its thoughts. When I was a baby I couldn’t control my powers.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”

“Because Mother didn’t want you to know. I don’t why but she begged me not to tell you and even though I felt bad lying to you she kept saying not to and I think her reasons were serious because she looked like she was on the verge of tears.”

“Please don’t hate me. I’m so sorry I promise I would have told you if Mother didn’t say not to.”

“I don’t hate you I..I..just……let's just go to the next question.”

“Well done for answering truthfully.” The robotic voice says. “You may move on.”

Is this game trying to make us hate each other? The sooner we get this done over with. The better.

Adrian takes a quick glance at the paper whilst I count the questions. Only two questions left counting the one we are about to do. I can do this right????

“Have you ever thought negative thoughts about me?” Says Adrian. I felt my hatred for the Queen and these games growing. Seriously???!!! Out of all the questions in the world you could possibly ask someone, this question decides to just pop up!!!! At this rate, will I even survive these games?

I have thoughts against Adrian. Although I don’t want to find out which one of my fears will appear. Not that I don’t want Adrian to know or something, it's just who wants to face the fears? 

I take a deep breath and hold my hands tightly together to stop them from shaking. “Yes.” I blinked back tears. I don’t want my own brother to hate me. Will he end up hating me? He can’t hate me. Can he? I looked at Adrian and surprisingly his face remained blank, just a normal expression. Is he…?

“I’m not mad at you. I already knew. You were thinking that I might betray you and I told you I wouldn't, didn't I?”

I nod. Does he not know? 

“Well done for answering truthfully. Please say what it is that you thought about your opponent.” The robotic voice sounded more evil this time.

“You are right. That’s one thing but there is another.”

Adrian looks at me bewilderedly. He doesn’t know. I fight back my tears. I blink at least a hundred times before I finally speak. Hopefully that will keep them back if all my hope isn’t gone. “I questioned whether or not I could trust you. I mean in a world like this you don’t know who you could trust. And I thought what if you…? Then I started to think that your family members can’t betray you but then I wouldn’t really know so I started to think can they? I’m so sorry.” I still managed to fight back the tears. Just barely.

“It’s ok.” What? I just told him that I questioned whether or not I could trust him and he says it’s ok?

“I thought that about you too.” Ok. I guess that explains things. 

“Last and final question. Let’s move on.” The robotic voice says in its more evil voice.

“You say the question this time.” Adrian’s voice breaks ever so slightly. Maybe he’s getting the same feeling I am. Is this last and final question going to be the worst one yet?

I took a quick glance at the last question and I had to force myself to remain calm.

You know what? I have officially decided. I despise the queen and her games. I take a big deep breath. My last and final breath in this round and I begin to say the words speaking rapidly fast seri. I wanted to get this question done so I could get out of this creepy room. Although I guess that’s probably a very obvious thought. 

“Have you ever doubted being in these games with me and wished that you were with someone else that you have known longer than me?”

Maybe one day in the future, I will be able to lie down on a sofa no matter where it is and just lie there for the whole day doing absolutely nothing.

“No.” Says Adrian. “Have you?”

“Well done for answering truthfully.” Says the robotic voice. Sounding more evil this time.

“No.” I say.

“You have answered wrong. You lied.” Says the robotic voice. Sounding more evil.

A hooded dark figure appears before me. It lifts its hood a little so I can see its face. Henry. No. He’s come back for me. He’s come back to finish me off. But this is just a game so it’s not real. Is it? 

“Say what you lied about and this hooded figure will disappear if you lie again, this hooded figure will injure you or give you brain damage or possibly kill you.” Yep. I’m definitely in a castle with a bunch of psychopaths. “I thought once what would it be like if I was here in these games with my mother or my father instead. But I promise you Adrian not once did I think or wish that I could be in these games with someone different instead of you.”

“I believe you.” Adrian says. “I haven’t thought that before. I’m not mad with you. I mean I understand I miss  mother and father too so it’s not a shock to be honest.”

“Well done for answering truthfully.” The robotic voice says. The hooded figure disappears. “You are the first players in the game to come out with nothing on them. The others kept lying to each other which caused them to look like how they did. Well done. You may leave.” I practically ran to the door with Adrian following close behind. When we enter the throne room again. I force myself not to kiss the floor. Grateful that we are in a room again where there’s light everywhere. If we keep this up maybe we can win the games.

