Starlet

24. Calm Down

I wake up early the next day. I want to check my old castle. Maybe they'll be ok. I don't know. I would like to have my family back. I don't think they are. I don't know what I'm going to walk into.

I get dressed and eat some breakfast slowly. Then I go to my apartment. I stare at my kitchen door forever. I know I have to do this. I concentrate on my old bedroom. My bed. The window. My dresser. My table. The dress hooks. My blankets. I can almost see it all for real. Then I make the door and step into my old bedroom.

It's exactly the same. Well, other than everything is covered in a foot of dirt and mold. The wall is cracked. The bedding looks like it has disintegrated. The sun shines in and highlights the broken table. Nobody has been here since that day.

I stare at the dresser and remember making myself fancy that day. I was so excited to see a real prince.

The royal house is in the same state as my bedroom. Everything is broken, dirty, or disintegrated. It's so sad.

In the castle. Plants have grown in from the outside and taken over a lot of the first floor. Momma loved plants and flowers. This is probably fine.

I can't decide between the vaults or daddies office. I don't like the dungeon, but I don't know about going there. I need to see it though.

I remember dragging Mikey down the hallway that day. I should have left him alone. Maybe he would still be alive.

Daddy's office is on the 3rd floor. I know the path by heart.

Somehow it takes forever to walk it. One foot in front of the other seems so hard.

I peek in, and it's in the same state as the rest of the castle. For some reason, I almost expected daddy to be at his desk. He's not.

I remember. I sit on the floor where I was that day. I could not reach him. The sword that hit him. I lay down and reach for him again. My hand makes it to the dark spot on the floor. The only thing left. There's another dark spot by my feet.

My eyes close and the tears pour out anyway.

I can almost hear him say, "You want a souvenir, baby?" My brother's head flies at me.

He was such a cruel monster. What did I ever do?

I wake up when I get lifted. Dipak wipes my face off and hugs me. "It happened here?"

"He killed them."

"Your dad and his advisors?"

"My daddy and my brother."

"Was he older?"

"By 20 minutes. He was my twin." I point at his spot on the ground. "It's my fault. He died cause of me."

Marcus shakes his head. "Don't blame yourself. You had no idea. You didn't know."

"He yelled for me. He was trying to save me. He was always so brave."

"Why did you come here?"

"Maybe some part of me believed they were ok. I really hoped. And I wanted to check my vault."

"Did you do that?"

"No. I came here. How did you find me?"

"We have a tracker on you. The brains alerted us that you were somewhere we weren't."

Marcus nods. "They probably cleared the vault. But let's check."

I lead them down to the dungeon. Then they have to lead me to my vault. Marcus ends up carrying me while I point.

He puts me down in the back of the cell. The vault door seems closed. You can't tell it's a door. I sneak up on the fake tile and pop it off. Then put my hand in and spin the lever the right amount of times in each direction and pull. The vault pops open.

Dipak pulls the door open and my gold is still here. About 80 bars.

"And we're going to give you a vault. Do not put this in the bank."

"They won't let me have an account anyway. I'm to young. I tried. My money is still in the closet. Almost 50k now."

Dipak rubs his eyes. "You can put that in your vault too. I'm going to get some brains to transfer this. How many you think?"

"4 or 5 should get it quick."

"What about the other 9 vaults?"

They stop and stare at me. "9?"

"Me, Mikey, mom, daddy, 4 advisors, and the castle vault. 9."

"Whose is this?"

"Mine."

"I'll be right back. With brains."

Marcus leads me out. "Bring Tre and Omar to open the rest."

"I can open them all. Daddy made me and Mikey learn the master numbers. They open everything."

"Well, that's going to make our lives a lot easier. I'm still bringing Tre."

An hour later, I've got the personal vaults open and brains are taking the gold to my new vault.

The boys go with me to the castle vault while the brains finish. Tre ends up giving me a piggyback ride because my legs stop working. This place is scary.

I pop the door open and all of us stop and stare at the gold. It's probably 500 bars.

I scratch my head. "Maybe we should leave it here."

"I'm going to get you a better vault. We can't leave it here. I'm surprised it set this long."

Tre gets so serious. "Why didn't they clear this when they took the castle?"

"It wasn't the gold they were after."

"What were they after?"

They look at me. I nod.

"Why?"

I shake my head and go towards the throne room. 1 more thing to check. They can deal with that.

I pop the fake tile off hidden behind the thrones. Then I spin the lever. The drawer pops open. I pull it then lift the lid. The king and queen crowns. They are dusty but perfect. I put the queen's crown on my head. Then I stare at the kings. I wipe some dust off of it. He was supposed to be my king. We were supposed to rule together and be happy. Make our own family. Instead, I'll never have a king. He never gave me a chance.

