The metal slices deeper and deeper into my wrists the more I struggle. Now I am just struggling with the uncomfortable feeling of the fact that I am arrested and in the royal castle. My mother and father are going to kill me.

Blood tickles me as it drips down my wrists. I hope they are going to clean this up after they find out that we are innocent of whatever they think we did.

The guards push us into the dark cell with no regards to the fact that we can trip over some rocks that are sticking out of the ground. The metal door bangs and the only light that is shown in the room is from the hallway. We are stuck in a cell where there are no windows and there is only a tiny window cut on the door where guards can give us food and any other necessities. I cold drips coming from the ceiling are thick as them drip onto my head and shoulders. I look over to the back corner and there is a bucket with a foul smell coming from it. No doubt the person in here before us had used that for their bathroom needs.

“Stay in here while we wait for the Queen,” one of the men who arrested us says. He seems too serious while his dark eyebrows are slightly furrowed and his equally long dark hair is pulled back into a neat bun. If I never saw the royal family I would have guessed he was part of it but I have seen the prince before and that is not him. Plus, the prince is unfortunately dead…

Who did these people think they were? They have some stick up their ass if they think that they are going to get away with this. June’s father is going to vouch for us and get us out of here without a scrape.

“Strider, Theon, tell me what is going on,” a very powerful woman’s voice croaks. Queen Amelia comes into view and my friends and I still have the courtesy of bowing to her even though we are being held here for no reason.

The woman who was with Strider and Theon is next to the queen, looking just as powerful as the queen herself. Her sculpted arms are exposed and now crossed in front of her chest and her wavy dark hair almost reaches to her hips. If she didn’t arrest me I might have had some enjoyment flirting with her. She is beautiful behind that scowl she has on her face.

“Your Highness, we saw these four-” the man with pure white hair says.

“June? What the hell are you doing here?” a very familiar voice says.

A breath of relief rushes out of me. I knew June’s father would show up and get us out of there.

“Hammonet, did you just interrupt a magnificent?” the angry woman next to the queen says.

“I’m sorry Your Highness, this is the daughter I was telling you about earlier, June,” Hammonet says.

Your Highness? Magnificent? These people are royalty?

“I do not care. Never interrupt a magnificent again or there will be consequences,” the angry woman says.

“Orien, please sister, take a deep breath,” the man with the dark bun says.

Orien huffs a loud sigh and looks at the man with pure white hair. She nods at him to continue.

“We have found and burned down an illegal Darkness temple. We arrest these four to get more information about it and then plan to dispose of them accordingly.”

Illegal? Darkness temple? Dispose???

“Do you think that we are followers of Darkness? Father, you have to know this isn’t true. I study The Scripture of Light every single day,” June cries out.

“It’s true, Xavier and I saw her reading it earlier today,” Pierce explains.

“Silence, both of you,” the man with the pure white hair says.

I look at June’s father. He looks as if his world is falling apart as if he believes that we are followers of Darkness and not telling the truth to him. His eyes become a little glassy and I can hear the unstable shutters of his breath getting caught in his throat.

“Your Highness, may I have permission to leave? This is my daughter and I can not bear to see this,” Hammonet says.

“Absolutely not, you chose this line of work and therefore you need to do your duty,” the angry woman says.

“Orien, it’s okay. Hammonet, as much as I would like you to be here, if you think that this is too much for you then you can leave,” the queen says.

Orien, the name of the angry woman. It sounds almost magical in a way.

Orien.

Orien.

Orien.

The name sounds so beautiful in my head. I can’t stop repeating it.

“For now, we will leave you four in here to think about how it is best for you to tell us the truth. Then we will figure out what to do from there,” the man with the black bun says. All of them silently nod at one another as a signal that they are ready to leave. Once they are gone, and we confirm that they are gone, we all turn to each other hastily.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“What are we going to do?” Cheleste asks.

“We have to tell the truth," June says.

“And that is?”

“We tell them that the old lady tricked us into coming into the pub and that we were and still are innocent.”

“Yeah, as if they are going to believe that. They already think that we are lying about being innocent. Telling them again is not going to make a difference,” I state.

“Well, there is no harm in trying. My father could put in a good word for us if he gets a chance.”

“He doesn’t look like he’s on our side, June,” Pierce responds.

“We have to try.”

“What if they decide to kill us? You know The Magnificent doesn’t show mercy to the followers of Darkness. If they think that we are followers of Darkness then they are going to kill us.” Cheleste starts to panic. Her breaths become shallow and her eyebrows furrow. June puts her hand on Cheleste’s shoulder to try and calm her down.

“Would you rather die as a liar or die knowing you told the truth? I know what I would choose,” June says. She looks between Pierce and I. Pierce sighs, looking to the ground and then nods his head. I stay silent for a second as they both pin their eyes on me.

“I- uh-”

Now Cheleste’s eyes are on me as well. A single tear falls down my cheek. The image of my mother flashes into my head. I know that she would want me to tell the truth even if it costs me my life. The tear that was on my cheek hits the ground as I nod at them.

“Okay, so it’s settled, we are going to keep telling them that we are innocent,” June says.

It hits me at that moment, I am going to die. I am going to die. My friends are going to die as well. I can’t help but feel guilty. When the old lady offered my friends to come, I should have told them I would walk her and be right back. Then I wouldn’t have stayed and we wouldn’t have been in this position.

After a few hours of sitting in the dungeon, the three people who arrested us come back to the dungeon. The door opens but closes quickly after the three of them walk into our dungeon.

“What are your names?” the man in a dark bun says.

“Why should we tell you? It won’t matter if you know them or not,” I spit out.

“Okay, I was going to this the nice and peaceful way but I see that you want to go a different route,” The man with the dark bun cracks his knuckles and his pupils grow narrow. He steps towards me, but June quickly jumps in front of me with her arms out.

“Woah, woah, this is Xavier. He is not the brightest when his life is on the line,” June says. Glaring behind her, we make direct eye contact. Eyes telling me to shut up before I decide to make anything worse.

What the fuck June? I am the smartest person I know. Definitely smarter than you.

“This is Pierce, he is the man I am dating and have been dating for a long time. This, her, is Cheleste, she is the one that baked the food you bought from us earlier. And I am June, the daughter of your Lead Guard, Hammonet.”

“So tell us what were you doing at the temple of Darkness, daughter of Hammonet,” Orien says from behind the man with the bun.

“We didn’t know that we were in a temple of Darkness. This old lady asked for directions to the Pure Pub so we helped her get there. We didn’t know it was a temple of Darkness and so when she asked if we wanted a drink we said yes. It was hot and muggy out and we just wanted somewhere we could cool off. None of us are followers of Darkness and we never will be. Our loyalty is to Light and Light only.”

“How were you not suspicious of an old lady asking you for a drink?”

We all fall silent and look at our feet as if Orien’s look could smite us for being so idiotic.

“Hmm, we will come back in a couple of hours,” Orien responds as she turns around.

“Are you releasing us?” Pierce asks with hope in his voice.

“Nope.” Orien and the two men open the door to walk out of the prison cell.

“Then why are you coming back in a couple of hours?” This time the questions come from Cheleste.

“Because I don’t believe you.” The door slams shut.

Crap.