"The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly."

***

They ended up sitting next to the statue of Celeste and watching the sunset. The whole kingdom was bathed in a light pink colour. The sun looked as if it was watching over the world from its sepia throne.

The night was approaching rapidly yet Diana and Taemia refused to acknowledge its presence. Everyone in the whole kingdom of Celeste knew that this was the time when all the crooks, thieves, and criminals escaped from Vilehelm to do business. A business that Diana had no intention of doing, seeing, or hearing about.

Diana knew that if she screamed the guards would be able to hear her clearly but still the fear and the anticipation in her stomach didn't leave.

They were waiting for the royal dressmaker to come and go in with her but the dressmaker was taking her sweet time and there were still no signs of her arriving. 

They waited until the darkness came creeping. They waited until the darkness finally settled in and when it did, they still kept waiting.

"She will come soon" Taemia whispered and Diana wondered if she could hear her thoughts. This made her slightly worried for Diana considered her thoughts to be an invisible ball, full of lively chatter for her but silent to another.

Diana looked up at the sky realizing that the night had already settled in. She tried to calm her nerves and told herself that her path may never cross with a person from Vilehelm. That she 

"What do we have here?" A low cracked voice interrupted her train of thought.

Diana froze. She knew that she should turn around to see who it was but she refused to turn around. Maybe because if she did, it would only confirm her fears.

Taemia unlike her whirled around to face the person "Who are you?"

Diana heard the person take a step closer, she shot up and turned around to see a trio of men wearing sleek trousers and shirts standing there coolly. The man in the middle had dark black hair, the man on his right had his hair dyed an electric blue and the man on the left had no hair to look at. Their faces were different and so were their structures and all they had in common was that roguish grin on their faces and a black mark on the back of their hands.

Maybe they were not crooks, Diana tried to convince herself but the glint in their eyes and the smirks on their faces told her that she was very wrong.

"I am Petyr, this is Remiére and this fellow here is Caesar" The man in the middle introduced.

"You are lying aren't you? Why would you tell us your names? They are not your real names are they?" Diana asked in a voice that was bolder than she expected.

"Well...no," Petyr said giving her an apologetic smile. "My boss prefers to be anonymous and hates to leave a trail. Now, if you will come with me, quietly. I would hate for you to be hurt in any way. The boss doesn't pay well for... broken goods."

At least they were honest.

"What business do you have with us?" Taemia asked, her voice laced with suspicion and mistrust.

"So many questions. They won't get you very far." Caesar sneered at her, his blue eyes standing out quite like his electric blue hair did, making Petyr throw him a warning look.

Diana decided that it was a good time to scream and so she let out a loud 'Help!' and waited for the crooks to run away and for the guards to appear.

None of that happened and instead, the crooks smiled even more widely. Diana saw the guard Bran come towards them but he was pulled back, hushed whispers rose and the jingling of coins was heard and then there was silence. Diana and Taemia began to inch back from the team of crooks.

"You do know that men do anything for money don't you?" Petyr asked rhetorically.

Diana took a good look at the man at his shrewd looks before she looked at Taemia and mouthed a word they both knew and loved.

Seconds later, they were running in the street. Diana knew that it was a foolish move but apparently when you are on the brink of death all rational thoughts kind of leave your mind and decide to go for a holiday.

Maybe saying brink of death was too dramatic but she wasn't sure what those men could have wanted from them. She just hoped that he wasn't aware of the fact that they were a part of the royal family. 

If they knew then there was a great possibility that someone was paying them, someone important. Except for her brothers, no descendant of the clan had been shown in public. Even in the ballrooms, people rarely knew the princesses. It was a precaution, they called it. Diana knew what it was, orthodox thinking. 

Women, they believed, did not possess any bravery or strength. If the princess was discovered then men may try to marry her for the sake of being part of the royal family or shaming them. It was not like it had not happened before.

