The King

Breathing deeply, Brian closed his eyes for a moment, leaning back against the wall. He could still feel Lyndsey tight against his side, her breathing coming just as hard as his.

"We should go..." Lyndsey finally panted out, stepping toward the mouth of the dark alley. Hearing this Brian opened his eyes and pulled her back toward him, earning a questioning glance.

"This is what I wanted to show you," he said with his classic, charming smirk, catching Lyndsey's eyes widening at his words. Before she could get another sound out, Brian was dragging her further into the darkness of Renegade Alley.

"Brian, this place gives me the chills. Can we please go back?" Lyndsey whispered as they passed dark shops and doorways, the things in the windows completely foreign to her eyes. They had passed what she was certain was a shop full of torture devices, and it made her stomach flip over.

"Not until we see all of it," Brian answered, still holding her hand in order to pull Lyndsey after him. But soon, Brian was starting to feel his own kind of uneasiness. The way people in the alley looked at he and Lyndsey was unnerving. Brian knew it was because of the way they were dressed. They were wearing some of their finest, Lyndsey in a dress to boot, while everyone they passed was clothed in filthy rags from head to toe.

But Brian wanted to be brave, to prove that he could handle going out into the kingdom alone. He couldn't turn back now. Especially not in front of Lyndsey. Brian didn't want her to think of him as a coward.

It seemed to get darker the further into the alley Brian and Lyndsey ventured, as if the very place itself sucked out all traces of light. Brian's heart beat faster as they passed a shady building on the right, men venturing in with scantily clad women. Brian knew it was a brothel just by the way the older women were stood outside in skirts torn up to their thighs, shoulders and cleavage showing in a rather inappropriate way.

Brian jumped when he felt bony fingers wrap around his shoulder, tightening his grip on Lyndsey's hand as he looked behind him. A dirty looking woman with ratty hair and a tooth missing in her mouth stood to his left, fingers digging into his shoulder.

"Why don't you come inside, boy?" the woman asked, her voice slithering past her lips like a snake. Cringing, Brian wrenched from her grip, pulling Lyndsey with him as he ran further down the alley, just wanted to get away from those women.

When he slowed down to a walk, Brian could feel Lyndsey holding herself close to him, her eyes pleading.

"Brian, please, can we go? I don't like this place..."

"There you are!" came a shout from somewhere behind the pair. Lyndsey and Brian quickly turned to see Nathaniel following their trail. Brian sighed in relief. He'd never been so happy to see Nathaniel in his entire life than he had in that moment.

Coming up to the prince, Nathaniel eyed up his surroundings, being met with a seedy looking pub on his left and a stone wall on his right, the alley continuing in front of him.

"Young sire, it would really be of your best interests to come back with me. The King will have my head if he hears that you ran off and ended up...here..."

"What, are you scared?" Brian asked, trying to let out a laugh to prove his bravery in such a dark place.

"Quite possibly. We've all ventured beyond the boundaries of your father's lands. We're not welcome here..." Nathaniel said, keeping his voice down so as to not let passerby's hear their predicament.

"Really Brian, let's go..." Lyndsey coaxed, pulling Brian's hand in the direction of the way out. Brian was just about to come to his senses when cackling laughter could be heard coming from the entrance to the pub. There, emerging from the doorway, were three very grubby looking men, scraggly hair and yellowing teeth only making them appear more menacing.

"You blokes..." the first one said, then noticing Lyndsey, "...'scuse me, and lady...seem awfully dressed up to be here..."

"What brings you our way?" the second, a shorter, rounder man asked, his voice showing no concern or courtesy.

"By all means, we did not expect to be here," Nathaniel answered, stepping slightly forward to show his authority. "We are merely lost, trying to find our way back to the kingdom. We'll be on our way in no time." And with that, Nathaniel began to usher Brian and Lyndsey back the way they had come.

"You hold on there just one moment," the first man called out, causing Nathaniel's heart to stop for a moment. Turning around, he watched helplessly as the three unkempt men slowly made their way forward, forming a circle around them. They couldn't leave.

"I recognize you.... Aren't you the royal adviser to the King himself?" the first one, who obviously seemed to be in charge, asked with a cunning grin.

"I..." Nathaniel began to stutter, but he knew he had been caught. Closing his eyes when the three men laughed, he took a deep breath, not quite sure what he'd just gotten them all into.

"So what does that make you?" the third, a weasly looking man, the smallest of the three, asked Brian, poking him in the chest.

Squaring his shoulders and standing a little taller, pushing Lyndsey behind him a bit, Brian towered over the weasel.

"The future King."

"Do you know what we do to kings who step out of their kingdom?" the first man snarled, quickly pulling out a dagger, the blade barely glinting in the dark. Brian narrowed his eyes to slits, trying to look as menacing as possible. Inside, he was terrified.

"You can't do anything to me," he spat.

"We're on their land; they can do whatever they want to us," Nathaniel hissed into Brian's ear.

Tightening his grip on Lyndsey's hand once more, Brian looked into the eyes of his captors, his jaw hardening. He did the first and only thing he could think of. Run.

Quickly he hurled himself forward, breaking through the two men in front of him, almost knocking them off their feet. And he ran, Lyndsey's cries of protest easily heard behind him until she caught up to his pace.

Somewhere in the back of Brian's mind he was trying to work out where this alley would come out on the other side once he reached the end. The more prepared he was, the better he'd be able to find the fastest route back to the castle.

Behind him Brian could hear Lyndsey's hard breathing, her footsteps pounding on the stone beneath them, and beyond that he could hear the frustrated calls of the two men chasing them. He assumed Nathaniel ran when he gave him the opportunity and was only being chased by the one man alone.

And then, something happened that Brian wasn't prepared for. Lyndsey's hand was wrenched from his own, her scream following. Turning, Brian could see only one of the men chasing them; the other must have fallen behind. Narrowing his eyes as he watched the seedy older man pull Lyndsey's arms behind her back, dragging her toward a shady looking building, Brian stormed back the way he'd come.

"Get your hands off her," he growled, snatching Lyndsey back before the man. Without a second thought the prince reared his fist back, knocking it forward into the man's jaw, and while it wasn't enough to take him down, it was enough to buy Lyndsey and him a little time to find their way out.

So they ran again.

And they were met with a dead end. They were cornered.