Billy had to admit, he was slightly confused and worried by how the doors of the castle had been wide open, as if welcoming any passerby inside. He expected a castle as beautiful as it was to have at least more security measures in place. However, he decided to push his bemused thoughts away, as he knew that he had a quest to take care of. This castle, as eerie and strange as it was, could be the very last hope in finding Princess Claria.

"Princess!" He called out. "Princess Claria!"

Billy's voice echoed around the wide rooms of the castle. He knew that if the princess were around at all, she would surely be able to hear him. He sighed in disappointment when he had waited a few minutes and did not hear any response, nor see a young girl in a dress run towards him.

He was about to call again, cupping his hands over his mouth to allow his voice to carry, but was stopped by a striking portrait on one of the castle walls. It was so big that any passerby would have been blind to miss it. It was a portrait of what looked to be a young prince, regal and serious looking, boasting his royalty with the simple look of him. He had on a crown made of gold and robes made with what looked to be very soft and expensive material. Billy wondered if this prince was living here in the castle.

All of a sudden, it felt intrusive to call out again. Billy had gotten so caught up in his triumph over rescuing the princess, that he hadn't thought about who may be living in this castle and what they would think of him barging in uninvited. It shouldn't matter, he had thought, as he was just in a story, but some of its elements still had some sort of reality in them that caused Billy to rethink his outlandish actions.

"Claria?" He called out, softer than before. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

Nobody answered. Billy felt his heart sink. All of this time he had spent, working hard to get to this place of the story, and it may be all for nothing in the end. Billy didn't know where else he would look if the princess weren't anywhere in this castle. He sighed heavily, stopping to gather his thoughts and develop a new plan, as well as trying to find a way to tell his dependent friends waiting outside that what they had hoped for had not become.

Suddenly, before Billy could go too deep into thought, he heard faint laughter echoing from somewhere in the castle. He looked around quickly, startled by the sudden noise in the otherwise silent castle. He listened for more.

After a few seconds, sure enough, the laughter echoed again, much louder than before. Billy was surprised when he had realized that the laughter sounded much like a young girl, and that it was coming from the upstairs.

Billy eyed the long stairway from near him, and then hurried up the stairs, following the laughter that echoed throughout until he had reached the top.

Billy looked around cautiously when he had gotten to the second floor, walking slower than before, as if the laughter were coming from someone other than the princess, and he would be seen as an intruder. He hoped that that wouldn't be the case, and that the laughter he was hearing would indeed be of the princess he was looking for.

Billy continued to follow the laughter. It sounded happy, and had a sort of familiar ring to it that made Billy feel a sudden sense of longing. He was confused over why he felt this way, and realized after feeling it that this longing was for home. Billy listened again, and the joyful, childish laughter filled his ears again like a sweet lullaby, and he became so shocked that he almost couldn't believe it to be true.

No...it couldn't be...

But as Billy walked closer to where the laughter was coming from, which was inside a small and cozy chamber, he looked through the slightly open door and almost gasped in surprise at the person he saw.

Clara. His little sister, in the most beautiful princess dress that he had ever seen, and even a hater of anything princessy like himself had had to admit it. She was standing in that room, twirling around like a ballerina, and giggling in pure and carefree joy.

Billy couldn't believe how happy she was for a second. Never before had he seen such glee from anyone in his life. He was about to go inside the room to ask her the many questions that he had, such as how she had even gotten into the storyworld that he had believed he was alone in for the longest time. But before he could do so, he heard someone else's voice utter something from inside, and he shrank back, startled.

"Isn't it great, Claria? Just look at it all," The voice said dreamily. Billy slowly peeked through the door once more, and was surprised to see that the person talking looked very much like the young prince that he had seen on that large portrait downstairs. Someone did live in this lonely castle after all.

"Can we play princess some more?" Clara asked innocently, twirling around again.

"Of course, of course, my princess. We'll play princess forever, until the end of time. It will never end, so don't you worry, my flower," The young prince smiled at her. "Anything is possible in my palace. My home. It can be your home, too."

