The King

“Haha, look at them, all cuddled up together. Isn’t it just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Hearing laughter, Brian slowly opened his eyes, blinking away the last traces of sleep. Stretching, he realized there was a body clinging to him. Eyes widening he assumed that sometime during the night he and Lyndsey had entangled themselves on the covered hay where Brian typically slept. Looking down as the other two boys laughed on, Brian say Lyndsey’s head resting on his chest. He watched as she twitched, waking up presumably to the sound of Matt and Zack laughing

Sitting upright, Lyndsey realized Brian was underneath her and quickly tried to pull away.

“Good morning,” she muttered, blushing as she looked from Brian to Matt and Zack.

“Morning,” Brian responded, pulling his legs free of Lyndsey’s as she did the same. “Did you two enjoy yourselves?” he nearly growled at his two friends.

“Not nearly as much as I bet you and Lyndsey did,” Zack chuckled, looking between the two of them as Matt slapped his knee, still laughing. Sighing, Brian slowly got to his feet and helped Lyndsey do the same. She carefully brushed down her dress, making sure she looked clean and presentable.

“Let’s go for a walk. I want to show you around,” Brian said to her, and she nodded. “And we can leave these two hyenas to themselves,” he added, stepping out into the sunlight with Lyndsey.

“So, this is where you’ve been living this whole time? In that little shack?” Lyndsey mused as they began walking. As she glanced around she couldn’t believe how similar things were to the kingdom back home. The shops looked the same, the streets looked the same, and even the people looked the same.

“Actually for a long while in the beginning we didn’t have a place to live. We roamed during the days and at night we’d sneak into barns and make sure we were gone in the morning before anyone knew,” Brian explained.

“I see. Well, I am glad it seems you have found an actual place. I’m sure it wasn’t too fun to be caught out in a rainstorm with no place to go for shelter,” Lyndsey said, pulling her attention back to Brian.

“It wasn’t the rain we minded so much as the snow in winter,” Brian chuckled. “Ah, now this,” he said, coming upon the ever-present baker’s stall that he, Zack, and Matt frequented during their trips to find food, “this is where we get a lot of our food year round.”

Lyndsey glanced at the vendor as Brian pointed to it, then looking back at him.

“Where do you get money?” she asked, considering none of them had revealed if they had jobs or not, though considering how they lived, she assumed not.

“Uhm… well,” Brian said, and he felt both embarrassed and ashamed as Lyndsey waited for his answer. “We don’t really have money. We’ve developed this system where we, erm… borrow from the vendors.”

“And what do you give them in return?” Lyndsey asked, feeling like she already knew where the conversation was headed.

“Well, that’s the thing. We usually don’t.”

“So you steal.”

“Essentially, yes,” Brian said, hanging his head as he tried to get Lyndsey’s eyes off him.

“That’s a terrible way to live,” she muttered, wanting to change the subject.

“Well, the only other option is to starve, or eat from the rubbish bins, which we’ve done before. And I’ll tell you one thing, it’s not enjoyable in the least,” Brian huffed, and it fell silent between them for a while. Feeling bad about picking an argument with Brian, Lyndsey sighed and glanced around her, searching for something to say.

“This place is great and all, Brian, but… I just don’t understand. If you’ve been alive all this time, for two years, why didn’t you come home?” she finally asked. Brian sighed heavily.

“I don’t really know. Once I left home, and came out here, I really started to live. I got to do whatever I wanted, and it’s better than I could have ever imagined,” he tried to explain. “I have no responsibility for anyone but myself.”

“But we’ve really needed you back home,” Lyndsey replied. “If you’d never left, everything would have been different.”

Scoffing, thinking back on the trouble he had caused back home when he was younger, Brian kicked at a loose rock.

“Nobody needs me.”

“Yes, we do, Brian,” Lyndsey persisted. “And you’re stupid to think otherwise. You’re the king, you have-“

“I thought I made it clear last night, I’m not the king. Bartholomew is,” Brian said, nearly snarling as his patience wore thing. When Lyndsey grew quiet, he sighed, and was about to apologize when she cut him off.

