A Blossom's Thorn

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 11 (Part 2)
She dropped the man on the ground and sprinted towards the exit. She ran outside and into the cool night air. Pansy couldn’t have gone too far, right? It had only been about twenty minutes since Arabella had lost sight of her. But where had she gone?

KoolDown was on a busy road, in the industrial district of Petal City. All around her were rich businesses: bakeries, restaurants, designer stores. Arabella was unsure of where they would’ve headed. The city around them was pretty empty, as it was getting close to one in the morning. Only a few cars could be seen around. But there were no tiny princesses anywhere.

This couldn’t be happening. How was Arabella supposed to find her? If they had taken a car, they would’ve been long gone by now. She hoped they hadn’t, but there was no way to tell.

She walked over to the guards that were standing by the entrance. They were, fortunately, the same two from earlier.

“Um, excuse me?” she said, and they looked over at her.

“Aren’t you Princess Pansy’s bodyguard?” the woman asked.

“Yeah, where is the princess?” the man asked.

“That’s what I’m wondering! She ran off and I lost track of her. I heard she left with a group of people, but I’m not sure where to. I was wondering if you saw them?”

The guards looked at each other and shrugged.

“I didn’t see the princess leave,” the woman said. “But we’ve seen a lot of people leave. Do you know who she left with?”

“I know she left with two men and a woman. So there would’ve been four in their group.”

“I did see one group of four leave a little while ago,” the man said.

“How long ago?” Arabella prompted.

“About ten minutes ago?” he offered.

"Perfect. That was probably them. Did you see where she went?”

“They went to Reymond’s Bakery,” the man gestured to the blue and white striped bakery down the street.

“That’s still open?” Arabella asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“They stay open all night for the crowds coming in from the party,” he shrugged. “Don’t ask me why. But I know they went there. Don’t know if they left or not, but you could always go see.”

Arabella nodded. “Thank you!” Then she booked it to the bakery.

The bakery was mostly empty when Arabella got there. Only a couple, who had presumably come from the party, were sitting at a corner table. She cursed when she realized Pansy wasn’t there anymore. The couple looked up and gave her a dirty look. She glared at them before walking up to the counter.

The bakery was warm and smelled of bread. There was one person working the counter: a groggy middle-aged man. He had his chin resting on his hand as he flipped through a magazine. Arabella made her way through the maze of fancy tables and walked up to him.

“What can I get ya?” the man asked, stifling a yawn. He didn’t even look up.

“I need information,” Arabella said. “A group of four walked into here about ten minutes ago. Among them was a tiny girl with a lot of energy who looked to be about twelve. Where did they go?”

The man looked up and glared at her. Then he slowly closed his magazine. “Who are you? They told me the princess didn’t have any escorts. They said she had come by herself.”

Arabella cracked her knuckles. “So she’s here, then? Just what are you playing at, huh? You kidnapped the princess. You knew you kidnapped the princess. Why?”

As far as Arabella knew, this wasn’t a rebel hideout. Neither was KoolDown. Was there more than one rebellion in Virelia that Arabella didn’t know about?

The man picked up a knife. “I’ll give you five seconds to leave and pretend you never stepped foot in here.”

“Why would you do that? Amateur move. Obviously I’d just come back with help if you let me out.” She rolled her eyes. If these guys were a new rebel faction, they were terribly trained.

“Yeah, well, I-” he sputtered, but Arabella beat him to it. She jumped onto the counter and grabbed the cash register, then hit it over the man’s head. He fell to the ground, completely out. The cash register opened and dumped its contents on the man. Then Arabella dropped it on him, a loud thud coming from where it had fallen onto his arm. Not where she had hoped it would drop, but he was already out, so she let it go.

She jumped off the counter and grabbed his knife from him. She was terrible at hand-to-hand combat, but this was her only weapon at the moment. She wished she had something else, though. Her slingshot, or a gun, or even a bow and arrow. She was amazing with the long distance weapons.

