Checkmate

I lied in bed with my heads behind my head the whole morning. I was awake when Elliot woke up too.

“Whoa, did I fall asleep here?” he asked.

I didn’t look at him. I just continued to stare at the small cracks in the ceiling as I replied simply, “Obviously.”

“Oh. Right. Well, how are you today? Feeling better?”

“Just a hangover. But it’s durable.”

“Um, Abby? Are you okay?” He got up and walked over to me.

“Me? I’m just amazing,” I sighed. I sat up and walked over to my closet to pick something out for me to wear. I wondered briefly if I would find perhaps a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Probably not. So yay, another dress wearing day. Bleh. You know, once in a while, it was nice to wear dresses and all that stuff, but everyday? No way!

“Well I’ll just leave so you can get dressed,” he said and headed to the door.

“No, actually, I wanted you to stay and watch me get naked,” I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes. Wow. Did I actually say that? What explains the reason for the mood I’m in?

“Err…bye then.” And he left.

Eventually I just settled for a dress that was light blue and white but heavy in my arms. Once I was ready I decided to leave the castle and take a walk. Maybe draw…

That’s it! I’ll draw! I looked through all my drawers for my sketch book.

“Come one, where is it? Where is it?” I muttered to myself. Then I remembered. It was in the library Aaron and Elliot set up especially for me. I’d have to get it. Where was that room though? I was blindfolded while going there. I’d just have to settle for a pad of paper. When I found one and a pencil and skipped out of my room and down the hallway. As I turned the corner and knocked into someone.

“Ouch,” I said and rubbed my head.

“Oh, sorry!” a voice said.

“That’s okay I just—“ I looked up and saw Ethan sanding there. Something was familiar about this scene.

“Oh,” we both said at the same time. He looked down, a little pink coloring his cheeks.

“How are you today?” he asked without looking up.

“I’m fine. I was just about to go out and draw. And…you?”

“I’ve had better days. I didn’t get any sleep.”

I nodded. “Same here.” We stood there in awkward silence for a while. Both of us not know what else to say. “Well, I better go—“

“Would you like to have dinner with me?” he asked quickly.

“I was actually—“

“Or maybe just tea?” he suggested. He really wasn’t going to let me finish my sentences was he?

So I smiled and said, “Sure. See you later. Say…five o’clock?” I started to walk away.

“Y-Yes,” he agreed.

I laughed lightly as I continued to the castle entrance. It appeared that many people were up and running around this morning. Was this normal?

“The Shifters! Where’s Carnella? Someone get Carnella!” a man yelled as he ran passed me. So that must explain why everyone was running in different directions.

I stopped another man that was coming my way. “You sir,” I said to him, “What is all this talk about Shifters? Are they attacking?” I started to panic.

“No, milady. There has been no attack…yet. The Werns of Cloun Kingdom see them coming though.”

“Ah, and Werns can see the future?”

“Yes.”

“Should I…worry at all? Go into hiding? Anything like that?”

“Oh no. Not until the Shifters are actually here. For now it’s just a little warning. Be careful, princess.” And he was off like a rocket.

I never noticed before, but there was a huge field in the back of the castle. It looked like just miles and miles of open land. I sat on top of a hill, looking out at the grassy plains. It seemed to be missing something…Then I thought of it. Would it be possible? Only one way to find out.

I cautiously put my pencil to the pad of paper and drew a quick sketch of Flutura and the field. Then, in the field, I cut it in half and put a sandy beach in. I looked up at the empty field. Nothing. Just as I sighed and started to get up the field started to shake and shift.

Then before my eyes stood a sandy beach. And it was all real. I could smell the salt water. I could hear the waves crashing against the shore line.

“Amazing,” I whispered.

“It is,” a voice next to me said.

I gasped and turned to see Carnella staring out at the ocean. “Oh, Carnella, you scared me.” She looked at me and smiled. “So,” I continued, “they’re looking for you.”

She sighed. “I know. They think I’m leading an army of Shifters to attack Flutura and Cloun Kingdom as revenge.” She laughed like it was an absurd idea that they would ever come to that conclusion.

“So you’re not?”

“No, of course not!” She came over and sat down next to me. “But I think I do know who is.” She leaned in towards me and whispered, “Have you noticed that Elliot’s eyes aren’t so blue anymore? I think they’re getting a bit…gray. But don’t tell anyone. Just our secret.”

I gasped. “What? Elliot? He wouldn’t…he…couldn’t!”

She just shrugged and started to hum an unfamiliar tune while swaying her feet side to side.

