Elena opens her eyes to find the sun kissing her skin, and a smile forms on her face, which is a rare thing because every time she wakes up in the morning, she has a nasty frown on her face because she usually gets hangovers and a large headache from partying the night before.
And she's also not really a morning person.
But today, she is… There are a lot of things to smile about, and that's the sun fueling her and giving her so much energy. It always does, but this time it feels like the sun has decided to be her alcohol, and she thinks the sun is better at giving her confidence than alcohol.
And also she's lying on soft green grass, she could stay on the grass all day, but she doesn't understand why she's here in the first place. Why is she on the grass and not on her bed? That's weird.
She sits up in the grass, and she looks around her. She finds out that she's in a meadow surrounded by lots of beautiful flowers, large trees up ahead, the birds are singing in the air, and the bees are buzzing.
She's never really connected with nature; the only natural source she's ever connected with is the sun, and that's all. But being around these natural resources gives her comfort, like she could just stay here forever.
She stands up and looks up to the sky while the sun caresses her. The sky is blue, and there are several rainbows up there, which is strange because the rainbows don't appear until noon, and the clouds are pink as usual.
This place is too heavenly to be just an ordinary meadow. There's something to this place. It looks more like…paradise.
Which makes sense because she remembers being attacked by vampires.
Oh no.
Did she die, did she get killed by the vampires and she's ended up in paradise? That's probably what this is; it's why she's wearing a long golden dress surrounded by comfort and peace.
She died and she's in paradise.
"Whoa," she breathes out, looking around. She doesn't even feel like fighting it; if she's dead, she's dead, she already feels at home. But it's still pathetic that she got killed by vampires. The fucking undead killed her.
Now that she's here, that means she's going to see her parents and Alex's mom. Where are they? Where's everyone? She can't be the only one who's here. Maybe they're not in the meadow but somewhere else. She has to go and find them.
Before she even puts one leg in front of her, she's hit with a sudden wave of nausea. Something is covering up the sun, and at first she thinks it's the clouds, but when she looks up, her eyes grow wide and she gasps.
There's darkness eating the sun up. The pink clouds turn pitch black, and the sky as well. Elena looks at the sky, confused as hell.
"What the bloody hell?" she says, watching all the beautiful birds falling to their death because of the darkness.
The darkness doesn't stop at the sky because it's on the ground, killing the trees and the flowers. This darkness is a living thing, and it's coming after her, and if she doesn't move, she's going to get killed.
Is it possible for one to get killed for a second time?
She doesn't know, and she doesn't want to find out, so she turns around and starts running for her life.
She runs and runs and runs, breathing heavily, hoping she doesn't get touched by this thing that came out of nowhere.
She moves her legs, but then she sees something is wrong. Her legs are moving, but she isn't; she's been at the same spot since, and she has not moved at all.
"What the fuck?" she panics, then she looks backwards, and the darkness is about to consume her; she screams.
And then she jumps up from her bed, screaming.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay," Alex says, wrapping his strong hands around her body. "You're good, it's going to be fine."
Elena looks around her, confused. She's in her room, but not the room in Hollow Prep Academy, the room in Buckingham Palace, where she lives.
She knows this because the bed is larger, the space is larger as well, and everything here is larger than her room back in the academy.
"Alex, what is going on? What happened?" she asks him. He looks at her with creased brows.
"You don't remember what happened last night?"
Elena stops to think, her brow is raised, and she looks up a the ceiling.
"I remember being pathetically attacked by vampires."
"Yes, and what else?" Alex asks her, and she looks at him, confused, but then she starts remembering.
"You saved me!" Elena says ecstatically, sounding grateful. "My hero!" she throws herself on Alex. Alex groans.
"Yeah, yeah, but do you not remember, you saved me and Pierre as well?" Alex says, and Elena releases him, and she looks at him, confused.
"I don't understand," she says.
"You mean, you don't remember what happened, do you?"
"I mean, I remember being attacked by vampires; that cute, disgusting bastard, Igor, wanted to drink my blood because he said something about my blood being special." She stops to think. "And then you came along and you saved me."
"You don't remember anything else?"
Elena shakes her head. "Why, what happened?"
"You saved Pierre, you saw that Pierre almost got attacked by vampires, and you used your powers to destroy those vampires," Alex says with a smile on his face. Elena looks at Alex like he has completely lost his damn mind.
"You're kidding me, right? Either this is a prank or I'm still dreaming. What do you mean by powers? I don't have powers, Alex, you know this!"
"No, no, no, this is not a prank, you know I hate pranks, and this isn't a dream either. Elena, you have powers. You destroyed those vampires, and you fainted. That is why you're back here. I've been here all night waiting for you to wake up."
Elena stares at her best friend with her jaw on the floor. Yes, he is right, he doesn't do pranks, he hates doing them, and he hates when it's done to him. Alex is not the type to joke around; she is, and right now, he looks serious as hell.
"Shut up."
"I'm serious, Elena, you have powers."
The door to her room opens up, revealing Sylvie, the woman who manages the affairs of the palace. Sylvie has no shame; she just barges into her room. She doesn't do this to Henry or anyone else.
Maybe it's because Elena is the one who gives her the most headaches.
Sylvie Allard is a short, no-nonsense hot hot-tempered wind fairy with pink hair done in a pixie haircut, and she's always in the same suit but different colours.
This time she's in yellow.
Elena has known her all her life, and she's seen her in action and has given her a headache numerous times. Sometimes Sylvie wonders how Elena's not the second child and why she had to be the first; well, Elena is also the only child.
Sylvie stands there with that serious look on her face.
"Princess Elena Victoria Baron-Grant, the king would like to see you," she says, and Elena and Alex exchange looks while Alex is smiling, acting all happy for his best friend. Elena still looks shocked, and she hasn't closed her mouth ever since.
"I suggest you hurry because it is very important," Sylvie says, and she heads toward the door, but she stops and looks behind her.
"I always knew you were special." She says, a small smile spreads across her face, and then she walks out of the room.
Never in Elena's life of knowing Sylvie did she ever think Sylvie was going to be saying those words to her. Ever.