After those two really short chapter I decided to give you a exciting/long chapter to satisfy your cravings!

THIS CHAPTER IS A LITTLE SAD/INTENSE/ROUGH JUST A SMALL WARNING!

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: BLUE BRUISES

Pierce

As I walk down the hallway after breakfast, going towards my office, I heard sobbing coming from another room. I bit my lip. If it's Maggie's room, and someone's hurt her again, I'm ready to attack.

But as I get closer to the crying, and farther from Maggie's bedroom, I can't help but feel like this isn't Maggie. (No duh!)

But whoever it is, it's rough crying, like it's kind of hard to breathe and they're trying to cry in between sharp intakes of air. I creep around the corner , only to see that I've ended up in front of Abby and Gale's bedroom.

The door is wide open, but I can't see anyone inside the bedroom. I look around and see the bathroom door open, with light trickling out. I rub my forehead. I can't just barge into someone's bathroom like that? What am I a monster? That' disgusting.

But the person's breathing is getting harsher and the sobs are equally as terrible as they were minutes ago, so I decide that it's better now then ever.

I walk in and see Abigail in the bathtub, her robe wrapped around her as she lays in the empty tub. I flinch when I see her. She has bruises all over her. Black and blue, she has a black eye, and her forehead has cuts on it. Her cheek is bleeding and I see bottles and glass all over the floor. What happened in here?

"Abby?" I touch her shoulder and she flinches, looking up at me with tears in her eyes. I gulp. Those tears were burning the inside of me. Who would do this to her?

"What happened Abigail?" I question but then she bolts up from her seat in the tub, crying harder now.

"Pierce please don't do anything!" She cries, her voice sounds hysterical.

"What are you talking about? What happened?" I touch her shoulder again, but she cries. I take a step back and she speaks again, "Pierce don't hurt him, he wasn't himself! He didn't mean it!" Hurt who?

I rub my head. Looking at the ground I see a picture of Abby and Gale, but it's torn in two. I pick it up and put the two pieces together. Then I growl and rip Gale's head in half. He did this?! He beat my cousin and then just walked away?!

"What the heck Abby!" I yelled and she winced.

"Please don't hurt him Pierce, he didn't mean it," she whispered and I growled.

"Oh well isn't that strange how I have a hard time believing that!" I yell and walk out of the bathroom, with her trailing along, pulling at my arm and trying to slow me down.

"Where did that stupid coward go?!" I ask her and she shakes her head tears streaming down her cheeks, "No, Pierce please, he didn't mean it, he's sorry, he wasn't himself."

Wasn't himself, wasn't himself?!

"I can't believe what I'm hearing!" I yell and then behind me I hear the door creak a little and I turn around to face a messy looking Gale. His shirt's a mess his hair looks frumpy and I can't even stare at his eyes which are baggy and tired.

"What is he doing here Abby?" Gale asked and he took a step closer to me. It was obvious who was taller, stronger, and older. It was me. Gale was a few inches shorter then me, not as big and he was probably seventeen.

"What am I doing here?!" I yelled, "What are you doing in the palace?! What are you doing with my cousin?!"

Gale turned to face Abigail, "You told him?"

"N-no I swear I didn't. Please..." she cried and I growled.

"TOLD ME?!" I yelled. "I'm pretty sure it's obvious Gale. Get out of here before I call some guards to take you out themselves. You aren't welcome at the palace anymore and you aren't welcome with my cousin."

Gale huffed and turned, but Abby's eyes widened and she raced towards him, grabbing his arm, "Gale wait!"

But he didn't wait, he shoved her off of him and onto the floor, making my heart speed up and my anger rise. If only I had some kind of stick I could hit him with.

I didn't even have time to think before my anger was overwhelming me and I was shoving Gale to the ground.

"Don't. Touch. Abigail," I growled and he stood up.

I punched him in the nose and he stood back, hurt for a moment. Abigail screamed and I swallowed my nervousness. I wasn't afraid to beat this guy up. I just had to believe I could beat him. Kind of like Maggie sometimes believe she could fly.

THAT IS NOT HELPFUL!

Gale punched me in the stomach and I heard racing footsteps come down the hallway and into the room. Abigail was crying on the floor, Gale and I were trying to rip each other's heads off and there were seven guards trying to calm us down and get us away from each other.

I swung at Gale again, hitting him just below the temple. I froze as he hit the ground, the guards gathering him up. He was still alive, but if I had hit any higher, he could have died. I bit my lip, seeing Abby on the ground. She was huddled in a ball. I went to her, and wrapped my arms around her, sinking to her level. We sat there on the ground for a while before Abigail fell asleep in my arms.

I promised myself from that moment on, that nobody would hurt her, or any of my girls ever again. And I found myself needing to speak to Maggie about the picture in my bedroom.

