Someday My Prince Will Come (epic love story) (18 page)

Suddenly, I was alone. The tears were falling down my face like a waterfall. I couldn't believe that this was happening to me. A hot drop of liquid fell onto my lower cheek and I felt the sensitivity of my skin where that vicious man had hurt me. I gently wiped my cheek off onto my shoulder and sniffed back a wave of mucus. Oh, how disgusting. I needed a tissue. Just the thought of having to use my shirt made me cry all the harder. My stomach was sore and hungry and my cheeks were burning from the hot tears. The pain developed my cries, and soon they became sobs. How long had it been already? Would they ever find me? Another tear fell

onto the tender skin of my face, and again I wiped it off with my shoulder.

Suddenly, my chin grazed something cold and thin. I frowned as I tried to realize what it was, and then rapidly, I whooped with joy as I remembered what adorned my neck! Freddie's necklace was lying with me in all of this, and my sobs became giggles. I couldn't believe my luck! Here I was crying about my rescue, when my prince was probably tracking me at this very instant. I instantly praised God for having such an overprotective boyfriend. "I'll be okay," I smiled, whispering to myself in reassurance. "Freddie will save me. I'll be okay." Eventually my tears dried as I thought about just how long it might take for him to get here. Then, in the middle of my happy thoughts, my face suddenly scrunched in aggravation. I had to go to the bathroom.

Freddie

"Prince Frederick? Prince Frederick?" I heard my name being called and lifted my head from my arms where it was softly buried. Paul's words echoed in my ears and the ringing effect made my never ending headache increase. I shook myself awake and tried to focus on Paul's blurry figure. I blinked a few times, and then saw him looking down at me with worried eyes. I saw his face overcome with fatigue and realized that I had fallen asleep at a table in the security office. It had been about 10 hours since Arianne had disappeared. I felt myself growing weaker when I thought about every minute that she had to endure; wherever she was. At the thought of Arianne, my mind suddenly jolted awake.

"Anything, anything at all?" I pressed at Paul. He solemnly shook his head and all I could do was sulk. The more I thought about it, the more my head throbbed. The more I thought about it, the more the pain in my heart scratched deeper and deeper. I let out a mournful groan. How long would it be until I saw her face again? Would I ever see her eyes shining with happiness? Would I ever see the soft hair that crowned her head, falling onto my shoulder as we embraced? The sudden thought of losing Arianne pumped me up. I looked to the table where I had scribbled down a million and four different ideas on a notepad. After the first five hours, my brain stopped working, so I was forced to use this notepad so that I could actually remember my train of thought. I looked to the clock. It read 2 o'clock a.m.

I shook my head, turning away the sudden bout of fatigue that washed over my brain. I knew I was tired, but there was no way that I would stop working; stop fighting this. Whoever was holding Arianne hostage right now would be toast by the time I was through with them. I let out a sigh and then realized that Paul was dozing off while he was standing next to me. I couldn't help but smile and I sincerely appreciated the way he had been working. He had been doing more than me, and I had already fallen asleep. I'm sure that he would be grateful for even a few hours of rest.

"Paul," I said softly, still grinning like a maniac. "Go get some rest. I'll handle everything for a while." He shook his head in disagreement after wobbling his head around a few times. I frowned at his stubbornness, but inside I applauded at his diligence of duty for this country. "There's no option, Paul. As your superior I command you; go get some rest."

Paul looked at me funnily after my little spiel, but firmly nodded and said, "Oui, altesse."

My smile grew wider. I watched him stumble off as he tried to conceal a yawn. What a great person. He was sacrificing himself for something that I loved. He hadn't even met Arianne. I looked about the room and saw all of the night security doing random things around the office. Sentimentality welled into my aching heart, calming in down somewhat. Each one of these men was doing something for me and my country. It really made a guy appreciate life more.

