~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Any news Kyle?" Alex asked while helping me arrange some flowers. 

"Yeah. I didn't get enough pay today. For all my super hard work and he, Mr. Leonard scolded me for nothing. Really! I didn't do anything! He blamed me for dropping a tray of fresh bread which of course I didn't do! Bill was the one who dropped it!!" He whined and plopped himself on a chair next to Henri.

"Can you massage my legs? They hurt," he threw a leg across her lap. 

"I dunno, can you go jump off a cliff ?" she twisted one of his toes which earned her a yelp.

"You're a patient one Henri. Anyways so what actually happened to the bread?" Alex asked. 

"I took the tray out of the oven and immediately handed it to Bill so he could arrange it on the table. He even tried to stop me! That lazy fool. But I wasn't having it. I shoved it in his hands." he proudly exclaimed. "Then that idiot screamed like a five year old girl and dropped it!"

"Hmmm did he say anything while he tried to stop you from handing him the tray? Did he look worried or scared?" Henri asked while rubbing her chin.

Then it dawned on me. Tonya gave me a 'he screwed up big time' look.

"Nope. I dunno, I wasn't interested." Kyle casually answered Henri.

"Of course you weren't. I should have known. You're the idiot!!" Alex was all wide eyed now.

"What? Why? What has this got to do with anything? Don't you care that I had a bad day?! Stop with the questions daddy. I'm sensitive now." He crossed his arms.

"Not only did you mess up, you also BURNED Bill's hands!" Alex scolded him. 

"How did I burn his hands?" Kyle gave a look of disbelief.

"You passed him a burning hot tray genius. He hands must have been bare! What did you expect him to do? Kiss your ass? Of course he dropped it. And. It's. Your. Fault. Open those damn eyes and use that brain up there at least once in a while. Think about yourself and others." Tonya said while knocking his head. 

"Ouch!! Ow Ow OK OK!! I'll be careful!"

"You're not done Kyle we wanted to know if there was any real news," Tonya asked pointedly.

Kyle took a deep breath. "Alright, alright, he sighed. "First, you go sit in your chair. Waaaay over there," he pointed to where Tonya was initially seated. Far away from him.

"The war between the elves and fae creatures against the Giant Trolls are getting bad. Their army is getting closer and closer to The Core. The Guardians of The Core can't fight forever. The trolls are increasing in numbers frequently. Did I mention the royal faes are in more danger? Two trolls managed to get inside the castle two days ago." Kyle said in a bored tone.

"That is bad. What would happen if the king and queen are defeated? Killed I mean." I was horrified.

"The royal faes are the strongest of the fae creatures. If they die then it would be all too easy to conquer the kingdom and wipe out the rest of the faes," Tonya said.

"Oh no! The Core is like what brings balance, right? To mother nature or something? A...and they make sure there's constant supply of food, vegetation! O my gosh! Why aren't the vampires helping them in the war? They are the most powerful creatures. More powerful than all the creatures put together," Henri was clutching Kyle's arm with both her hands now. Funny thing was, Kyle wasn't bothered like he usually would if anyone else got touchy.

"That's easy. They don't like the elves because the elves are not under the Royal Pure Blood's rule. They only agreed on helping each other if either one of their Kingdom's were threatened. The fae kingdom is not either one of theirs." Alex was frustrated too.

"Wow I don't get it. They are so important to the world. If they're gone, there's no balance. I don't know what would happen if there's no balance but nothing good would come out of it. Second, there won't be enough food for us. Animals will also not be taken care of. Hence, decreasing in number. Wouldn't all these eventually affect everyone? Countless amount of people will suffer. Why can't they think? The elves will be needing as much help as they can get.

And just a little help from the vampires or werewolves, can put an end this. All against the trolls." I said pacing around the hall.

"Pride Eve. Pride. The royals are just waiting for the elves to beg for help and to eventually submit themselves," Tonya sighed. "Well I actually heard. Heard okay, only heard that the Fae Queen, Queen Aurora had twins. She th..."

"Firstly we all know and second, we all know that the queen sent them away, to God knows where, to be protected. But hey, we don't even know how true that is. A lot of people say the queen had no children and seriously she most probably didn't because there's no proof. No one has seen them. There was never any news about them. No party, no birth ceremony and we don't even know what they look like. That equals queen has no children!" Kyle interrupted.