Chapter forty one

Once everyone was in the break room, the Queen entered and announced who was staying for the next round and who was eliminated. It was decided based on the pair who lied to each other the most.  The 4 contestants left and out of the names of the people I knew, Ethel and Max was one the people who stayed. I perfect just what I wanted.

The queen started to say names for the next round one by one each pair would enter the same room. Those who passed would come back to the break room with hands that were covered in bandages. But those who failed, we didn’t see their faces again and we didn’t find out what happened to them either.

Chapter forty two

EtheL Gauds interview(Jenny is the host)

Happened shortly after the first round of the games

Jenny: Hi Ethel. I will be your host for today’s interview. I would like to start with how you intend to win the games?

Ethel: By showing everyone that I am the boss.

Jenny: Interesting answer. May ask how you intend to do that.

Ethel: That’s none of your business why should I tell you that?

Jenny: Because as your interview host it’s my job to ask you these questions.

Ethel: Ok. And? That does not mean that I have to answer all of your questions does it?

Jenny: Ethel Gaunds I would like it if you could please cooperate with me.

Ethel: Why so your fans on TV can like you?

Jenny: Is it that hard to answer a simple question?

Ethel Rolls her eyes

Ethel: Fine I will answer your question one condition. You answer a question I have for you first.

Jenny: As long as it’s appropriate for this interview you may go ahead and ask.

Ethel: Whatever. What do you really think of the games?

Cameras cut off.

Chapter forty three

When it was me and Adrian’s turn to enter the room for the second time, I found it hard not to panic this time. What if the players that never came back died here? “Welcome opponents.” Says the robotic voice. It sounded how it did at the beginning of the first round. “Please stand on either side of the table in the centre facing each other.” We do as we're told. There were no chairs this time. In the middle of the table was a bowl of….What is wrong with the Queen? She is sick! Acid. Acid was in the bowl. The kind of Acid that is found near volcanoes that are about to erupt. Well I’ve been through worse so what could go wrong. Uno cards suddenly appear in the middle. Huh? What’s going on? “You will play uno with your opponent. There will be 2 rounds. Whoever loses will have their hand forced into the bowl of acid for 2 mins by their other opponent if the opponent refuses to force their opponent’s hand into the bowl of the acid, they will be shot on the spot and the remaining opponent will be eliminated from the games. If it’s a draw I will decide who has to put their hand into the acid based on how well you played. Good luck to you both.” How does the Queen expect the winners to survive after doing this? What kind of sibling will force their own sibling’s hand into a bowl of acid? I force back the tears. Remain strong. Pull yourself together Annie. You can do this. One glance at Adrian told me he is thinking the same thing as me. Chairs appeared behind us. We both sat down in unison. Split the cards evenly between us and began to play. At first, I didn’t expect Adrian to know how to play since playing Uno was a human game at least that’s what I thought but it turns out that playing uno is a Elven game too. 

Adrian places down his card first. Blue 2. I had no blue’s. I picked up another card from the pile of uno cards to my right. Blue 3. I slam the card down. Adrian puts down another card. Green 3. I slam down a block card and put a 4+ card down. I made up my mind. I’m going to try to win so that way Adrian won’t have to deal with putting my hand into the bowl of the acid. I have dealt with worse. Haven’t I? Adrian places a 4+ card down. I looked at him and he looked at me. He wants to win for the same reasons as me. I can see it in his eyes. I’m sorry Adrian but you can’t win. 

“I can.” Adrian’s mental voice says. “I don’t want to have to live with the fact that you had to go through the pain of doing that to me.”

“I don’t either. I want to win for the same reasons Adrian!” 

Adrian sighs. I could tell he was fighting back tears based on his rapid blinking. The game continued very slowly as though we are both trying to make it deliberately slow just so we don’t have to deal with the acid any sooner. 

