"I know about you, Oscar," I said. "And I want to talk with you."

"About what?"

"Its not safe here." I looked around. The guards were gone, and no one had searched the staircase. "Should we return to the tower or—"

"I will never return." He turned around.

"Wait—"

"Follow me."

I was surprised. He was agreeing to listen to me. He walked slower, and then I trailed behind him until we were at the hallway were Oda had brought me, and then he stopped in front of a room. He opened the door and I felt the cold air.

The room was dark and too big for my comfort—and I was still wary about being alone with him—but I stepped in reluctantly. The room has no furniture save for a couch, making it look empty and disproportionate.

"You don't trust me, right?" he acknowledges coldly. "If the prince rapes you though, both you and your family will be given several amounts of money to keep the matter silent. Not that bad of a deal, right?" He chuckled.

"That was a terrible attempt of persuasion."

"The guards aren't allowed to enter this room," he said as he closed the doors, stealing us of any light. "Even the Queen can't."

In the dark though, his albino white face could still be seen, and his face was emotionless, no longer aggressive nor sadistic. In fact, he looked almost—almost sad.

"Why is this room so different?" I asked instead.

He laughed drily.

"This was my room."

He walked around the room, his footsteps echoing. His steps are slow and steady until he stops before the couch and sat on it. He draped an arm on the armrest.

"Your room?" I think of Oda's room with the silk canopy bed and wide gold-rimmed wardrobe. It was like another world compared to this one. "It's different from the princess's room."

"It's Oscar's room, not Prince Otto or Prince Oda's." His voice again, sends shivers up my spine. I had forgotten this was someone who lived a life different than Otto and Oda.

"It's an empty room."

"It's like the tower, only it was in the castle," he said.

"How?"

"I was always locked in here. Locked! Otto did bad things and he would be forgiven, but I would be locked here. Otto was loved by the king and queen and everyone. He had control over them all and I—I would be locked here."

"I'm—I'm sorry."

"Did you know when they found out I had the disease, what they did to me?" he asked instead, ignoring my apology.

It was horrifying, hearing someone who died talk about their experience like that. The room felt cold and so did Oscar's words.

"They locked me up."

"When you had the disease?" I blurted out. Oda had told me about his disease, but not that the sick twelve-year-old child was locked up.

"Unbelievable, right? For the Royal family to do such a thing." I remembered when I first hear of the rumors about the prince being locked up. I, like the other ladies, couldn't believe it. It was absurd to even think of such a thing.

Oscar stood up from the couch abruptly and walked towards the curtains; my eyes were adjusting to the dark and I could see better.

"They knew I would die, so I might as well just die right then and there. The very day I was diagnosed, my existence was erased."

'He was twelve, there were two main paintings done. Once he was diagnosed, all paintings were hidden. I think we knew that there wasn't any hope for him. When he died, all paintings of him were burned. Father didn't like Oscar, that's why he had to erase such memories. Mother didn't like it but couldn't go against him,' Oda's voice repeats in my mind.

Oscar's life was unimaginable. It was horrifying and tragic; never being loved, always watching Otto being loved. Locked in his own castle, erased by his own parents, now only treated as Prince Otto's demonic possession.

"I never knew. I'm sorry," I whispered, feeling guilt spread through me like ink spilling. I was the same as them—I had called him a monster. He laughed, but this time it doesn't sound mad. It sounds empty. He turned from the windows and walks towards me. He stopped a few inches before me.

"You don't have to be sorry."

I looked up at him. Sometimes he seemed a bit human—almost normal.

"Maybe if there was someone like you who felt bad for me, even if it was just one, I wouldn't be living like this now."

"You can still change. Do something," I said quickly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Like what?"

I tried to think.

"Isn't it fine to live now, even if it's within Otto's body?"

"I can't do anything I want."

"Why?"

"No one will let me, obviously. Not Queen Sonota, not Oda." I notice he didn't call her his mother. It was as though they were strangers to him. "They want me out of his body."

"Then I'll help you," I said.

He smirked.

