Once Elvira and I were back in the grand hallway, she led me through another one of the several connecting halls. It was designed the same way as the others, black and gloomy. It had paintings like the others too. I guess the King liked seeing paintings and murals of himself. I was walking behind her step by step until one of the paintings caught my eye. It was bigger than the others. It was designed differently too. Unlike the small paintings that were held in place by a silver frame lined up on the walls in vertical rows of three, this one was held by a gold frame that took up a huge portion of the blackish purple walls. Inside the frame was a painting of a woman. Curious, I looked closer and saw...

"Me?"

I inspected the painting even closer and realized that in fact, it wasn't me. Her face was one of an adult's. I confused it with myself because I was the spitting image of her. It was as if I was looking into a mirror and was seeing my reflection.

The woman in the painting donned a long red cloak to match with her red ruby earrings. Her hair, like mine, was white with a tad of silver. Her eyes were like mine as well, deep, deep, red. When I looked at it, I felt the same tingly sensation in my chest I felt before when I saw the glass mural of the King.

Mesmerized, I continued to stare at the painting. Actually, it felt like the woman in the painting was staring at me. The tingly sensation in my chest started to flare into a paining one. With each passing second, the pain started to swell. I wanted to look away, in hope that doing so would rid the feeling, but I couldn't. It felt like I was trapped by her gaze. If Elvira hadn't draped her arms around me, I think I've might have stood there forever.

"Oh, Princess." She said with a tone full of grief and sorrow. She went into one of her pockets, pulled out a white handkerchief, and wiped my cheek. I wondered why she did that until shortly after, I realized why. I didn't even notice. Tears were falling from both of my eyes.

"W-Why am I?"

I tried to stop crying but I couldn't. It was as if I couldn't control my own body. The tears continued to trickle and roll down my face endlessly and with it, the pain in my chest intensified.

"It's alright Yukina, It's alright," Elvira said, tightening her embrace around me, in an attempt to soothe my uncontrollable tears. "I miss her majesty too."

I still didn't know why I was crying but eventually, Elvira managed to calm me down. She put my hand in hers and we continued through the hallway.

"The Queen, your mother, was a great woman," She started. "She was the kindest person we ever met. She took the others and I in during the Second Great War. The humans stormed the capital and burned down everything in sight." She closed her eyes and paused, as if she was remembering a nightmare, before opening them and continuing. "When we lost the orphanage, we thought that our lives were over. The capital at the time was in turmoil. Everybody was too busy either preparing for war or trying to hide and escape from it. No one had the time to help some lowly demons like us. We thought we'd die as homeless rejects. That is until we met her. She was like a mother to us all, always smiling and laughing whenever we saw her. She taught us everything we know. It was hard at first, adjusting to a maid's life, but we made it work. She showed us love that we haven't had ever since we were abandoned and cast out onto the streets of the capital."

Her tone began to turn into one full of sadness.

"We loved her so, so, much. We could never repay the kindness your mother showed us, but she didn't care. She raised us to be the women we are today. So when she passed," She again, paused for a couple of seconds. "So when she passed, it was like losing a member of our small family. It hit all of us hard, especially Mellisa and Aurora. They were the youngest of us all. They took it the hardest. We didn't know what to do. The one person who took us in was gone. We thought we were going to be cast out again, just like we were before. But by his grace, the King allowed us to stay. Her death was hard for him as well. They were always happy when they were together. Her majesty's death shook us all but, before she passed, she left us with one thing."

She stopped walking, turned around, and crouched down to me until we were at eye level, and smiled.

"You."

"Me?"

As if she read my mind, she placed her hand on my shoulder and repeated herself.

"You. I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. The look on the Queen's face as she held you in her arms for the first time was unforgettable. It was one full of pure joy, even though she was in so much pain. She was always happy, but I had never seen her smile a smile like that before." She put her hand on my right cheek. "Every time I look at you princess, I see her. You look so much like her."

Just as she finished talking, one of the doors in the hallway opened up and Astrid walked out of it, holding a small case in her right hand.

"Ms. Elvira, I found what the King was asking for, It was the-" She stopped when she saw me. She quickly hid her right hand behind her, hiding the small black case behind her back. She approached us and handed it to Elvira who then, slipped it into her pocket. They smiled at each other as if they knew something I didn't. She turned towards me. "Good night, Princess." She did a slight bow and left, walking in the opposite direction as us.

