Later that day.

"Hey, Lilly, want to walk home together?" Luke asked his best friend.

"Don't we always?" She replied.

He nodded.

"Hey, Jade, are you coming?" Lilly asked her sister.

"All catch up later. I need to ask Mr David a question."

"Alright. Do you want us to wait for you?" Lilly asked.

"Naw go on ahead."

Lilly and Luke started walking home.

About halfway there they both started to have an odd feeling like someone was watching them.

"Luke, do you see anyone else?" Lilly asked.

"No but I feel like we're being watched."

"Same."

Max decided it was time to reveal himself.

"Hello, Princess." Max said ignoring Luke.

Lilly was taken aback at first but quickly recovered.

"I'm Lilly and this is Luke. Who are you?" She stuck out her hand to shake.

"I'm Prince Max of the Dark Realm." Max grabbed her hand and kissed it.

"Alright... Well we'll just be going now." Lilly was starting to get extremely weirded out by this guy. Her hand began to sting. She let out a small whimper at the unexpected pain.

"Oh you're not going anywhere. How would you like to be my wife?"

Luke scowled.

"Excuse me?" Lilly asked.

"My wife and queen of the Dark Realm."

"I'm good. We're going to go." Lilly started to speed walk away. Luke followed.

Max teleported himself to be in front of them.

"Playing hard to get?"

"Stay away from us, you creep!" Luke screamed at Max.

Max frowned.
"I was hoping that this would go better." He grabbed Lilly's hand.
"Come with me to the Dark Realm and be my bride."

Lilly yanked her hand out of his grasp.
"I'm good. Please leave us alone." Lilly was trying to stay polite.

"Alright I can see your not ready to come with me yet. I'll give you one month to get your affairs in order and then I'll be back."

"W-What?" Lilly quivered.

Max disappeared.

"What the hell?" Luke said.

Jade finally caught up to them.

"Hey" She exhaled. "What. Did. I. Miss?" She said breathing heavily.

"Some creep came up to us claiming to be a prince and trying to get Lilly to marry him." Luke told her. His face was red with anger.

"What?" Luke explained the whole event to her in detail.

"That's weird..." Jade said after she recounted their tale.

"Not weird. Emily is weird. That guy was creepy." Luke exclaimed. Lilly was too creeped out to say anything.

"Emily... You mentioned something about the Dark Realm, right?" Jade asked.

Luke nodded. By this time they were right outside Lilly and Jade's house.

"I have an idea. Luke invite the gang to our house."

"Okay... Why?" He asked.

"I'll explain later." Jade practically dragged her sister inside. Luke followed shrugging.

It wasn't long until their friends were gathered in the Parker's living room. Luke had explained everything to them and was met with shock.

"Okay, Jade, now that everyone's here and I explained everything what's your idea?" Luke asked.

"I'd be glad to. Emily have you ever heard of the Dark Realm before today?"

Emily nodded.
"Yeah... Why?"

"What can you tell us about it?"

"Not much that I can remember but my grandmother gave me a book on it." Emily opened her backpack (which was more like a bottomless pit), reached in up to her shoulder her and pulled out an old leather bound book. She opened it.

"What do we want to know exactly?"

Luke answered.
"Probably about royalty or traditions."

"Traditions... Here it is! It says here that when the prince of the Dark Realm is 18 the king may retire if he wants. However before the prince can take the throne he must marry. To balance out the dark and the light he must marry a girl who is pure of heart."

They all looked at Lilly.

"I'll just continue." Emily said awkwardly.

"She will be marked with a symbol that represents her. The girl will have to marry the prince and she will not be physically forced. When she is marked a spell will be cast on her that makes it so she will physically not be able to stay away from the prince no matter how much she wants to."

Lilly looked at her hand. It had burned earlier so she rapped it up in protective gauze.

"Lilly, do you have a mark?" Olivia asked.

Lilly unwrapped the gauze. On her hand, etched into her skin was a flower. Not a daisy or a rose but a Stargazer Lily. It was colored pink and white unlike her actual flesh.

"Lilly, you've been marked. I'm sorry." Emily frowned.

"Is there any way to break this curse thing? I'll do anything."

"Um... Oh it says right here! You must find two enchanted rings. The ring of gold and the ring of silver. One (the gold one) will be worn by the girl herself while the other is worn by her true love." Emily read.

"Wait not only do we have find these rings, but we also have to find Lilly's true love?" Michael asked.

"Are you saying you guys are going to help me?" Lilly questioned.

Michael gave Lilly a hug. The two were close (not as close as Luke and Lilly though) almost siblings.

"Of course, Lils. Right, guys?" Everyone nodded.

"We're going to have to find Lilly's true love. It says that the power of the rings combined with the power of true love will ward off the prince."

Luke sat quietly, feeling awkward.

"There's no other way?" Jade asked noticing Luke's awkwardness.

Emily shook her head.

Lilly sighed. "Where are the rings?"

"It doesn't say but the internet might know." Emily turned on the computer that was in the corner of the room.

She typed the dark realm gold and silver rings. She clicked on the first link. "Alright so according to this their have been exactly 999 queens who have married because of this tradition. It is about 25,000 years old."

"What about the rings though?" Michael asked.

"The rings have been missing from the Dark Realm for centuries. The gold ring is in a museum in Italy and the silver one is suspected to be in Egypt."

"Egypt?! We have to go to Egypt?!" Lilly exclaimed.

Emily nodded again.

"Sweet!" Tyler exclaimed. Lilly shot him a look.

"Haha, sorry." He smiled sheepishly.

"And Italy! Oh this could be fun!" Olivia exclaimed.

"Well, I guess we could look on the bright side. We're going to Italy and Egypt!" Lilly exclaimed smiling.

"Yeah, there's no way I'm letting Lilly get married!" Luke said.

Jade smiled. Lilly shot him a look.
"I'm going to get married someday, you know."

Luke's face went red.

"I meant that there's no way I'm going to let my best friend be forced to marry that creep. Hehe."

Lilly shrugged.

"Let's get started."
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Not as long, only 1172 words. Remember to comment if you liked or disliked it. Please tell me what you think. Thanks, bye!