S.U.R.V.I.V.E. by shadowgirl416
Beta Reader: Avatarfan445 :D!
Chapter 2: Deal
"Erika?" he called, as he found her pacing in their garden.
She glared at him and stood quietly.
"What happened?" he asked, her face stood the same and she didn't answer. He walked closer to her, aiming to touch her shoulder but she dodge his hand.
"Honey, what's wrong?" he really didn't knew what was wrong with her.
She was like this since the party started - she even insulted raised an eyebrow; a disbelieving expression mixed with a slight twist of insanity appeared on her face.
"What's wrong?" she said, her voice rising, "What's wrong?" she asked, the second time, screaming at him. "This is all a mess!" she yelled, waving her arms in the air once.
He was trying so hard to calm her down. Dominick knew the party was a complete disaster, so he tried to comfort her.
"Erika, we can find a cake and fix the party-" she cut him off.
"I am not talking about the party, Dominick - I'm talking about my life!" the anger in her eyes seemed to be burning his.
He was very confused by this statement, her life being a mess?
That last screaming complaint caught the attention of a certain creature that was hiding in some trees of the palace's garden. Her vibrant purple eyes searched for the persons arguing in the place and an evil smirk appeared on her mouth as she spotted them.
"How can you say that?" he asked in disbelief, she frowned and crossed her arms across her chest - looking away from him as he continued: "You have everything… You have friends who adore you, you have maids that do everything for you - you don't have to do nothing around here, we have two wonderful babies and you have me - a husband that loves you with all his heart" he aimed to take her face in his hands, but she pulled away.
"When was the last time I slept the whole night?" she started - still not looking at him and retaining her pose. "When was the last time I had the chance to spend some time alone with you? The last time I woke up and had anything to do - any responsibilities? When I didn't spend every single day with a headache? … When I didn't have to be walking around the palace to help someone… when I had a day for myself…"
"Erika those are the responsibilities that require being a mother and a queen-" She looked at him, eyes getting teary.
"Then you should have warned me that marrying you would make me the world's unhappiest woman."
He felt a knife stabbing his heart a hundred times when she spat those words at him.
"You really think you would have been happier without me?" he asked, his tone low, sad and shaky.
She swallowed hard, lowered her head and nodded.
She really wasn't thinking about what she was doing or saying - she just had a message to send and she was going to deliver it whether he liked it or not.
He was trying so hard not to make his sobs audible for her, he bit his lip and tears ran down from his eyes."What can I do for you to make you happy then?" he softly whimpered, she shook her head keeping her sight concentrated on the green grass of the ground.
"Nothing" she whispered
"There must be something!" he snapped, his voice then filled with venom. She looked up and met his glassy eyes, she bit her lip.
"You can do anything…" she replied.
He thought about his kids, it was their first birthday and it was getting ruined by their own mother.
"You know what? We'll talk about this later - after the party." he said starting to walk away.
She stood there and when she felt like he was far enough -
She looked up to make sure he wasn't near her anymore.
And she stared to run - she ran past the garden - just ran and ran like if that action would take away all her problems.
Her feet started to hurt, but she kept running away from the castle.
Her vision blurred by the tears in her eyes, she kept running to were her legs took her.
After a while - her body gave in.
She collapsed on the ground, crying as hard as she could.
Some minutes later-
Then she heard steps getting closer to her, and then a finger pocked her back. Erika started to look around her, she wasn't home anymore.
More like in the middle of the near forest of her kingdom - the one that divided Anneliese's kingdom from Dominick's.
She got up from the ground and started shaking the dirt off her blue dress. She turned back and saw her crown on front of her face - she recoiled and slowly realized someone was giving it to her.
She took it and looked at the woman standing in front of her.
Her big violet eyes were what caught the queen's attention - she had never seen that eye color before.
"Your highness-" she bowed. Erika kept staring at her she had to be very poor to be dressed with that torn and ragged black cloak she had.
"Hello-" Erika replied, placing her crown on her head again. "Who are you?" the queen asked the weird stranger.
"Oh! Silly me… You may call me Lily, your majesty"
"Lily…" that name sounded familiar to her.
"Your highness, please accept this handkerchief so you may clean those tears on your face" she handed a clean and white piece of fabric to Erika - who took it and wiped her eyes dry.
"Thank you, Lily"
"May I know the reason of those tears?" the black haired woman asked, as she took back the handkerchief from her.
Erika sighed "There are too many…"
Lily raised an eyebrow and grinned "Maybe what you need is some time off, your highness"
Erika looked at the woman, she had a point.
"Would you make me the honor of joining me for some tea?"
Erika needed to talk to somebody who understood her and didn't argue back at her, a stranger would be the perfect person to discharge all of her stress.
...
"I know! It's exhausting" Erika laughed as she took another sip from her cup. Lily placed some cookies on the little wooden table and sat in front of the queen.
"I used to think about having kids - then I changed my mind when my mother gave birth to my youngest brother." Erika nodded, looking around the little house of the purple-eyed stranger named Lily.
