The women's room is filled with only a few Selection girls and I. Well, girls who used to be in the Selection. This morning Maxon eliminated it down to the elite, and all I can hear is sobbing. These girls will now shortly be kicked out of the castle and I feel terrible for them. Some I recognize; Emmica, Tuesday, and Tiny. They all sit hugging each other with tears rolling down their cheeks.
The door to the women's room swings open and Queen Amberly gracefully enters. She wears a simple white dress. Her hair is slightly curled and I sigh. Although I haven't met with Queen Amberly too many times, I know how deeply she cares for every single one of these girls, even the ones she hasn't talked to. I wish our encounters weren't limited to meetings with Silvia and the other photographers about special upcoming shoots.
"Ladies, do sit up," she commands to the group of whimpering girls. "You may be leaving the palace, but your duties as important women are not over. All of the high-positioned men will want your hands in marriage, and you will still be able to visit the palace." The girls all look up to her as she know stands in front of them with a soft look on her face that opposes her commanding tone.
"You all made it this far, which is a miraculous feat. You have met the prince, eaten at the royal dining table, and taken up the duties of a princess." The queen's voice has now softened and her chin warbles.
"It's been a pleasure hosting you I hope that this will not be the last time we meet. There are always event here at the palace and you will always be invited." One of the girls bursts out sobbing again due to the queen's pep talk. Has she done this with the previous girls?
"Is there anything any of you would like to say before departing?" she asks.
"This has been the best experience of my life," the sobbing girl says and sniffles. Tiny speaks up.
"You have a wonderful home and I'm going to miss everyone, even the staff," she states as tears stream down her face. I listen intently as they continue to name things they loved and are going to miss about the castle. Prince Maxon, the food, their maids, the photo shoots, almost everything. Tears start to stream down my face even though I'm not leaving today. Hopefully reality doesn't pull me back until after the marriage. Maybe it won't pull me back at all.
Queen Amberly exits and the noise in the women's room is decreased down to sniffles.
"You," one girl says and points to me. I look around to make sure she is not talking to somebody else.
"Yes?" I say confusedly.
"That's a camera, right? You're a photographer?" I shift my camera bag on my shoulder and nod my head.
"Please come take some pictures of us," she says. She wants pictures of them all distraught?
Either way, it's my job to adhere to the wishes of the Selected when it comes to picture taking, so, I take my camera out and walk over to where they are all sitting. The girls hoist each other up and get into a line. Their arms are draped around each other and I lift the camera.
"Look happy, everyone," the girl who asked for the photo says.
"Okay, I'm taking the picture in 3…2….1," I say and snap a picture.
"May we see?" another girl asks.
"Sure," I say and open the photo up on the camera screen. The girls huddle around me to look at the photo.
"Thank you so much, can you send that to us?" the same girl asks and turns to the others. "Now we can remember each other, together, for a long time." Now everyone starts to cry, even me. I understand now, that they want to remember each other all together at one time, showing their friendship through their tears.
Later that day
My footsteps pound on the floor of the hall as I run to the prison. Silvia had sent me a message telling me to meet her there. What if it's because Austin was found and he told about me? No, he wouldn't do that.
I burst into the hall lined with cells and see Silvia standing in the middle of the space with pursed lips and a manicured hand on her hips.
She sees me and looks up. "Oh, Sky, you're here!" she says with fake enthusiasm. "Come this way." Her heels clack as she leads me a short distance to the end of the hall and through a door. There's a group of about five people blocking my view of the second half of this small room. All of them are men with black suits and they look at me and whisper before parting. There, strapped to a chair in the middle of the room, is Miranda. The Miranda, from underground, who was fraternizing with Damian back before the whole kidnapping ordeal.
A balding man with a pudgy build stands in front of me, blocking my view of Miranda's sneering face.
"Hello, I'm Stephen," he says in a gruff voice. "We've been interrogating rebels from the underground base and none of them have given hints to who their leader is or where they came from. You are only here because we want you to try to talk to her before physical punishment is necessary. We may have you do the same for some other rebels." I stare blankly at him and try to keep my mouth from drooping open in shock. Make her talk? How do I make her talk? She won't tell me a thing.