The sizzling of the acid suddenly got louder. Until that was the only sound that I could hear making me want to win even more. I can’t let Adrian live with the guilt I can’t. I can’t. We continue putting down the cards almost as though we are robots following a repetitive pattern. 4+. Reverse. Blue eight. 4 red. 2+. The game stretches on for about another 2 mins until. I end up with 2 cards and Adrian has one. NO! I look desperately at my cards trying to think of a way I can still win. Block and Reverse. I take the block card and put it down. “uno.” I take a quick glance at Adrian. His face remains blank. I place the reverse card down. Adrian places his remaining cards down and leans back in his chair. He struggled not to show his anger on his face. “Well done Hanna you have won.” The robotic voice says. “Please place your opponent’s hand in the acid.” Adrian holds his hand out without hesitation. I grab his wrist. It was sweating. Is it because of fear? Or is he hot? I slowly place it in the bowl. Adrian’s facial expression showed pain. Nothing but pain. “The 2 mins begin now.” The sizzling grew louder and louder. Adrian struggled more and more to hide his pain. He squeezed his eyes shut. I fought and fought to stop my tears from flowing. I will never forget the look on his face. Never. This will be a scene that will stay in my nightmares forever. How does the Queen expect us to live with this? “1 min 10 seconds.” Go faster. Go faster. GO FASTER!!!!! I might not be able to make the time go faster but maybe I could try to comfort Adrian.

“How did you feel when you first met me Adrian?” Adrian looks at me. The look of pain was still visible on his face.

“I felt excited. Nervous only a little though but mainly excited. Of course I wasn’t used to having a sibling even now I'm not used to it a little but starting to become used to it.” If I get him to continue talking it will distract him from the pain. Won’t it? “35 seconds left.” 

“Youv’e got this Adrian.”

“Mmhm.” Adrian groaned in pain. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. My tears were fighting back but I fought harder. I didn’t dare look at his hand. No. I can’t. I can’t. My nightmares about this might traumatise me for life. 

“When I first met you, I was scared. I thought you were like some kind of friend visiting or like someone is a close family friend but when you told me that you were my brother, I didn’t quite believe you at first. I just thought that maybe you mean it as a joke or something which I know is quite a silly thing to joke about or that I misheard you but over time I grew close to you and honestly you seemed like the true friend that I never had I mean I know we haven’t known each other long but it comforted me knowing that my whole life I had a sibling but I just didn’t know about it and to me your my best friend so do me favour Adrian don’t let this affect you and one thing don’t die no matter what happens Ok? My human father died, our mother died if I lose my brother as well ... .I….”

I could feel the tears pouring down my cheeks. I had no control over them anymore. I wipe my cheeks and sniff and force no more tears to come out. “Time is up. You may remove your opponent’s hand from the bowl of acid.” I gently take Adrian’s hand out of the acid without looking. I then force myself to look. I did that. I did that. There was blood all over. White blisters were forming and dissolving, bubbling in some way. His skin was peeling off. 

The tears came and this time I didn’t stop them.

“ I’m so sorry.” 

I can’t believe the Queen would even think of this.

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault.”

“Yes it is. I’m the one who put your hand there in the first place. So it is my fault.”

“Yes but you were forced to do it. It’s not your fault. Ok?”

“Ok.” If I manage to ever forgive myself I will end up surprising myself.

“You're my best friend too Annie.”

“The next round is about to begin. If Adrian loses again he will have to put the same hand in the bowl of acid again.” I fought the urge to find where the robotic voice was coming from and ripping it to shreds.

Chapter forty four

Adrian’s Interview(Host Jenny) 2 hours after Ethel’s interview.

Jenny: Hi Alran. I am Jenny. I will be your host for today’s interview. May I start by asking how you intend to win the games?

Adrian: By making sure my twin sister doesn’t get hurt and making sure that no matter what we win this together.

Jenny: Could you talk more about this please? How do you intend to do this?

Adrian shrugs.

Jenny: Ok then let’s move on to a different question. What kind of prince do you plan to be if you win the games?

Adrian: Do you like your job?

Jenny: Please stick to the question I asked you.

Adrian: You know you do talk a bit like a robot. Are you like half android?

Jenny: What kind of prince do you plan to be after you win the games?

Adrian: I don’t want to answer that question, it's personal.

Jenny: As a contestant in the games you have to answer this question whether you like it or not. Do you understand?

Adrian: If you are going to ask personal questions, I’m leaving. Bye.

Jenny: You cannot leave unless I tell you to.

Adrian Ignores her. He gets up from his seat and exits.

Chapter forty five

Jenny(After Adrian’s interview)

I grab my massive black file folder from the side of my desk. I flick through the pages going to the final contestant who I haven’t given an interview yet. Ana. Alran’s twin sister. So far all the contestants haven’t cooperated. If Ana is anything like her brother she might just do the same as him or something similar. If I fail another interview I will lose my job and my mother will kick me out. I have to make her proud. I’ve been nothing but a disgrace for my whole life. A failure. 

