The substitute Princess

Alexia

The four walls of Princess Charlotte's bedroom seemed too small now that the gold-plated and satin room was in rags, there were shards everywhere as if a hurricane had gone through the place, but nothing beats the princess's face and her expression of hatred towards the queen.

"I will not marry Prince Estevan! You know what they say about that man, he is cruel, sadistic."

"We have no other choice Charlotte, they demanded the marriage for the peace treaty and after he acquired another dragon our kingdom is in danger!"

"George will protect us! " I refrained from grimacing, Charlotte had a platonic love for General George of whom, after connecting with a dragon had sworn to protect Torrem, but he was only one while everyone knew Prince Estevan had two dragons now.

We must seal the peace or we would turn to ashes.

The tension between them seemed to increase, the queen let out a sarcastic laugh and looked at Charlotte angrily.

"Don't be naïve Charlotte, George can't protect the kingdom and he knows it. Our firepower is not enough to fight Prince Estevan should he decide to attack and there is too much tension between our kingdoms to ignore that. This peace treaty is the only way out we have! "

" There has to be another way! "

"But there isn't, you always knew you would have to get married one day and that it would be in a business way, any and all feelings you have for General George you will get over, swallow and marry Prince Estevan as soon as you set foot in Olimper" Morgana's stern voice and to the point words made me glare at her, something I was avoiding as if it was just a shadow in the corner of the room, like every time they argued but now it was hard to ignore.

She left leaving Charlotte alone in the room, Charlotte screamed against the door and broke a vase throwing it hard against the wall.

I approached the princess who lay on the floor with her eyes distant, listless.

"Are you alright?"

She looked at me like she was going to kill me and stood up furiously fixing her hair.

"What are you looking at?"

I was speechless knowing I wasn't supposed to answer.

"Tidy up the room!"

"Yes, Your Highness."

I bent down to pick up some shards from the vase in the corner of the room.

"Faster!" she shouted, getting up from the floor. "Clean up this mess soon, it's not letting me think straight!"

I started to pick up the shards faster.

" Come on!" She shouted and I started to get nervous, then I felt her kick my hip on the floor, I fell forward with my hands on the shards and felt the tearing pain of them in my hands.

"You're useless, you're not even good enough to pick up the pieces on the floor!" She said angrily, grabbing a jar in the corner and pouring dirt over my head.

My whole body shook feeling the anger, my blood felt like it was boiling. I closed my fists over the ground ignoring the tearing pain and the curls that seemed to get further into my skin with every second, tearing, cutting, bleeding over the ground. My eyes blurred with tears from the humiliation and I took a deep breath, rethinking the punch I wanted to throw at the princess, how I wanted to fly at her, after all, it was my life.

For a lot less my head was rolling on the floor and even though my life was so disposable, I wanted to live.

I stood up, pulled myself together and bowed briefly.

"Didn't you hear me? I said you're useless!"

"Yes, Your Highness."

She snarled in anger and stormed out of the room, I let out the air I was holding and let the tears fall unbridled. I went towards the bathroom to clean my wounds cursing the princess' name for treating me so inhumanly.

My hands trembled on the white sink bathed in blood, I took one of the shards and avoided a scream of pain, wrapped a cloth over them to stop the bleeding and turned to the room, I looked around and sighed feeling terrible, then I started to tidy up the room.

Not only did she have to make everything impeccable, but she also had to pack the princess's suitcases because she was leaving with her.

Fucking shrew! I mentally cursed her every time my hand hurt, the way she treated me was inhuman.

But what could I do? I was just a servant, they always made it clear that I was easily replaceable, the king's dogs were treated better than me. I craved freedom as if it were the air I breathe, every second of the day and I knew that this was an unattainable dream as well as seeing what was behind the castle walls, but I clung to it as a hope that fed me and pushed me every day to keep going.

The truth was that I was the daughter of a cook and a servant who had been born and died in the castle and because I was the princess's servant I could never set foot outside the castle because I knew too much about the royal family.

I hated the royal family with all my might, especially Charlotte who took pleasure in making my life a living hell.

At night when the clearing was already lit and the room was spotless, my hands throbbed a little from the cleaning products I used even though my hands were bruised, I feared the time I was going to take off the improvised bandages, despite having them on all day the princess didn't even seem to have noticed.

"Tomorrow I'm taking a ship to Olimper and then my life will never be the same." She let go as I walked around the room fluffing her pillows, I turned to look at her mutely, her eyes were distant, she let out a sadistic laugh and continued " That man must be a torture, from the things I've heard about him..."

"Maybe not" I opened my mouth, but she didn't look at me, she seemed to talk to herself "Rumors are not always true."

"Don't try to soften the situation" She raised her face to look at me "I know you just want to flatter me, none of you really care about me."

I kept quiet, unlike what she thought I had no intention of flattering her.

"Aren't you going to contradict me?"

"You're the princess of Torrem, I would never do that" I said, bowing my head.

She got up and came towards me, I tried to contain my nervousness and the fear that she would hurt me again and then she touched my hands.

"Look at me, do you know why I always hurt you?" She asked making me raise my eyes to look at her " You don't fight back, you don't scream, you just accept your fate just like it was with your mother."

She let go of my hand.

"Tell me Alexia, do you dream of something?"

I was baffled, I had never seen Charlotte even interested in anything about me.

"I dream of seeing what it's like behind these walls" I admitted.

"It's such a silly dream, you know you'll die trapped in those walls" She gave a playful smile "Come on, smile."

I couldn't smile.

"You're not in such a bad position or do you want to trade places with me? You think your life is hard, think how suffocating it is to live like a princess with hundreds of eyes on you, having to learn seven languages instead of playing, having to marry a man you don't even know who is recognized for cruelty and worse, leaving your love behind..." Her eyes seemed distant.

Damn shrew, I thought. I hated the princess with all my might.

"Go to sleep, tomorrow you're going with me to Olimper."

"I..."

"Yes, you will leave this castle. You're going with me to Olimper."

I tried to keep the smile that broke out on my face from my face as I nodded, but I was excited to get out of the castle.

"Wipe the smile off your face or I'll change my mind."

I shook my head.

"Do you need anything else, princess?"

" No, go." She gestured and left the room.