I'm sure Elvira saw my puzzled look but she chose to ignore it.

A few minutes later, at the end of the hallway, was another set of huge brown double doors, where, Iris was waiting in front of it.

"Your attendant, Akano said that she would be coming in the morning to take you through the town and pick up some last-minute items for the academy. I told her that we could have them delivered here, straight to the castle but, she insisted that you two go pick them up directly." Elvira told me.

"-Akano?-

The name sounded unknown but strangely, familiar to me.

"If you would excuse me, I have to go assist your Father with a matter. Good night, Princess." With that, Elvira turned around and left, leaving me alone with Iris.

"There should be a change of clothes already waiting for you in the washroom." She told me before grabbing onto the black handle on one of the doors. "I'll be out here until you've finished."

I stepped inside the room and Iris closed the door behind me. I realized that for the first time since I woke up, I was alone. Ever since my abrupt awaking, I've always had Elvira and the others, or the King by my side. But not now. It was kind of weird, not being by them anymore. Even though I haven't spent more than an hour with them all, it felt like I belonged with them.

The room I was now in, looked like some sort of washroom. It had walls made of a smooth granite-like material. In front of me was another door, but unlike the solid brown one behind me, It was made of translucent glass that had fog covering the other side of it, not allowing me to clearly see what's actually on the other side unless I slid it open.

I pulled off the black one-piece gown and wrapped myself in a towel that was lying on a metal rack in the corner of the room. Carefully, I slid open the fog-covered glass door.

As soon as I stepped foot into the other side of the door, hot, steamy, fog smacked me in my face. On the other side of the door was another huge room. It was about a little bigger than half the size of the dining hall. The floor was made of tan-colored porcelain tiles that were shaped into a square-like pattern. In the middle of the room was an enormous circular pool-shaped bath. It must have been no smaller than 50 feet, in both length and width. Circling the bath on both sides were multiple white pillars that had strange inscriptions on them. In the middle of the bath stood a statue of a woman holding a torch that was emitting more ominous purplish flames.

After taking off the towel, I cautiously sat down by the edge of the bath and slid one foot into the piping hot water before sliding in the other and with it, my entire body. My white hair floated on top of the surface as I curled my knees toward my chest and leaned back against the edge of the bath.

As I stared at my reflection in the water, I started to reflect upon the events that had transpired from when I awoke in that room, till now. I haven't really had time to since I wasn't alone until now. I tried to answer one of the several questions that had been drifting in my mind for what it seemed like forever.

"What happened to me?

I thought long and hard about it. I don't think I had ever thought about something as hard as I thought about that simple four-word question. But no matter how hard I thought, I couldn't answer it. I wasn't even sure of who I was anymore. But if there was one thing I was sure of, It was that I died back in the convenience store. There was no way around it. The blood pouring from my chest, the pain, the fear, was real. You can't imagine or even dream of it.

Death.

I centered my thoughts on that one word. I began to twirl my finger in the water, creating a small whirlpool around it.

"If I did die, do they know?"

My family. Not the kind one I'm a part of now. No, the cruel, judgmental one.

"Do they know that I died?"

No, there was one question that needed to be answered before that. Though, I'm sure I knew the answer to this one.

"Do they care that I died?"

Part of me wanted to say, "Yes, of course, they do." But I knew that I was just being optimistic. Outside of my father, or maybe even him, they didn't care. They never did. The only time they cared was when I didn't ace a test or didn't live up to my perfect persona.

Still immersed deep in both thought and my emotions, I sat against the edge of the grand bath, motionless.

"Princess."

I heard Iris call from the other side of the glass door. I turned my head in the direction it was coming from.

"Don't stay in there too long." She warned. "I know it's comfortable but remaining in the bath isn't good for you."

Heeding her warning, I stood up, grabbed the towel off the floor, and exited the bath, leaving my dark thoughts about my family and my life behind me.

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A/N: Thank you guys for 200+ readers! It hasn’t even been 3 weeks yet and we’ve already grown much!  

Be sure to check out my other fiction:  https://www.scribblehub.com/series/18881/twist/