"Oh really? What can you, a girl with no power, do?" I felt my face flame. He was right: I had no power. I was a pawn in this whole scheme, controlled by Oda, who herself didn't have power, had stooped to cheating and was still losing to her mother.

"I can try," I choked out.

He broke out laughing. I didn't know if he was amused or thought I was stupid. Then suddenly he walked over to me. I remember what happened during our last meeting and tensed up.

"Maybe you can help," he said softly, smiling familiarly. His voice was suddenly deep. He bent down so his face before mine, noses almost touching. I could see the pattern of his irises, almost glowing in the dark, hypnotizing me.

"What?" I can't tear my eyes away from his.

"It's just the two of us here, they will never find us," he murmured, and his hand crawled up my cheeks. His other hand glides into my waist, making me break out of the trance.

"No, stop it!" I pushed him away hard. I had almost fallen into his trap. No matter how much suffering he has being through, he is a monster. I glared at him. He laughed.

"You're such a bore."

"Why do you act like this?"

"What do you mean?" He crossed his arms and leaned back.

"You're not dumb. You know. The more you act this way, the more people will want you out of Otto's body."

"Do you really think they'll ever like me?" His face was dark. "If they ever did, they wouldn't have killed me when I was a child. You don't know anything. You think this is simply a matter of misbehaving."

I didn't realize how insensitive my words were. I forgot his pain in the midst of my anger.

"I didn't mean that! I—" I stopped myself. I didn't know what to say. "I would've helped you, but you keep pushing me away. It's as though you want to be hated."

His hair now covered his eyes, and he was silent. Without a reply, he walked away from me.

He was a villain one moment, a victim the next. He was unloved but he also couldn't love anyone. I didn't know if he's a monster or if everyone else was.

Most of all, I don't know how to act towards him.

A long time passed before he spoke again.

"You can sit in the divan." I accreted his offer and took the only seat. "What did you want to talk about?"

Now that he asked, I didn't know what to say. "I wanted to help. Help Otto and you. With you two in one body." He didn't speak. I knew he had no hope in me. "I know I'm weak, powerless, and nothing but a pawn—and you probably don't even trust me, but I sincerely want to help."

"You know, I'm glad I died," I frown at what I hear, "and got to be be in Otto's body." He didn't continue. Instead he looked at me, challenging me to say something.

"Because that way he's also locked up?" I volunteered. His eyes widened in surprise before he laughed.

"You understand the mind of a 'monster'. Now isn't that something." I ignored his statement.

"They—the King and Queen—really do have something with locking their children up."

"And keeping everything a secret." I remembered what he said about if a girl was raped by the prince, feeling sick.

"Isn't there a way to change it? Without getting locked up."

"You've got a sense of humor, Karina."

I stopped.

"How do you know my name?" We had only met once in the tower, and I never told him his name.

"I'm always residing in Otto's body." He pulled apart the curtains, and the moonlight streamed in, and Oscar's hair looked silver. He propped himself up so he is sitting on the windowsill. "I hear and see everything he does."

"Is it because you two are twins that you are able to use—no, share his body?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know. We fight to gain control." I shuddered. Fight. Two souls fighting in one body.

"Oda said you were 'stealing' his body."

"Oda hates me, doesn't she?" I nodded in reply and he leaned back onto the window. "They are so alike."

I didn't think of Oda and Otto as alike at all. If I had to admit, Oscar and Oda were more alike with their cold demeanor and sometimes unpredictable actions. Otto was, without a doubt, the sweetest of the three. He was kind-hearted and sympathetic. Not fit to be a ruler, but fated to be one.

"How so?"

"Both of them have albinism, obviously, both of them are the firstborn prince and princess—" he stopped once he sees me resting my head on the arm of the divan. "Are you going to sleep?" I nodded slowly, tired from the chaotic night. Dinner must've ended long ago but I didn't want to leave Oscar alone, especially in this room of bad memories.

I felt my eyes closing and a part of me didn't want to, not in the same room as what Oda called a 'monster', yet another part of me believes he won't. He was a monster they made, and created. Inside in was nothing but a lonely boy. My eyelids locked in place and I don't know if what I hear next is from my dream or not.

"...and they are both loved by their parents."