"Your Highness," I heard one of the guards say. I lifted my head a little. It wasn't a surprise that there was a fight during my Selection. I remembered my father telling me that my mother had been slapped by one of the girl's in his Selection, and that my grandmother's older brother had punched a guy in her Selection, and that in my great grandfather's Selection there was a fight with some of the girls. (Eadlyn's Selection is the one with the older brother punching a guy and Maxon's is the one with the girls fighting. Just to clear things up.)

"Yes?" I asked, breathing into Abigail's blonde hair.

"What do you want us to do with him?" The guard asked and I felt myself become tense and angry again.

"Are we allowed to dump him in Germany? Or maybe jail?" I asked and the guard looked at me. "I suppose we could both."

"That'd be perfect."

Abigail

I woke up in the medical wing with bandages and bruises. I groaned as I sat up and saw Pierce with bandages and some bruises. I frowned. What had happened?

But I remembered it all seconds later.

Pierce beat up Gale. I felt tears prick my eyes again and I cried. Pierce, across the room, rolled his eyes at me and laid down. He didn't have to be a jerk. He didn't have to save me from Gale. I didn't need saving. I was perfectly fine! Gale was just a little tired, that was it. He didn't mean to hurt me. Gale loved me. He was the first boyfriend I ever had that loved me.

I sobbed for a long time before I felt someone touch my shoulder. I wanted it to be Gale, or Pierce saying sorry and that he'd let Gale come back, but it wasn't either of them. It was my aunt. Queen Cassia.

"Darling, you aren't' strong enough to cry," she said and I frowned. If I'm strong, then shouldn't I be crying.

"Only the strong can cry," Aunt Cassia said and I growled. Was she saying that because I was weak I couldn't cry? What did she mean? Was she saying that because I'm too weak and did nothing I don't deserve to cry?!

Oh wait...

I bundled up those tears and threw them away. I found myself believing her. If I wasn't strong enough to do anything about it, then I wasn't strong enough to cry about it. I didn't deserve those tears anyways.

"I'm sorry," I said, trying to keep my voice in tact. I didn't want it to break and end up having to be scolded again. I hated being scolded, mostly by people who weren't even my own mother. If it was my aunt scolding me, that was the worst. Because my aunt was always right, and it made me feel like I was always wrong about everything.

I wiped away a tear that had been left on my face. I missed Gale. I wanted to snuggle up with him, even though he never really liked it when I did that. Maybe she was trying to tell me that I was wrong about Gale. He hadn't really been nice to me when we were alone. Maybe when he told me he loved me, he was lying. I swallowed, rubbing my forehead. That meant Pierce had done the right thing when he attack Gale.

I hugged myself, but then realized that I shouldn't have been hugging myself.

I got up and walked over to where Pierce was lying down. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed.

"Thank you," I whispered before the tears came crawling down my face like spiders.

"You're welcome."

Queen Cassia

I smiled as they hugged and then walked away. I had just knocked some sense into Abigail, nothing else. I was glad everything was back to normal.

I opened the door to my husband, King Adam's office and poked my head in. Adam was sitting on his desk, rubbing his head in frustration.

"What'd wrong dear?" I asked, coming up to him and kissing his cheek. He smiled a little but went back to being nervous.

"It's nothing, just more of those complaints. I don't think I can take this anymore," he sighed before turning to me, "Where have you been all day?"

"With Abigail and Pierce," I answered, not telling him about Gale because I knew he'd go insane if I ever told him. He just nodded his head and pulled me closer, into a hug. He rested his chin on my head.

"Who do you think Pierce is going to choose?" He asked me and I shrugged.

"I don't know," I whispered meekly. I honestly didn't know. It was like Pierce was trying to hide his Selection girls from us, even though we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with them every single day. He never told us about his dates, and I was starting to get worried. This Selection was supposed to be talked about on the Report in two days, and Pierce wouldn't even give us his family information. Were we sure that'd he'd be willing to give the public the information they want?

"How's Maggie?" Adam asked, pressing his lips to my forehead. I shrugged again, "She's fine. I think she's going to have a good childhood like we wanted her to."

"Hopefully," he said, "We can't really afford her to have a terrible childhood."

That was the thing with Maggie. Pierce grew up with a normal childhood, it was fine, wasn't perfect, but Maggie, we felt like we needed to give her something special. Her whole life, Maggie has dreamed of having her own Selection, and getting married to a prince. Well, she would be getting married to a prince, but she wouldn't be having her own Selection, and I always knew that would break her heart some day.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead.

"I'm going to go check on her," I said and smiled at him.

"Okay."

DRAMA! I hope you liked this long chapter! It is more then 2,000 words which to most of you isn't a lot and honestly that isn't a lot to me either but that's okay. I hope you loved this story and I hope that it was okay for you!

Questions:

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THANKS FOR READING! LOVE YOU AWESOME NERDS!