1: A better life

Chapter 1: A better life

I woke up in a very small room and my wrists were bound together with a rope in a strong knot. It was dimly lit and I could see the shadows of the burly men at the other side of the door.

I could hear them talking, and they were in the middle of a conversation about something, me.

"Who knew the princess of Darinton is actually beautiful? Too bad we have to kill her." said one man. "Worse, they instructed us not to touch even a single strand of her hair. Otherwise, it would have been fun to play with her a bit before we kill her. But now we just have to wait, dude." said another one.

"Will you both shut up? She belongs to the boss and unless you want to loose an eye, I advice you stop eyeing his property. By the way, did you manage to make the video of her?" asked another one with a croaky, deep voice.

My face paled in horror as realization dawned upon me that this was not a dream. This was real. I had really been abducted but how?!

'Oh why did I decide to leave the Palace?' I inwardly screamed at myself. How did these people even know who I was?! All I wanted to do was, run away from my horrible life in my Palace and leave to a neighbouring village.

My plan was solid proof, I'd even managed to get out of the Palace but just when I'd managed to leave the borders of Darinton, I was abducted.

Panicked, I quickly tried to loosen the rope on my wrists. I had to find a way to escape.

"Yes, your highness, we got her and the video. What do you want us to do next? Alright, I understand." I heard the croaky voice speak again, presumably talking to the person who was behind my abduction.

And soon after I heard a 'beep' signifying the call had ended and heavy steps followed. The person coming closer and closer towards the door.

And that's when it clicked, they were going to kill me, right now.

The door clicked open and a big burly man walked in the floorboards creaked at his every step. "Let me go! What do you want? Is it money? Fame? I'd give you three times the amount they're paying you but I don't have any money to give.

Trust me, you've got the wrong Darinton princess." I spoke trying to be bold but my quivering and stuttering were clear signs that I was terrified to the bone.

"Shut up, another word, and we will kill you." He shouted.

A few hours had passed and I had come up with a pretty solid plan to escape from my captivity. "I need to pee!" I shouted fully aware how unladylike it was but I didn't care.

"Aaah" I screamed as I felt the man abruptly pull me up and off the chair without loosening the ropes on my hands and legs.

Leasing me to walk, more precisely dragging me towards the door. He opened the door and pulled me out but I ended up hitting my leg on the door frame on the way out.

"You have to untie my hands and legs!" I hissed.

Then the man which I had confirmed to be the leader of the group spoke up, "Just do what she asked, she can never escape anyway."

The man holding me pulled out a knife from his clothes and I thought he was going to hurt me but he just used the knife to cut the ropes on my hands and then my legs.

Holding the neckline of my hood, he steered me to a tiny door.

"Do it fast, or I'll barge in without warning, your highness." He jeered after pushing me into the restroom. In a sudden surge of anger, my face reddened and my muscles tensed, but I managed to control myself, no one makes good decisions when they're angry.

I closed the door with me inside and hurriedly looked around for a window to escape from but unfortunately there was none.

'No windows, there goes plan A!' I inwardly snarled but then I remembered the pocket knife I'd brought with me and from there came plan B.

I tucked the knife deep inside the left sleeve of my dress.

"Time's up!" the man shouted and barged in. He pulled me out and took me back to the small room as I made a mind map of every inch of the halls I could see.

He threw me on the floor and quickly tied my wrists together but this time he put a blindfold on me.

After a few minutes loud noises and clinking glasses were heard outside the door. Several hours had passed, and the surroundings had become quiet. Except for the loud sounds of snoring, I couldn't hear anything else.

That was my go signal.

I slid the pocket knife out of my dress sleeve and tried to slit the rope that was binding my wrists with it. I made sure to be careful enough not to make a sound.

After I succeeded in freeing my hands, I removed the blindfold and moved furtively towards the door.

I successively cracked open the door and squeezed my way through to the other side.

It was just my luck, the men had passed out drunk on the floor. I crept away from the room and retraced my steps back to the restroom. I walked down the dark hallway to the right away from where I had come from.

The shed I was kept in was really small so it was quite easy from me to manoeuvre my way to the exit. I stood at the exit door of the shed and pulled out my hair pin to the locks on the door.

I had anticipated the door to be locked but I would have never been prepared for the countless locks on the door.

I succeeded in getting out, but it was too dark. Then I heard shouts and pursuing footsteps from behind me.

"You idiots! You got wasted while drinking and now she's escaped, the boss is going to kill us. Are you all deaf? Get up! Get her!! Move!!!"

I dashed away running down the hill and into the dark forest, I just had to get away. I wasn't going to let people walk over over me and use me as a pawn to get what they want anymore.

I had suffered in the cruel hands of my sisters but I deserved a better life.