Three hours passed, and no matter how much I thought about my Arianne, nothing seemed to take away the sting of sleep that begged for attention. I stood up, trying to wake myself up, but it was absolutely impossible at this point. It had been a long day; a very long day, and my mind resisted the war against slumber, but my body eventually won the battle. A few of the head security officers helped me to my room and I collapsed onto the bed. The instant my head hit the pillow, my eyes clamped shut, and I fell into the painless universe of dreamland.

I had the strangest, most startling dream. I was back at Harvard and it was the first day that I had met Arianne. I dreamt that instead of wearing running shorts and a t-shirt, that she was wearing a habit. I gasped in disappointment when I saw her forbidden face, and in my dream I noticed even then how very breath-taking she was; even when she was donning a nun's outfit. I felt myself wake up slightly, and but it was so minor that I could only feel myself turn to the other side of my body.

The next time I dreamt, it was definitely worse and more tragic than the last one. I dreamed that we were holding hands while walking to class, and suddenly a gunshot rang in the once peaceful air. In my harmless hallucination, Arianne fell to the ground with utter pain written on her face. I saw blood pouring from the back of her neck, and I screamed in horror. Suddenly, before I even had time to wake up from that one, the
scenes randomly switched and we were at 'Le Bon Appetite.' I had just given her the necklace and she was smiling like she had just won the lottery. I was so glad that I had given it to her in the first place because Suddenly, I bolted straight up in my bed. Since when had I been such an idiot? I can't believe I had forgotten about the necklace. Pulling the covers off of my body was like taking the wrapper off caramels; quick and painless. As fast as I could in my half delirious state, I ran to Paul's room and pressed through the doors as if they were air.

"Paul, Paul, Paul," I chanted. I felt as if I was insane talking like that, but I couldn't think of anything else at the moment. "Paul, Paul, Paul," I kept saying loudly until he was awake.

"What's wrong?" he demanded as soon as he had drifted out of dreamland. Paul rushed over to where I was standing. I had my hands on my knees and I suddenly looked up at him from my position. "Le Collier, Arianne as le collier de moi," Necklace, Arianne has my necklace, I stammered, trying to catch my breath. "This is about a necklace, Prince Frederick?" he said rapidly in French. "Come on, you need to get some rest." Paul grabbed my arm firmly and started to lead me to the door. By this time I had caught my breath to a considerable amount, and I jerked away roughly while I grabbed Paul by the shoulders and slightly shook him.

"Je ne suis pas idiot, Paul!" I'm not crazy, Paul! I exclaimed. "Arianne has the necklace that I gave her, the one with the tracking device in it. It's our ticket to find her, Paul, we must hurry!"

One hour later, we had a target on where Arianne was. It was in one of the larger villages in my country, the second largest, in fact. As soon as we received the location from my trusty stalker's tracking device, I was ready to go in the helicopter that dozens of SWAT members were flying around in. Paul was ordering people about, and when he suddenly saw me in the black uniform and boots, he grabbed my arm to stop me. I spun around with a crazed look in my eye. He was keeping me from saving Arianne, and each gasp that I breathed freely could be another step closer to her last.

"What are you doing?" I snapped, "We're wasting precious time here, Paul!" I struggled to free myself from his mighty grasp.

"There is no way that I'm letting you go out there Prince Frederick!" he said shortly with determination. He didn't even have to say anything else; that alone was enough to make me realize that it was going to be really hard to persuade him otherwise.

I shook my head and stared at him with longing in my eyes. "I have to go, Paul. I can't just sit around and wait. I need to do this, get back at those people for what they've done to me. The only way to do that is by getting back Arianne by myself; not with help from anyone else. Please," I begged, "I need to do this! It's the only way that I'll say sane. You know I'm going crazy without-"

"Alright," Paul suddenly cut me off, gruffly. "I understand. But you must promise to follow my orders and only what I say. Your life is too much at risk already. Please, Prince Frederick. Promise me that."