At least if they were believed to be a servant, they would die quickly instead of being the reason for a war. Diana wished she could be born in Adeeha, a kingdom of justice and equality.

And since all the rational thoughts had left their minds, they ran like the winter breeze colliding into objects that didn't know what it felt to breathe, like the waves hitting the sandy shoreline taking away the sandcastles with them. They ran like cheetahs who had just learned the feeling of freedom. Footsteps thudded behind them yet they didn't stop to look. Too afraid to do so.

All of sudden, Diana heard a curse sound behind her, she stumbled surprised that the man was closer than she had anticipated. Fingers wrapped around her braided hair and pulled at them making her release a terrifying scream. Taemia looked back, her eyes widening in horror.

Taemia rushed to her, letting her hand fly in a punch. Her fingers ached but the distraction caused by the punch worked and the man's grip loosened.

"Go, go. Run!" Taemia said as she noticed the other two goons rushing towards them. She grasped Diana's hand before sprinting again.

They traveled from one narrow road to another one trying to lose the crooks behind and even when the there footsteps began to fade, they still continued to run not knowing where they were running or where they would reach and stop. All they knew was that they had to keep close and not pause. For anything.

Except if one of them managed to trip and get hurt.

"Bullspit!" Diana cursed out as she gingerly felt her foot. 

"There is no need for that kind of language!" Taemia said sharply. "Where did you learn that word?"

"Taemia scold me when we are not being chased by men intent on murdering us alright?" Diana hissed and looked over to see if anyone was following them.

"You are not getting out of this one okay?" Taemia said giving her a stern look.

"Yeah okay, now help me up!" Diana muttered and Taemia immediately grabbed her outstretched hand, pulling her up to her feet.

"Friggers," Diana mumbled as she awkwardly hobbled on one leg. The pain wasn't unbearable but her ankle looked slightly twisted and appeared to be swelling which told her that it was in no condition for running.

Taemia kept throwing worried glances behind as she helped Diana put an arm around her.

"Can you walk?" She asked her.

Diana wanted to say that she couldn't but saying that wasn't an option so just she nodded her head trying not to wince whenever pain decided to shoot up her leg.

They half-walked and half-jogged, Taemia kept mumbling about finding a place safe for night whereas Diana focused on not crying out aloud.

The streets that usually were thronged with people now stood empty. Street hawkers and vendors had deserted their shops on wheels and carts and they stood bare, looking lonely. The wind wasn't blowing and their footsteps echoed in the town. Even the trees refused to rustle and seemed as if they were waiting, anticipating. This wasn't the town that she had seen in her rare visits, this was a darker version of it, this was a ghost town.

Diana felt something inside her quiver in fear. All those local ghost stories and the tales of paranormal activities had escaped their prison in the back of her mind and were flashing in her thoughts.

'Ghosts don't exist.' Diana told herself firmly yet the slightest of sound caused her heart to skip a beat.

"I think that we lost them," Taemia whispered as she glanced back to check for what felt like the hundredth time.

Suddenly a scream rose in the night. It was an inhumane scream, the scream of an animal. It was raw, loud, and pleading. Diana flinched, she had never heard something so nerve-wracking. Yet no doors opened to find the source of it.

"What was that?" Taemia asked her voice holding back a small cry of her own.

Diana didn't reply. She felt a chill tremble through her arms, traveling its way up and down her spine. She felt fear rise in her stomach, and a sort of anticipation appeared in her thoughts. She stopped walking and waited. She wasn't sure as to what she was waiting for but she just stood there waiting.

It was as if she was watching a horror movie, she knew that something was going to happen, she was certain that something was going to happen but yet she was scared, frightened. Her thoughts buzzed like static and she couldn't understand a single one of them. She leaned forward anticipating, waiting. For what? She was not sure.

"Diana? Are you alright?" Taemia asked lightly breaking Diana out of her reverie. The feeling, it was gone but the effects of it lingered.

"Yeah, I just.." No words enter her mind to fill up her sentence, to complete it so she went with the cliché answer "I am O.K."

