Behind The Walls

Chapter 12 : Epilepsy

I woke up to the sound of knocking on my door.  I reached up from my sitting position to the handle to unlatch it the scooted away to let whoever knocking, in.

"Huh? Princess Adelaide?!"

The voice of the maid who helped me carry my suitcases to my room spoke, "this is the servant quarters" I was half asleep and all her words collided in my brain causing me to hear only a mumble and hum.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, every part of my body was stinging with cramps due to the position I slept in. The maid knelt down beside me, "princess Adelaide, are you ok?" She plucked off the hair covering the mark on my forehead, gasping when she saw it.

I couldn't give her much of an explanation to most of my injuries but she helped me out anyways: made and brought breakfast to me, bandaged up my scars and bought all my suitcases back from Hugo's bedroom.

She looked young, about my age. Clara: I found out her name was. I also found out Hugo had left early this morning to go hunting.

'Probably killing dears' I thought to myself. I spent the morning and afternoon talking to Clara and exploring the castle. Not skipping around, exploring as a child would but just trying to get used to things so I wouldn't get lost.

I kept wondering what Hugo was doing last night after he had left the carriage, I know I shouldn't have cared about him at all but I couldn't restrain my curiosity.

I rummaged through my suitcase in which I stored Hugo's diary; I lost the guilt i had in reading it, just about last night...

I didn't care about what and what not made Eugene happy. He lied to me. Kept secrets from me. Secrets that were about me. That night I ended up finding out another one...
We were at the dinner table again, trying to concentrate on the food so father wouldn't ask any questions on how the trip went. Eugene left right in the middle and fled to the garden. I acted as if I finished eating too, telling father the excuse that we had both filled ourselves up with berries during our trip. I followed Eugene through the trees in the garden, what else could he be hiding from me? He pushed a bolder out his path revealing a small cave, which we hung out at as kids. I followed him in, not caring if he knew that I came all the way here behind his back; he was startled to see me come in and and start looking around. I asked him why he even came here, before noticing blood stains on the walls of the cave; drawings too.

Eugene had even more explaining to do now but this time, after his explanation, I was left speechless. Eugene was born with epilepsy (a condition in which he gets frequent seizures.) The only people that knew about this was of course our parents. Our mother had nurtured him before passing away and his condition worsened after her death. Our father always favourited me due to being the normal son. I told Eugene we would switch identities. From now on, he would be Hugo and I would be Eugene; I told him it was the least I could do for my very dear, elder brother. Deep down I knew, and I was guilty too, I just wanted Eugenes throne to become king one day. Marrying Charlotte meant I would also be entitled to the king of Dwarvanias throne once Charlotte became queen. This all felt so wrong but Eugene was more than happy for this to happen and it benefited me too; we both agreed.

I was now swimming in a truckload more of questions before my previous ones were barely answered. How long did they switch names for?

What happened to the queen? One thing from this diary finally matched Hugo now, he was selfish indeed.

I went straight to tell our father. His planned had worked; I obviously, already knew about Eugenes conditions and so was set on this mission by father to persuade Eugene into switching identities with me.

So that's what I missed on those smeared pages of the diary I could read! I read the date on the next page, he hadn't written in 3 weeks, it stated.

I followed the plan perfectly. Everyday causing trouble with Eugenes identity: theft, harassment, beating innocent villagers up, causing conflict with other kingdoms and the list goes on. It took me under a month to completely ruin Eugenes reputation; I was doing it for the kingdom, though. Eugene had noticed my mischievous behaviour but it didn't bother me. In the next part of my plan, he would be eliminated. Yes, I would have to kill my brother to gain his place on the throne. This plan was our fathers idea and I was completely against it at first but after I found it that the death of our mother was due to falling off the stairs whilst racing to accompany Eugene during the period of one of his severe seizures, I couldn't bare to reject fathers demand. Once Eugene was dead, I wouldn't even have to pretend to be him anymore; I could rule as Hugo. And so I did it.

I sat in silence, pondering over the pages I had just read. I didn't even want to turn the page. I had just found out, Hugo was a murderer; he killed his brother just because of an accident!

How did he do it? I slammed the book shut, this time, not wanting my question answered. I was married to a murderer - the more I ruminated about it, the more enervated I became.

He didn't like me, I wasn't Charlotte either. Would I be his next victim? I had to escape but where would I go?

A sudden mumble of voices filled the downstairs hallway which was then followed by footsteps climbing up the stairs; Hugo was back!