So I am able to update Kingdoms Lost! Yay! You get a chapter today!
I'm hoping to write a one-shot this weekend and post it when I can cause I have time to make one.
This is pretty much the calm before the storm.
SotC: The Scientist - Coldplay
Mitch's POV
It was finally time to go home.
I had a great time hanging out with the Pack, but I couldn't stay with them even if I wanted to. Jerome meant too much to me, and I couldn't let him down by leaving forever. While I sang "Endstone," I remembered why I fell in love with him in the first place. My song had actually been about Jerome, but I hadn't even known the prince when I wrote it. I came to one simple conclusion for this circumstance: fate.
Late during that dark night, I stood at the doorway of the house, Rob's black cape hanging over my shoulders. Since I would be recognized easier in my blood red cape, he forced me to keep his for safety reasons. I denied his request several times, but eventually I gave in. I also still had my gala suit on, so it wouldn't be too easy to escape if I got caught by Ryan. Disguising myself would be the most effective answer. Still, I hadn't mentioned anything about my past, and no one besides Preston asked about it.
Rob shook my hand. "Thanks for helping us out, Mitch. We haven't had this much entertainment since… Pete arrived." Pete smirked, proud to have been the center of attention.
Lachlan's jaw dropped. "Hey! You didn't have fun when Vik and I hosted that horse competition?!" he exclaimed, a bit upset.
"Didn't say that." Rob burst out in laughter, shaking his head.
"Uh huh!"
I chuckled, halting Lachlan's one-sided debate. "Thank you for letting me stay, but I really have to go. I left a bad situation at home and it's my job to fix it."
"What issues?" Preston questioned, being nosy around me as usual.
"Stuff that shouldn't have occurred if I wasn't caught in the marketplace…" I stated, but stopped talking as soon as I realized I'd revealed too much about myself. "Never mind."
"You shouldn't have to fix issues that aren't your fault," Rob told me.
I crossed my arms, the seams of the cape falling behind my biceps. "It is my fault though. I'm crazy in love with someone I can't be with… And my brother…" There was only one word to describe Ryan. "My brother is straight-up insane…"
Vik, who reading a current newspaper in the dining room, interrupted my conversation. He looked up from his paper and cleared his throat. Every head in the room turned in his direction. "You're from Star City, right?"
"Yeah…" I answered hesitantly.
"Well, bad news," Vik sighed. I gulped, slightly expecting someone to be dead because of me. "The king… has just been overthrown and killed."
"What about the prince?!" I exclaimed, worried about Jerome.
"Uh… I don't know… There's nothing in here about a prince…"
I took a breath of relief, but something in the back of my mind reminded me that he wasn't close to safe from the enemies who took over Star City.
"But there's some new ruler... King McNulty? McNulty. Ring a bell?"
I paused, pouted my lips in anger, and covered my entire face with the palms of my hands.
"What?" Pete questioned, "Do you know this McNulty guy?"
"Of course I do," I answered, although my reply was muffled from the skin of my hands. "He's my brother."
All five young men stopped what they were doing and stared at me. Startled by the silence, I lifted my head to get a good view of the Pack.
"Sorry," I apologized, "Too much information."
"No… it's okay…" Lachlan assured me. I lowered my hands.
"Are you sure you wanna leave?" Preston asked, determined to make me stay with the Pack.
Rob rolled his eyes and glanced annoyingly towards Preston. "If he doesn't want to, we can't make him. Instead, we're gonna see to it that Mitch gets home safely. Without any problems in his way. Cough cough Preston."
"What did I do wrong?!"
"Everything!" Vik shouted from the other side of the room.
"You're such a pleb Vik!"
"You're the pleb!"
"You guys… everyone is a pleb!" Pete stopped the argument, lessening the tension in the air.
Placing the hood of Rob's midnight black cape over my head, I smiled at my new friends. Pete opened the door for me as I spun around, glanced back towards the Pack, smiled again, and strode out into the darkness.
I had been on the path to Star City for a good five minutes until I realized the area around me was too quiet. Quiet was good for some events, but not on a night of madness and chaos. I imagined people running down the path, carrying suitcases, trying to leave the kingdom for the newly-rebuilt Budder City. Rumors were spreading that the Aceti's neighbor, King Adam, had more confidence in his actions and was more compassionate than the rulers of Star City, so I wouldn't have blamed anyone if they decided to move out. To my surprise, however, the streets were dead silent besides for my occasional humming and the rapid wind swirling throughout the air.
Suddenly, I heard a dry leaf crack nearby. Expecting someone to pass by, I froze in place, but no one came into sight. So, I continued walking, the jet black cape flowing wildly behind me. While attempting to ignore the silence, I heard a leaf crack again, but resisted to stop walking.
