Minutes to Midnight.

You know I make you wanna scream
You know I make you wanna run from me baby
but know it's too late you've wasted all your time

Cherishing, those feelings pleasuring
Cover me, unwanted clemency
Scream till there's silence
Scream while there's life left, vanishing
Scream from the pleasure unmask your desire
perishing

Some live repressing their instinctive feelings
Protest the way we're built don't point the blame on me

Scream, Scream, Scream the way you would
if I ravaged your body
Scream, Scream, Scream the way you would if I ravaged
your mind

Scream - A7X

~*~*~*~*~*~

Slowly, my eyes opened and sunlight illuminated my vision. My surroundings became clear to me, and I smiled.

"Good morning, Belle." Adrian's song-like voice rang in my ears.

I lifted my head from his bare chest and smiled at him. "Good morning, Addie."

As we stared into each other's eyes, Adrian ran his fingertips up and down my spine and I resisted a moan.

"Damn, my touch pleases you easily." He teased me.

I smirked and straddled him, leaning down so my lips brushed his. "You would know." I whispered before kissing him and sitting up. "I'm gonna take a shower."

"Awh, don't want to look like you just got laid?" Adrian pouted.

" 'It's not proper for princess to walk around with sex hair'." I mocked something Queen Veronica would say. I stood, and caught Adrian staring. "See something you like?"

"I see a lot of things I like." He winked. I rolled my eyes playfully and took a quick shower.

Once I was out and dressed, Adrian took a shower (smacking my ass on the way into the bathroom of course) and not five minutes were sitting together that Ivan came in, actually wearing a smile. Uh-oh..

"Lady Veronica thinks it might be a good idea for the two of you to get some air." He began, handing us our breakfast. "So eat, I'll be back up to give you fresh clothes, and then will escort you into town for a little while."

Puzzed, we nodded and ate our breakfast.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, almost laughing and choking on my scrambled eggs.

Adrian shrugged. "Who knows. But maybe they know we--"

"Screwed like bunnies?" I said for him.

He nodded. "And are praising us." Adrian rolled his eyes.

"This place is twisted, but at least we get to get some air for a while."

~*~*~*~*~

Ivan came back with out clothes wrapped in special bags like you'd just bought 'em from the store. I narrowed my eyes at mine. It looked big enough to fit a dress. But it couldn't be...

"AAHHH!" I screamed upon seeing my clothes.

Adrian came running into the bathroom. "What's the ma--holy shit!"

"I know! What the hell is this, 1582?!" I was outraged. A poofy Victorian style dress, a hooded cloak, some weird necklace, and Victorian heels.

I just mastered present day heels, do you know what Victorian heels are like?! Ugh, don't even bother. It's too much to imagine that much torture. But I can say, it's more torture I could ever put any Gryffindor through.

"This. Blows." I stated, looking at myself in the mirror.

"Oh come on, you look great." Adrian said, stroking my hair.

"There is no way in hell I am first of all wearing this in public, and second, wearing VICTORIAN HEELS. Do you know what those things are?! Torture, in heel form!" I shouted.

"If it gets too bad I'll carry you, sound better?" He smiled at me.

I huffed. "A little...but still, who in their right mind would wear this junk in public?!"

"You can't even begin to imagine what's outside Court's gates, Belle."

[[♥♦♥♦♥♦♥♦♥♦♥]]

Oh how Adrian was right. There were people dressed like it was 1582 all around the little village that was just outside of Court. I felt like I had just stepped into a time travel machine. But Adrian did look damn good cleaned up.

"It would be better if you two would stick together - easier for me and Louie to keep an eye on you." Ivan told us when the carriage - yes carriage - stopped in town. "And Princess Bourdain, keep your hood up. Prince Cromwell, glasses on."

We nodded and walked out. Thankfully, people just looked at us like we were normal people. It felt good to have the sunlight shining down on my face and wind brushing my pale face.

For about twenty minutes we walked until I saw someone wearing a black dress and red cape, hood also up, just wandering around.

"He never said anything about not talking to people." I said to Adrian as Ivan and Louie lowered their guard to look in some store windows. Huh, that was surprising.

I walked up to the girl and tapped on her shoulder. "Hello! I'm Isabelle. What's your name?"

She turned around and gasped. Well hello to you too. I barely caught a glimpse of her eyes and they looked similar...to mine. Some of her onyx hair fell out of the hood and she quickly shoved it back in.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. But--"

"I have to go!" She started to run. Something was up with this girl and I was determined to find out what.

"Hey wait!" I called out to her, running after her.

"Belle!" Adrian called to me, running for me. I ignored him and ran after the girl.