I will make sure no matter what Ana will cooperate. Whatever it takes.

Chapter forty six

When it came to the last final round of the second round of the games, I’m the one who lost but the robotic voice told Adrian to force my hand in for only a minute. Obviously he had no choice so when the two of us stepped out of the dark creepy room, We both had bandaged hands but mine wasn’t nearly as bad as Adrian’s. Every time Adrian lifted his hand it hurt. Even if he moved one finger an inch, pain would flash across his face. My hand did hurt but I could tell that it didn’t hurt as badly as Adrian’s did. 

The Queen gave us a break along with the other contestants whilst she announced who lost. The contestants who lost went out of the room. It was now only me, Adrian, Ethel Gaunds and Max Cromwell. Ethel kept sneering at me and she would jab Max in the ribs and then he would sneer at me as well. Adrian told Ethel to leave me alone but she wouldn’t listen so he almost jumped out of his seat to slap her and I had to hold him down to stop him. Although Adrian was too strong for me so much as I hated it, I squeezed his injured hand really hard so he would be in too much pain to get up. My guilt grew a hundred times more until I could feel it like a constant nagging feeling pulling at my chest.

The Queen called Ethel and Max’s names and she told us that this time we are not allowed to know anything about the last and final round. My nerves grew stronger by the minute as I watched Ethel and Max leave the room. My nervous feelings and guilt twisted together making the feeling in my chest feel tighter and painful. Adrian squeezed my hand really tight so tight that the pain distracted me from the feeling in my chest until it was a small numb feeling that I could barely feel. I knew that it would come back. 

We never saw Ethel and Max since they left the room and when the Queen said their names, a swirl of questions filled my head. Did we win? Did they lose? Will we survive the next round or will we injure another body part?

This time we weren’t in the dark room. We were in a room that looked a lot like a….Great. More pain. We were in a dueling room. 

I guard walked up to us. His facial features were concealed behind his mask and he held a spear in his hand. “You are going to fight each other until one of you cannot continue. If you refuse to fight we will pick one of you at random and we will use my spear to give you a slow and painful death whilst the other one of you’s watches the other one die.Only one of you needs to win the fight for both of you to win this round of the games.”

WHAT?! WHAT?! Who’s we? Which is worse, forcing your own twin brother’s hand into a bowl of acid or fighting them until they can’t fight you any longer?

“You will use no weapons. You may begin now.” Adrian turns to face me and I turn to face him. Can I actually do it? Am I able to do it? Will I survive? Will I die? Will Adrian die? Will he survive? For a moment, we both stand still. Adrian looks at me with a look of despair and sadness in his eyes. For a moment, I thought he was going to refuse to fight me but then he lifted his hand up into a fist. (The one that isn’t injured). “I’m sorry.” He whispers. His fist hits my face hard in my nose, making me stumble backwards holding my nose. When I look at my hands, they are covered in blood. Is my nose broken? I lift my hand to touch it feels swollen. I feel stabs of pain as I touch it.

“Make it look like we are fighting,”Adrian says.

Smart idea. Will it work? I punched Adrian in the exact place he punched me. He tackles me to the ground and holds me there until I admit that I can’t breathe and then he stands up. I was purposely doing bad. I wasn’t showing my true fighting skills. There is a chance that If I really try to fight Adrian. I might knock him unconscious or worst killed. I could tell Adrian was trying either. Maybe if he really tries he could do the same to me. But was it obvious that we weren’t trying?

After punching each other and kicking, I started to not be able to handle it anymore. The smell of blood was everywhere and the pain was so strong that I couldn’t focus enough to see Adrian clearly. He became a big blur. As well as everything around him. “I can’t continue.” I say. 

“Alran kent.” Says the guard. “You have won. Well done. The other contestants have lost this round as they refused to fight so the two of you have won the games. I will escort you to the first aid room where you will get cleaned up and then you must see the Queen in her throne room.”

Chapter forty seven

Halima’s interview(Host Jenny) 3 hours after Adrian’s interview.

Jenny: Hi Ana. I am Jenny. I will be your host for today ‘s interview. May I ask how you intend to win the games?

Annie: By trying my best.

Jenny: That’s a nice reason. Could you please expand on that and give me a bit more detail?

Annie: By trying my best that’s all I can say.

Jenny: What do you mean by that?

Halima shrugs.

Annie: May I please have a glass of water?