It was somehow… dark.
Almost no windows, dust covering almost everything, books everywhere, candles glued by their own wax on every corner, and a big black drawer in a corner of the little room.
"Gothic"
"So I heard you have two of them milady-" she commented, Erika nodded and sighed again.
"I do… I love them but- they just require so much attention and energy. Combined with my royal duties is just- unbearable" Lily offered her a cookie. "Thanks" she took it.
"I understand you completely. A girl sometimes need… time to herself." Lily smirked
"Exactly!"
"Men don't need it so much, but women need spoiling…" she stood up from the chair, walking towards a drawer nearby "We need to feel special… important…beautiful…free." Erika smiled; this girl was almost reading her mind!
Lily took a paper out of the drawer and placed it in front of Erika."You know your highness. I am like… a magical creature of the woods" she bent to speak on the side of Erika's ear. "I like you… I'm just like you and you are just like me" she smirked, Erika didn't see her though.
Lily continued, "I ran away from the comforts of my old home… because my husband was caging me inside a house. And I wanted to be free, free to do whatever I wanted… so I came here and decided to start a new life with my magic."
Erika raised an eyebrow; Lily looked at her more directly."That's why I've decided to give you a very special deal." Lily looked at the paper on the table; Erika followed her gaze and read the pretty bold letters that started the writing on the paper...
'Free For A Day'
She liked what she was seeing, but wasn't sure what it was.
"What is this?"
"This is your ticket to a whole day for yourself-" Lily grinned; Erika gave her a doubtful look."Allow me to explain - No husband, no work, no palace, no visitors, no babies, no anything that will bother you, just you and the world, you and your day - alone!"
Erika felt the happiness as she imagined all she could do in a day alone. It wouldn't hurt anyone, just one vacation day and then she will be happy to go back to her life.
But-
Should she really trust this stranger? She was offering way too much for nothing, something was fishy.
"Wait-" Lily looked at her."What's the catch?" Erika didn't know this 'magical creature's' intentions - the black haired woman grinned.
"If it was for me, I wouldn't ask for anything back but- this is a deal and it has it's rules." Erika raised an eyebrow. "To make the magic work you have to give something to get something… to make it clear to you - I give you a day you give me a day." the pale woman explained, the blue eyed one kept being doubtful.
"What about my family? I can't just disappear and leave them-"
"But that's the best part! It's a magical contract, they won't even know you're gone…and by the time this day is up you'll feel like a changed woman" Erika fell silence for a moment. "This is magic, safe magic, your majesty. Feel free to choose to be free for a day and relax- or wake up tomorrow with a pile of work to do" Lily kept insisting - Erika nodded.
"So what day would I have to give up?" she asked
"Any day you want, a day in your life that you don't really like or don't remember…a day that you wouldn't mind getting rid of … a day from your childhood…maybe when you were a mindless little baby"
That's a very good deal then. A day? That's all?
"I deserve a day for myself and a day from my childhood to forget won't hurt me - it wasn't that pretty either."
"Well… I guess I could give you one of the days of my childhood."
"Perfect!" she exclaimed, as she handed Erika a black feather to sign the watched her signing her name, her heart on her mouth, her hands shaking…
The queen was really doing it!
"Okay, so what's next, Lily?" Erika finished, handing the feather to the other was shocked and just giggled with excitement - she had done it!
"Just have a wonderful day, Erika" then she began laughing evilly and loudly.
'Can't wait to see Frederick's face!'
Everything started to crumble, it started to disintegrate!
Fading and falling to pieces - the world was falling on her...
She fell hard on the ground, her back aching like it never had.
"Did I just fall from the sky?"
She slowly sat back up, looking around her.
She was in a garden… in a really familiar garden… she was in her garden!
But it wasn't like she last remembered it, it was dry and dead.
No flowers, no animals…no life, only the dry dead trees and some leaves on the ground.
She looked around, and finally stood up, shaking the grass off her dress and hair.
She saw a guard passing by, his uniform was very different from the ones she had on her guards.
"Hey, you!" she called, he looked at her. "What happened to my garden?" she asked, he instantly pointed his spear towards her.
She recoiled but frowned at him."What do you think you're doing?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Who are you?" he asked, she gasped. How couldn't he recognize her?
"I am Queen Erika." he chuckled
"Well 'Queen Erika' where's your crown?" He asked pointed at her head, which felt lighter somehow.
She touched it and it wasn't there - only hair!
He leaned closer at her, examining all her facial features - a grin appeared on his face and he grabbed her arm and pulled her along with him.
"Come with me-" he said.
Author's note:
A huge and special thanks for my beta reader: Avatarfan445 - Thank you soo much for helping me out! :D
So, you can guess everything that will happen next - I think ;D.
And thank you very much to everyone that left a review, it's very supporting to know people enjoy the things you write :D!
So PLEASE, leave a review! Tell me what you think!