While I walked back to Castle my stomach twisted. I still couldn’t take in what just happened. I had walked in the forest curious to know more, and now I wished I had never entered.

When the gateway to the castle opened I ran to the staircase not even thinking about the mud trail I was leaving behind. I slowly opened the door to his office and saw that he wasn’t there. I began opening drawers, looking at the bookshelves, checking the papers on his desk, before I found two letters crumbled on the floor.

“Commander Phillip, our crops have been poisoned and I’m currently at Leta kingdom. I’ve finished what I came here for and I’ve killed the king. There is no possible way to feed all the starving children and families, some will need to be killed. Send troops as soon as possible and give this letter back to me when I return after you’ve done so.

-King Fedrick.”

In response to that letter Commander Phillip wrote:

“Dear King Fedrick,

 I will be sending troops to do the job. Return Safely.

-Commander Phillip.”

After reading those letters I felt betrayed. The father that I had known my whole life seemed to be a different person. I’d truly believe he saved those children. I was naive enough to believe that. When looking at the fireplace, I could see that he had recently burned some things. I could assume that he has been burning any evidence of him being evil. Why else would he want his Letter to be returned? I looked at the clock on the wall, it was only seven pm. I could meet up with the lady in the forest soon. As I began putting the papers away I could hear footsteps coming towards the office. Immediately I hid in the closet making sure to step as lightly as possible. 

“Where's my daughter!” I heard a familiar voice yell, the voice that seemed to be my father. “I haven't seen her since I arrived! There’s a trail of dirt in the castle. It’s clear that she was here! So instead of standing around, find her!” He yelled at the four soldiers that followed him there.”

“Yes sir!” They all said as they scurried out of the door.

“I hope she’s not beginning to become like her sister, it would be such a shame.” He shook his head and began writing a letter.

It seemed to be an hour before my father left to see if the guards found me. As soon as I got out I began stretching, letting out a big yawn. It was 8 pm, so I needed to get there quickly. Instead of leaving through the gateway, I left through the garden to prevent any guards from seeing me. When I arrived at the same spot I could see the lady.

“Seems like you believe me now, huh?” She said, staring at me with her brown eyes that almost seemed to be black. They reminded me of my own.

“Yeah, I do…” I said looking down, ashamed to be related to my father.

“Well, you can be extremely valuable. I’m here to find a way to kill your father, but with you being his daughter and all it’ll be easier for you to get close to him.”

“Wa-Wait, are you suggesting that I kill him?”

“Yeah basically? It shouldn’t be too hard, you can poison him if you’re too scared to use a sword.”

I’d never even touched a sword before. Yesterday I was excited to see my father, and now I was coming up with a plan to kill him. Things were moving way too fast, I had only discovered the horrible things he had done an hour ago.

“Why can’t we just imprison him?''I asked desperately, trying to develop a new plan.

“How are we supposed to imprison him in his kingdom? Everybody here sees him as a marvelous person. The only way to do that is if we took him to my kingdom and that would be impossible!” She responded frustrated.

I looked down, I felt guilty trying to keep my father alive knowing all the things he’s done. But he’s been there my whole life when my mother wasn’t, it was difficult to just forget the role he played in my life. 

“I didn’t get your name,” I said, trying to change the subject.

“Just call me Vicky for now. But that’s not important, at midnight I need to go back, so you need to decide if you want to be part of this plan or not. You’d be saving many people's lives.”

I looked at her, I could see that she was desperate for help. She looked almost my age, in some way she reminded me of my sister. She handed me her sword.

“Just say yes, if you do all you have to do is get close to him I’ve already handled everything else.” She stared at me waiting for me to answer. She passed me a leaf from her pocket that seemed in oddly good condition. “If it makes it easier you can put him to sleep, just put this in his drink. I’ll be in a castle, use this if you need help.” She passed me the tiny black box. 

I nodded my head looking at the tiny black box.

“What is this?” I asked curiously.

“Do you not use walkie-talkies here?” She asked curling her eyebrows.

I shook my head. “Just press this button here to talk, and this button to listen. Hide it in your pocket.” She said pointing to each button.

“Ok, got it!” I responded.

“Now go back to the castle, I trust that you can do this,” She said, running into the forest.

