"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."

-Neil Gaiman

Love Takes Hostages
Prologue

How could everything fall apart so quickly?

It was just last week that everything had been perfect; just seven days ago before everything went to hell.

Sebastian scoffed as he thought about it. 'Just seven days.' Seven days ago he had been King Henry's favorite son. Seven days ago he had decided to leave court for fear of his mother's plans. 'Seven days ago, just seven days.'

It was strange how everything had changed so quickly.

Now instead of being the 'bastard' he was thrown in a cell like a common criminal awaiting his punishment. Sebastian was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of footsteps approaching his cell. It was strange for someone to be visiting him, unless it was his father. That thought alone made him nervous.

It wasn't like he feared his father, well he did, but not for reasons that he is being accused of. It was all his mother's fault. Because of her hunger for power she tried to legitimize him and take the crown from his brother Francis. He never wanted that crown. He never wanted to be king.

The bolt to the thick wooden door slid open before it creaked open revealing the person who had come to visit him.

"Francis—"

Sebastian had barely been able to get the name out before his brother lunged at him. His head snapped back from the impact of Francis's fist. "WHY DID YOU STEAL MARY?" Francis shouted throwing him to the ground. The anger in his voice was irreplaceable.

"I was trying to help her," he gasped as Francis aimed a kick to his ribs.

Francis wasn't having any of his explanations, "You took advantage of her fears and this family's trust!" Another blow to Sebastian's face splitting his lip and causing the crimson blood to ooze down his chin. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU HATED ME?"

Sebastian made no move to defend himself against his brother's anger. If anything he felt that he deserved every blow that was being dealt to him. "I trusted you and you betrayed me," those words stung, but they were in every way justified.

"FRANCIS!"

"Why, why would you do this?"

"I was trying to save your life," Sebastian breathed.

"FRANCIS STOP!"

Sebastian was vaguely aware of Mary's voice screaming at the two of them.

"Francis!" Mary screamed pulling the blonde prince off his bastard brother. Sebastian sunk to his knees placing the palms of his hands on the cool stone floor breathing out ragged breaths. "Stop this. This isn't Bash's fault. He only knew about the prophecy," Mary explained fervently, pleading for Francis to believe her, "The only thing we've done is try to save you."

Francis looked at her confused. "What?"

"It was I who proposed marrying him. I proposed that he be legitimized—"

"You proposed what?" This time the interruption was from Sebastian. He was looking at her with disbelief and a tinge of betrayal. Mary looked down at him with remorse, guilt filling those chocolate brown irises of hers.

Francis was beside himself. This revelation showed him just how serious Mary's belief in this superstitious nonsense had become. He was angry, he was hurt. Mary's actions weren't only breaking his heart, but they were also putting his family's future in jeopardy. "You are setting the course of nations, asking the pope to say that this is God's will; taking my family's inheritance from me, my mother, my brothers," Mary visibly flinched at each word that came out of Francis's mouth, "And I'm supposed to accept this? You are throwing away everything we had for superstition. Nostradamus knows nothing!"

Tears began to fill Mary's eyes and Francis sighed taking a softer tone. "You know that I love you," he breathed, "But if you think that in your mind you are saving me means that I will forgive you for this you are gravely mistaken."

"I'm so sorry," Mary breathed, so softly that neither Francis nor Sebastian had heard her. She watched as the love of her life turned his back on her walking away. Her heart broke with each step that he took from her, knowing the she could just run after him and all would be well, however the knowledge of that doing so will only get him killed. It was tearing her apart.

Mary snapped out of her reverie at the sound of Sebastian's pained gasps. Quickly she turned around helping him to sit up. "Are you okay?" She asked concerned. He had sustained several injuries from Francis's anger and that gravely worried her. Bruises were beginning to form on his face and the blood that oozed from the opening in his spilt lip.

"When we you planning on telling me, before or after my coronation?" He spat out angrily, the word 'coronation' feeling like acid on his tongue.

"Please don't be angry," Mary pleaded.

Sebastian took a deep breath at the tears pricking in the corners of Mary's eyes. "I never wanted my brother's crown," he told her firmly, "No matter my mother's plans."

"But will you take it, to save his life?"

"Can I have more than a heartbeat to think about it?" He snapped.

Mary reared back slightly, only slightly, before regaining her composure. "Of course," she told him, "I'll leave you to think it over." She stood up gracefully brushing off some dirt from her skirts and then moving toward the cell door. Just passing through it however, she turned giving Sebastian at remorseful glance, "I really am sorry for how things have turned out Bash. I hope that maybe one day you'll be able to forgive me. Not just for going behind your back and putting you on the throne, but for ruining your relationship with Francis as well." With those parting words said she hastily made her way out of the cell shutting the door behind her leaving Sebastian with much to consider.