"What do we do now? Do we go back?" Taemia asks lightly, an undercurrent of worry appearing in her voice.

"I am not sure if-" Before Diana could finish her sentence, a group of drunken men appeared.

They laughed and walked around shoving each other until one of them noticed Taemia. Taemia had always been the tomboy of the family but that didn't mean that she had the looks of it. With deep violet eyes that looked almost black and chocolate brown hair, she was gorgeous. However, her attitude and frankness often made the men run away before they could look at her face.

And it looked like Taemia was hating her genes a lot right now.

"Let's get out of here." Taemia urged suddenly and Diana began to walk away in response.

"Hey, you! Stop!" A man yelled, his voice sounding hoarse and rough. In return, Diana and Taemia quickened their pace.

Diana's leg seemed to have realized the fact that it had been hurt and begin to throb preventing her from breaking into a run.

"Wait up! I'll buy you a drink." The man called out mockingly and the rest of his friends laughed.

Diana couldn't do it. Her ankle was swollen and every step felt like a mile. Taemia had grabbed her arm and was dragging her along but even she appeared to be exhausted.

Diana looked back to see the men approaching them with roguish grins, a glint in their eyes, and bottles of kahva in their hands.

"Get help Taemia. Leave me, I'll try to stall." Diana murmured her eyes filling with tears as the pain worsened.

"What? No! I can't do that-"

"You can and will. There is no way we will be able to get away but you can. Also, I don't think that these men will harm me."Diana said trying to sound confident but it wasn't working. She knew that it was rational for Taemia to leave but a part of her wished that she would remain here with her. She told that part to sod off.

After a heartbeat of quick thinking and worried looks, Taemia asked her voice sounding resigned "What if something happens to you?"

Diana gave her a dry smile "Then you can have my collection of books."

"This isn't the time to make jokes." Taemia looked at the drunken men that were still catcalling her and then at Diana. Diana was surprised to see the tears that had appeared in her eyes "I'll be back soon. Don't do anything I wouldn't."

"Where are you going?" A man yelled as Taemia suddenly took off. His friends laughed loudly and the man turned a shade of bright red.

"I think your face made her run for the hills, Daymien," One of them said mockingly and proceeded to laugh at his own words before throwing up.

Daymien scowled and looked around as if searching for someone "Where is that girl with the limp anyway?"

"What will you do with her?" Another one asked tipping his bottle down, and checking if it was empty or not.

"Sell her to the gambling den. Azazel is getting mad at me." Daymien said with a slight growl. "Where is she?"

Diana whimpered as she heard this. Her foot was killing her and not crying out in pain was turning out to be a very difficult task.

As soon as her sister had run away, she had jumped into the very tiny storage box of the abandoned cart of a street hawker. She was forced to bend her foot and now she was regretting it. She could feel it swelling and could almost imagine the horrifying purple bruises on it. The pain was shooting up and even though she expected it, it wasn't any less bad.

"Maybe she ran away man. I think we should go."

"Leave? Bah. Did you see the way she was hobbling? I think she is still here, somewhere."

Diana knew that they couldn't hear her breathing but even then she held her breath. Her throat was clogged up. Her mind ran through different possibilities the night would bring, each one more horrible than the last.

The most terrifying part wasn't that there were men out there ready to sell her to some gambling den or that they were capable of hurting her, the most terrifying part was that she was alone. That there was no one around her. No one would be there to know if she died tonight. Even Taemia wouldn't know what happened to Diana if she got caught.

She hoped she wouldn't.

The footsteps thudded across the pavement and hoarse laughter rose over jokes that lacked humour. Then all of it began to fade, the voices, the sounds yet Diana's heart didn't calm down. Fear was still gathering in the pits of her stomach and her whole foot had become numb, she had become numb.

Her stomach growled as if to tell her that she hadn't eaten anything for eight hours and her hair felt ticklish against her neck. Her clothes were itchy and she was exhausted. Just exhausted.