She headed to the doors that led to the back and kicked them open. Surprisingly, no one was in the kitchen. It was dark and completely empty. Which meant that somewhere, there was a secret place where they were keeping Pansy.

She walked around the kitchen, trying to find a place where they might have hidden her. Spice cabinet? Nope. Secret door on the floor? Nope. On the ceiling? No.

She eventually turned her attention to a row of cupboards at the end of the room. She began opening the doors, unsure of what she would find. Surprisingly, the entrance was hard to find. But she eventually found the switch, hidden behind a bunch of pans. She flipped it, and a section of the floor opened.

“I already checked the floor,” she grumbled, but headed into the dark anyway. If Pansy were down there, then it would all be worth it.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 12 (Part 1)
Nicky stood in front of Pansy’s bedroom door and sighed softly. He regretted getting angry at her earlier. So he had talked to her mum about letting her attend the ball, and she had agreed it was probably time for them to start getting Pansy ready for her to become queen.

He knocked softly on the door. No response immediately came, which was odd. Usually Pansy was quick to answer when someone knocked. She loved getting visitors. She didn’t like being cooped up in her room when she was alone.

He knocked again, louder this time. Still no response. He bit his lip, unsure if she was avoiding him because she was mad, or if there was something else going on. Had Arabella betrayed them and kidnapped her?

Panic flared in his chest. He opened the door, which was rarely ever locked. Inside he found nothing but an empty room. Dresses laid scattered on the ground, along with various types of heeled shoes.

They’d snuck into the ball. Of course they had. He sighed and shook his head. Well, maybe not snuck, as they were actually allowed to be there now. At least, Pansy was. Arabella wasn’t. If she had gone to the ball, there was a chance that she would be caught. That would lead to trouble for all three of them.

Nicky turned around and made his way down to the dance without a second thought.

The ballroom was on the bottom floor of the castle. Nicky stepped into the giant, golden room. All around him were the elite people of Virelia. Dancing, chatting, daintily munching on pastries. At the front of the room, an orchestra played a slow song that the people in the middle of the floor were doing a waltz to.

He stepped into the dance, recognizing several famous faces. He walked by the governor of Velmire, the head of the Nyxvale rebel faction and the owner of a famous fashion brand in Hollisca. But none of them were Pansy. He didn’t see her or Arabella anywhere.

“Hey, Nicky!” a voice called, and he turned to see Sunny. He walked over to her, still scanning for Pansy. “What are you doing here? I thought Pansy wasn’t coming this year,” Sunny said as he walked over. She was standing by a few members of her royal council, holding a drink in her hand and looking very uncomfortable. Sunny was never one for crowded places.

“I got permission to bring her, actually,” Nicky said. “But she wasn’t in her room, so I thought she had snuck into here.”

Sunny frowned. “I haven’t seen her. She’s good at hiding, but not that good. If she were here, there would be no more pastries left.”

"That’s what I was thinking. She’s not here. But she’s gone,” Nicky sighed. Where had Arabella taken Pansy, if it wasn’t for the dance? He didn’t want to jump to conclusions and guess that she had kidnapped her, but it was starting to feel that way.

Something didn’t add up, though. Why had all those clothes been on the floor? If they hadn’t gone to the ball, why else would they have needed to ransack Pansy’s party dresses? Unless Pansy had tried to use those as a last line of defense against Arabella…

“Have you seen her all day?” Nicky asked her.

Sunny shook her head. “Nope. I’ve been busy all day. Balls are very time consuming to plan, you know.”

“I’m worried about her. She seemed upset earlier, when I told her that she couldn’t go to the ball.”

“I thought mum had agreed to let her go?”

“I got her permission after I originally told Pansy she couldn’t go. Now I can’t find her anywhere. What if I was too harsh on her?”

Nicky couldn’t stop worrying. What if she had run away? Then it would be his fault. But would Arabella have gone with her if she had run away? No, Pansy running away didn’t make sense. Arabella had something to do with this. Whether it was for a bad intention or not, she’d still taken the princess out into danger.

