The Girl with the Violet Eyes Read online

  Chapter 3

  I leap up with great agility and manage to squeeze by the stranger without him realizing what is happening. I only have a backpack so I don't need to fight the overhead compartment for any luggage and I run off the bus without looking behind me. I walk quickly away from the bus until I spot an empty bench and then I sit down and take my backpack off. I check my phone to see what time it is. The numbers blink up at me revealing that it is 10 minutes past 2 pm. I unzip my backpack and grab the book that is lying on top, flipping it to the first page. Before I can even get to the second paragraph someone sits down right beside me. I blow my bangs out of my face and sigh. The nerve of some people, I mean why can't they pick somewhere else to sit there's at least 10 other benches open near us.

  “Ma'am you didn't think you could outrun me, did you?” a familiar southern accent asks from the other side of me.

  “Listen, I don't know who you are and maybe in Jacksonville it's okay to stalk women that you just met and tell them all kinds of crazy lies about how they are princesses but where I'm from there is such thing as being a gentleman and taking a girl out on a date before you stalk them.” I say coldly but then I notice something odd happening to the bus station which had been packed with people a few seconds ago. It becomes completely and eerily empty and the voices have ceased. I begin to spin around in a black abyss and my organs feel as if they are falling out in space with me. I can feel something close to me although it feels very distant, and I close my eyes bracing for impact. Is this what it feels like to faint? Am I fainting or am I falling? Maybe I'm dying. That has to be it; this must be what death feels like.

  “You can open your eyes now, Ma'am” The voice says.

  I open my eyes to find that my former setting has changed. I have gone from an enormous bus station lobby in the middle of downtown to a very familiar place. It's the kitchen of my old house, and everything is as it was when I left it on my 13th birthday. The dishes are still stacked way up high, its amazing how they don't fall and crash to pieces on the floor. Everything is still disorderly; there are papers everywhere and a giant bookshelf full of my father’s odd findings and rare books. The books were all in alphabetical order and the top shelf had knickknacks like a giant shark tooth, a painting done of my parents in Paris near the Eiffel Tower, and a little golden elephant with amethyst eyes. The place still smells like chocolate chip cookies and the dusty books my father loved. I can smell a hint of the cigars my dad used to smoke when he was stressed in his study. I remember sitting by the door and letting the strong smell dwell in my nostrils, and sometimes I would go in the study and sit in his chair just to smell that smell again. I was home again and I didn't realize I missed it so much until this very moment.

  “Why did you bring me here?” I look up at the stranger trying to hide my frustratio “I don't know it must have been the closest place to the bus station that you knew of. Teleportation devices only work on places that are near you if you have more than one person using them, but if there is only one person then you can travel anywhere that your heart desires.” he tells me matter-of-factly.

  “Don't people live here? I mean I haven't been here since I was 13, and I know my mother is in the insanity ward so why is everything exactly the same?” I ask.

  “That is simple because your father came back to this house. He searched for you for years but couldn't find you so the only place that he knew of that you might return to someday was here.” He answers looking at me sadly.

  “Well he didn't look very hard then because I'm sure he could have found me in the orphanage that I was sent to.” I say grumpily pouting my lips.

  “Just try to forgive your father; He had no idea where you ran away to or where you were sent and he really was genuinely concerned for your safety, but he also had a kingdom to look after.” The boy says.

  “If he would have told me this sooner then everything would have made sense but now it's just so confusing and the only reason I even believe you is because you used that weird teleportation thing to get us here. Otherwise, I would be calling the cops before you could blink.” I look over at him, and he's beaming at me because he knows this means I finally gave in.

  “So you believe me. Good, I need you to trust me because I have to protect you and try to explain to you the circumstances of our situation so I need you to tell me in these exact words, I believe you Theo.” Theo says mockingly.

  I watch him, and then I give out a sigh of relief thinking that maybe I'm not crazy and the conversation on the bus was real because his name is Theo. So maybe this isn't a lie, and maybe my father is the king of some farfetched place. It would make sense if he were the king that his job had to come before his family and all the times my mother said he had affairs after work he probably had to take care of the kingdom. I stare up at the ceiling now realizing that I never really knew my father. I lay my head gently down on the table as my heart feels like it's going to escape my chest, and the lump in my throat becomes to large to ignore, and I begin to cry. Theo walks over to my side and puts a comforting arm around me, but I can't stop crying. It makes me feel worse that this stranger that I just met has to comfort me.

