Hi. My name is Hikaru and I am the prince's personal knight/bodyguard/best friend. I was almost fifteen when it happened. When the dark wizards and witches took over the castle and ultimately, the kingdom. Now I'm twenty years old.

I don't know what to do. I mean, the king and queen are petrified a.k.a stone statues. Kaoru, my best friend who I was supposed to protect, is asleep. And... he might never wake up.

I guess it happened like this:

*Flashback*
As we were laughing and giggling and just plainly having fun...
A word - just one - rang out. The word... the one that changed everything. The word I wished I'd never listened to. The one that I wished I'd never obeyed.

"Hikaru?" It sounded like the queen, Yuzuha Hitachiin (Kaoru's mother) calling me.
Kaoru shot a side glance at me, "Duty is duty, I guess."
I sighed, "Yeah. I'll be back soon but I do have a bad feeling about this."
The ginger prince just grinned, "Whatever happens, just remember that... that... sometimes you do feel like a brother to me."
Did he really just say that? It must be so hard for him. "I will. Oh, and Kaoru?" I turned round to face him, "You're a brother to me as well." I saw tears well up in his hazel coloured eyes. He then proceeded to run up and hug me. I smiled and then walked away.

That was the last time I every saw him like that, before everything changed. Before he woke up and the kingdom needed a king to rule them. Before he became he slipped half into the land of the living and half into the land of the dead.

I headed across the tiles. The ground, such a pristine, beautiful hue, had no idea of the darkness that was going to spill out and bleach those tiles red with blood. As I got to a certain point, I overheard voices. Scared, I hid behind a pillar.

"Ha! The most pathetic excuse for a mage ever! He couldn't even cast a good protection spell! The sleeping spell just hit him and he dropped like a fly." A hooded figure - no, a wizard - chuckled.
"You sure it's safe to only cast a sleeping spell?" The other one inquired. Black spiked up hair, blood-red eyes, cobwebs everywhere: witch.
"Of course, only a knight can break that spell and unlucky for him all the knights are about to be murdered. It was a pure stock of genius to lead his guard away from him. Gullible little brat." He started chuckling again, a long loud chuckle.

Wait... did he say lead the guard away from the prince?! I'm the guard. Oh my Lord, he tricked me! Now the prince is as good as dead. Kaoru, that sweet loving boy. You'd have never thought he was rich because he wasn't stuck up in the slightest. The thought of someone that nice and kind being unconscious for all eternity saddens me. It was my duty, my duty to protect him, and I failed. I failed! This is all my fault! I knew something was wrong but I let my guard down even so. I'm a sorry excuse for a knight.

Hold on! The knights! They're going to slaughter them! But... I can't do anything about that. If I go help them, I'm as good as dead too. If I don't and run away... there is a fair chance I could wake up Kaoru! I'm doing it.

Something salty runs down my face in a strong, steady stream. Am I crying? No wonder to be honest, I think as I sprint off out of the castle. Those other knights were like family to me. Not as much as Kaoru, but still family.

Soon enough, I reached my house. For the next five years I would be planning a way to get in. In that time, word reached me that the king and queen... well, I suppose you know by now. I did manage to sneak into the castle to get to the knight's house. What I regarded, was absolute carnage. Bodies everywhere lying in puddles of their own blood mixed with others. That's what broke me on the inside, the fact that I knew this was going to happen. The fact that I could've prevented it. Now they're dead. They're dead because I'm a coward. That's why I've got to help the prince, to honour my comrades memory.

And I'm going to do just that.