Silence came to greet her and this time she welcomed it with open arms, feeling a bit better and safer than she was moments ago. But was this silence a trap? Diana didn't think it was. She didn't want to think it was.

She waited for a few minutes finding comfort in silence and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Found you!" Daymien's voice reached her ears and she looked up at his leering face feeling her throat clog up and a scream making its way up, trying to come up to be heard. Diana bit her lip knowing that it couldn't and wouldn't be heard.

His hand grasped her arm and he pulled her out of the cart. Her foot hit the wooden corner of the cart and howled silently in agony. Diana cried out, too weak to stop herself.

Daymien slapped her before putting a finger on his lips telling her to shush. Diana stared at him in shock. No one had ever dared to lay a hand on her. No one. Her cheek throbbed with the aftereffects and she stared down at Daymien which was slightly hard to do for he was a couple of inches taller than her.

"Look at how she is looking at me in shock." Daymien laughed at motioned for his friends to come closer. They did and laughed at her expression.

This could not be happening. She was the princess of this kingdom, the princess whereas these men were low pieces of scum who didn't deserve to even lick her shoes clean. She did not deserve this. Filled with arrogant and rebellious thoughts, Diana spoke again.

"How dare you-" Diana began harshly only to be interrupted as he slapped her again, more forcefully.

This time tears welled up in Diana's eyes dripping down her cheeks. She hated this. She hated not being in control. She hated feeling so helpless. She hated feeling so broken. She hated him and she hated herself. She hated all of that.

Diana looked back at Daymien her cheeks stained with tears. Bruises appear on her face. Daymien laughed at her and Diana memorized his face and his voice. She would get make him regret all of this one day if she ever got out of this hell she was currently in.

"I think Azazel would like this one," Daymien said as he gave her a sneer, his hands yanking at her hair forcefully.

He was enjoying this. Pleasure coated his eyes and tears filled Diana's eyes. This was more than enough to fuel her rage.

Darkness expanded over the place coating it extinguishing every street light that glowed with dull light. It wasn't like the night, it was much worse than that for it had no stars. It was the kind that would make a person think that he was blind. It wasn't the darkest shade of black you could imagine, it was much darker than that and yet Diana could see perfectly.

"I can't see anything!" Daymien yelled in panic his grip left her and she backed away as quickly as she could, holding her arm to her chest.

Diana saw him walk around blindly. Diana saw his friends stagger around in confusion bumping into each other and shouting in rage.

Thank you. A smooth voice of a stranger seemed to whisper in the darkness. The voice was calm and sent shivers down Diana's spine. 

Diana didn't pause to think or wonder. She just ran ignoring the way her ankle threatened to buckle underneath her, she ran trying not to think to what would have happened.

She ran from her new ghosts, she ran from them and she ran from herself and even when she fell, she tried to drag herself as far away as possible.

Tears were flowing down her cheeks at a rapid pace and she couldn't breathe. She gasped for air and found nothing. She felt as if her heart was trying to claw its way out, she felt as if she was drowning. Her chest heaved and pained. Her lungs refused to take in the air. Her whole body shook with sobs. The events of the night flashed in her mind and a fresh round of tears trickled down.

And that's how Taemia found her. Bruises on her body, an ankle that looked broken, and bouts of vomit around her. She was still gasping for air but the thing that scared Taemia the most was the dead look in Diana's eyes.

***

Holy-Moly. That is like the longest chapter I have written. I mean 6k words? (There is another part) Still in shock.

This book is not co-written, this is being written by Sadie Kane. Annabeth told me that she would add a part or two but this is mainly mine.

Also, I had first decided to name Diana, Naevia so there may be sentences where the name Naevia is written instead of Diana. Sorry.

Current age of Diana: 16 summers. Florencia: 22 summers. Taemia: 20 summers. Adrian and Jesperson: 21 summers.

Yours realio and trulio,

Sadie Kane.