Behind The Walls

Chapter 37 : Ink On Paper

Authors POV
"Your highness," Arthur began, after much hesitation, "N-no. I couldn't bring myself to kill her."

The prince remained silent for a second... until that silence was replace by a hysterical laugh.

The rest of the individuals watched in confusion, slightly scared for their lives, as Eugene cackled tears of laughter out his eyes. "P-prince?" Arthur finally broke through this noise, "are you... ok?"

"Why wouldn't I be... my wife is alive." His wide beam then instantaneously was swapped with a evil smirk.

Almost as if he finally broke through the shell of misery he had built for himself.

Wrecking the peaceful atmosphere with his loud footsteps, Eugene hurriedly stomped up the stairs.

This time instead of going to his usual destination at the servants quarters, he for the first time in over a year, strode towards his own room. Slamming the door behind him, he locked himself up.

Arthur had run after the prince, knowing he wouldn't be in the right straight of mind right now.

However Arthur was no help as the prince had his door locked; he knocked desperately onto the wood, "prince Eugene... w-why are-" he paused when he heard muffled crashes from inside the room.

Not particularly of things breaking but more of draws aggressively being opened and shut.

After a while of knocking and calling for the prince, Arthur came to the conclusion that this was no use. He dragged himself to his own room in the castle.

Picking up the feather pen, he dipped it into the liquid. He couldn't leave the castle with Eugene in such a state but he had to inform Adelaide one way or another.

'Dear Princess Adelaide', the ink drew out...

Adelaides POV
Horace's words roamed around my head...

"I honestly still want to know why you want prince Eugene, of Arcania, dead. Yes, I get he may be pretending to be his brother but... you still haven't gave me the full explanation."

Why did he say Prince Eugene? Why would Charlotte tell him to do that? why would Charlotte want my husband dead?

... and I only remember Hugo pretending to be Eugene so where did this news come from? Was Eugene really my husband...?

I decided I wasn't going to get anywhere by bombarding myself with questions that I couldn't answer and so opened the forbidden book in front of me.

I flipped through, only to find a couple more pages left... the rest was blank.

I would shred his corpse into a thousand pieces and throw them into that very same cave. Hide them... behind the walls. No one would know where the 'rebellious' prince had disappeared to. No one would care.

I took a deep breath in; this would indeed be painful to read but I continued regardless only to find another bunch of unreadably smothered pages. I skipped them and carried on...

Day one... I guess, you maybe wondering why I am... here. Who knew I could hate my brother more than I already did... how could Eugene do this to me? Yes I had decided to kill him, however my reasons behind this were valid. He was the death of my mother. Eugene had figured out mine and fathers plan to kill him and had already thought of an alternative solution. Though he didn't need one. Whilst my sword fighting practice, one of his explicit seizures occurred. He lost control of all his will to hold back what came out his mouth and spilled that he knew my plan to end him. This may have not been all so bad if he had not a sword in his hand, constantly attempting to attack me. I tried my very best to fight back but he was untameable , nothing could get in his way. Eventually my sword was struck out of my hands and I knew I had to run. One thing led to another and I was chased inside the same cave where I hid from Eugene. However, now, this large bolder won't budge.

It finally hit me. How could I have been so clueless... Hugo was Eugene...

I skimmed through the pages again, tears filling my eyes; it all made sense now.

Day two already... Eugene knows I'm in here, I regret everything now...

Day three...

Day four...

...

Day thirteen...

I read the last pages almost feeling as if I was with Hugo at that moment. Remembering when I saw those numbers on the cave walls... it was him and these horrible circumstances. Him having a slow death out of starvation seemed cruel, maybe even more brutal than what he had planned for Eugene.

Yet, I knew he deserved every inch of this, as harsh as it sounds. I hated him, thinking he was my husband but knowing the truth, his death was perhaps inevitable and deserved.

Nonetheless, I still wouldn't forgive Eugene. Not because of all he had done in his past, which was completely understandable, but for the way he treated me.

If he had trusted me enough, he could have let me help in these matters and so I knew. I still wanted a divorce. However something still made me wonder... wonder and want to know more.

Why did Eugene get blamed for the death of his brother? Wasn't this only the cause of his condition?

My body subconsciously made its way to find a pen, perhaps to write my own words on the empty pages left in Hugo's diary.

Again I flipped through the empty pages of the book to see how much I had left, to write in. Not really sure why I wanted to write either. To my surprise, some of those pages were already filled.

I examined the handwriting, it was: much smaller and more cursive, unlike Hugo's... and so it must be... Eugene.

I read the date on the, now Eugenes, diary entry which stated it being written a couple months back from the end of Hugo's diary. Maybe back then, things were alright for them...