“Do you think she’s hiding somewhere in the castle?” Sunny asked. “Have you checked her usual moping spots? The kitchen, maid’s closet, storage room, mum’s office?”

Nicky thought about it, then nodded. “You’re right. She’s probably somewhere, pouting about the fact I wouldn’t let her come to the ball tonight. I’ll go look for her.”

He left the ballroom, then set off in search of Pansy.

Thirty minutes later, after checking all Pansy’s usual moping places, Nicky stood back outside Pansy’s room, empty handed. She’d been nowhere.

He walked back into her room, studying the space for clues. Dresses were all over, piled on the floor and on her bed. Her entire closet had been ransacked, it seemed. The shoes were the same story. The shoe closet was empty, shoes were everywhere else. Wherever they went, it seemed they needed to be dressed fancy for it. It also didn’t seem like they had time to clean up after their mess. Why did girls insist on throwing their clothes everywhere, anyways? Wasn’t it easier to just put it back in the closet nicely after deciding you didn’t want it?

He sighed and started cleaning up the mess, hoping some idea of where they might have gone would hit him as he cleaned.

Halfway through the mess, an idea didn’t hit him, but he found a clue instead. After clearing off her desk, he found a note she’d left for him. Then had decided to bury it under a bunch of dresses, apparently.

He picked up the notepad and read over the note.

Nicky-
Bella’s taking me to a party! It’s going to be super fun, way better than the ball! She said we’ll be back later, so I’ll see you then!
-Pansy

Nicky threw the pad onto the floor and huffed. Pansy had left him the most useless note in the history of notes. Three sentences. The only clue he had about where they were at was that they were going to a party.

Which explained the dresses, but what if Arabella had been using that as a cover to take Pansy away to her rebel friends?

Would she really do that?

But he knew the answer. Of course she would. She was a rebel, whether Pansy liked her or not. Nicky didn’t know why he’d ever trusted the girl.

