Surviving the World to Escape Him

HELENA “Fire, everyone out! there is a fire.” Smoke choked me before I was fully awake. I coughed rushing out of the servants’ quarters. When I got outside it was chaos, maids and guards running around like headless chickens with buckets of water trying to put out the fire. I stood there in daze with my eyes still full of sleep. My mind not fully working, but a shout got my mind working in overdrive. “The prince! Where is the prince? Did someone get him out?” the voice was frantic; it was the consort, Layla.The prince was in her care, but when the fire broke out, her brain had not been working properly, she got out alone and completely forgot about the prince. I jumped back into the house through the window and found the prince out on the bed, still, too still, not moving no matter how hard I shook him.I didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Left with no choice, I struggled to pick him up. he was heavy, my arms felt stiff and weak. I kept looking back at the fire as it spread. Fear

HELENAPain surged through my body as I tried to sit up and get myself off the ground. The pain was sharp and sudden. Chasing away the last traces of weakness I had. Along with it, the hope of survival. In my condition, it didn’t matter what I did. I couldn’t fight my way through what was coming. I gritted my teeth and tried pushing myself off the ground again.Pain shot through me; my arms trembled and gave out. I cursed under my breath. I thought I had broken free from the clatches of death when I left the palace. I never thought the outside was worse than where I came from. I had hopes for a better life, I was fooling myself, nothing good ever happened to people like me.On third try, I got the same results. I fell back down. I didn’t give up. frustrated, I tried again and this time I succeeded. The moment I put wait on my foot, it screamed in pain, but I pushed through it. No, it wasn’t the time for it give up on me. Not now, not when my life depended on it. I thought as I stood.

HELENA Sunrays seeped through the cracks in the wooden walls. It didn’t feel like morning. It felt like survival continued. I woke slowly, my body stiff in ways that made every breath feel like a reminder of what had happened. For a moment, I didn’t move. I didn’t think. Just lay there, staring at the dim ceiling, trying to remember where I was.Then it came back, the road, the fire, the man. My fingers twitched as I pushed myself up slightly. The cabin was quiet, too quiet. I force my gaze across the room. he was already awake. Of course he was. He sat near the fire, not looking at me. one hand rested near a blade laid casually beside him.The other turning something over slowly, methodical, controlled. Like time didn’t press against him the way it pressed against me. he didn’t greet me. didn’t acknowledge I was awake. But I knew he knew. “Good.” He said finally, without looking up. “You didn’t die in your sleep.”My throat tightened slightly. I didn’t answer. It was obvious not ans

HELENA The forest felt different when I was alone in it. not emptier. Just honest. Every sound mattered now. every snap of a branch. Every shift in the wind. Every breath I tried to keep steady. There was no one left to decide what I was worth. No one left to watch. Only the path. Only me.I followed it anyway, because there was nothing else left to do. It took me all day to reach the spot he had marked. By the time I got there, the sun had dipped low, the sky stretched thin with fading light. Not dark yet but close enough that the shadows had begun to settle into places they didn’t belong.The trees opened slowly. Almost reluctantly. And then saw it. A village. Green everywhere. Not just alive but thriving. Crops stretched in neat rows, hick and heavy as if they had never known drought. The grass was soft and full beneath my feet. Even the air smelled different. Clean and rich, almost sweet.A faint smile pulled at my cracked lips. I made it. now all that was left was to see whether

HELENAI stared at the steaming bowl that sat before me. steam rising in slow curling tendrils that carried that same rich scent. Up close it was stronger, almost sweet but not in a way that felt right. My stomach twisted painfully, urging me forward, drowning the sharp edge of instinct clawing at the back of my mind.Laura had already turned away again, moving as if nothing had happened, as if the silence between us hadn’t turned into something thick and watchful. I reached for the bowl anyway, my hands trembled. Not from weakness this time. but from something deeper, something that refused to settle.The sound hadn’t come again but it didn’t mean it was gone. It felt closer now. waiting. My fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the table as I lifted the spoon, hesitating just long enough for the thought to surface, clear and unwelcomed. If I eat this, what am I accepting? I didn’t move. The bowl sat between us, steam curling into the air like something alive, something watc