Wow. It had been easier to win than I had thought. I suddenly let out a short breath of relief. "Thank you, Paul. I'll never forget this. And I promise. You have my word as a Prince." I shook his hand firmly and a sudden rush of strength seemed to flow through him into my heart. Knowing that I had people like this behind me, made fighting for this country all the more worth it.

I suddenly whirled around and sprinted to the helicopter which was waiting for its ascent. I jumped into the mechanism and told the flier to lift off. It was time to get Arianne back.

Arianne

I felt another stinging hit whiz onto my cheek. It was sore already from the constant strikes, and I winced as the pain of the fresh hit mixed with the soreness from the old ones. I closed my eyes, trying not to lash out, but to be fairly calm. My tears had long since fallen down my face, and another gallon of them came tumbling down in saltiness. I was angry, and I was just imagining what Freddie would do to these people for treating me this way. My thoughts of vengeance were quite drastic, and it scared me how much I suddenly hated the male generation.

"Now, let me ask you this again, princess," the awful Reynard remarked, "what are Prince Frederick's plans on retrieving the information about us?"

"Je ne sais pas!" I don't know! I yelled again. Why wouldn't they believe me? Freddie had told me absolutely nothing, I hadn't even been in the security office let alone know his plans of attack! I started to sob and wondered what it would take for them to stop hurting me. I was sick of the pain, and my lip was already dripping sour blood.

"Je promets, je ne sais pas! Je ne sais pas!" I promise, I don't know! I don't know! I suddenly couldn't let it in anymore and started to scream at them in English:

"What is wrong with you people? Can't you tell when someone's telling the truth? I'm freakin' bleeding from my mouth for goodness sakes, do you think I like it? Do you think I like to be slapped around by you crazy morons? Stop, just stop! I don't know anything; if I did I would be trying to endure the pain, not screaming at you like this. Just SHUTUP!" I finished, panting heavily. The entire length of time that I had been shouting at them, I had been lightly lunging and struggling against my restraints. I now glared at the man who was doing all the hitting and also at Jameson who was frowning down at me from where I sat.

After my little rant was over, I spat in each of the men's directions. Blood mixed with my saliva left a strange taste on my swollen lips. My pleasure suddenly sprouted up in the midst of my disgust when my spit landed on Jameson's humongous shoe. He glared at me and it was so very cliché when he reached out to strike me. My head flew to one side, and I could feel the bruise on my cheek intensifying, as well as my head's ache. I suddenly lifted my chin and rolled my eyes at the action. I saw Jameson strain in annoyance. He probably wanted to wrench the living daylights out of me for being so derisive, but I saw him hold back. I wondered at that moment if there was any good inside of that man. I really pondered on this, and almost didn't notice the man in charge speaking to me through gritted teeth.

"I can see that our work here is done. You know absolutely nothing, and I'm wasting my precious time. Les hommes," Men, he suddenly muttered angrily, "Nous avons." Let's go.

"Un moment," One moment, Jameson suddenly muttered. "Je veux un moment seul avec la femme." I want a moment alone with the girl.

"D'accord," Okay (Agreed), Monsieur Reynard said lightly. He sneered at me one last time before turning on his heel and storming out of the room. The room was suddenly eerily silent. The feeling that was crawling on my skin, at the moment, was the same that I had experienced in the room with Jameson all those years ago.

How long had it been in reality? My mind had millions of questions, and they weren't all about my predicament.

"What do you want?" I hissed, wiping the corner of my lip onto my sweaty shirt.

Jameson stopped pacing back and forth, and he stood before me, making me stare at his stomach. "Want? Oh, nothing special, Miss Arianne. I simply want to know you're thoughts. I want to know what you think of me. It prides me to hear of what my work has done to others. It makes me feel, shall we say, happy inside?"

I suddenly let out a crack of laughter. This guy was too much for me. I don't think that he was really that bad. Not deep down inside.

"Jameson," I said sweetly, obviously throwing him off. "I never had a chance to tell you how thankful I am for all that you've done for me. You know, keeping Freddie safe for all those years, so that I had a chance to meet