"Ally," she hears in a dream. "Ally. Ally."
She knits her eyebrows, realizing with a start that this is not a dream, that someone is actually whispering her name from outside her cell. Her eyes snap open and she sits up, squinting in the darkness.
She doesn't say anything, but she knows that whoever it is must be a friend if they're calling her Ally.
"Are you awake?" the person whispers. "I can't see in here."
"Y-Yeah, I'm awake," she replies shakily, blinking as her eyes adjust in the darkness. "I can't see you either."
"It's Austin."
"Austin!" she whispers, scrambling to her feet and gripping the bars of her cell tightly. "Austin, they – they captured me, and – "
"I figured out as much. What happened?"
"I got the money and I was leaving, but a couple guards caught me. So they brought me to my parents and I couldn't talk my way out of it and I had a trial this morning and they're gonna execute me tomorrow!"
"They're gonna – what?"
"Hang me! They gave me the death sentence!"
Austin's silent for a second. When he speaks again, she can barely hear him. "I shouldn't have made you do this."
"You thought it would be fine. I did, too."
"Well, it wasn't, and now – " Austin cuts off and exhales.
"What're we gonna do?"
"I – I don't know, Ally. I'm out of ideas. This is…this is bigger than anything I've ever dealt with before, I…"
"We have to think of something. They can't – "
"What are we supposed to do, Ally?!" he whisper-yells, sounding terrified and upset and confused and so not the calm, collected Austin she's used to. "You're stuck in here and they're gonna kill you in the morning and it's all my fault and you can't die, Ally, okay?! You can't!"
Ally steps back in surprise at his words, but then she swallows and steps towards the bars again. She feels his hand brush against hers, and he fumbles to grab it in the darkness.
"I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" he whispers, once again barely audible. "I – we – we're going to save you."
"Austin?"
"Ally?"
"I'm scared."
He sighs and she hears the quiet sound of him leaning his head against the bars of her cell. "What happened to not being scared of anything?"
She squeezes his hand. "I met you."
He lets out a quiet chuckle. "So I did scare you."
"I never said that."
"You implied it."
"You stabbed me!"
"I didn't stab you – "
"You have serious anger issues."
"Okay, Ally."
She smiles, and then frowns. "I'm gonna die tomorrow."
"You are not going to die. If nothing else, I am going to get you out of this. I promise."
"Austin, I'm really scared."
He sighs. "I know."
"Wait…how are you here?"
"When I realized you weren't coming back, I went back and told the others. Then I came back through the secret tunnel and here I am. But I couldn't find the keys, and while you were asleep I tried just about everything to pick the lock."
"Thanks for trying," she says.
"I'm going to save you, Ally."
"Because you can't court a dead person?" she teases half-heartedly.
He chuckles quietly. "Yeah, because I can't court a dead person. So do you know what time tomorrow they're gonna…?"
"Noon," she says, getting scared again. "I don't wanna die."
"I know you don't. I don't want you to die either. We're gonna save you. I'm gonna save you. Your knight in shining armor and all that."
When she imagined him being her knight in shining armor, she didn't mean that he was supposed to save her from death. Just some uncaring parents. But now she really hopes he'll pull through and rescue her.
"Thanks, Austin."
He squeezes her hand again, bringing it up to his lips and kissing it.
"I should probably go," he whispers.
"Please stay."
"I can't. They'll catch me."
"I don't wanna be alone."
"You won't be. Just look for me tomorrow. Then you'll know that you're gonna come home soon. Okay?"
"O – Okay."
"I'll see you tomorrow, Ally. I love you."
Her eyes widen in shock, but he lets go of her hand and she hears his quiet footsteps as he walks away. But then they stop.
"I didn't say that."
And then he leaves, his footsteps quicker than before.
He loves her. He loves her. She doesn't know what exactly he meant by it, but either way the comment slipped out when he wasn't thinking and he loves her. She knows he isn't the emotional type, everyone does. So for him to feel any kind of love for her is a big deal.
