CHAPTER 14

ENGLISH

I was sleeping when I heard the sound.

It was the sound of a bullet going off in the distance. At least I think that was what it was. The ringing noise hadn't started yet so it must not have been too important. It was breakfast time and I wasn't downstairs yet. I wasn't planning on going downstairs for breakfast at all really.

I crept towards the front door of the palace, still in my pajamas though that was probably not the best idea. It was drizzling outside, the sky gloomy and dark. I opened the front door, the guards standing there didn't even both to ask me why. They only asked me if I need assistance.

I told them no and slipped out. Sometimes my father would go on walks in the gardens early in the morning. Of course today wasn't the best choice of day. Rain coming down lightly could still soak me through if I stayed out long enough. But I walked towards it anyways, the warm rain hitting my shoulders and hair making them both darken.

What surprised me was that my father was standing outside in the gardens. He had a flower in hand. I walked over to him, "Dad? What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same thing English," he said and I smiled.

"So, how is the work going?" I asked lightly, trying not to upset him. He's been absent lately. I never saw him anymore and things just seemed to be slipping away too quickly to count. I looped my arm through his.

"It's strange, really, a couple months ago there was a strong sign of rebels, but it's all but disappeared now. I don't understand," he said and sighed. There was something about is voice that told me he was about to say more, but didn't. Was something else going on? Was it about Maggie's pregnancy? My Selection? Mom's outbursts of anger? What was he hiding from me? I was so sick of not knowing anything.

"What else is there?" I asked him and he looked at me, his blue eyes tired and sad.

"Recently Baffin has been having some...problems," he said slowly.

"Problems with what? The rebels?" I asked him. He just shook his head. As if he'd been gearing up for this conversation all day.

"No, not the rebels, something else," he said. I groaned, "Tell me already!"

"It's a disease," he told me, his voice scratchy, "It's been going around Baffin and I've had to call my best people to help. English, I don't want you to have to worry about it though. It's nothing too bad, really, just a sickness."

"Just a sickness? You don't sound so sure about that Dad. If it's just a sickness then why have you been keeping it from me for so long? How long have you known?" I asked him. He rubbed his temples, sighing, 'I've known for about a month now, but honestly English, it's nothing to worry about. We'll get it all figured out."

"Then why did you make it seem like something huge?" I asked.

"You just needed to know," He said. I sighed, "Needed to know that nothing was wrong? That doesn't make any sense Dad. Is there something else-"

Bang.

A long loud noise echoed through the palace area. My dad froze where he was, gripping my wrist.

"Dang it," he muttered pulled on my wrist, "English I need you to-"

The rebel bell went off, startling me. I shivered from the rain that had instantly become cold. My hair was patted down to my skull in dark knots of water. I was shaking in my nightgown, which was only one of my father's shirts that was way too big for me.

"What the-?" I said but wasn't able to finished when a bang went off again, closer, very close this time. My father's grip softened a little as I looked around, "Dad, what do we- DAD!"

My father was slumped on the ground, blood oozing from a wound near his heart. He cursed, something I had never heard my father do and I realized then, that there weren't a lot of things I had seen or heard my father do. I wasn't sharp enough to hear them. Close enough to see them. I was too much of a stranger to him and he was too much of a strange to me. But even so, there were still salty tears in my eyes.

"Dad! Oh my gosh, what-," What do I do? Is what I wanted to ask him. He always had the answers. He always helped me. I had never been in a situation where somebody was about to die. I cried, touching the wound. Wasn't I supposed to get him to a safe place? I couldn't though. My father was way too heavy for me and I would have just injured him more. I bit my lip. I was supposed to clean the wound, bandage it. But I didn't have anything I needed. I couldn't get help, he'd die. I ran my fingers through my hair.

"English," he breathed, he sounded like he was having a hard time. I needed to get close to hear him, "I-I want you to get to a safe room."

"I can't leave you!" I said. There was blood on my hands. I probably looked like a mess. I heard guards yelling, and gunshots go off. I wanted to do something. There was never a time where I felt like I was more useless then right now. I was standing here, doing nothing. I knew that if I just left, I'd feel like I let him die. And maybe even my mother would hate me more. I'd feel like a selfish brat. And even if that wasn't the case, I didn't want to leave him.

"English please go and save yourself. I don't want y-you to get hurt," he was gasping now and I looked over the wound. There had to be something, anything that would help me in this situation.

Guards yelled, farther and farther away. I could only hear a small amount of the things they were saying and it sounded like whispers now. The rain was pouring hard now, the pressure not helping my father. I searched around. The medical wing wasn't even in view. The gardens wasn't close to it at all. I looked around. I wished I had spent my hours studying medical plants and ways to help in problems like these other then just playing my viola, practicing my German or French or even playing with my siblings. I was an idiot, and nobody could argue with that.

My father's blood was on my hands, and even though the rain was still coming down, it wasn't washing away. Like a permanent tattoo of this memory written in red all over my hands. I tried to talk to my dad. but he wasn't speaking, there was only the faint sound of his heavy breathing under the sound of water hitting ground.

The gunshots stopped, my father's eyes closed and the rain quickly turned ice cold and back to a splatter here and a splatter there. I was breathing heavily, tears running down my face, blood on my hands, mud on my knees and shirt. His shirt. I bit my lip, hoping to stop the tears. I bit it harder, harder, begging them to stop, but after a while all I could taste was blood. I covered my face for a second, then uncovered it, and looked at my father's body.