"Someday."

I wipe the tears off my face and shake my head. "My mate is dead."

Dipak steps closer. "How do you know that? You were so young."

"Vision."

"We'll look into that." He pulls the box out of the drawer and motions for the queen's crown.

I run over and sit on the throne. "I always wanted to do this. Please 1 minute."

He chuckles and shuts the box. "When you're ready."

"Ok."

I sit there until the other 2 find us. Marcus smirks and makes a door. "Pizza and ice cream for any girl who takes off the crown and goes through the door."

"I ONLY WANT THE ICE CREAM." I run through the door before he can say anything.

I run right into Dipak's office. Everyone is at the table. Even the girls are here.

Mary stands up.

Marcus, Tre, and Dipak come in behind me laughing.

"That needs cleaning."

"I'M WEARING IT RIGHT NOW."

"YOU NEED CLEANING TOO."

I hold the crown on my head and run for it.

She chases me right in the damn elevator. "LET ME CLEAN IT."

"IT'S MINE."

"IT'LL STILL BE YOURS AFTER IT'S CLEAN." She holds the door open with 1 hand, so we can't go anywhere.

"FINE. BUT I'M NOT DONE WEARING IT."

She points in Dipak's office. "YOU ARE NOT WEARING THAT ALL OVER THE BUILDING. NOW MOVE."

I stomp all the way to the seat by Thora and slam myself down onto it.

Thora stands up. "I want..."

Dipak shakes his head. "No. Sit down."

She slams herself down and crosses her arms.

Mary goes after the box Dipak's carrying. "Is that..."

"Not now." He puts it beside his seat and sits down. "We gave Star a vault and moved her gold into it."

Nadine scratches her head. "Where the hell was it? You're all covered in dirt. Were you digging?"

"I'm queen of rubble."

"I guess that makes sense then."

I nod. "OH. I KNOW WHAT I WANT TO BUY." I jump up and down.

"What?"

"I don't know. But I want to put something outside the mountain. A place the kids can go outside. Or maybe another mountain beside the first mountain. We could carve it out and put in something good with windows. I hated not being able to see outside."

Marcus smiles and sits down. "There's not much outside but snow. It would get boring to look at after a while."

"No. Seeing the sun is amazing. To feel how warm it is. The dungeon was so cold and dark. They need a place to see outside. Sometimes watching out a window can help more than doctors. I don't remember a lot from the mountain. But I remember the snow. I remember how good the cold wind felt on my skin. It reminded me I was still alive. Sometimes, that's all that reminded me I was alive. Oh I know. Maybe not another mountain but an island or something. Somewhere safe that they could visit whenever they wanted. They could go outside. They could fish or touch the water. Tye could put his island food there. You can make a permanent door. Something like that."

Nadine smiles. "Something like Unicorn Island but for the kids."

"I don't know what that is."

"I'll show you. Next time we get an invitation, we'll take you. Anything else?"

"I want to build a resort too."

"Where?"

"No idea. I've never been anywhere."

Thora sits up. "Oh yea, she tried to book a vacation, but the vacation building told her to f**k off."

"Yea, pretty much. I'm to young. I offered to pay for everything right then, but they didn't care. They won't let me go anywhere."

Dipak nods. "We don't rent to teenagers. But I'll let you go to Rome for a weekend. You have to behave, and I will be watching you."

I jump up and run for the elevator.

Mary yells, "CROWN."

At the same time, Dipak yells, "NOT TODAY."

I turn around and throw the crown across the room at the table of people. Then I run all the way to my room and get my 50k out of the closet and run back.

Mary is cleaning the crown now. She seems happy. I give the box to Dipak and shake.

He nods. "How much is in this box?"

"50k."

Dracul shakes his head and takes it. Him and Miculai count it.

"IS IT ENOUGH?"

Marcus looks at me. "You have to book it through the brain. Then you can pay through them too. There are add-ons and things you can buy too. That all changes the price."

I grab a brain. "I NEED EVERYTHING."

"84k Marcus. Where was it?"

"She had it in the closet."

I shake the brain. "IS IT ENOUGH?"

"Calculating."

"CALCULATE FASTER."

Dracul stands up. "You can not keep money like that in the closet."

"THE BANK TOLD ME TO f**k OFF TOO. I TRIED." I slam my foot down on the brain's foot. "CALCU..."

Marcus picks me up. "We're going to go calm down and talk about how vacations work."

Omar comes with us. "I'll help you with the calm down part."