"Hey! Miss!" I called to her.

"Leave me alone!" She called back to me, running down an alley.

I managed to grab her wrist and both of our hoods fell off. She never showed me her face but her hair was exactly like mine - tangled in natural waves and pure black. She whipped her hood up and ran away from me.

"Belle, what the hell was that?" Adrian scolded me.

"She...she looked just like me..." I barely said, bringing a hand to my mouth.

"That's impossible."

I turned to Adrian. "I'm dead serious! Her eyes...they were like..." I closed my eyes and tried to think back. I remembered how my mother talked about... "Howl!"

"What?"

"Howl! My mom's boyfriend, fiancé, husband, whatever he is! That girl has to be their daughter!"

Adrian held me close to him. "Belle, I highly doubt that."

I didn't want to admit it, but I did too.

-Back at Court-

"Ah, Princess Bourdain," Veronica greeted us, "and Prince Cromwell, did you like your time away?"

Hell, yes.

I put on a fake princess smile. "Very much, thank you."

"You're very welcome. Now down to buisness," Ah damn. "Today, both of you will be fitted for your wedding."

I clenched my jaw to keep it from dropping. "Wh-what?" I stuttered.

"I know it's a little while away, but it cannot hurt to start now. Can it not?"

"No, of course not." Adrian said sullenly for me.

"Now Isabelle," Veronica smiled at me, "do you know why you're wearing that red dress?"

Because it's tacky and gaudy and you have no style? I thought to myself.

"No, I don't." I replied.

"Because red is the main colour of the Bourdain family. Black is the subcolour." Adrian answered.

"Just like your wedding dress will be white with red on it - to display the Bourdain heritage." Veronica added.

Fan-fucking-tabulous.

Third Person's POV.

Isabelle was in one room being fitted and Adrian in another. As Isabelle stood on the stand with seamstresses working on her dress, she sighed.

"M'lady," a royal attendant said, "we have only about a half an hour remainining for your fitting before you must attend to royal princess duties such as a tea with members of other royal families..." he just kept rambling on.

I liked being locked in my room better, Isabelle thought.

"All my life I've always wanted, to have one day just for me, nothing to do and for once no where I need to be." She sang, stepping down and walking around the large fitting room. "With no lessons, lords, or lunches, or to-do lists in the way, no one to say when to eat, or read, or leave, or stay, that would be the day..."

On the other side of town, seamstress Annaleise was swirling around her sewing room, also singing.

"All my life I've always wanted, to have one day for myself, not waking up with a pile of work on every shelf. With no hems in need of pressing, and no sleeves in disarray, no wedding gown with a thousand stitches to crochet! And no debt to pay..." She gasped when she saw her employer in the doorwell.

"What do you think I'm running here, a night club?" Ms. Nolan sneered.

"I would have said a debter's prison..." Annaleisa muttered.

"Keep laughing, you'll be working for me, for another thirty-seven years!"

"But I've already paid off more than half!"

"But there's an interest, isn't there? Your parents should have thought of that before they borrowed so much."

"They did it to feed me!"

Ms. Nolan shrugged. "Their mistake." And she walked out.

Annaleisa huffed and continued singing. "What would it be like to be..."

"What would it be like to be..."

"Free!" Both girls sang.

"Free to try, crazy things..."

"Free from endless I.O.U.'s..."

"Free to fly,"

"Free to sing,"

"And marry whom I choose..." Isabelle couldn't help but feel like there was something missing. She knew she had Adrian, but what had happened before last night...?

"M'lady Bourdain," one of the ladies said, "you and Prince Cromwell must be together. You two will be the next monarchs and will take care of our people."

"I know..." Isabelle said sullenly. "It's my duty..."

"You would think that I'm so lucky, that I have so many things, I'm realizing that every present comes with strings." Isabelle headed to the balcony now.

"Though I know I have so little, my determination's strong. People will gather around the world to hear my song!" Annaleise swirled around the room before going to her balcony.

"Now I fear I'll never be..."

"Soon I will forever be..."

"Free!" Both girls now stood on their balconies, each on opposite sides of the town, and sang.

"I close my eyes and feel myself fly a thousand miles away. I could flight but would it be right, my conscience tells me 'stay'!"

"I'll remain forever royal,"

"I'll repay my parent's debt!"

"Duty means doing the things your heart may well regret."

"But I'll never stop believing,"

"She can never stop my schemes."

"There's more to living than gloves and gowns and threads and seams, in my dreams, I'll be free!"

The two girls sighed, both holding a single red rose with thirteen thorns. Neither knew that the other could get them in more trouble than they could begin to imagine, but also help more than anyone else can just by understanding each other...