Chapter 1

So I guess I’ll start at the beginning of my story. But where is the beginning? Well I guess when my mom died that’s when everything changed. My dad had left when I was little and my grandparents were all dead, and I always thought I had no other relatives. I’m still not sure about the whole relative thing, but here’s what happened.

On the day of my mother funeral I saw an odd girl standing in the back. When I went to leave she approached me and said¸ “Uh…you don’t know me, but uh, you’re my sister. I live with our great uncle Bartholomew Karan in Swalsba. It’s in Southern Africa and uncle Bartholomew is the king. And anyways, you’re um, going to come live with us.”

“What!?!?!” Of course I didn’t believe her and thought she was some sicko bitch trying to ruin my life. I looked at her and knew the only thing I could do was run. I ran so fast that before I knew it I was in my car and out of there. I was speeding down the road when I heard sirens behind.

Shit, I thought, just what I need, a ticket. But it wasn’t the cops coming to give me a ticket. They were coming to take me to my great Uncle Bartholomew, who being a king and all could set the police on me.

So after I pulled over ready to beg them not to give me a ticket, they hauled me out of my car and dragged me over to my Uncle Bartholomew’s private airplane. I was to be taken to his house. I wasn’t so sure she was my sister still and I didn’t know why I was so important all of a sudden. I had a bad feeling so I needed a plan of escape.

While I was on the plane I was trying to think of a way to get back home. I didn’t know anything about where I was going so this was hard. I feel asleep though in the middle of an idea and lost the thought. When I woke up I was landing. I looked out my window and there were trees everywhere. Someone came in and brought me to a car.

There was a man in this car. For some reason something about him I didn’t like. He had a stern face and a long pointy nose. I tried to ask him where we were going but he ignored me and so I gave up and opted for staring out the window.

We had driven into the forest that I had seen from my window, and after a while of staring out the window and seeing trees trees and more trees I zoned out a bit and thought about exactly what was going on. I had been KIDNAPPED.

Sure the police had been assisting the kidnapping, but it was still kidnapping. Though if this Bartholomew Karan guy really was my great uncle then was that still kidnapping if it was done my your only (as far as you knew) relatives? Alls I did know was I didn’t want to be here.

Out of nowhere this strange man said, “We are almost here. We find something suitable for you to wear.” He pushed me out of the car into a large woman.

“This is what we have to work with?” is all she said.

“Yes,” he replied and with that she grabbed by the arm and dragged me into an enormous looking castle. I only got a glimpse of it so I couldn’t really appreciate its beauty. I was dragged up staircase after staircase until we finally reached a room that seemed to be on the top floor. The room was the size of a large closet with a small cot like bed in it.

She shoved me in and I heard her lock the door. There were no windows and only a candle flickering for light. There next to the bed was a nightstand with a book, a cup of water, one pea and a slice of hard bread.

All of a sudden I was mad. REALLY mad. How dare they, whoever they were, steal me away from my mother’s funeral and stuff me in a little closet nonetheless with ONE pea!!!!

I grabbed the piece of bread and threw it at the door. Then I threw myself on the cot, promptly breaking it, and cried. After I cried so much that I had no tears left I looked around me. The first thing I noticed was a hole in the floor. Then I noticed sitting in the hole was a mouse. I went over there and said,” I guess its just me and you.”

Than all of a sudden the door flew open and standing there were about three women all huge and ugly. They grabbed me and dragged me down a hallway. There they stripped all my clothing and placed me in a hot tub of water. They scrubbed me so hard my skin felt raw. My hair was brushed. I was pushed into a corset that made me look two sizes skinner.

I was placed into a pink and gold dress. It was the softest dress I had ever felt and it had real gold on it. It also had what looked like real diamonds all over it. Then I was put into glass high heels. My hair was straightened and then recurled.

When I looked in the mirror I barely recognized myself. The light pink and gold dress looked great with my dark skin and my hair looked almost too perfectly with not a hair out of place.

They then proceeded to drag me down a few more flights of stairs till I was in a huge entrance hall and standing in front of two enormous gold doors. Then the women were gone and I was alone.

Now you may be thinking that the next thing I’m going to tell you is how I escaped. I was all alone and there was no one to stop me. But have you ever worn a corset? Do you know how incredibly restricting those things are when it comes to breathing? Well after being dragged all over the castle wearing a corset I was taking a few minutes to start breathing again and before I knew it the doors were opening and I heard this great booming voice and saw hundreds of people staring at me.

“May I present the lost Princess Ayanna of Swalsba.”

And then I heard screaming and cheering and I think I’m still a bit deaf. I slowly walked down the great staircase. Whoever these people were they were having a ball of some sort.

Then a short fat man linked arms with me and walked me down the stairs. I didn’t know whether to scream or go along with this whole thing.

Before I could make my mind up we were off the stairs and no one was paying attention anymore. I was soon pushed into the crowd and people started asking me questions every time I went to open my mouth to speak the man would speak for me with things I could never imagine saying.

When the whole thing was over my head was spinning and I fainted probably from the corset. When I awoke I was laying in the cot with some more hard bread and a pea sitting on the nightstand. I still had no idea what was going on, but I now had a headache.

I got up and noticed I was now wearing a nightgown, which I noticed was not nearly of the same quality as the dress I had been wearing before. I walked over to the door tried the handle, not really thinking it would open, but trying anyways.

To my complete shock it turned.

I opened the door and peaked my head around the corner, there was no one there and I couldn’t hear anyone coming so I headed down the hall. I saw a staircase ahead and decided to walk down it. All of a sudden I hear voices. It was coming from the next floor. When I got there I walked up to the door of the room the voices were coming from and listened.

“So our plan is working as we thought it would. The people love her and have made them think of me in a kinder way.”

“Yes your majesty. I think that she will be great for your imagine and to think you could pull all that off finding a girl no one would ever miss. It was brilliant how you killed her mother. Now all you have to do is get her to like you or you can keep her locked up but someone is bound to find out.” Said a boy.

“Yes, I’m not sure. This will be a difficult task why don’t you go fetch her for me.”

“Yes right away.” He said.