"I suppose," Sophia said, her nose scrunched up.
"So, you should get to fixing your friendship," Louis encouraged.
Sophia nodded. "Yeah."
She asked, "There doesn't happen to be any gatherings soon, are there?"
Louis thought about it.
"I'm not the person to ask," he admitted. He may have been one of the highest ranking royals in the palace, but it wasn't him in charge of planning events and gatherings, or knowing classified information before it got shared to the rest of the royal family. That was grandmere's duty. One she had no qualms in fulfilling, especially if it meant getting to uninvite her daughter-in-law in each and every gathering to spite her, except when it came to ones she was required to be invited to and join. It left grandmere no choice.
Sophia sighed, "I'll make a note to ask grandmere later on."
She stood up.
"Don't bother disturbing me, I'll be in my quarters," Sophia said before she quickly left, leaving her brother in Clarisse's quarters, alone.
"Don't worry about me, I don't need to talk to anyone regarding my ex-lover showing up here," Louis said.
He realized he was talking to air. His sister had left for her quarters already.
_
Sophia hurled a letter opener knife towards a wall with all her strength.
Within seconds, the knife pierced the wall, it now being a part of the wall, before Sophia pulled the knife back out of one of her quarters' many walls.
Sophia was exhausted. It was fortunate no one was around her, or they would've been significantly injured from her knife-throwing.
"Why is it, when I'm trying my best to fit in, I don't," Sophia asked aloud.
A loud clatter noise was heard once more as the same knife made contact with a wall.
"Am I truly that unlovable?" Sophia asked, taking a few steps forward to retrieve her knife.
She sighed.
'With the childhood I had, how could anyone possibly expect me to grow up normal,' she muttered.
"Clarisse must be extremely upset," she said, stating the obvious.
Frankly, she was unsure if she was guilt-ridden or not.
On one hand, she felt horrible for what she did to Clarisse, even despite the fact it wasn't exactly her fault.
On the other, she felt that Clarisse overreacted, although, coming from her, that was rich.
"What am I supposed to do?" Sophia asked.
She winced, shutting her eyes.
When she opened her eyes, she'd been transported to an entirely different setting. It was clear she wasn't in her quarters anymore.
"He's been avoiding me," she heard someone say.
She turned to find a woman who looked exactly like her, possibly her doppelganger, and a man with a face she couldn't manage to see.
Any possibility that she was seeing the future crumbled into dust when she realized she wasn't in Beldovia either. Her surroundings were old, but vintage. She wasn't in a palace, but a mansion instead.
'Where am I?' Sophia asked.
She got no response, as expected.
"Who the h*ll are you?" She asked her doppelganger and the man who sat beside her.
Her doppelganger didn't seem to notice her presence or acknowledge her. She tried calling the man beside her. No luck either. She cursed under her breath.
The doppelganger of hers continued on talking to the man who sat beside her dressed in black and green clothing. Sophia could've sworn she'd seen the two figures before. It was awfully odd.
She saw as the two chatted, not paying too much attention as she took in her surroundings.
Behold, an old mansion she found familiar.
She muttered, "What is up with me finding everything familiar and recognizable," knowing no one would hear her.
A garden that the Beldovian palace garden proved no match to surrounded the mansion, which was built of bricks and stone. It's white facade stunned her, and despite the fact it looked to be decades, no, centuries old, she couldn't deny that the mansion was a masterpiece, with the garden its piece de resistance.
She saw a glimpse of the one of the mansion's many rooftop balconies that were suspended above the mansion gardens. Her heart fluttered wildly, as if it was shouting and screaming to her that it was dangerous, despite the fact she was a safe distance away.
She didn't seem to notice as something else caught her attention. Something the doppelganger if hers mentioned.
"There are two types of people in the world, the good and the bad. He's gone down the latter."
Her doppelganger added, "The worst people are the monsters. The ones that are insensitive, callous, self-absorbed and worst of all, self-serving."
She - the doppelganger - seemed not to believe what she was saying as she said, "He's a monster."
Yes, she hadn't heard the entire conversation, but that one statement alone, it struck a chord with Sophia. She'd been called all of those words. And she'd never cared about what others thought of her, but this hit differently. After her fall out with Clarisse, she was vulnerable.
The man beside her kissed her on the forehead.
"Don't worry about him, darling."
"He won't be able to do anything without us knowing," he reassured.
Sophia watched the two figures from afar. She couldn't take her eyes off of the both of them.
The way he looked at her was heartwarming. He looked at her with love and passion, a way she'd only seen in someone else.
Her surroundings started to blur, whilst the man's face became clearer and clearer. She squinted, getting a slight glimpse of his face before she was surrounded in pitch black.
It was seconds before her surroundings became visible, and she realized she was back in her quarters.
She blinked in confusion.
'What was that?' She wondered. All kinds of possibilities ran through her mind, each of them sounding crazier than the other. She ran a finger through her jet black hair.
She screamed as pictures of a man came flooding in her mind. She dropped to the floor.