We sat in silence, but it wasn’t awkward. We just listened to the waves and enjoyed the spray of water that the wind would occasionally blow into our faces. “Hey,” Carnella all of a sudden said and got up, “watch this.” She jumped up very high off the hill and shifted into a mermaid in the air. She dove into the water head first, splashing water on me.

“You got me wet!” I shouted at her. I was now soaking head to toe.

She came up from the water and I was shocked at her appearance. Her hair was longer and not curly, but very wavy now with red highlights. Her cheeks were sparkled with glitter and it looked as if she put yellow and orange eye shadow on. The only thing she wore as a top was two pinkish red sea stars over her breasts.

She waved to me. “Come on!”

“Uh…Carnella, I don’t know…”

“Chicken!” she cried and started to make chicken noises and flap her arms.

I could feel my cheeks turn a little pink. “Fine!” I yelled back at her. The dress I was wearing was too heavy for me to swim with it on, so I removed it. The breeze made the hairs on my whole body stick up. Covering myself the best that I could, I cautiously stepped into the water. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that cold at all.

Carnella snuck up behind me and pushed me under. My yelp was cut off when I went under. I opened my eyes and though my vision was blurry I could see Carnella’s red fins and the little colorful fish swimming around us.

I came up coughing. “Alright, you asked for it!” I jumped on her, pushing her under water in return. We were laughing the whole time. This made it bearable to be away from my family and my best friend Luna. I really liked Flutura. Who knew?

I was floating on my back with ease while Carnella was doing flips out of the water and into the air.

I think a couple hours passed because the sun was getting higher and higher in the sky. I decided that that was enough for me. I swam back to the shore. I could hear Carnella following me.

“Well, that’s enough for me. Thanks for making me feel better. I really do miss my old life. But somehow…I think I don’t mind spending a year or two here.” I bent down and hugged her.

“That’s the spirit!” she rejoiced and hugged me back.

As I pulled my fancy dress back on I said to her, “So what are we going to do about Elliot? I mean, if he truly is evil and all or plotting something.”

I peeked at her through the neck hole to see her shrug.

“The only thing we could do. Destroy him.”

“What?” I gasped loudly. “No! Never! I don’t care if he’s evil or whatever. He’d never do anything so bad we’d need to destroy him. I…No.”

“No need to get defensive, Ab. I’m just saying.” She looked at her perfect finger nails with boredom written all over her expression.

As soon as I got my dress on and all the strings tied and brushed off any dirt or soot I started to walk back to the castle. “I’ll see you later, Carly.” I smiled, already knowing her response.

“Hey! I told you never to call me that!” But I could hear a small and faint chuckle where she was.

When I got back into the castle I headed back to my room. There really wasn’t much to do. I guess I could just read.

In the hallway I all but ran smack into Elliot.

“Sorry,” I apologized and looked up at his face. His eyes blazed as blue as the ocean, as always. I sighed in relief. Then without thinking, I hugged him.

“Uh…Abby? Are you all right today?” he asked cautiously and pushed me back gently a little.

“Yeah, I’m just fine. Your eyes are sooo pretty,” I blurted randomly.

“Thanks…” he chuckled.

“You know, Carly—I mean, Carnella said your eyes were looking a bit gray lately. But I disagree. There’s nothing if not more blue than before.” I smiled brightly at him. He grinned back.

We stood there for a couple seconds just staring at each other like idiots when he said, “Well, I have to get going. Aaron wanted to talk to me about something important, and well, can’t keep his highness waiting now can we?” He rolled his eyes but let out a little laugh.

“Yeah, see ya.” I walked around him and opened the door to my room when I got there. I sat on my bed and just thought.

Unless Carnella’s eyes were bad, why would she tell me Elliot’s eyes were turning gray? As if he was going evil? For a second it was almost as if she wanted to turn me against him or something. Maybe believe that he was the bad guy.

But what if he was? Why would he want to hurt anyone? No, I didn’t believe that such a sweet guy would, could do anything like that.

What did this make Carnella though? She seemed to be playing innocent. Maybe not though. That may just be the way she is and she’s just looking out for me. That makes enough sense I guess.

Jeez, everyone was a suspect but it didn’t seem like anyone could ever be a bad guy! Ugh, I didn’t want to think of this anymore. I lay back on the soft silky bed and closed my eyes. I wasn’t really tired. I just found it easier to concentrate on anything with my eyes closed. It’s always been that way. Randomly in one of my classes at school I would close my eyes so I could think of something to draw. I rarely had to do that but if I wanted something amazing to draw I did that.

Thinking of art and drawing and my old life calmed me.

There’s just too much stress for me everywhere I turn. Lies here, secrets there. Too much—just too much!