For the first few seconds, Alicia wanted to believe that she was imagining things. But Tyra's laughter behind her and the closed door in front of her made it clear enough that she wasn't imagining things.
It was real.
She had been locked out. And it wasn't just her.
She looked at the guard she had risked her life to save. He had been ignored.
She also looked down at Paulina, whose entire body was shaking as she cried on the ground.
The guard stepped away from Alicia's support and leaned on the door. However, he looked at Alicia with guilt. As though it was his fault she could not make it on time.
"Were... you pushed out?" Alicia asked Paulina just as she helped her up, ignoring Tyra's taunting remarks and crazy laughter.
"N-No." Paulina stuttered.
"You... came out yourself?" Alicia asked in disbelief.
Everything still felt like a dream to her.
One minute she was in the dungeon, freeing their children. The next, she was being locked out?
It was almost like she was going to get a panic attack as the feeling reminded her of how her life had come crashing down and how the same people who had loved her had been the first to cast her aside.
"I... came out myself," Paulina answered, breaking her out of her thoughts.
Those words made Alicia burn in anger, and she yelled out her name, startling the poor girl.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"
"I COULDN'T LEAVE YOU ALONE!" She yelled back, crying, and quietly added, "I... I don't want to be alive if you are not alive."
Unable to control her emotion, Alicia hit her across the face in anger.
"DO YOU THINK I WOULD BE HAPPY IF YOU DIED TOGETHER WITH ME?" Alicia asked in tears before pulling her into her embrace and hugging her tightly while sobbing.
"What am I going to do with you? Why did you do something so stupid." Alicia asked in tears.
She wished the girl wouldn't be this stupid! She wished there was a way she could free her off this debt she thought she owed Queen Anne. How could a girl like her, who was always easily frightened, constantly put herself in harm's way because of her?
"What a touching sight," Tyra said with a clap, causing the girls to break their hug.
Alicia used her hands to wipe her tears as she turned to face Tyra, while Paulina hid behind Alicia.
"You didn't care that she was going to die yesterday. Why are you faking it now?" Tyra asked.
"What did I ever do to deserve this? What did any of us do?" Alicia asked her. She hadn't had the time to think about any of this properly, but she doubted any amount of thinking would be able to give her a proper answer to why Tyra was behaving this way.
"YOU HAVE GONE BACK TO FAKING IT?" Tyra accused her in anger.
"You are worse than me, Amber. You have always known me and the things I did, but you pretended to be nice to me all this while."
"I was always genuinely nice to you!" Alicia yelled at her. Her anger overpowered her fear.
"Why... how did you turn out this way?"
"YOU WERE NEVER NICE TO ME!" Tyra snapped at her.
"You only pitied me. If you were nice to me, you wouldn't have taken Prince Harold away from me! He was all I had until you came, and he could no longer spend time with me."
Tyra didn't give Alicia a chance to talk because she continued. "You must have loved to watch me make a fool of myself. You knew what happened on banquet night all along. You knew that happened on the Blood Moon night all along! And yet you pretended like you knew nothing when you met me!"
Alicia was lost. What was she talking about?
Banquet night. It was the night of the Full Moon. She didn't remember what exactly happened that night.
Blood Moon. It hadn't been her. It had been Amber.
Alicia also remembered that Amber had had a confrontation with Tyra earlier.
There seemed to be something she didn't know.
"But it doesn't matter. None of it matters. Because I am in charge now." Tyra said smugly as she concluded her rant and then, with a loud voice, ordered the blood-thirsty savages behind her, "PREPARE TO BREAK DOWN EVERY DOOR AND DRAG THOSE COWARDS OUT!"
Frightened screams began to echo all over the palace, and some windows began to shut. They would rather bury their curiosity, not watch what was happening, and go hide somewhere else than get caught by these people.
Meanwhile, some of the men were busy preparing the heavy weapon to be used to knock down the doors.
"YOU MUST BE INSANE!" Alicia yelled at Tyra in disbelief.
She had gone crazy. This wasn't normal.
"YOUR FAMILY IS INSIDE. THE KING AND PRINCE HAROLD ARE INSIDE!"
"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD DO, YOU WITCH!"
Alicia snorted at Tyra. "I am the witch, but you are the one trying to ruin your kingdom right now. Isn't that ironic?"
"Should we kill this wench first? Heard she did that to Polo." One of the men said impatiently.
"A quick death? No." Tyra shook her head before she spoke to Alicia pointedly. "You deserve to be humiliated until you desire to end your life yourself." She said it with venom in her voice.
"That is your payment for the scar on my face."
"We should have fun with her, shouldn't we?" One asked his 'brothers' who laughed wildly and nodded in agreement.
"Get rid of that thing beside her first. That would hurt her." Tyra instructed, pointing at Paulina, who let out a startled scream and held tightly onto Alicia's arms, refusing to let go.
"Ah! That one looks fine too. It would be a waste to just kill her, wouldn't it?" One of the big men looked up at Tyra while baring his rotten teeth in a grin.
Tyra scoffed before waving nonchalantly as though saying, "As you please."
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