As she thinks about it more, a smile forms on her face, despite her impending death.
But then again, he loves her. Her knight in shining armor will pull through. Twenty-four hours from now, she'll be back home in her treehouse wrapped up in the sheets of her bed and everything will be fine.
She's seen her fair share of executions. The poor suckers being marched to the gallows always looked eerily calm to her, and she never understood why. They were literally about to die, and yet they seemed perfectly alright with it.
But now she understands. It isn't calm at all. It's being so caught up in your racing thoughts and memories and regrets that not even the slightest bit of emotion shows up on your face. It's being so terrified that you can hardly even function properly. It's being far too distracted saying your mental goodbyes to your loved ones, going over all the 'what ifs' and wishing for a miracle.
She swallows and glances up at her parents, who are seated in thrones on the castle balcony overlooking the gallows in the Pavilion. They look stoic, as if they aren't about to watch their daughter be executed right in front of them.
Ally tears her eyes away from them and accidentally finds herself looking at the gallows. They were built overnight, and a single noose is hanging in the middle. She tries not to remember that the rope is meant for her neck.
But then the guards lead her up the steps and there she is, standing on the raised platform of the gallows and looking out at all the people who came to watch. They're silent with suspense, and she wonders how these people who once supported her future reign as queen so fully have turned on her this quickly.
She keeps looking, scanning the crowd again and again in search of the familiar mop of blond hair. But she can't find him and he's not here and he's not going to save her and this is it for her and oh goodness she doesn't want to die.
She bites back her tears.
"Today, we will witness the execution of Princess Alison Marie Dawson," she hears her father announce from behind her, "who is to be hanged for treason."
The crowd in front of her erupts in whoops and cheers and it's so so so loud and so so so chaotic and her head starts spinning but not in the good way, not in the good way at all and all she wants is to wake up from this nightmare wrapped in Austin's arms.
A few tears do escape as the guards wrap a black blindfold around her head and the world goes dark. Everything is crashing down around her and she's actually going to die and after all that talk of doing anything to protect her, Austin isn't even here.
She takes a deep breath and tries to focus on the last time she saw him. His smile, his eyes, his voice. She remembers last night when he told her he loved her, remembers their kiss and all those times that he tried so hard to push her away but she knew she was growing on him.
It gets harder and harder to focus on anything as she feels the noose being pulled over her head and secured around her neck. Her breathing speeds up because this is real and it's only a matter of minutes before everything ends.
She wonders if it'll hurt for very long, if it's as scary as she thinks it is. She wonders if Austin will arrive, only to realize it's too late.
She wishes she could see him one last time.
She tries her best to focus on him despite everything that's happening. She tries to ignore the screaming crowd and the blindfold and the rope around her neck.
It doesn't seem to work.
She hears someone's footsteps, hears the lever being pulled. The floor beneath her seems to fall in slow motion, but she could swear she hears a whizzing sound on top of just the creaking wood.
And then she's falling, falling, falling.
And then she's not.
She still feels the rope around her neck as she's placed on her feet again, but someone pulls it off of her. Then, they untie her hands, and finally they take off her blindfold.
She comes face to face with a grinning Dez.
"Did our favorite princess order a rescue?" he asks cheekily.
She's in shocks. Her cheeks are still wet with tears, and her entire body is still trembling. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
"It's okay," Dez says. "We" – he gestures around him and sees that half the camp is standing under the gallows with her – "are taking you home. But we have to go. Now."
Just as he says that, she hears even louder shouts from outside as people realize what happened.
The group races out from under the gallows, and her friends surround her in order to conceal her from the crowd. Really, Austin is the only truly recognizable one, but he's not even here. Still, she notices disguises on all of them in her daze.
They blend in with the chaotic crowd, but they're going towards the castle. She opens her mouth to ask why, but then she realizes that they must be going to the secret tunnel.
So she sprints wordlessly with her friends, and they do manage to make it in the castle undetected. They enter through the dungeons, which lead directly to the Pavilion for executions, so now they have to find their way back to the tunnel.