  “There, there it’s okay, everything is going to be just fine.” He whispers as he rubs my back, but nothing helps and after five minutes of me crying I hear him mumble a chant under his breath, and my heart is filled with joy.

  “What did you just do?” I say giving him a surprised look.

  “Just a trick I picked up when I was younger, and if you can stop crying for five minutes I can teach you all the tricks I know.” He says, giving me a mischievous smirk.

  “Fine.”, I say a bit exasperated.

  “Anyways so I guess I should begin by telling you all the things that I know about our world, and what is happening. You'll have to wait to see what we are until we reach the kingdom because the word that we are triggers the seekers to come and find us.” He says.

  “Please tell me everything you know.” I look at him hopefully waiting for answers.

  “I can't until you say, I trust you Theo.” He says.

  “Fine.” I say exasperatedly, “I trust you Theo.”

  “It all began a long time ago when your mother was pregnant with you, your parents were so proud. Your mother had the abilities of a seer, a very powerful ability to see the future which is much different from a human seeker. Your mother foretold of terrible things if you stayed at the palace. Your father had a very trusted advisor named Mathew, who also happened to be his best friend, but the advisor was very powerful and very evil; He grew weary of pretending to be good.”

  “One night while your mother and father slept in their private chambers after a long, exhausting day of meetings with the citizens the advisor snuck into their room and tried to implant horrible memories into your parents minds. He succeeded in implanting memories into your mothers mind, but the king was aware that something was terribly wrong and jumped out of bed. When he realized it was Mathew he was in shock but quickly came to his senses and was able to pin Mathew against the wall until the guards came to take him away.”

  “Your father tried for many years to find cures to rid your mother of the implanted memories, but there were none. She would never be the same person she once had been. Mathew was exiled from the kingdom on account of treason and he was sent to the human world. The kingdom put an enchantment on Mathew to strip him of his powers once he reached the human world. They did not realize that the human world had already been enchanted many years ago to allow us to keep our powers for survival so Mathew came to this world with his abilities still intact and has been wrecking havoc on the world ever since.”, Theo finished taking a deep breath because he had tried to tell me the sentence as quickly as possible.

  “Oh.” I respond in shock.

  “That is not everything of course. The reason your father sent me here was to be your protector but I also had to come for his body.” He looks at me and his cheeks turn a
bright crimson red. I do not say anything but stare up at the ceiling. I'm not sure how I feel about him being sent here to retrieve my fathers dead body, I am angry because I feel like the guy is a grave robber but I try not to mouth my opinions. I just sit in awkward silence.

  “I realize that I sound like a crazy person, but I'm telling you the truth. Your father was poisoned and our kind cannot die unless we are poisoned by wolf venom. Our kind survives until our 4,000th day. I realize this is a lot to take in because you grew up in the human world and it seems unbelievable but I would never lie to you.” He looks genuinely at me.

  “So we are not immortal? We can die but we get to live thousands of years, that seems like an unfair trade-off.” I say glumly.

  “An unfair trade-off; would you rather be a human? Humans only get a life-span of 70-80 years if they do not die of illness or an unforeseen accident first? We get to live exactly 4,000 years, not a day less or a day more and we all die the exact same way.” He says.

  I ponder what he just said, I have never thought about my future. I have never considered that if I were human I would only get to live another 50 or 60 more years, but now that I could live 4,000 years I could do anything I wanted. I feel better now although I do not like to think about death, I feel relieved that I get longer to ponder life and its meaning.

  “Do you still feel that it is unfair?” He asks.

  “No. 4,000 years seems acceptable but is there any case where our kind can live longer.

  “Can we gain immortality ever?” I ask.

  “There have only been 2 cases in our recorded history where our race has been given immortality. In one case, they were given immortality because we needed a historian to keep a written record of our history. She is one of the first of our kind and she will be the last. The second case was one of our kind who had no other abilities but immortality. He had a twin, and she gained all the powers leaving him with nothing. His entire life he lived without having any other abilities and when his 4,000th day came and went, he had not died but kept living on. He helps our historian keep track of our races history now and they are happily married able to live an eternity together.”, He answers looking frustrated and his eyes glitter with jealous venom.