“Bartholomew has invited the Renegades into the castle. Into our home. They do whatever their hearts desire, and the rest of us?” Lyndsey said, her voice nearly at a whisper, her eyes beginning to tear up at how difficult the situation had grown. “The rest of us, your family, Brian, have been made servants.”

Hearing this news, Brian stopped in his tracks, Lyndsey turning to face him.

“What?”

“Everything is in ruins now, Brian. There’s hardly any food or clean water. We’re practically eating out of the rubbish piles ourselves,” she began to explain, and Brian immediately felt foolish for making it clear he’d rather steal than eat garbage, when Lyndsey had been reduced to such a life herself. “If you don’t do something soon, we’re all going to die.”

Thinking back on the entire reason for his exile, Brian made his final decision. There was no way he could face telling his family that he had caused his father’s death.

“Lyndsey, I can’t go back. That was my old life… I can’t-“

“What do you mean, you can’t?” Lyndsey spat, and Brian could see the fire in her eyes. “Of course you can go home. It’s your home, your kingdom.”

“You just wouldn’t understand!” Brian shouted, since she just wasn’t seeming to get anything he’d said before that.

“What wouldn’t I understand, Brian?”

“No, it just… it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Sometimes terrible things happen, and there’s nothing you can do about it. So why worry?” Brian asked, growing both livid and defensive. “Why worry about something you can’t control?”

“Because it’s your responsibility as the king to care about this,” Lyndsey shot back, stepping closer to him and lowering her voice as she realized people walking by were starting to eye them up. She hadn’t wanted to cause a scene.

“Well what about you? You just left them all to be slaves to save yourself?” Brian spat back, his irritation making his blood boil.

“Brian, I risked my life escaping so I could try to find help!” Lyndsey shouted incredulously. “And all I found was you. Don’t you understand Brian? Without you there is no hope.”

“Well sorry, I can’t.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Lyndsey seethed, feeling for the first time in her life a sense of hatred for Brian. “You’re not the Brian I remember. You’re not the Brian that I sat with out in the gardens the night our whole world shattered.”

“You’re right. I’m not. I’m not that child anymore, Lyndsey. Is that what you wanted me to say? Are you satisfied now?” Brian asked, throwing his arms out as he stared his former best friend down. He felt, almost immediately, like he should have stuck his foot in his mouth. How could he say such hurtful things to her?

“Hardly,” Lyndsey spat back, folding her arms across her chest. “Just disappointed, really.”

“You know,” Brian began with a laugh. “You’re starting to sound like my father.”

“Well maybe it’s about time someone did,” Lyndsey spat, entirely unamused at Brian’s new found attitude. The comment made Brian snap.

“Listen, you think you can just show up here, in my home, and tell me how to live my life? You don’t even know what I’ve been through to get where I am!”

“I would if you’d just tell me,” Lyndsey sighed, her voice pleading.

“I have nothing to say to you,” Brian shot back, his eyes like dark little beads as he turned and stormed off.

“Fine!” Lyndsey shouted at him, but through all her anger she could only feel a heavy sense of betrayal, coated with disappointment.

Not caring if she followed him or headed in the other direction, Brian stormed his way back to the shack, where Matt and Zack were still laying around.

“Well that sure took long enough. What have you and Miss Lyndsey been up to?” Matt asked, looking up with a grin. Seeing the distressed and irritated look on Brian’s face, his smile quickly fell. Zack’s did as well, looking at his friend in concern.

“She’s wrong. I can’t go back,” Brian muttered to himself as he began to pace back and forth, tugging anxiously at his hair. Looking uneasily between Matt and Brian, Zack raised a brow. In the two years he’d known him, he’d never seen Brian so crazed.

“What’s wrong? Did you guys get in a fight?” he asked.

“What would it prove anyway? It won’t change anything… You can’t change the past,” Brian continued to mutter quietly.

“Exactly,” Matt replied, unsure as to why Brian was both pacing and unresponsive. “Is there… something you need to say?”

Sighing, Brian finally stopped pacing and looked down at his feet.

“I… I need to go. I need to be alone,” he said before turning and quickly rushing back out the door, leaving Matt and Zack stuck in their confusion.