He ripped the page out of the notepad and ran off, determined to save Pansy from whatever fate Arabella had in store for her.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 12 (Part 2)
~~~
There was a long, steep staircase that led down into the darkness. There was also no light in the tunnel, so Arabella had to keep one hand on the wall and carefully make her way down. It had started out small and narrow, but it eventually widened out. Arabella was able to stop crouching and was actually able to stand up straight as she made her way into the unknown ahead of her.

The tunnel was nothing but silence. If Pansy was down here, there was no sign of it. No matter how much Arabella strained to hear something, it was just as quiet as it was dark. As a hater of both, she decided she didn’t like the tunnel. She was excited to grab Pansy and go. But she kept making her way down anyway, hoping they hadn’t hurt her. She figured Nicky would have her head if Pansy came back with so much as a bruise.

Some light started beginning to shine through the tunnel, and Arabella quickened her pace. She still went slow enough that she wouldn’t slip and fall down the stairs, but she didn’t need to worry about not knowing where the stairs were as the light got brighter.

She made it to the bottom of the stairs and stepped into a brightly lit concrete hallway. In front of her were three doors.

“Joy,” she muttered. No windows on each of them, which meant she didn’t know which one held Pansy in it. And anything could be in the other two.

There were also still no sounds. She guessed it was because of the concrete, which was probably their way of making the rooms soundproof.

Which meant she really had no hints of what was in each room.

The last time she had been faced with this choice… She winced, not wanting to remember the room in the Gray Mile. That room haunted her. The little boy’s face was always chasing her. She saw it whenever she closed her eyes, along with the faces of Mila and Toby. Just another person she couldn’t save.

And Pansy would become her fourth if she couldn’t choose a room.

She held her breath and closed her eyes, then walked over to a random door. When she opened her eyes, she saw she had chosen the door on the left. This might not have been the best way to choose a room, but Arabella had no other ideas. So she opened the door.

Except it wouldn’t open. It was locked.

She cursed and kicked the door. Which didn’t do anything to the concrete door. Instead, it hurt her foot.

More curses followed as she bounced around on one foot, trying to shake out her hurt foot to get the pain to stop. After a few seconds of this, she leaned against the wall and devised another strategy. She went to the right door and tried that one. It opened, but inside was a storage room for the bakery.

She went inside and threw one of the flour bags onto the floor. Watching it explode and engulf the room in its fine white powder made her feel a lot better. Until the dust got into her mouth and she began to cough. She went back outside and closed the door.

Which left only the center room. Pansy had to be inside that room. If she was inside the left room, Arabella was screwed. She didn’t even know where to begin to look for a key to open it.

She stood in front of the center door and took a breath. “Please let Pansy be in here…” she muttered. She felt like fighting. Her only weapon was a knife, and she was covered in flour, but this search had made her angry. She wanted to beat up the rebels and get Pansy as far away from this place as she could. She’d probably be hated by Nicky for forever when she got back, but at least Pansy would be safe.

That’s all that mattered.

She put her hand on the doorknob, then paused. There were three of these guys, and one of her. Even if she freed Pansy to help her, she’d be at a major disadvantage. These guys were probably better at hand-to-hand combat than she was, and the element of surprise would only last for a little while. She needed something more.

She went back into the storage room and grabbed a few sacks of flour. She used the knife to slit them open. She wasn’t entirely sure how to do it, but she figured that if one bag was enough to make her start choking, three bags should cover an entire room full of rebels and distract them enough for her to grab Pansy and get out.

So she picked up the three bags and opened the door.

Inside the room, as she’d guessed, stood the three rebel members. Tied to a chair was an alive, but badly beaten, Pansy. She looked up at Arabella with hope in her eyes.

“Bella!” she cheered. The rebels, who had been turned away from her, looked over at her. The girl bared her teeth and growled.

“Who are you?” she hissed. “We were told she didn’t have any security with her!”

“Oh, I’m worse than security,” Arabella tossed the bags into the center of the room. Sure enough, they all exploded, making a layer of dust coat everything. Which also meant no one could see anything in the room, but that was fine. Arabella already knew where Pansy was.

"I’m a fellow rebel!”

Then she barreled into the room, heart set on destroying this new faction of rebels.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 13 (Part 1)
“Who are you?!?”

“Where’d she go?”

“Is this poison?”

“No, it’s flour! Find her!”

“I can’t see anything!”

“Keep her away from the princess!”

Screams echoed around the room as chaos erupted. Arabella smiled at her handiwork. She made her way over to where she had seen Pansy and untied her. The girl looked up at her, terror in her eyes.

“They said they were friends with you…” she whispered. Arabella shook her head.

“I’ve never met these idiots in my life.”

She finished untying Pansy as the flour finished settling. Pansy stood up, and they turned towards the exit. But the confusion had begun to die down, and the three rebels stood guarding the door.

