“HELP!!” I scream from my room. “HELP! THEY’LL KILL ME!!!” I hear them thump down the hall as I sit on the ledge of my window. The hoard of maids and guards that come when I call burst through the door. I push myself out the window, letting out a blood cuddling scream. As I fall, I can imagine the gasps of horror as they watch me plummet. Everyone always forgets I can’t die. When my back hits the ground, I pretend to be dead. It’s too funny. I wait a few minutes for them to find me, but soon enough, my maid, Lilian, cradles me. I hear her crying as she holds me. Stupid. I open my eyes and yell. “BOO!” She screams, stumbling back. I cackle with laughter. “Julian!” She screeches. “Dont keep scarring us like that!” “Why?” She shakes her head. “Ever since the whiches went missing, your father’s been worried! What if suddenly, you CAN die? What if the spells are reversed?” I roll my eyes. She takes my hand and walks me to the castle. I’m about to shake her off when she looks me in the eyes. “Next time you call, we are not coming.” Her voice is stern and I can tell she’s trying to scare me. All it really means though, is that my little game is over. I’ll find something else to do.

Night drifts in, the sun setting outside. Lilian told me to be in bed half an hour ago, but I’m not tired. I had taken the darts from my fathers dart board earlier, and now, I throw them at my door, back to my window. THUNK. I hit the little makeshift target dead centre. THUNK. I sigh, wishing I was tired now, because this is getting boring. I throw the last dart. THUNNKK. The noise is so loud, I’m sure my dart couldn’t have made it. I whip around to see a shadowed figure standing on my window ledge, blade at his hip. “Hey! Get out of my room!” I shout. Candle light glints of his smile. “Rude. Demanding. Just like your father.” Says the man. I feel a knot gather in my chest. “I am the high prince of the realm. Listen to me!” “No.” “Who is it that you claim to be, that you can defy me?” I ask. Then he steps into the light where I can clearly see him. Shock suddenly fills me at the sight. “You’re… you’re a WOMAN?” This seems to make her angry. She draws the long, sharp blade from her hip, and I see the light glint off of it. “Are you afraid, little princeling?” She asks, a growl in her voice, and I laugh. They want to kill me. “No!” I reply, feeling confident. “You CANT kill me! How stupid are you?” Suddenly, the blade is at my throat, point pressed against my neck. I feel a prick, and a single drop of blood falls down my neck. It’s so small, but I know this must be pain. It stings like nothing I’ve ever felt. I’ve never bled a drop until now, and a true terror shoots through me. It must register on my face, because the woman smiles. “Are you afraid NOW?” She asks, and I scream. “HELP! HELP ME!! SOMEONE, PLEASE!!” No one comes though. I’m hysterical. Tears flow, and my eyes burn, for I’ve never had the need to cry so much before. The woman slowly traces the blade down my chest, causing a thin cut to form before the tip rests over my heart. Then, without hesitation, she buries the sword in my chest. I let out a scream to rival any other. It pierces the silence of the night, and rings out across the land. As though my own pain was causing the world agony, the trees outside fall, and the grass turns to black. The lakes dry up suddenly, and mountains crumble in the distance. I keel over, my body curving in around the blade. Maybe it was to my disadvantage that I never knew what hurting felt like, because in this moment, I am crushed by the weight of this new feeling. Blood runs across the wooden floor, flowing over my pale fingers, and the last thing that crosses my mind before I die is that no one came. They must have thought it another joke. It is my own fault, this cruel fate of mine. Mine and mine alone.