Chapter 1 YEAR 1998

• 1: Year 1998
• August 17, 1998
• MONDAY 11:45PM
• Lindenrogue, North England
• I woke up to a loud sound of thunderous clap that came from out of nowhere followed by three more bangs.
• What was that?
• My eyes, now wide open, stared at the ceiling and for a second I thought it was just thunder although it wasn't raining outside. I prayed it wasn't something else, like a bomb or a gun or something. I was still on my bed as I tried to listen to my surroundings, quietness enveloped the entire kingdom.
• I slowly pulled myself up from my bed feeling cautious and scared of that loud banging noises a few seconds ago. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of my bedroom, I was surprised when I found three men standing on the foot of my bed. They didn't look like they were the palace's royal guards.
• "Who.. who are you?" I asked them, scared.
• "Good evening Your Highness." One man, unknown to me, grins evilly.
• Suddenly another man shove his arms around me and carried me over his shoulders effortlessly without saying anything. I began crying for help and kicking my feet but he was too strong as they lead me out of my bedroom. There was blood on the hallways and the royal guards were covered in pools of their own blood as they laid lifelessly on the ground. I screamed in horror. They looked absolutely dead to me which made me even more terrified. I didn't know what was happening.
• Where's mummy and Tibby?
• I cried louder and cried for help but the man carrying me was just laughing maniacally. He walks along the hallway until we reached my father's study and there I see my mother kneeling with a gun pointed on the back of her head and my younger brother unconscious on the floor. My eyes travelled to my mother's wound, she was shot in her stomach and blood was coming out from her, staining her white sleeping gown with bright red.
• I froze in fear seeing my mother wounded as blood keeps coming out from her gunshot wounds. The men in this room all had guns in their hands but the royal guards were kneeling gun less in defeat and most looked possibly dead too. My mother continues to cry but she wasn't weeping to be saved, instead she was pleading and begging these people to spare her kids' lives.
• To spare us.
• The study was filled with unrecognizable armed men but my brave mother continuously fights back wanting for her son to be released. The moment she saw me, her eyes widened in shock, "Henri!" She cries louder when she notices me being carried by this huge and scary man.
• "Mother!" I cried aloud. "Let her go!!"
• "Please I'm begging you." Mother's voice shakes in fear. "You can take all the money you want. Just don't hurt my sons. Not my sons. Please let them go." My mother cried and pleaded again and again but they were just laughing at her. There wasn't anything funny but they were laughing at how helpless we all were. She lowered her head for me and for my brother but royalty should never ever lower their heads for anyone yet she is doing this for us.
• The scary man puts me down and as soon as my feet landed on the floor, I ran towards my mother and stood in front of her and my younger brother to protect them. My tears flooded my cheeks as I opened my shaky palms spreading my arms wide to cover my mother and Thibaut, who is unconscious. I was scared because I have never seen these men before. I was scared because I am only a young boy but if I die tonight, I want to die protecting my mother and my brother without father here.
• Even if I was insanely frightened to be killed, I had to be brave for my family. My father never taught me to be a coward. My father taught me to be strong, to be brave, wise and just. A rightful prince to the throne and being a King, should always be brave and righteous.
• "Traitors!!" I yelled at the man in front of me.
• I took a deep breath as I continued to say, "I command all royal guards to arrest these traitors! This is treason to the Kingdom and to King Harold and Queen Margaux."
• These men didn't say anything but just laughed at me.
• I stood firm, looking confident and brave but highly scared on the inside, "As the eldest son and Prince of this Kingdom, I sentence everyone in this room, who is holding the royal family and royal guards as hostages, the highest form of penalty in accordance to the national law." I said out loud without fear but they continued laughing at me because they knew I was only a child.
• A young boy who couldn't fight these men but I kept my courage in me.
• I am a prince.
• "Your Highness, you are indeed a splitting image of your father, His Majesty. Now I know why you are the first in line to the throne. You act like you're a crowned prince." The man laughs as he curtsied playfully but I know he was being disrespectful in front of a royalty. Suddenly he points his gun in the middle of my forehead which froze me.
• "Henri!!" My mother whimpers loudly as I hear her groaning in pain. 
• It's her gunshot wound and she was still constantly bleeding. I see her crawling slowly and weakly towards the man in a black suit as her blood stains the floor. She reaches her hand to him but he pushed her away so strongly.
• "Mother!" I screamed and was about to run to her side but the man points his gun at me. I was left immobile out of fear. I want to save them but I am too weak.
• "Please. I am begging you. Don't kill my son." She begs again and continued crying but I felt so helpless and useless that I couldn't even save my own mother. She looks over to me with a weary smile and frightened, "Henri darling please get down."
• I stare at the gun over my forehead as the nozzle digs deep onto my skin, "If you hurt the queen or any of the royal family, you will all be beheaded." I barked angrily.
• The man laughs at me again before pushing me so strongly to the side that I completely mapped the entire floor. He makes me lose my balance as I fell on the floor with my face front. I hear my mother calling out my name but as soon as I turn to her, the sound of gunshots crushed my chest the next second that I couldn't breathe at ease.
• The man shot my mother twice in her stomach and another one on her head. I felt my heart hurting so much that all I did was cry and scream seeing her lifeless body on the ground with her dead eyes looking at me as her tears creeps out of her eyelids.
• I was speechless, lips shaking and hands trembling. I didn't know what to do because my mother was shot in front of me. My mother is dead. She is dead. My knees went weak and my entire body felt lifeless seeing her dead in front of me. I felt my hands sweating in fear and in anger. I pulled myself up from the ground and without second thoughts, I ran to the man who killed her. I hit him again and again with my tiny hands but he was just laughing at me because I was completely weak. 
• He killed my mother mercilessly and I will never forgive him for it. I will never forget his face.
• He grabbed me strongly on my neck with his strong huge hand and started choking me that I was gasping for air and struggling in standing on my own feet. His grip on my neck started getting tighter as he pushes me against the wall with his merciless eyes. He wanted to kill me. 
• Those are the eyes of a killer.
• He pulled his hand away from me and started pressing the back of his gun on my neck that I could feel my own blood coming out from my skin. I coughed and choked on my own breath since there was no longer any air entering my lungs. I was sure I was going to die.
• I feel a growing sharp pain digging into my skin and once I stared at myself, I was bleeding heavily on my neck. He stabbed me with a knife as he continued choking me with a menacing grin. My vision was getting blurry and even though I wanted to save Thibaut, I couldn't.
• I'm sorry. I failed them, father. I couldn't save my own mother. I let her die a horrible death in front of me.
• I'm sorry mother. I failed you. I'm so weak. I'm sorry I wasn't able to do anything.
• I hear the police entering the study and the sound of pistols firing one after another. There were men screaming and giving instructions, there was a massive commotion in the room but I almost losing my consciousness. Fading, my vision is fading. My weak body falls to the ground lifelessly as soon as the man released me. I was hardly breathing properly as I see my own blood coming out from my stab wound on my neck. I stare at Thibaut and he was still lifeless on the ground but he wasn't hurt. 
• "Your Highness!!"
• "Call the medic! We need ambulance fast!"
• "Secure the two prince!"
• I hear voices but my vision is getting blurrier.
• "S-save…" I speak but I feel pain on the side of my neck and my voice was barely coming out. "My... brother."