"You shouldn't be making her do this, she is only a girl," Silvia complains. Stephen stares at her blankly.
"All the participants in the Selection are only girls, but one of them will soon be a princess," he counters. "I have permission from the king to do this." Silvia again purses her lips and then storms out the door.
"We are going to leave you two alone to talk, as I'm sure our presence won't help extract any answers," Stephen says before leading the group of men out of the room and shutting the door behind them. I'm left alone staring at Miranda awkwardly.
"Are you going to get on with it?" she asks snarkily. I step closer to her and bend down,
"Do you have any family?" I ask quickly. I am no master interrogator. In fact, I hate interrogations.
"Dead," she states with a cheerfully fake smile.
"What's your real name?"
"Miranda Porter," she says simply. I doubt she is telling the truth.
"Who old are you?"
"19."
"Where did you live before underground?"
"Somewhere." I roll my eyes at that one. Miranda sits up a little straighter in her chair.
"I know what you really want to know," she states confidently. I give her a confused look. What do I need to know that hasn't already been revealed?
"You want to know what I am to Damian," she states. I hadn't even thought of that. Okay… maybe I had. But only for a brief second because he is a jerk and it doesn't matter.
"There are probably microphones or cameras in here," I state. If she goes talking about Damian then the people will know he was related to underground.
"Do you see any cameras? No. In a room with only a chair and walls there is no place to hide one. Check under the chair if you must." I do just that and see nothing suspicious.
"Damian and I dated underground and everything was going beautifully until you came along," she says without any prompting from me.
"Why are you telling me this?" I ask.
"Because I'm going to be killed anyways and have some stuff to say," she says and then clears her throat. "I drugged your drink that one meal so that you would go make sweet kisses with Austin and Damian would realize you were not available and didn't want him. You can imagine how I felt when that backfired and you ended up slobbering with Damian, my Damian." Now her voice is raised and she is almost spitting. I almost feel bad for her, but the rage at her drugging my drink overcomes the pity.
"So you just drugged me and didn't expect anything to happen!" I yell angrily. She snarls at me and shifts in her chair.
Her eyes calm and her voice takes on more of an irritated tone than an angry one. "Gen, that bastard, was rude and controlling. What an ass hole. I know I'm not the only one he yelled at." I'm guessing she got tired of talking about Damian so switched topics abruptly.
Suddenly the door to the room bursts open. A security guard and the other men walk into the room with Stephen in the front.
"Is anything wrong? We heard yelling," he says, sounding almost concerned for my safety. But the look in his eye tells me he couldn't give a rat's ass.
"I think I'm done," I say and turn as Miranda looks at me and a sickening smile spreads on her face.
"Did you discover any information?" Stephen asks. I shake my head and the group turns to leave the room when Miranda yells.
"Wait!" she screams and then calms down. The sickening smile is back. "You might find some clues to your mystery at the household of Gen Kuroki."
END
Ilona18: Oh yea, the action (along with the romance) is what I love writing most
Zalibeeth1: Good plan, but when an Ali-wan is with you it's hard to fit in places haha!
Guest: Logical, so that you are more in and away from the rebels towards the edge of the castle
Yes, I know. It's been a month. I suck.
I have a long list of excuses, but I'm just going to say two.
1. My computer broke. Yea, it doesn't work anymore :(
2. I want to do other things for now
Recently all I have been thinking about is writing a book, and with the many plots in my head to explore I've lost interest for now in this fic. I love this even though it is poorly written for me and has enough plot holes to hold the water of the ocean. I've written this for fun and do plan to write a second and third, this time completely planning out each chapter beforehand and rereading the books a bunch. I just don't when I'm going to do that, write more. A month? A few months? A year? No…probably not a year. I just want to say this has been fun and I WILL continue it someday in the near future (and will soon be posting a short fanfic on a different book, pre-written). Thank you so much for reading this far and you have no idea how much the reviews affect me; pushing me to do better and touching me dearly. Oh god I'm babbling. Anyways, I'm still taking name suggestions for the second book, try out anything and maybe yours will be the one (hehe). Well, for now, I'm outta here!