**Retracing my thoughts, I knew I should’ve asked for her name to see how easily it can slip off my mouth - whatever it is. Looking at the sky before me gives me slight reminiscence of my mother, if she was here she would tell me to run after her because true love comes only once in a lifetime. Instead, I stay here thinking about what could’ve been dancing with her. Those sweet eyes looking into mine, not taking a blink away and submerging myself into beautiful colours. I would dive and let myself drown in ways I never thought possible, love taking me over like a disease. My heart would burst like it is now, but instead of happiness it is a blue feeling of regret. Regret, because I haven’t asked her a single question of getting to know the girl who is making me feel like she is the queen of my dreams. All thoughts are of her, and I’m imagining what it would have been like dancing with her to the swift flow of string instruments filling the air with such elation. Maybe running after her isn’t a bad idea after all. **

**Picking myself up from this gazebo, I look upon the fields of endless wonder and believe that this is it. I go the same route as her back into the palace through this door that opens to a small hallway. The music is singing to a room of elegant people, dancing fluidly before I make myself disappear through an archway that has stairs twisting up to the floor above. Even though that this castle is my home, I still get lost daily. When I reach the top of the stairs, I notice a small commotion around my father’s study where my eyes narrow and a stern look crosses my face. I walk towards his study in a slow pace trying to figure out what is happening as the girl said she’s talking with my father, but surely a conversation needs to be behind closed doors. “What’s going on here?” I say just only a few inches away. The commotion spilts between so that I can see a woman standing next to my father, carrying his head in her hand. This woman has emerald eyes; eyes that don’t belong to a killer and ones that I have made myself fallen for. **

**I feel myself falling into the abyss of her eyes, falling into the depths because love at first sight has fooled me. I made myself look stupid for believing something so good happen to me, but no. The woman I have fallen for is a killer, one that has killed my father. “I found her like this,” someone says next to me but I ignore them as I take a few steps into the room, closer to my insanity. **

**She looks at me with eyes that are bulging of innocence, the emerald broken and lost it’s shine. “I didn’t do this,” she says while everyone behind me laughs at how stupid her remark is. “I promise Silas, I didn’t kill your father. I swear on my own life that I didn’t kill him.”**

**I trust her words; but no one else does. “You lot go enjoy the ball, I’ll sort this little mishap,” I say to shove these bypassers back to their dancing while I try to piece this together. They listen to me as I hear their feet scurrying away. **

**This stranger who stands before me is someone I hardly know. “Who are you?” I ask wanting to hear words of innocence so I don’t have to give her punishment - ****_no I shall never. _**

**“You should believe that I am your father’s killer, and hate me for who I am,” she says placing my father’s head back onto the table. **

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**This is an extract from my current work in progress which is called A Heart in a Storm, so I hope that you have enjoyed reading this and thank you. **