Lola sat in her chambers staring out the window in a daze. Her thoughts were a thousand miles away, worrying for her friend Mary. The young queen's life was so complicated. She could barely imagine what it must be like to be in her place. It must be awful.

Mary couldn't be with the one she loved and she couldn't leave France. Her mother wanted her to marry the next king of France. That didn't give her many options and she had already begun making decisions on what to do. Lola worried about what these decisions would do to her friend.

'Poor Mary. There has to be something I can do to help.' Lola tried fervently to think of something, the only plan she had been able to come up with had failed when Mary had come back to court. 'To save Bash,' she reminded herself.

Sebastian was in just as much trouble as Mary. He couldn't refuse the marriage unless he wanted to be beheaded for treason. He was forced into this just as much as Mary was.

'It's hopeless. Every way I turn one of my friends is in danger. I can't save one without letting the other perish. And if neither one are saved then they will both be miserable.' Lola placed her hand on the glass of the window letting the cool glass seep into her palm. The way Lola was seeing the only thing that could help with situation was divine intervention.

But would God even listen to her pleas?

Lola had been raised as a devote Catholic. She believe there was a God, she believed that he was overall good, yet it always seemed to her that he was too far away. She didn't believe that God would even help in this situation, but there was no harm in asking.

Coming to a decision Lola moved away from the window to her desk. Opening one of the drawers she searched until her hands grasped the familiar string of her rosary beads. Then closing the drawer she moved swiftly to the edge of her bed kneeling down in reverence. She moved the beads in her hand touching her forehead, her shoulders, and then bringing them up to her lips placing a gentle kiss on the beads. "Please Gracious Heavenly Father. I come to you in humble reverence to beg for guidance in these trying times. Please show us the path in which to take. Give us a sign that what is happening is your will or intervene to change our fates—" Lola's prayer was cut off by a sudden pricking sensation her palms.

"Ow," she cried dropping the beads as if they had burned her.

Francis was pacing back and forth in his chambers, furious. 'How could Mary do this? Howhowhowhow? Is my loving her not enough? She has to personally torment me as well?'

He paused only for a second in his pacing to look out the windows into the woods. One thing was becoming painfully clear to him. 'If Mary is insistent to go down this path then I can't remain here.' He had to leave he decided that. He couldn't stand by and watch as the girl he loved married his brother. He couldn't watch as everything was taken from his family. He couldn't watch as his mother was beheaded as she would most likely be without the protection of her crown.

Everything was so wrong.

Francis stopped abruptly in his pacing. The stop was so abrupt that he almost tripped and fell. There was a sudden pricking in the back of his head; as if someone with sticking a dozen tiny fiery needles at the base of his neck. He fought a cry of shock at the throbbing as he kneeled over grabbing the bed post for support.

'Why is this happening?'

Mary walked quietly down a deserted corridor. The few servants that she passed paid her no mind too consumed with their work to worry about the young Queen. Mary was feeling sick and queasy. There was a prickling in her abdomen, the most sensitive of prickling's. It made bile want to rise to her throat.

It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Nothing could ever compare to this. This prickling was upsetting, but it didn't necessarily hurt. Yes, it did feel like a little needles, however there was a comfort that came with the feeling. It made her drowsy.

Mary stopped alongside one of the stone pillars using it to let her slowly sink to the ground.

'So, so sleepy. Why am I so sleepy?' Mary thought confused staring blankly at the wall. She let out a tired yawn completely involuntary. 'I'll just close my eyes for a second, then I'll head back to my chambers.'

Sebastian bolted up right bring his back away from the stone wall. So fast it was as if he had been burned by the cold stone bricks. 'What in God's name?' He felt a prickling in his back. Something was terribly wrong, he could feel it the prickling wasn't normal.

He couldn't explain what happened next. If someone were to ask him, he would have said it was like a sudden gust of cold wind that knocked the breath from his lungs. The walls of his cell seemed to fade into something entirely different. And the air instead of being the rotting mustiness of the castle dungeon was replaced with the crisp fresh sent of pine and wild flowers.

The last thing he remembered was falling to the ground thinking that it was going to be the cold hard bricks, but instead surprised to find it was velvety green grass.

Author's Note:

Okay here is the prologue for Love takes hostages. The title of this story is taken from Neil Gaiman's quote at the beginning which is why I included it. There are probably a lot of question that are going to come up. I can tell you Mary, Lola, Francis, and Bash are perfectly fine as you will see in the next chapter.

Please review and tell me your thoughts on whether or not you want be to continue this story. I'll probably still continue it for my own amusement, but I still want to hear other's opinions on my writing.

Please review
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