13 Chapter 12

Alice

I took a few steps back with my heart pounding violently, as if it wanted to run away from my chest and I blinked a couple of times while shaking my head frantically.

"It can not be." I said to myself without realizing that I was speaking out loud.

I did not want to believe it. I had spent my life telling myself that I was useless, that the only thing I could do was to hurt people, that I was worthless... a useless without a father and with a mother whose eyes blurted every time she thought about her daughter.

I was Alice the cold, the weird girl from high school with a terrible disease that could not be helped. A weirdo that did not know how to do anything. I was not good at letters nor at numbers, I ran like a dizzy duck and jumped as if I was drunk. How could I be a queen?

Skay stared at me as if he had already sensed that this was going to be my reaction.

"That's what I thought when my father, the king, told me. How can a cold be the daughter of Queen Opal? However, she looks a lot like you as you can appreciate in this painting. So it must be true after all,"

"But I'm not special." I responded to convince myself of it.

Skay growled, as if that was his way of complaining about the situation that was taking place.

"You are Opal's daughter and to reign in warm territory that is the only thing that matters. Well... I cannot assure you either that people will not rebel against you. Your image is that of the enemy, so the most probable thing is that chaos will be created in the streets." Skay told me, avoiding to look at my face.

Despite his words, I kept shaking my head, flatly. This could not be happening, I had lived in a nightmare and now that I had finally managed to wake up, reality seemed even more terrible to me.

" But I do not want to be a queen." I asserted completely sure about my words.

The boy grimaced and frowned when he heard my answer. Skay did not understand how I could reject something of that magnitude.

"It's not about wanting or not wanting. It's about who you are and what your duty is." snapped me, trying not to lose his temper.

"How can you say that I'm Opal's daughter so convinced? My only mother is a recepcionist in a communications company." I answered, standing up to my fate and raising my tone of voice, even though I knew he would look for a good answer.

Skay approached me to the point that I had to raise my head to look at his face and check that it reached his chest. I was so small by his side... well, I actually looked tiny next to anyone, but Skay made me feel like I was very little. He was really tall and broad-shouldered and, even though that was not the time for my head to travel to Earth, I could not stop myself from thinking that the boy's body looked like those of the Olympic swimmers.

"It is easy to see that you are short and weak, that you have no idea of ​​anything and that you refuse to accept reality. And besides, if this were not enough, your skin is so pale that I'm sure that practically the entire population will repudiate you. Believe me, I'm the first one who does not want you as a queen."

My eyes looked down, embarrassed by his words. I felt a twinge of pain, but it was just like digging the knife into the flesh a bit deeper during a stab.

"But the only thing that matters is that my blood is royal, right? Yours is not, so no matter how prepared you are to reign, you are simply not fit for the job of king." I said when I was already sunk in mesery and shame, raising my head again and with a pride I had never had before.

Skay looked away, visibly upset. Then, a triumphant smile spread from the corner of my mouth.

"It seems that neither of us should reign." I continued saying, annoying the boy who until a few hours ago had believed that one day he would come to sit on the throne.

The boy blinked, as if he could not believe that his own words had turned against him. His warm eyes pierced me and I could feel again the boy who had touched me with delicacy.

We stayed a few seconds in silence, just looking at each other and I wondered if he would respond to my affirmations.

We were so close that I could feel the warmth of his body and something in me urged me to get even closer to that stupid and proud boy that the only thing he could do was making me feel bad. Because he only made me want to sink into my own misery, right? He could not make me feel good at all. However, he had something that appealed to me and I seriously wondered if I could be a masochist or something like that.

I could barely breathe with his gaze on me.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard the faint sound of small legs running and when I felt tiny claws on my right ankle, I shuddered. I went back to take all the air I had forgotten to take during those intense seconds and I screamed very loudly when I looked down at the floor and found myself with a small rodent.

A white rat the size of my foot was on the floor trying to climb my ankle.

I started running in circles to get rid of it while screaming hysterically, feeling Skay's gaze pierce me at all times.

The boy remained watching the scene, probably thinking what they had done of me in these fifteen years of my life. I, on the other hand, began to shake my body with fear that I still had not got rid of the rat.

Then, once my screams had ended, only Skay's laughter was heard.