"No, no, no, no, no," it was a whisper, the words, and I really wanted to be screaming them. Everything was going way too quickly and the end was being wrapped up with a bow before I had the chance to understand any of it. My father just died?

Two or three minutes later my mother burst through the palace doors and a ton of the Selected boys, family member and council were there too, staring at me. I fell to my knees, my brothers and mom coming to pick me up. My mother looked at my father body and covered her mouth with her hands.

"English, w-what happened?" She asked me. I was on the ground, Austen and Harrison standing behind me.

"I-it just happened," I stuttered, the cold rain shaking me and freezing me. I closed my eyes, and I heard more footsteps come closer.

"Oh my gosh!" It was one of the councilmen who had spoken. I opened my eye to see Maggie coming closer. Alex was standing behind her, gripping her shoulders and looking away. All of the little kids were with the Selected boys by the door. Liberty was standing on her tippy toes to see it from there, but I saw Marigold and Jana holding her back. I didn't know where Ursa was.

Maggie's face was dead. She stared at the body, moving forward to Alex's disliking. She got on her knees by the body and took my mother in her arms. I looked up, and even Harrison wasn't talking. His hand was shaking on my shoulder.

Aunt Abigail came up with Lukas and Lynn, turning her head away and burying it into her husbands chest. I think I was really the only one whose scar would never heal from this. Sure they were all sad, and heartbroken, and depressed. But I still feel like I could have saved him and I didn't.

AUSTEN

My hand shakes on English's wet shoulder. Dad's body is lifeless and looks hours old. But I can't look away. I'm just glad Marigold and Jana are there to hold Liberty back. If she saw this, she'd burst into tears. I don't think she's ready, even though she didn't know Dad that well.

Honestly, I don't think any of us really had a great connection with our dad. Sure Aunt Maggie, Uncle Alex, Mom, Aunt Abby, they all are super close to Dad, but us kids. He's just the one that put us on this earth. Sometimes I feel like he's put us here and left us. Like some kind of survival TV show that Harrison usually watched during afternoons when he was eight.

But seeing English cry over someone who was close to a stranger to her, is just sad. She's never even had a conversation with our father that didn't involve working strategies or money talk. Why was she so sad now?

Hours later, after a few guards brought n our father body to the medical wing, though there was obviously nothing that they could do to help him, I was in my bedroom, waiting for English, because I had asked her to come and visit me and Harris after. Harris was quiet, an unusual thing for him. I wished he would make a joke, say something to make things better, but the room was quiet other then the sound of the rain pounding on our window.

English came in later that night. She look, normal. She didn't look like a princess, but like our sister. She was wearing gray plaid pajama pants and a large white sweater. When she saw us, tears formed in her eyes.

I've never really seen English cry. When she was eight she cried because she got a giant cut on her arm, but other then that, I don't remember ever seeing her cry. The only reason I remembered that time was because she cried.

"I don't understand," I said quietly, "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Harrison asked angrily. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at the ground, his eyebrows furrowed, "Our Dad just died! Does there really need to be a why and why not?"

"You know what I mean-"

"No, Austen, I don't. Stop complicating things. Aren't you upset? Why aren't you crying Austen!?" Harrison yelled.

"You aren't crying," I said quietly and he bit his lip. Harris got up and left the room, heading into his own bedroom. English looked at me.

"I don't know how to cry for someone I didn't even know," I said. She sat next to me, wrapping her arms around my torso, "Sometimes Austen, you don't need to know how, or why, you just do it because it feels like that's what your supposed to do."

"Why did you cry though? All you and Dad ever talked about was king-like work," I said. She shrugged, "Austen when Dad died, it felt like a part of me was dying. He made us. It's not like we're robots. We have feelings. And even though our life with him wasn't perfect, can you honestly think of a better one without him?"

I thought about that, "I guess I can't. Even though he wasn't here a lot, he was still here. Like at Christmas, I could count on him to be there Christmas morning. And me and Harrison's birthday." English shifted uncomfortable when I said that. I know why. Dad was never around during English's birthdays. He always had work to do. But when it came to his youngest children's birthdays, he was there. Maybe it was the ages. But even when English was our age Dad still didn't come. I never understood that.

"I think I'm going to check on Harris. Get some sleep Austen. You'll feel better in the morning I promise," she said and kissed my forehead. She slipped into Harrison's bedroom and left me sitting on my bed alone.

You all hate me for this! Yay! So yeah...King Pierce is kind of like...dead. Not that you guys weren't expecting that...right? Ha...ha...ha! *Awkward laughing* Any who! Thanks for reading and if you are going to review thank you for that! I'd like you thank ya'll for the amazing reviews from the last chapter! I loved them all super nice! :D That's all! Happy Holidays! Or, if you don't celebrate anything over the winter break, Happy Break! (If you even get a break at all.) But I'm on break, so you guys can be expecting a couple more updates then usual! Sorry is the beginning (and whole chapter) is rushed! Hope you liked it though!

Are you honestly sad about this death? (Tell me the truth here.)

Am I the only one who just noticed that throughout the story so far, Aunt Abigail (Aunt Abby) hasn't been in it at all except for this chapter? Even her own children are in the story more then her! (Jeez, the author of this story should seriously do something about this. Oh wait...I'm the author.) Yeah well, I'll find a way to squeeze her into the story along with the protagonists, royal family, Maggie's family, Selected, maids/butlers and guards. Piece of cake! :D

Thanks again for everything! You all are awesome!

FOREVER AND ALWAYS,

Bubbles! :D