There were three of them, all about Arabella’s age. She couldn’t make out many of their features from the layer of flour that was covering them, but she could make out a few details. They seemed about sixteen, her age, maybe a bit older. Seventeen, perhaps. They were also angry. Furious. Livid. Every other word for angry that Arabella could think of.

Which made her smile.

“Run!” she yelled at Pansy, then ran at the door. One of the boys jumped out of the way, but the girl caught Arabella. The two fell to the ground. Arabella gasped as the fall made her breath get knocked out. The other girl looked just as shocked, not expecting them to both fall over. Arabella regained her composure to try and stand up, but the girl was fast. She grabbed Arabella’s hair and pulled. She was yanked downwards with the pressure, but Pansy came to her rescue.

Pansy had run a few seconds after Arabella. The second boy had tried to grab her, but she’d slid under his legs. Now she was at Arabella’s side. She poked the rebel girl in the eye. The girl howled in pain, loosening her grasp on Arabella. She stood up as the boys came running at them. Arabella flung out one of her legs and tripped one of them, sending them flying. Pansy wasn’t as lucky. She had zero combat experience, so she had no idea what to do with this guy who was running towards her.

The girl sat up and tackled Arabella back onto the ground, leaving Pansy completely defenseless when the boy came and scooped her up.

“I’ve got the princess, boss!” the boy grinned down at the girl, who was now under Arabella. Arabella was doing all she could to harm the girl, kicking and biting and clawing. The girl didn’t have time to hold back on her attacks or make any of her own, she was too busy trying to ward off Arabella.

Pansy kicked her legs, which were about a foot off the ground. “Let go of me, weirdo!” she yelled, and the boy just laughed.

“No, I don’t think so!” he laughed.

The other boy grabbed Arabella and yanked her off his leader. The girl staggered to her feet and snarled at Arabella.

Pansy kicked her feet some more, then snapped her head back, smacking her captor in the nose. His nose made a loud cracking sound, and blood spurted out. He dropped Pansy onto the ground and held a hand up to his nose, which was now crooked.

Pansy rubbed the back of her head and glared up at the boy. “Your nose hurts.”

Arabella was about to do the same thing to her captor, but the girl had grabbed the chair Pansy had been tied to from the room and was pointing it at Arabella threateningly. “Don’t move, or I’ll hurt her.”

“Oh, wow, a chair, how threatening,” Arabella said sarcastically. “Don’t you guys have real weapons?” Once she said that, she remembered the weapon she had. She twisted her hand away from her captor’s and grabbed the knife from her pocket. Her knife skills were a joke, but she hoped she could bluff for long enough to get Pansy out.

She swiped at the boy who had been holding her, but he dodged out of the way. Pansy stood up and ran to her side. The girl glared at her, then looked down at the chair in her hand.

“Who are you guys?” Arabella asked, shifting around to try and keep all three of them in her sight, so they wouldn’t try anything.

The girl laughed. “Oh, you wouldn’t know, Arabella Draper.”

“How-”

“We’re a secret force the rebellion put in place, right in the heart of Petal City. So secret that even you don’t know about it,” she grinned. “This way, we could kill the government from its heart without anyone suspecting.” She pointed the chair at Pansy. “Starting with her!”

“You aren’t going to touch her!” Arabella snarled.

“Your father isn’t going to be happy to learn you’re helping her,” the girl said. “Why are you playing these games? You’re one of us!”

Arabella scoffed. “Why do you believe everything the rebellion tells you? I’ve been living with Pansy for a while now, and half the things I’ve been told all my life aren’t even true!”

The girl glared at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! They’re liars! All of them!”

“You’re the liars!” Pansy shouted. “You said we were friends!”

“Lying is just a part of the world, sweetie,” the boy who didn’t have a broken nose said.

“You, shut it!” Arabella snapped at him, then turned back to the girl. “You think I’m stupid enough to believe this ‘secret team’ lie? You guys are all idiots! Your guard upstairs was going to let me go, after I’d found your hideout. Like, can you tell me ‘bring back some reinforcements to bust us’ more clearly?”

The girl cursed. “Johnny was never that smart.”

“And you’re using a chair as a weapon. Where are your knives? Guns? Even a little stapler would do! But a chair?”

“This was the closest thing I could get to!” the girl whined.

“You guys are trained assassins, and you can’t even keep a simple knife on you? What’s wrong with you guys?”

“We didn’t think she had a bodyguard with her, so Izzy told us we could relax!” the boy without the broken nose said. The girl, Izzy, shot him a glare.

“Shut up, Samuel!” she hissed.

“Wow, very smart group,” Arabella said sarcastically. “Relax means put your weapons in a spot where you can’t get to them easily? Seriously?”

“Well, we have this really cute holder-” Samuel began, but Izzy shot him another glare.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 13 (Part 2)
Out of the corner of her eye, Arabella spotted a flash of movement. Broken nosed boy had bolted for the room. She threw her knife at him and hit his arm. He fell to the ground with a scream.

Izzy and Samuel both watched him fall, then rushed at Arabella, since she had just thrown her only weapon.

Stupid Arabella, she cursed. You’re just as bad as them!

Izzy broke the chair over her head, and everything went dark.