  “Why did you answer the question in that way?” I ask.

  “In what way do you mean?” He questions.

  “You answered my question as if you were envious, and these two were undeserving of immortality.” I respond.

  “Oh, I hadn't realized that I showed my emotions so well to you. It isn't that I feel they are undeserving but I find it unfair that royalty as yourself and your father should not be given immortality.”, He answers looking down in embarrassment.

  “Thank you for your kind words but just because someone is royalty does not mean that they should not be given the same restrictions as others. If you think about these two people that will live for eternity they will also never experience death, and they will have to live forever watching their friends and family die around them.” I say, feeling sorry for the immortal historians.

  “I did not mean to offend you princess, and I had never looked at our historians in that way.”, He answers.

  I begin to feel tired as I notice the sun setting and the sky darkening into a deep violet shade, the cicadas are humming a song unintelligible to human ears in the distance, and the shadows fall around us in the kitchen. I close my eyes exhausted and lean my head back letting my hair fall around me. I reach my arms as high as they will go and yawn lazily.

  “Are you tired Princess?” asks Theo.

  “Yes I'm exhausted. I think I'm going to go to bed but we can talk more tomorrow. You can sleep in the guest bedroom if you would like.” I say.

  “No, I must stay awake to guard and protect you in case we have intruders in the middle of the night. Now that Mathew knows you are still alive I cannot take any chances of him coming to poison you the way he poisoned the king so easily and left him to die here.” He says seriously.

  “Mathew poisoned my father? So that's what killed him?” I ask. “I was unaware of this; even the autopsy said it was the fall that killed him.” I say in disbelief.

  “Mathew probably implanted them with memories so they would tell you that he fell.” He answers.

  I stare at him with intrigue. No one has ever stood up for me, or tried to save me from anything. He looks so brave, strong, and attractive in the shadow filled kitchen. He is in that perfect age where his face is still boyishly charming but his body is muscular and manly. I want to run full speed at him and leap in his arms. I scratch my arm awkwardly and look down at my feet. I have never felt so protected and safe in my life, but I am a realist and I know that my life is not meant to be something like a romance novel would portray it to be.

  “Thank you.” I whisper and turn from him to go upstairs.

  He grabs my arm and I spin around to turn towards him. He is inches from my face, I can feel his hot breath on my cheeks. I breathe him in smelling leather and fresh cut grass. He smells like springtime and joy. I close my eyes thinking he wants to kiss me. We just stand like this for a few minutes and he sighs. He lets go of my arm and steps back.

  “I will be here for you always to serve and protect you, Alison.” He says looking into my eyes longingly.

  “I know, Theo. I appreciate this, I mean it. Could you walk me to my room please?” I say nervously.

  “Um... sure.” He says shakily.

  We walk up to my room in silence. I reflect on our moment in the kitchen with a thousand thoughts rushing through my mind. Why didn't he kiss me? Why can't he just take me in his arms now? I grab onto the polished wooden banister my shaky knees struggling to keep my balance. Am I in love? I can't be in love with this guy. We just met today, but he is so beautiful and so different from any other boy I have ever met. I look up to see his eyes gleaming in the darkness, and he walks with a grace that my eyes have never seen. He is like nothing I have ever seen, probably like nothing I will ever see again. He stops and looks back at me smiling making his silver eyes squint and light up the darkness. He reaches his hand down to me and I grab onto it, he pulls me up the stairs and into his arms. He envelops me in a big hug and I cannot breathe. He lifts me up with ease and I can feel his muscles tightening beneath his shirt. His breath and his heart rate quicken to an unfathomable pace as he holds me close. My stomach twists and I squeeze my eyes shut as he carries me against his well-shaped body. He brings me to my bedroom and lays me down on the bed, I wait for him to pounce on me but he just stands over me. I can smell the familiar leather and grassy scent swirl around me. He bends down and kisses me on the forehead and walks towards the door but turns around as if forgetting something.

  “Good night, my beautiful princess.” He whispers and it echoes behind him as he shuts the door silently.

  Royal Threats