Sunday, August 23rd, 2015
Alice had always thought there would be some sort of sign when the world was about to change. A subtle warning, perhaps a change in the air to reflect the events about to unfold. In the variety of novels and films, the young princess loved to devour the atmosphere would always coincide with the mood of whatever was about to take place. Rain would fall, and thunder would boom in the distance as an omen of the things to come. As it turned out, in reality, such an environmental narrative did not exist.
The day the world collapsed around Alice sending her pleasant, carefree life into freefall, it was a gorgeous sunny day. The air was cool but not too chilly, the perfect weather to show off her new pea coat. She'd gone down to the gardens with her cousin Edythe to enjoy the beautiful autumn weather and discuss the redhead's upcoming move to America to study music. The girls had chosen a beautiful spot along a wooded path where they could admire the leaves that were just beginning to change color. Alice could remember laughing with her cousin as she lay down on the grass, looking up at the clouds. She listened with sincere interest as Edythe spoke with a rare enthusiasm of all the places she wanted to see in America. A simple, pleasant, and calm moment surrounded by shades of red, orange, and gold.
That's when it happened. Alice saw Peter running through the palace gardens, distress clearly displayed on his face as he made his way towards the castle. Alice sat up immediately and exchanged a look of stunned terror with Edythe. Peter was an army medic training under Edythe's adoptive father, Carlisle. Peter was a medical professional currently sprinting toward their grandmother's quarters with a medical bag strapped to his back.
She didn't know how quickly she moved, only that the cousins were sitting in the grass one moment. The next, they were scrambling after Peter at speeds their gym teacher could only dream of seeing from the two princesses. "What's going on?" Alice shouted after Peter as the girls gradually closed the distance between themselves and the medic. A growing sense of dread was building in her stomach, and she was desperate for answers. Alice had seen her grandmother that very morning, and the Queen had seemed in excellent spirits. She couldn't imagine what medical emergency might have occurred within the few hours since their brunch.
"I'm not sure," He shouted back, his voice strained and breathless from the run. "Carlisle called and asked me to bring this bag to the queen's quarters as quickly as possible." The response caused the girls to speed up, flying through the yard, down the hallways, and finally into the corridor to their grandmother's apartment. Outside there were an array of people milling about. A handful of the Queen's advisers were gathered in a corner discussing something in hushed tones. More worryingly, two senior military officers were barking orders at the largest number of guards the princess had ever seen concentrated in one area.
Peter hurried towards the door and was quickly admitted into the apartment by a guard. Alice made to follow the man but was stopped suddenly by a gentle hand on her shoulder and a voice that she knew very well pleading with her. "Alice, please, trust me. You don't want to go in there." She looked up to meet the eyes of Jasper Whitlock, Duke of the Oseal region and, more importantly, her best friend.
Alice tried to push past him, but the man insisted. He gazed at her with a grim, pleading expression looking her dead in the eyes. "You don't need to see this," Jasper whispered seriously and turned to look at Edythe as if though the eldest of the two girls were an afterthought. "Neither of you do."
Alice, never the type to be satisfied unless she saw things for herself, shoved past her friend with fierce determination. It was a decision she would forever regret as the sight she was met with was one she would never in her life be able to erase from her memory.
There was another thing books, and films got wrong. They consistently described the deceased as having the appearance of being asleep, as if they were locked in a peaceful slumber and may awaken at any moment. Alice disagreed. Even without the crimson blood pooling around her grandmother's throat where a silver dagger was stabbed through the elderly woman's trachea, there would still be no mistaking the scene for what it was.
When people were sleeping, there was still movement. Subtle twitches of the face, the rise and fall of their chest as they inhaled and exhaled. Queen Alyssia showed no such signs of life as she lay motionless on the floor of her sitting room, her eyes open glassy and unmoving. It was, by and large, a scene of abject horror.
"Grandmother?" Alice managed to choke out as she staggered towards the corpse lying in the middle of the room. Her limbs felt numb, moving purely on impulse to reach out for the woman she cared for so deeply. Alice could sense Jasper's presence next to her, having followed closely after her into the crime scene. She was only mildly aware of the comforting arm her friend slung around her shoulders, likely the only thing keeping the girl upright.
Alice's words had drawn the attention of the other occupants of the room. Still leaning over the body, Carlisle looked up to meet the princess's eyes, conveying an expression of sincere sympathy. Guards stationed at each point of entry and exit refused to look in her direction. Alice was unsure if it was out of respect for her loss or guilt for failing to do their job in the most deadly capacity.
Edgar Brandon had been pacing in the corner of the room, screaming into a phone pressed to his ear. Her father was the only one who spoke, addressing his eldest daughter with a gentleness that seemed foreign coming from the stern man. "Mary-Alice? - What are you doing here? Get her out of here!" The last words were addressed to Jasper, who nodded in obedience and guided the shaken princess back outside.
Jasper kept his arm firmly wrapped around her shoulder until they reached a bench where Edythe was sitting waiting. "I'm so sorry, Alice." The duke whispered before rushing back to the thick crowd of people gathered outside the chambers of the late Queen to help handle barely organized chaos.
"What's happened, Alice?" Edythe asked, her voice soft and timid, the truth likely already at the forefront of her mind.
"Grandmother is dead. Stabbed. In the throat." The words felt thick and wrong in her mouth, as true as they were. Saying it out loud made it more real; she didn't want it to be real.
The girls sat on that bench, staring straight ahead out of the window directly in front of them. They had a perfect view of the gardens where barely half an hour earlier, they had been laughing together, enjoying the afternoon. The blanket on which they had been seated to keep the grass off of their clothes was still laid out, awaiting their return. It was only twenty minutes ago if her watch was correct, but to the princess of Ailand, whose life had just changed irrevocably, it seemed like a completely different lifetime.