ROSES FOR RACHEL
📘📙📘📙📘📙📘
#Episode_25
I didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes for the knock on my door.
“Come in!” I called. I was half disappointed and half happy when Calvin walked in instead of Pedro. “Hi.” I smiled, wiping the tears off of my face.
Calvin closed the door behind him and suddenly he was seated beside me on the be-d, holding my face in his hands. “What’s the matter?”
I shrugged. “What’s going to happen to them?” I asked.
“Who?”
“Regina and Frankie.”
“I thought you hated them?” He asked confused.
I leaned away from him. “I don’t hate anyone, Calvin. I don’t like them, but I want to know what will happen.”
Calvin looked down. “Well, Regina will go with Sir Macontash.” He told me. “He’s a very respectable man.”
“What is he going to do with her? And what about Frankie?”
Calvin let me go and stood up. “Why do you want to know this?” He asked, but when I didn’t reply he sighed, running his hand throu-gh his styled hair, ma-king it look wild. “You don’t want to know, Rachel.”
I stood from the be-d, straightening my back and went to stand directly in front of him. “You have to get them back.”
“I can’t do that.” He said trying to avoid my determined gaze.
I inched up closer, refusing to let him ignore me. “You’re the prince, Calvin, don’t tell me you can’t.” I countered. “plea-se, you can’t let them be fed on, or used as slaves, or whatever other sick things they were sold for. They’re people, Calvin! They don’t deserve this.”
Calvin gr@bb£d my shoulders and stared into my eyes. “Rachel!” He shouted. “I love that you have such a big heart, and I know this is ha-rd , but I can’t just go changing the way the world works.” He said. “If it’s not Regina and Frankie, it’ll just be some other girls!”
“But that’s wrong, Calvin!” I shouted back, pu-lling from his grasps. “It’s all wrong! There has to be another way to do things!”
“Like what, Rachel?” Calvin snapped, sounding angrier than I’d ever heard him be with me. “What’s your grand plan to save everyone? Huh? I’d love to hear it!” He said sarcastically and I flin-ched at his tone. “Should I drink from animals? You think that’ll work? It won’t. The only way for me, or any other vampire to stay alive is to drink blood. I have to do it. If not I die, and I’m sorry I don’t want to die and that I’m selfish for that, but it’s the way it is. I can’t change it, and neither can you.” His voice was harsh and I was trying to hide my hurt, but I knew it wasn’t working by the quivering of my bo-ttoml!pand my stinging eyes. I turned away from him and walked towards the washroom. “What are you doing?” He called as I walked in, closing the door behind me.
“plea-se leave.” I said throu-gh the door, sliding the lock home, and sliding down to sit in front of the door.
He ban-ged his fist on the door. “Rachel, open the door.” When I ignored him, pu-lling my knees up and un-der my chin, I heard him leave.
I don’t know what I had been thinking, or what could make any of this better, but I didn’t feel like he should have reacted the way he did. I’m just worried about my friends, well, my acquaintances. He was right though, if not them, it would just be some other girls I don’t know. My heart was heavy, repla-ying his words in my mind over and over. What he had said may have been true, but it didn’t st©p him from hurting my feelings.
I sniffled when I heard my be-droom door open and shut again.
“Go away, Calvin.” I called throu-gh the door, trying to keep my voice even.
There was a soft knock on the door. “Calvin’s not here, open up.” Master Pedro’s voice c@m£ throu-gh.
I reached up, turning the lock, then scooted away from the door, letting Pedro squee-ze throu-gh the crack. He looked down at me, a mess in the floor in a formal go-wn. “Sweetheart, what happened?” He asked as he sat cross legged in front of me on the bathroom tiles.
I hid my face with my hands. “We had a fight.” I muttered.
“About what?” He asked. “You didn’t tell him about the whispers, did you?”
I peeked up over my hands so he could see my exaggerated eye roll. “No, I didn’t.” I said. “I asked him to get Regina and Frankie back, but he said he couldn’t, and then he started yelling at me about how vampires drink blood and that I pretty much just nee-d to get over it.”
Pedro reached over to prop a hand on my knee. “Rachel, why did you ask him to do that?”
“I don’t want some sick per-vert to have them, to own them like they aren’t real people.”
Pedro nodded. “I un-derstand, but…”
“But that’s just the way it goes?” I filled in his s£ntence. “Yeah, that’s what Calvin said.”
“And what did you say to that?” He inquired.
I huffed. “I said I didn’t like it, and that there should be some other way that doesn’t kill innocent people.”
“But there isn’t.” He said regretfully.
“I know.” I snapped.