~~~

Pansy stared down at her friend, completely frozen. Arabella was facedown on the floor, wood shards all around her, blood beginning to drip from a wound in her head.

Her best friend had been hurt, and Pansy had been powerless to stop it.

“Wow, who’s the stupid one now?” Izzy mocked, kicking Arabella’s body, which made Pansy even angrier.

“Grab the girl, let’s take her straight to headquarters!” Samuel huffed. “No more of this nonsense. Arabella probably has backup coming as we speak.”

Pansy stood there, listening to them insult her friend, her blood boiling. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes. Was Arabella dead? Had they just killed her best friend?

If they had, then it would be her fault. She was the one who had followed these people into their hideout. If she hadn’t left Arabella, if she had listened to her about the party…

She should have left when she had the chance. Before Arabella had gotten hurt.

Pansy let out a scream and opened her eyes. The world now had a weird pink hue around it. She wondered if she’d started bleeding somehow, and the blood was dripping into her eyes, but at the moment, she didn’t care. She just wanted to get Arabella back home alive. If she could protect her friend, then that was all that mattered.

The rebels had frozen when Pansy screamed. After the initial shock, however, they burst into laughter.

“Oh no, I’m so scared!” Samuel laughed.

“What’s she going to do, burst our eardrums?” Izzy giggled.

Even the boy whose nose Pansy had broken was laughing.

But Pansy wasn’t laughing.

There was nothing funny about this.

She stepped over Arabella’s unconscious body and held out her hands at Izzy. She didn’t touch the girl, but she went flying into the other room, anyway. She smashed against the wall and fell to the floor. To Pansy’s disappointment, she stood up and glowered at Pansy.

“Woah, look at her eyes-” Samuel began, but Pansy turned her attention to him next. She ran up to him and grabbed his arm, then flipped him over her and onto the floor. He landed with a thud and a groan.

She turned to the boy whose nose she had broken. He took one look at her, then booked it up the stairs. She shot out a hand, causing him to fly back down the stairs and crash at the bottom.

Izzy ran back into the room and helped Samuel up. “Get her!” she roared at her comrades, who both looked at her, then Pansy, then decided they’d much rather deal with their boss than the crazy girl with glowing pink eyes. So they both sprinted into the room Pansy had been locked in and slammed the door shut behind them.

“Cowards!” Izzy roared after them. Pansy used the distraction to throw her hands out at Izzy again. The girl shot into the air, screaming. Pansy stopped her before she could hit the ceiling.

“Who are you? How are you doing this?” the girl yelled, terrified. “Are you people secretly magicians? Magic doesn’t exist!”

Pansy threw her hands again and smashed Izzy into a wall. “I’m Pansy! That’s all I am!”

In truth, she wasn’t sure how she was doing this. All she knew was that it felt good. She gave Izzy another smash, then let the girl drop to the floor. She landed on the ground with a grunt, but wasn’t out yet. Her face and body were beaten up, bruised and bloodied, but she still had enough energy to look up and glare at Pansy.

“You… People are all evil…” she muttered. Pansy walked over to her and glared down at her.

“You hurt my friend,” she said. “I don’t like people who hurt my friends.”

Izzy laughed and shook her head. “She’s not your friend, princess. She’s a rebel. Sooner or later, she’s going to betray you. I don’t know what she’s currently playing at, I don’t know why you trust her, but trust me, it’s not going to end well for you. And when she betrays you, you’ll regret not letting me finish her for you!”

Pansy growled and reached out her hand one last time. One scream, then silence. She turned to Arabella and grabbed her friend off from the floor and began the trek up the steep stairs to freedom.