Apparently they've really planned this out, because they seem to know exactly where they're going.
The castle is deserted, as every guard on duty is outside for the execution. So they get to the tunnel with ease.
Dez goes first, and then her, and then everyone else. And then they're in the dark but this time it's okay because she's okay and they saved her.
When she finally gets over her shock enough to speak, she says, "You – you guys…you…"
"Shhh," Dez says gently. "We saved you. You're okay."
"How?" she manages.
"Austin rushed back and told us everything. And then we came up with a plan, and here we are."
"A plan?"
"Yep," Trish says, catching up to her and Dez. "It was all Austin. We knew he couldn't do any of this or he'd be seen and then he'd get caught and that wouldn't be good for any of us. So while we snuck under the gallows, he blended in with the crowd. Then, right when they pulled the lever he shot an arrow that severed the rope and ran away before he could be seen."
She swallows. He did save her.
"Are you okay?" Dez asks her.
Trish smacks him. "Of course she's not okay, dimwit! She almost just died! Leave her be!"
So he does, and everyone walks in silence as the past fifteen minutes replays over and over again in her head.
She's okay. She's alive. She's going home.
She wipes the tears from her face, and she finds herself laughing. She laughs almost hysterically because she's alive. Her friends cast her a few sideways glances, but they don't question anything.
After she calms down, she wipes a few more tears that escaped her eyes.
"Thank you," she whispers to everyone.
And then she's nearly tackled to the ground in a group hug as everyone tells her how much they love her and how they'll always be here for here and how she's their favorite princess in the whole world.
She smiles and laughs a little more and although she's still completely traumatized she manages to feel sort of okay.
When they get to the exit of the tunnel, Dez goes first again while she goes second and everyone else follows. And then they're all sprinting through the woods and everyone is hooting and hollering and cheering for their victory but she's just enjoying the wind on her face again and the feeling of breathing and being alive.
And before she knows it they're at the cave entrance to the camp. Ally looks at Dez, and he gives her an encouraging nod, gesturing for her to go first.
She walks through slowly, trailing her hand on the stone wall.
When she's close to the end she sees Austin pacing and biting his thumbnail and looking downright terrified and her heart pounds and she takes off running.
She barrels into him and leaps into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, just barely choking out, "Austin," before breaking down into his shoulder.
He stumbles back a bit, but then his arms are around her and his face is buried in her neck. She hears him whisper her name as he moves one hand into her hair.
He sets her down and tightens his grip around her. She rests her head against his chest, and she can hear his pounding heartbeat against her ear. It calms her more than anything else, and more tears prick her eyes because she's home.
"Thank you," she whispers, squeezing her eyes shut.
"You're okay," is all he can manage.
He pulls away to look at her. His eyes are swirling with emotion and they're a little glassy and she's never seen him cry before but he's crying over her because he was so worried and she hardly even notices everyone standing around them because right now it's just her and Austin.
"I – I didn't stay long enough to see if it worked. I wasn't sure…" He trails off and they stare at each other in silence again with the same intensity as after their kiss but expanded by tenfold.
And then he kisses her again, and she kisses him back and they cling to each other like their lives depend on it because really, they kind of do.
She's mildly aware of everyone cheering around them, but all she cares about is him. He takes her face in his hands and deepens the kiss with a relieved sigh, and she knows it's hitting him all over again that this is real and she's okay because it's hitting her again too.
He starts pulling away, but then he kisses her again as though he can't seem to get enough of her.
His hands move to her shoulders, her arms, and then her hands. He intertwines their fingers and holds her hands tightly, but even then she can still feel his hands shaking. Or maybe that's hers.
He pulls away again, slower than before. But even then, he presses his lips to hers one last time before pulling away completely, resting his forehead against hers.
"Princess Alison Marie Dawson," he whispers, "I officially can't live without you."
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE I HOPE THIS MEANS YOU DON'T WANNA KILL ME ANYMORE (for now...)