"I heard the queen wanted it to be a secret. Hidden from the trolls. Anyways I'd like to keep my hopes up. Hope for the future. Hope that if ever Queen Aurora and King Sindrion are defeated, there'd still be a light in the darkness. Hope that the balance will forever be maintained. And hope for the well-being of the world." Tonya poured out. 

"Me too, I would like to think the same. A light in the darkness. That's something worth holding on to." I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Although Kyle's words were more likely to be true, I would like to have some hope.

The world today is a terrible place to be in. Especially for a human. The five of us are lucky that Alex's parents were well to do. For a human of course. We have it better than most people.

The fae creatures are the ones shedding light on this dark world. If they are gone, it's over.

We resumed our work after that and everyone was deep in their own thoughts when we heard loud banging. "Hey!! Open up!!!"

"Ar.....are those palace knights?" I strained to get my voice out.

What is going on?

"Damn it." Kyle muttered while opening the door. The knights just barged in almost knocking Kyle to the ground. There were six of them. Tall, well build vampires. We looked like little children compared to them

"Listen up!!! Half of you will be collected to work as servants in the palace. This is a great honor and those chosen must be thankful and proud!" The voice of the main knight boomed. My heart sank. Henri looked pale. Kyle was holding her hand. Me and Tonya held each other while Alex stood protectively in front of us.

This is it. Who knew they'd be two days early.

"Line Up!" the same knight shouted. We obeyed. Alex was at the far right, followed by me, Kyle, Henri and Tonya. 

"Hmmmm so who's it gonna be, who is it gonna be?" He muttered. He then turned around facing the rest of his friends. "Any favorites? Come on I need suggestions!" He made it sound like this was some kind of a game.

A sick twisted game.

He knew we were going to die there in the palace. Sooner or later.

One of the other knights walked towards Alex. He looked at him from head to toe and then came over to me. He stood a little too close.

"What's your name sweetheart?" He asked playing with my hair, twirling it between his fingers. He was really tall. I had to look up at him. He gave he a sadistic smile. "When I ask you a question, you will answer me human," he whispered bringing his mouth close to my ear. Saying I was scared was an understatement.

My palms started to sweat. I could see that Alex balled his fists but we both know we couldn't do anything. 

"E...Eve. My name is Eve Sir." I stuttered. He sniffed my hair. "Oh she smells good. Here's my suggestion!" He told the leader.

At this point I was trembling. Please God this can't be happening.

Yes we knew this day was coming, but nothing could have prepared us for this. He then moved on to Kyle, circled around him and then went to Henri. She looked like she was about to cry. He gave her that same sickening smile and went to Tonya.

After he accessed her, he stood in front of us and shouted.

"The one with on the far right!! The red head next to him and the one next to blondie! Step forward. Now!!!"

I couldn't breathe right. My legs didn't move until Alex tugged me along with him. My vision was already blurry due to my unshed tears.

I looked towards poor Henri. Just as she started to walk. Kyle stopped her. "No! Don't!"

"What do you think you're doing kid? Besides having a death wish?!" The leader spoke up.

"Take me instead. Let her be. Please," this was the first time any of us heard Kyle's voice filled with emotion. His eyes were filled with determination.

Henri just stood there shell-shocked.

He wasn't kidding this time. He wasn't being stupid this time. From the way he spoke, he knew exactly what he was doing. He was willing to take Henri's place. He was willing to sacrifice himself for her. Just like that.

Despite the situation we were all in, it all came back to me at that moment. All the teasing, all the bullying, the nagging, that look of disapproval whenever she was close to Alex, the complaining, he always bothered her, always tried to get a reaction out of her. He always wanted to be seen by her. He always wanted her attention.

He's always had feelings for her.

"You don't get to decide. Move back!" the leader shouted again. Just as he started to move towards Kyle, another knight came forward and whispered something in the leader's ear. His face immediately contorted into a look of anger. "You're lucky we only need two more," he sneered and roughly pushed Kyle back. 

With that, Alex and I were dragged into a wagon filled with others despite Tonya, Henri and Kyle's cry of protest. We didn't even get to say goodbye.

To the people who we call family.

To them who we'd never see again.

We didn't even say goodbye.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~