princess // percy jackson

i. zero - yancy pansies

words - 3301

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she awoke to the sound of broken glass and yelling.

stirring in her bed, she tried to make out the figure of her father in the dark, scared by the sudden sounds.

"dad?" she calls out, her voice wispy from her sudden wake. "dad, where a-"

she feels a hand cup over her mouth. she almost begins to scream but stops when she smells the familiar scent of pine-peppermint fragrance through the rough hand.

"don't speak." her father whispered into her ear. "don't be scared. we need to leave this house, now. and we need to be quick and quiet."

she wanted to cry. this wasn't the most preferable way to being woken up - especially for a drowsy eight year old who'd just been dreaming about a platter of sweets and everything nice, only for a second later, to her father waking her up to tell her they needed to leave, urgently.

but instead of crying and whining to go back to sleep, the young girl nodded, cooperative with her father.

her hand clamped in his, they snuck out of the room and into the dark hallway. she could feel his and her own heartbeats as they walked - tiptoed - across the hallway.

one step...
two step...
three step...
four...

just as they were halfway through their fourth quiet step, the young girl remembered something - almost an epiphany.

there was a loose floorboard in the hallway, always on the fourth step down it, and it creaked - it always crea-

the young girl felt her father freeze.

the world was quiet and their house was dark - but as soon as he had taken that step, the noise of the creaking floorboard echoed through the entire house as if it had groaned itself awake.

not even a moment later, the young girl heard it - footsteps racing up the stairs, heading right for them.

as the young girl's heart rate began to race, she felt her father tighten his grip around her small hand. with a small squeeze, he ran, pulling her alongside him. she could hardly keep up, her small legs almost gave way on multiple occasions. but she stayed up - the fear coursing through her blood kept her up.

behind them, she could hear men yelling, ordering them to stop running and to stay put right there. the young girl almost listened to them and would have concurred, if her father weren't whisking - practically flying - her away with his crushing grip.

then suddenly, alliah could see the back door. they were in the kitchen, which the young girl hadn't even noticed because everything was in such a blur and in such a chaotic pace.

"we need to run out through the door, my love." her father whisper-yelled in her ear. "anak ko, can you do that for me?"

(*anak ko - direct translation : 'my child' in the filipino dialect - tagalog)

she nodded frantically. she let herself be dragged across the kitchen and to the doorway when-

bang!

a gun shot.

the young girl felt herself falling to the ground, her limbs had gone limp and a force brought her to the cold wooden floor.

'oh my god, i've just been shot' she cried in her mind. 'oh my god!'

she waited - she waited to see the light. she was shaking - she didn't wanna die. she didn't even know how it would've felt to die and she was sure she wasn't ready to find out. she didn't want to see the light, she wanted to see the row of her stuffed animals upstairs, in her bedroom, all sat there waiting for her to come play with them. something told her they never would have a chance to again.