Pedro sighed. “Rachel, you know that man loves you, right?” He asked. “He can’t help that he’s what he is. He made his choice, if you can call it that, a long time ago. I can say for sure though, if he’d known you then, he never would have let himself be changed. He is who he is now though.”
He told me, looking at me ha-rd . “How do you think it makes him feel when you so openly say you wish that vampires didn’t drink blood? Something he has no control over. He wants to make you happy, and he wants to be what you want, whether you can see that or not. I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt you, just like I’m sure you didn’t mean to hurt him.”
I didn’t want to hear it, but I felt in my bones that Master Pedro was right. As bad as I feel that Calvin snapped at me, I bet he is feeling bad too. I don’t want to make him feel like he isn’t good enough for me, I just don’t know how to process all of this.
“You’re very wise.” I grinned lightly, and Pedro rolled his eyes.
“Ok, wise tutor of mine, will you plea-se tell me why I wasn’t warned about there being a double elimination?”
“I didn’t find out until moments before you girls arrived.” He explained. “Apparently Calvin was able to talk the king into shortening the completion to 3 months instead of 6.” That only made me feel worse about our argument, and it must have showed. “Don’t fret over it.” Pedro laughed, then he leaned closer to me, pushing the door shut. “Back to the whispers?” He asked.
“Uh, yeah.” I said quic-kly, my heart rate picking up. “Tell me.”
“Ok, so supposedly, there is some kind of un-derground rebellion going on. They’re whispering about revolution.” He informed me.
“It’s very dangerous though, and it’s only worse because I have no idea who is in on it. I have to be careful who I speak to about it, I don’t want someone to think I’m a p@rt of it, or I’ll be in the dungeon.” He shivered.
I drew my brows together. “What are they rebelling against?” I asked.
Pedro looked nervous again, like he didn’t want to say but I nodded for him to tell. He sighed loudly. “The king.” He whispered.
I wi-de-ned my eyes. “Why?” I asked surprised. “I thought everyone loves the king?”
Pedro narrowed his eyes and puckered hisl-ips, ma-king a sound.
“Not exactly, but no one goes against him either. People have been disinterested in him for a long time, but he’s got the power and the army, so…”
“So what does this have to do with me then?” I asked.
“I haven’t quite figured that p@rt out yet.” He admitted. “Like I said, I’m not even sure this is true, but I heard that there is some sort of plan in place, so maybe you throw a wrench in the plan.” He sighed again. “I don’t know what I should do.” He said.
“If I hold back the information, and it turns out to be true, then I could be charged as a traitor. On the other hand, if I do tell, I could be in danger from whoever these people are. None of my sources can tell me who exactly is a p@rt of the rebellion.”
I leaned back on the door, chewing myl-ip. “I think you should tell.” I decided. “King Gordo can find out who the people are himself and then we’ll all be safe.”
Pedro looked unsure. “I don’t know, what if it’s not true?”
“It has to be, nothing else makes any s-en-se.”
“Ok.” He said finally, nodding his head one time quic-kly. He stood up and held out his hand for me, helping me up from the floor. “I’m going now to his chambers. Call me a sissy, but you may not see me much for a while. I think I’m going to ask to be kept un-der protec-tion for the information.”
I hvgged him quic-kly. “I think that’s a good idea.” I told him honestly. “I don’t want to have to worry about you.”
When I pu-ll-ed away I walked him out to the be-droom door, and we both lingered in the doorway. “Where are you going?” He asked me as I followed him out.
I sighed. “I want to go find Greer.” I admitted. “I don’t want to leave things with her the way I did, especially if the competition is shorter.”
“Ok.” Pedro said lifting his hand to tap me on the nose with his index f!nger. “Be careful.” He smiled, then walked away.
I went back in my room to trade out my heels for a pair of ballet flats, then I walked down to find Greer. I knocked on her door, but no one answered. I was about to head back to my room when I saw Lexton coming down the hall. “Hi, Rachel.” She said kindly as she got close. Still looking like a beauty queen in her white dress.
“Hey.” I replied with a smile. “Do you know where Greer is?”
She shook her head. “All the girls were in the rec room, but she left and said she wanted some time to think and be alone.” She said. “She didn’t say where she was going though. Sorry.”
“Oh, that’s ok, I’ll just go look for her.” I replied.
Lexton smiled softly, then continued on her way.
I thought ha-rd about where Greer may go. The first place I thought of was the libr@ry. Greer isn’t a big fan of re-ading, but she used to like to sneak off to quiet rooms like that when she was feeling down back at Drighten. I walked quietly to the elevator, then took it up to level 5 where the libr@ry was. The further down the hall I got, the more I could hear men’s voices creeping out of the room at the end of the corridor.
