Chapter 6.

“I'd be the voice that urged orpheus

When her body was found (hey, yeah)

I'd be the choiceless hope in grief

That drove him underground (hey, yeah)…” Talk - Hozier

February, 2137

Eveline

After the girls left the room and I left the door ajar so that when Eylisha came back it would be open from the inside, I slipped into the closet and locked the door too and took a small flashlight that I kept in one of my coat pockets before I enter the passage and block it from the inside by pulling the door by the huge handle on the inside that was attached to the stone and nodding the flashlight to illuminate the corridor in which I found myself.

The palace had three floors and the tunnels made strange and complex turns inside the walls that made anyone get lost and because of that it took me almost 6 months to map everything and more than a year to decorate the paths without needing a map, but this came in handy when I needed to escape and I thanked my grandmother for mentioning them to me.

The tunnels, even in summertime, were extremely cold and overcast and in some parts they led to nowhere, and in the middle of the darkness it could disorient anyone, but I always carried a flashlight with me and there were marks I had made by myself on the walls to help anyone who needed to access the tunnels in the future and that sometimes helped me to orient myself to what was good too.

The kitchens were in underground one and the bedrooms in underground two, so the easiest way was to go down all the flights of stairs in the same corridor I was in and then go straight east to the first entrance and then I would be inside the pantry and away from the eyes of the cameras as I wanted.

So I made my way in that direction and when I got to the right door I opened it and saw the two girls standing on the other side waiting for me, they smiled at me and I gave the signal for the brunette to go back to my room and the blonde walked in with me in the tunnels and I closed the door behind us and turned around again and motioned for her to follow me.

"Are you sure that the security cameras didn’t film us?" I heard Adela's voice ask very quietly and I nodded to calm her down and searched for the stairs to go down to the next block of passages.

“Don't worry, I've studied these corridors and the palace corridors for months,” I said as we descended the correct stairs and turned into a west corridor to access the bedroom wing in a quadrant where the cameras wouldn't catch us.

And how did I know about cameras and their blind spots? I took advantage of the security exchange in the observation room, which lasted about half an hour, so every day I studied the blind spots in each wing of the palace, which gladly served for my first escapades.

When I got to the right hallway I turned off the flashlight and forced the door that opened right away and I looked both ways of the corridor and when I didn't see anyone and realized that the cameras were in the same position as always I pulled my chaperone and me out and closed it just in time because a few seconds later one of the doors opened and a guard with dark skin and chocolate hair and eyes as dark as he came out of his room shirtless yawning and for a moment didn't notice us standing there because he had his back turned to us but against my prayers he turned around and well I wasn't counting on it.

“Good night, Miss… Your Highness?” He started to greet Adela but when he saw me he paled and even though I don’t like it I would have to use my position to rely on his secrecy.

"Good night sir, I apologize for the inconvenience in the middle of the night but could you help us?" I ask using my best smile and he confirms approaching the two of us, I then look at the blonde next to me and see that she has her head down and her face was flushed .

How interesting.

“Well, I left a book of mine with Nicholas Jones, my bodyguard and I would like to take it back, but he traveled and forgot to give it back to me and I really need to finish reading, would you know where his room is?” I say smiling and folding my hands behind my back as I stare at him and see his handsome face scrunched up in concentration, I then look at Adela and see she is watching the gorgeous guard in front of us and I'm not a silly eye too.

The guards went through complicated training in our provinces before they came here and so had the body as well worked as the boy in front of me, and as I watched his beautiful torso it crossed my mind to ask about Nick's friend but I decided I would keep this in secrecy since I didn't trust everyone in that palace and that my search could reach my father's ears and that could render me an annoying bodyguard and that wasn't in my plans either.

"Well Your Highness, if I'm not mistaken just go straight and turn left and then right, he didn't share a room with anyone else so I believe it's room number 233," the brunette finally said bringing me back and I stared at him seeing that he had little freckles on his face like me which was really cute and when I looked at Adela I saw her almost silly expression plastered to his face.

“Right, thank you very much sir…?" I said calmly and he apologized before telling me his name.

"Nolan Davies, Your Highness!"

“Alright Nolan, thank you so much again and we both hope to have a description from him, isn't that right Adela?" I said drawing the attention of the blonde who was lost in thought, she then looked at me and then at the guy who smiled sweetly at her which made their cheeks blush which I thought was extremely cute until she realized that I was addressing her.

“What did you say, miss?" She asked extremely embarrassed and I to reassure her, pulled her and put an arm around her shoulder so I could whisper in her ear.

“Just agree with me," I said and she nodded and looked at the guy who couldn't take his eyes off her and I chuckled watching them both, she lifted her hand to brush a lock of hair out of her face and nodded at him and the guy smiled .

“I didn't see anyone down here, Your Highness, did you?” He said and I smiled at him and thanked him before we said our goodbyes to head in the direction he said.

When we found the door I was quick to pull a pin from Adela's hair and put it in the door lock so I could open it, my lady just watched me a little confused, but when the door made a small click I pushed it and pulled Adela with me inside before closing the door.

“Where do we start, miss?" She asked as I turned on the light and handed her the hairpin back and she tucked it back into her blond hair before looking at me contemplatively waiting for an answer.

"Look in the wardrobe and I'll look here on the nightstand, any paper, photo or clue can help us!" I said and she nodded and we both started our search, I took the opportunity to tie my black strands in a bun and stole a nice pen from Nick to succeed and started rummaging through two drawers.

In the first one I found some pay slips, some coconut candy papers that were his favorites and a small diary with very few notes, I flipped through the pages looking for something but there were only the dates he would go out with Eileen, some doctor's appointments and a meeting every Thursday about something unidentified, only one letter “O” stood out on the paper.

I decided to let it go and closed the drawer going to the next one where there were several pictures, one of them showed Nick very young with his red hair and blue eyes looking directly at me, but I didn't see any picture of him with another child, the others they were from his family and some beside Eileen who was much shorter than him and her very dark hair and eyes derived from her Asian ancestry stood out in the photos and I smiled to see how cute they were as a couple.

“Miss, I didn't find anything here,” I heard Adela's voice and I turned to face her and put the photos back in the drawer and stood up with a deep sigh.

“I wasn't successful here either, we're going to have to go to plan B!" I said and she nodded so we sorted everything out again and left the room after looking both ways quickly, she lent me the hairpin again and I locked the door and we both went back to the hallway from earlier and went back through the passages and I took her back to the kitchen by the same path that led to the pantry.

When we got to the door I opened it and we heard in silence if there was anyone in the kitchen, after a long minute I looked at her and motioned for her to leave and go with the plan, she smiled and said goodbye before leaving and walking towards the kitchen.

I stay quiet in the darkness to think about the things we saw in Nick’s room and the event named with the “O” letter caught my attention and I made a mental note to ask Nick about this when he return to the palace, but now it’s better keep going so I pushed these thoughts away and followed the tunnels to my destination, hoping that I didn't find nobody else in my path.