I know I can ace the exams. I am prepared, I even studied all night but why am I so nervous? Only hunting can give me this kind of feeling yet I have not been going hunting for a while now. My heart is even stronger now that it feels like it’s going to pop out of my chest.

My fingertips feel icy however if I touch them to my skin it burns. I am sweating bullets and I feel nauseous, anytime now I might throw up.

I clamp my hand down my mouth, feeling my head spinning and the room spinning another direction and the food in my stomach slowly climbing up to my throat.

“Ms.Park, are you ok?”  I nod instantly and release my mouth, continuing my exam.

“Drink it!!” The queen appears before me, angry silver eyes reflecting my kneeled and bound form.

“What?” I see my reflection in the amber fluid. “Drink it, I say!” Pure rage reflected the Queen’s silver eyes. It was like a laser burning a hole through me.

She even went to the extent of holding my mouth open and pouring it into my mouth. Small amounts of poison skidded down and burned my throat. I can already feel its effects, my eyes dilated and everything was blurry and morphed. My legs and arms felt like lead, it felt like drinking liquid fire with intense heat settling on my gut.

I doubled over, hyperventilating as though the rope wound in my chest was being pulled tighter. My insides swam in their own foul juices and bile spilled from my mouth. “I’m sorry Beatrice.” Zoe looks down from her pedestal, she was sitting on the Queen’s previous throne and the Queen was sitting on Queen mother’s.

“What have you done!?” I scream out feeling a sense of betrayal, my voice unpleasant sounding like metal scratching with metal.

“How could you do this? How?” I felt my soul leaving my body and another voice was echoing my words.

They bring in Queen mother, tied and gagged, her frail 18 year old body defenseless against the tough and scratchy ropes. “Release her, just kill me. It’s ok, I’m ok just don’t kill her. Please.”

“Gladly, Princess Beatrice, but I cannot have a witness so I’ll have to kill you two.” She grabs the nearest hunting knife and digs it into Queen mother’s nape, where her brainstem is located.

“NO!!” “Princess, please calm down.” The maids untie my ropes but it was useless, my muscles were useless. They were heavy and unresponsive.

 “NO!! How could you do this? She was our Queen and our mother! You’re evil!” It was like no one was there, my voice reverberated and returned to my ears. It’s as if no one heard a sound.  Queen mother was lying in her own blood, I wanted to look away but I could not.

“Calm down.” My vision started to tint black and red, someone held my hand, but it was done insincerely, the rest of my body trembled except for my held hand. “Princess.” Reality was pushing against the seams of my dreams, Sanghyuk’s voice was muted but I can faintly hear him.

A lone tear that spills on the marble was the last thing I saw. The hand was still holding me and the voice still attempting to calm me down. One by one my senses disappeared.

“No!” I woke up, clutching a hand, the other grasping my parched throat. “Princess.” Sanghyuk was holding my hand, worry playing with his features.

“Sanghyuk, did I die?” I was still clutching on his hand, getting a grasp of reality. He shook his head wildly, puzzled with my reaction.

“Drink this, Ms. Park and Mr. Han go back to class.” The infirmary nurse parts the curtain and hands me a glass filled with an unclear liquid.

“Do I have to?”  Sanghyuk doesn’t let go and the nurse appears to have noticed our connected hands.

“Fine. Sanghyuk, help her up.” He lets go of my hand and props pillows behind my back. Surprisingly, I felt fine just a little dazed.

“You scared me there, Princess.” He speaks up, after making sure the nurse was distracted with other students.

“I’m okay, Hyuk.” I assure him, avoiding my hand from his as he tries to claim it again.

“How could you be okay? You were shaking so much while passed out and not to mention your dilated pupils. It was like a heart attack or maybe an epileptic episode.” He informs me, eyebrows furrowing and his hands moving animatedly.

I chuckle, he can be such a kid sometimes. “Where did you learn that?” I laugh, not knowing what my laugh meant. Am I really happy or is this hysteria?

“I learned it from a TV show.” He replies simply and clutches on my hand again.

“It was just a bad dream, a really bad one.” I remove his hand from mine and peek at the clock. I was out for 4 hours. As soon as I felt hunger, Juri came in bringing enough food for the three of us.

 Juri seemed to have looked alike Zoe more, and somehow a dull fear nags me at the back of my mind. “What’s happening?” I crane my neck to see the commotion outside, it was so loud but when Juri slid the door close the noise was muted.

“People kept on asking how you were especially the boys from our class.” She shrugs and tinkers wit