Now that I thought about it I had no idea where I was supposed to put this sword. For a sword, it was oddly small. I decided I would just put it on one of the straps on my back. If I wore a sweater it could be easily covered.

When I arrived back at the castle at 9 pm, I knew my father would be upset that I didn't welcome him the whole day, so I thought bringing him tea would be a good idea. I could put the leaf in there, I would just have to crush it. As I walked down the hallway, I immediately grabbed a sweater from the coat hanger in front of the ballroom then I made my way to the kitchen. Tea was common to make in the castle because it showed you had a higher status, so we already had herbs set up to make the tea right away. My father and I liked two different kinds of tea, so I used different herbs for each tea. I put on some boiling water making sure to crush the leaf Vicky had handed me. If something unexpected happened, she said she would be in the castle, which made me slightly less worried.

I brought one tea for myself and one tea that had a leaf in it. As I made my way up to my father’s office, I could hear his frustrated voice. Slowly I knocked on the door.

“Who?” He asked immediately, turning calm.

“It’s me, Celeste,” I responded, opening the door.

“Where have you been! I’ve had guards searching everywhere for you!”

“I’m sorry, I was just exploring the woods like usual." he let out a long sigh. “I brought tea,” I said.

He looked at me and smiled a bit. I knew that he loved tea. I couldn’t help but feel ashamed after seeing the warm smile on his face. The feeling of guilt kept returning and I was beginning to feel regretful. I passed his tea, and I began drinking some of mine.

“I think I'm feeling a bit...tired,” he said before fainting onto the floor.

Now that I did it I could feel myself beginning to panic, sweat began to drip off me as I just stared at his body. When I looked closely I could see foam coming out. I don't think that was supposed to happen. Immediately I went to check his pulse, I could see he wasn’t breathing. My eyes widened, I hadn’t even done anything. I only gave him the leave that was only supposed to put him to sleep. I began to talk into the walkie-talkie.

“What’s going on? I've only given him the tea but he stopped breathing,” I said after clicking the button she showed me repeatedly. I then clicked on the other button that allowed me to listen to her. There was no response. My eyes widened as the closet door opened revealing Vicky. 

“I didn’t expect you to do it, so I had to give you a little push. Instead of sleeping, I gave you poison. I couldn’t allow you to ruin this for me.” She said with a smirk plastered on her face. “I knew we were naive, but I didn’t think it would be this easy.”

I could feel my head beginning to hurt and my eyes beginning to droop. My throat began to dry up and it became harder to breathe. 

“What do you mean?” I asked with a raspy voice.

“You’re father didn’t do half the things I said. Of course, a lot was true, but my kingdom never wanted peace. We were no better than your father of course, but we’ve been trying to conquer his kingdom for years. I’ve been training  years for this!” As she said that she revealed a necklace that I recognized. It was the necklace Victoria used to wear.

“Victoria?” I asked as my eyes began to widen.

“Correct, surprised you finally figured that out!” She said, “Brudia has much more advanced technology. It wasn't hard to change my face with a little makeup. After finding out the truth about my mother, I immediately ran to Brudia. Our mother was born in Brudia, she was sent here as a spy but ended up falling in love with our father. After our father found out about that, he had her executed and showed her no remorse. But he never killed those children, I just put those letters there so you could believe me. Neither of these kingdoms is good, so I'm planning on defeating both of them.”

I could no longer talk and I could feel myself falling on the ground. I could still hear my sister's voice.

“I poisoned your herb while you were in father’s office. It wasn’t necessary to have you dead, but I guess I never really liked you that much.” She said with no remorse. 

When I looked at her face she began to resemble my father, my vision began to blur. I couldn’t feel anything but a burning feeling in my throat. I had been foolish enough to allow myself to be tricked twice. Neither of them had been good in the end, yet I still felt for both their lies. Everything was over, all the moments I spent with my family were lies, but when I looked at my sister's face again I could see the sorrow in her eyes. Maybe she was feeling the regret I once had. I began remembering the times where my father would bring a sunflower every time he came back from a long trip. When my sister and I would sneak to the kitchen at night for food, the stray cat would hide behind the castle at times. When I tried gasping for air my throat tightened like somebody was choking me. I guess this was the end. I guess everything was finally over. I guess there was no way of saying goodbye. I guess it was all for nothing.