I slowed my breathing, and walked as quietly as I possibly could until I got down to the doors that were cracked slightly. I stood quietly and listened. There were at least three men inside and the conversation started to get quieter and quieter. I really started to tune in when I heard someone mention the king. “He’s a fool.” One man said.
“This whole competition is a joke!” Another man laughed. “How the man has been in control as long as he had makes no s-en-se to me. Gordo is a joke.”
“Agreed.” A third voice chimed in. “It won’t be much longer though.”
“The only time we will ever get real things done is when he is out of the way.”
“Yeah, as-suming she doesn’t ruin everything.” Someone said, and I could only as-sume I was the ‘she’. “We never should have let Fernando help. All he did was push them closer together.” He said.
“At least the dumbas-s didn’t squeal on us when they caught him.” Another said.
“We nee-d a new game plan on the girl, killing her won’t work at this point.”
“That’s true.”
They grew quiet, like they were all thinking, and I tried not to breath at all. I thought back to the things that Fernando had said to me before he was killed, and things were starting to make s-en-se. I waited for them to start talking again, then I leaned very carefully up to the crack in the door to see if I could see anyone.
There was only one man in my view, but he was tall, black, and had a snake tattoo that wra-pped around his n£¢k. I would just hope that was a good enough description for them to be able to capture him later.
I chose the moment they all began laughing about something to sneak away from the door. Once I was far enough away, I broke into a sprint to the elevator and I keyed in the code I’d secretly watched Calvin use. The doors slid open to level 6 and the guards nodded their heads to me. “Miss Rachel, we’ve been expecting you.” The man closest to Calvin’s room said as I stepped off the elevator. “Prince Calvin is in a meeting right now, but you’re welcome to wait for him in his room.”
“No.” I said stomping over to the king’s door.
“You can’t go in there.” The king’s guard said sternly.
I looked up to him with determination. “Do you want me to tell the prince that you were the one who kept me from seeing the king to inform him of dyer information?” I asked and he waivered just long enough for me to swing the door open and rush into the king’s suite.
I was slightly disoriented because I expected it to look like Calvin’s room, but instead it was a large living area with couches, a TV, and a full bar. In the back of the room there was an open door that looked into a room with a hvge be-d, and to the left side of a room there was a door that I could hear voices coming from.
“Why would anyone want to rebel against me?” Gordo’s voice boomed. “That’s nons-en-se.”
I rushed into the room. It was a large study with dark wood paneled walls and a large desk in the center of the room. King Gordo was sitting behind the desk, Calvin standing at his side, and Master Pedro was sitting in a chair in front of the desk.
“It’s true!” I said as I barged in.
The three of them looked up to me with wi-de eyes.
“What are you doing in here?” King Gordo demanded.
“What Pedro is telling you, it’s true.” I repeated. “I just overheard some men in the libr@ry talking about it. They want you gone.”
“That’s crazy, Rachel.” Calvin said skeptically. “Why would the people be against my father?”
I stood in the doorway suddenly nervous. “I have a theory.”
“And that is?” Gordo prompted, obviously still not believing me.
“They want you dead, because they said you’re a joke.” As soon as the last word was out of my mouth, Gordo was an inch away from my face.
“What did you say you little bit-ch?” He spat.
Calvin r!pp£dhim away, pushing him back toward the desk.
“Don’t you ever speak to her that way again.” He said angrily.
“Just listen to me!” I shouted. “I heard them say that! Whoever these people who are rebelling, they’re doing it because they think you’re a joke. I heard someone say something like ‘vampires won’t get anything done with the king’. They don’t think you’re a strong leader so they’re plotting to kill you.” I said urgently. “I think they want to replace you.”
“Why would you think that? And with who?” Gordo asked with a roll of his eyes.
“The man who was trying to kill me, he told me that I was ma-king Calvin weak, and he said that the others who wanted me dead would never let me end up with Calvin.” I explained. “I think they want to kill you so that Calvin will be king.” I said hurriedly before I got interrupted again. “They don’t want me because I make Calvin weak.” I informed them. “It makes s-en-se if you think about it.”
“I think she’s right.” Master Pedro nodded his head. “That makes total s-en-se of the whispers I’ve been hearing.”
Calvin c@m£ to me, his face angry. “Tell me who said these things.” He demanded. “I’ll show them how badly they do not want me to be king.”
🍇➖➖🍇➖🍇➖🍇🍇➖🍇➖🍇🍇➖🍇🍇➖🍇🍇
🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽
To_be_Continued