Excerpt: The Vacancy of Hearts

It was the same dream she always had. It was a dream that she'd never know whether or not it was fact or fiction. It felt real as if she had been there before. She hears a scream as she's covered in blood. Everyone around her has fallen and all that's left is a man with long white hair holding a beautiful blond in the air, his hand never touching her as she screams her very life. She gets up with the little bit of the strength she has only to find herself being thrown across the room by some unknown force. She looked up in pain to see a monster a four tailed demon and she feels as if she knows this person in their other form. Everything was just too familiar and it all ended the way it had always. It ended right as she felt herself being stabbed in the heart.

Her eyes opened as she laid in bed her hand moving over her heart to check and see if it was really just a dream. The dream felt just as real as the pain in her heart that she had felt every day since her parents were killed. She sat up slowly throwing the covers off her body before stepping out of bed running her fingers through her hair. The dream had no explanation, she knew no one in the dream not even the girl screaming for her as she was being killed. Her face was always unclear; it was always just a blur she only knew what she felt as she was being killed. It was if she too were being killed despite the pain she was in. It bothered Bethany Lowell more than anything not knowing what the dream was truly about, never really understanding it.

She walked over to her window slowly as her head was filled with nothing but thoughts of what might have brought it what it could have met. She pulled the curtain back allowing the sunlight to pour into the room. The City of Four Hearts was what was revealed to her a place she had been living with her brothers for nearly 3 years. She lived in the castle away from mostly everyone simply because of who she was and what throne she was to maintain when the world was put back together. But despite that she was still one of the leading members of The White Hearts and organization built to being peace and order back to the world. She sighed looking out on the rebuild city that resembled London in so many ways but more advanced in many ways. With a sigh she thought more of her dream before she turned around picking up a shirt and slipping it over her head. She didn’t need to be bothered by just a dream but usually after the ruin came, a dream could mean everything to your very existence.
“Princess Bethany?” Her name was called and her eyes rolled. “Yes.” She said firmly her head never brothering to turn to the door. She already knew what it was about that the woman was going to say. “Your brother Marcus refuses to come out of his room.” He didn’t like living in the castle, he preferred not being waited on as he had never really known what it was like before The Black Hearts began to wipe out the royal families of the world. He was too rebellious to the point where most of the time Bethany wondered why on earth they were related at all. She pulled her white pants up and tied the string in a loop before she walked across the room over to the door pulling her long dark hair up into a ponytail before she opened the door and the maid bowed to her which made her bow back out of respect regardless to how she wasn’t meant to.

“How long has he been in there?” Bethany asked and the young girl held her hand down blushing almost; she was new apparently and quite nervous. “A little over an hour,” she said as Bethany walked pass her walking down the hall at what any normal person would have thought to be an accelerated speed but for her it was a normal speed. She proved herself to be the animal in which she turned into as she was fast and extremely persistent and the maid had a very hard time keeping up with her as she moved through the castle everyone bowing to her and paying their respects as they could tell she wasn’t very happy about what was going on. Once they reached the door the maid was completely out of breath and leaning against the wall trying her best to catch her breath. Bethany paid no attention to her and knew she would most likely apologize to the girl later on for being too fast.

“Marcus,” Bethany spoke clearly.

“What?!” He shouted and Bethany felt herself tense up. His tone of voice wasn’t respectful at all and if there was anything she didn’t like about her brother was his disrespectful tone had had most of the time.

“Come out, now.” She said firmly as she felt her other brother Aiden slowly coming up behind her biting into what she smelt was an apple. “Rebellious as always, I see.”

“Unnecessarily, yes.” She said coldly as she banging her hand on the door again. “Marcus, if you do not open this door right now, I will use force.” She stated firmly as her patience was wearing rather thin.

“You should do it before she gets too upset.”

“Fuck you both!”

Aiden shrugged his shoulders as he bit into the apple while his sister looked at him as if she knew he knew something about him. “He had a bad dream. One of the maids told me she heard him crying this morning.”

Bethany continued to stare at her younger brother for a few more seconds before she looked over to the maid whom looked a bit frightened when she did so. Her head finally turned to the door where she lifted her hand to knock once again but didn’t instead she took three steps backwards and Aiden walked over to the maid putting his arm around her kindly to shield her from what was about to happen. Bethany jumped up in the air spinning around and kicked the door so hard that it didn’t break instead it flew backward opening the opposite way it was made to open. Mark was sitting in front of his bed looking in shock at his sister. She walked in as if she was were charging for him and before he could even more she was right in front of him her hand around his thought. “Do not speak to me ever again in that tone of voice. Do you understand me Marcus Zidane Lowell?” She gave him no choice but to nod his head to her in response. He looked behind his sister to see one of the maids and his older brother and frowned for a moment. “What’s wrong?” Bethany asked and his attention went right back to her.

“I had a bad dream,” he decided to be honest with her as her grip on his neck softened before she let go completely. “About what?” She asked and he shifted his eyes looked back to his brother before her eyes narrowed and the doors slammed right in his brother’s face. Bethany didn’t even seem fazed by it but Aiden jumped a little and rolled his eyes at the dramatics his little brother always seemed to do. “We all have bad dreams,” Aiden muttered before he realized the maid was still staring at him. “Everything’s okay…” Aiden said that looking at her with a smile on his face as he patted her back.