A figure came up from behind and grabbed me by the arms, dragging me away from the path into a more private space. When I opened my mouth to scream, the figure wrapped a cloth gag in the gap of my mouth. As I struggled to escape the rope that now strapped my upper body together, I happened to glance behind my shoulder and find a young man wearing a black scarf around the top of his head, his nose, and his mouth. The man wore all black clothing, which made me wonder who he worked for. The four other young men all dressed in black with the scarves around their faces surrounded us from a distance, watching me carefully. After thinking it through, I came up with a simple yet unreliable plan. I stepped on the original man's foot, which released his grip on my rope, and I sprinted into the mysterious dark oak forest, and past one of the young men. I supposed it caught them off-guard, because not one of them had thought to catch me on the way out. However, all five followed me as I darted through the trees, trying my best to find the most unpredictable paths. Every time I took a look behind my shoulder, the men were right on my tail. Fortunately, I reached the path again, although I didn't continuously check my back from that point on. When I had the chance to turn around and saw an empty road, I accidentally bumped into someone, knocking them onto the ground.
"Ow!" I spun around after hearing the familiar noise. Upon finding a stunned Matt standing beside the knocked-down figure, I came to a simple conclusion on who I hurt. I glanced down to find a handsome young man in a black cape with intricate silver seams lining the hood. When this man peered up with his large brown eyes and noticed me, he was on the verge of crying. "Biggums?!"
"Jerome?" I gasped, not expecting to find Jerome out of Star City.
"Mitch!" Jerome leapt up from the dirty path. He pulled me in and planted a kiss on my lips. "Where were you?! I've been worried sick. Ryan has taken over…"
Since Jerome seemed to be losing breath from talking, I interrupted by asking him the more important question. Why was he in front of me instead of back in the castle, protecting himself from Ryan? "I heard. Why-why are you out here?"
"Ryan banished me. Do… you know what happened to my parents?"
I bit my lip. "Your dad is dead. I'm so sorry. But your mom is fine… from all I've heard."
"Thanks. It's…" Jerome wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, "It's okay. As long as you're here with me and not dead too… or kidnapped… I'm okay."
"I might've been close to it a few minutes ago," I mumbled loud enough for Jerome to hear.
"Dead or kidnapped?"
"Either."
"A few minutes ago?"
"Yeah, not quite sure why."
"I'm sure Ryan is behind everything. He obviously doesn't want you to be happy, Mitch."
"He's my brother. I don't think he would want me to not be happy… or least satisfied…"
Matt coughed and interrupted me, annoyed. "Ryan isn't your freaking brother, for Notch's sake."
I paused. The accusation caught me by surprise. I never expected anyone to think Ryan and I weren't related. Tilting my head, I shot Matt a confused look. "What?"
Jerome continued, and I turned my head to face the former prince. "We figured out your real past. You've never had a brother. Your dad… well, your dad has a very special place in my heart… and so do you…" He motioned towards his royal advisor. "And so does Matt…" He turned to me again. "Mitch, you're the long-lost son of Lord Tyler Hughes."
"No…" I shook my head in disbelief. "Lord Hughes's son doesn't exist. I've heard stories… from…" I came to the conclusion of who had told me those stories and stopped defending my so-called brother. Glancing up into the night sky, I felt a guilty feeling creep up my spine. "Ryan."
Jerome regarded my attention focusing on another object, a tree to be exact. He nimbly placed his thumb and index finger on my chin and moved it so I stared into his eyes. "Ryan didn't want you to know the truth. But we can fix this together. You'll reunite with your real family… As a baby, you were kidnapped from our nursery and taken to the McNulty household. For twenty years, you've been working as their slave, unaware of your destiny. Which is with me."
"We… were supposed to meet?" I stuttered, in utter shock from the information I'd just received.
"Yeah! Of course we were! We were supposed to be best friends… You were to become my advisor! I have absolutely no regrets about being friends with Matt, but now that I know you exist… I wish… I wish I'd been able to spend more time with you."
Suddenly, I had the courage to stand my ground, which forced Jerome to remove his fingers from my chin. "Don't worry. After we take back the kingdom…"
"Take back the kingdom?" Jerome hesitantly questioned, a sense of worry and fear in his voice.
I nodded confidently. "We're getting your throne back."
"How?"
"I don't know, but I'll think of something. If Ryan offers anything… I would risk my life to save your kingdom."
Jerome almost screamed, but refused to get mad at me, so he subsided his anger. "Matt signed the paper so you wouldn't die. How am I supposed to let you go into a near-death situation against the most powerful man in Star City?"
"It hasn't happened yet, Jerome. Let's just wait and see… In the meantime… we're going home."
Time to take back the kingdom! Jerome and Mitch are finally together again and are planning to defeat Ryan! Do you think they'll win?! Stay tuned for another episode of Dragon Ball Z! (Those good times)
Put in the reviews what you'd wanna read for the one-shot!
#KingdomsLost for Chapter 13 on Monday! It's a fun one! The final battle!