Jenny: Sure. Can we please have a glass of water in room 7? Half a glass should do.

Given the glass of water.

Annie: Thank you. Can I go now?

Jenny: No. Now what kind of princess do you plan on being after you win the games if you do?

Annie: How am I supposed to know? I can’t see the future? Can I go?

Jenny: No. Now please tell me your thoughts on the question I asked.

Annie: Do you want to know something?

Jenny: Sure as long as it’s appropriate for the interview.

Annie: I think you are two faced and fake. I don’t want to do this interview anymore. Goodbye.

Leaves.

Chapter forty eight

Jenny(After Halima’s interview)

I was back at my office desk. I failed again. I will be a disappointment to my mother again. Maybe there’s nothing I can do to make her proud. Maybe I will always be a failure to her? My phone rings. I look at my desk. I press the answer button. “Hello mother.” I say.

“Did you do Ana’s interview?” No hello? Very kind of you.

“Yes mother.”

“How did it go?”

“Not that well.”

“You failed again didn’t you? Why did you always fail at everything? Are you bad at everything?”

“No mother.”

“I’m going to give you one more chance, you fail this and I will disown you.”

“Yes mother.”

“Don’t call me mother. Call me by my name. You are no longer seen as my daughter. If you were really my daughter you wouldn't fail everything.”

“Yes Maya.”

Chapter forty nine

The guards lead us through the maze of corridors and we finally arrive at two doors side by side, Adrian is told to go into one door and I’m told to go into another.

When I step inside, I see lily. She smiles at me. “I’m going to help clean you up. It’s good to see you Ana. Congratulations on winning the games.”

I smile. If I opened my mouth, I don’t think any words would come out. I was still processing everything that happened in the games. Lily whistles and a group of maids come in. One maid was holding a hairbrush. The same maid that attacked me last time.

Great. Just what I need. 

Chapter fifty

After being attacked and my wounds being treated, I’m escorted to the throne room by the same guard who led me here. He told me that Adrian came out a little before me and he already took him there. 

When I step into the throne room, I drop to the floor. Adrian was being held by two guards by his arms. His hands were tied together and when he looked at me fear was in his eyes. The Queen stood from her throne and began to speak, smirking. I fought the urge to slap the smirk off her face. “Hello Annie. I knew from the beginning who Adrian and you really were.” Right at that moment, two figures appear from the shadows. Aisha and Aunty Neima! They suddenly turned into Henry and Halima. What is going on? “I will let these two do all the speaking.”

Henry steps forward. “Nice to meet you again Annie. Now you obviously must be so confused and there is a simple explanation for that. You thought that you saw Aunty Neima and Aisha but really what you were seeing was an illusion as Halima here can conjure illusions so she conjured an illusion to make you think you were seeing two entirely different people compared to what was actually there. We told the Queen you were entering the games so instead of cancelling the games she paid the other contestants to continue and act but unfortunately that girl that got killed, the real reason was because she refused and her opponent Angelica was killed for the sake of being killed since the Queen didn’t want her to miss out. And now I can finally get my revenge for you killing my men.”

STAY AWAY FROM ME! YOU PSYCHOPATH!

“We will get through this together.” Adrian’s mental voice says. 

“Together.” 

The Queen clears her throat. “It’s my turn to speak now. I’m going to give you a choice Annie. You can stay and your brother will be killed or you leave and your brother will remain as my hostage and I promise I won’t kill him. Decide now.”

My breathing quickened. Adrian’s eyes grew wide. Tears flowed down his cheeks. I could feel wetness on my cheeks. I couldn't tell if it was sweat or tears. My cheeks felt hot. Why is she making me choose like this? I can’t leave Adrian. But I don’t want him dead either.

Halima steps forward. “I dare you to stay. I would love to see your brother die. I would love to see the look of horror on your face when you watch him die.”

My thoughts come up with anyway that there could be loopholes or a way out. There was none. Halima  chants the same thing again and again. Henry joins in. The Queen joins in. Then the courtier’s. Then the guards. Until it was just me and Adrian who wasn’t talking. Both of us were staring at each other in fear. The voices pounded in my head. I felt a sharp pain in my head until I couldn’t handle it any longer.

“STOP!” I screamed. “I’ve decided.”

“We are waiting.” Says the Queen.

"I'll leave." I say.

I then say to Adrian mentally. "I will find a way to free you Adrian I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep." He replies.

"I will find a way no matter what."