"My home?" Clara echoed, with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Yes...your home, Claria. The place where you come from doesn't know you for who you are, who you want to be. But here?" The prince smiled, gesturing towards the beautiful room, only one of the many gems that made up his magnificent palace. "You can be anything, Claria. Anything. You just have to wish aloud to me, and I will grant it to you, my flower. Anything you want you can have. My palace is extraordinary."

"But what about Mommy? What about Billy?" Clara asked again, sounding as if she might cry. Billy felt her worry inside of him, building up into a mass of boiling tensity inside his chest. What was happening to his sister? Why was this young boy telling her such lies?
"You must be speaking of your past, Claria. Let the past go. You want to be a princess, right? Well, here you are. You can be a princess here," The young prince said softly with great patience that Billy had never been so capable of when he had talked to his little sister.

Clara seemed comforted by his words, as such words from the young prince had produced a wide smile on her face.

"There's your smile! I knew it was there, I just had to find it, didn't I, my precious flower?" The prince laughed, and Clara joined him, once again creating the joyful laughter that had echoed throughout the palace.

Billy was fuming inside. This prince was trying to take his sister away from him, to keep her away from the place she knew as her true home, all by feeding her lies and false hope. He planned to enter the room and show that prince who knew best, but before he could, the prince had began to depart from Clara, if only for a short while.

"I will leave you be for a short while. I must attend to some business downstairs..." And with that, the prince made his leave.

Clara was left by her lonesome. She stood there with a big smile on her face, as she twirled around and giggled with the purest joy Billy had ever seen. Billy entered the room quickly, and when he had, Clara looked at him with surprise.

"A knight in shining armor!" She said aloud. Billy jumped when she had said it and quickly shushed her.

"Clara! You have to be quiet! That prince could come back and he'll see me!" Billy hissed, looking around him quickly as if he were an alert deer fearful of the prospect of a coming danger.

"Billy...?" Clara had asked slowly, after hearing her brother's voice. "Billy, is that you?"

Billy was almost confused over why Clara didn't recognize him until he spoke. Then, he remembered that he was still wearing his armor, and all his little sister could see was just what she had said; a knight in shining armor.

Billy took his helmet off with some effort, and almost dropped it when he had. But when his little sister had seen that it really was him, her smile was almost too big for her face.

"Billy! Billy, you're here too!"

"Shh!" Billy shushed her. "Too loud!"

Clara ignored him, and ran into his arms and hugged him as tightly as she could with her tiny arms. Billy was surprised for a moment, but then realized how nice a hug from his little sister felt after all he had gone through. He felt as if she were closer to him, and safer with him; safe from that horrible prince that had dared to try to keep her from her home.

"Clara...you can't be here. We can't be here. We have to get home, back to Mom," Billy explained to her softly, looking at her genuinely.

Clara looked confused. "But...the nice boy said that I'm already home."

Billy's gave her a grave look. "No Clara, don't listen to that boy. He's telling you lies. I don't know what he was wanting to do with you, but you can't listen to him. He's wrong, Clara. This isn't home and it never will be."

"But Billy..."

"No, Clara," Billy said firmly. "Don't even start. We have to get home, now. I don't know how, but...let's see...if you're the princess...then we just take you back to the village and we finish the story, and then we can go home because we finished the book..." Billy started pacing back and forth, organizing his thoughts.

"Billy, listen to me!" Clara exclaimed desperately. Billy shushed her again, this time more angrily than before. Clara looked sad all over again.

"I don't want to go home, Billy. I like it here. I get to be a princess," Clara protested, eyes filling up with tears.

"Clara, I'm not saying that you can't be a princess, I-" Billy started to say, before Clara had cut him off.

"But that's what you always say! You always tell me that I can't be a princess! You say that they're silly like me," Her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Clara, listen-" Billy started saying once again, but was cut off once more. This time, however, the one who cut him off was not Clara. It was someone else. Someone who Billy was not happy to see.

"Well, well. If it isn't our little visitor," The prince said with a smile that Billy did not like.

Billy shouted at him angrily, "Leave us alone! Leave me and my sister alone!"

"Your sister? Ah...so you are the person whom she's been speaking of. I never expected that a mere visitor would be someone like you," The prince said in mild bemusement.

"You knew that I was here?" Billy questioned, squinting his eyes at him.

The prince started laughing. "Well, anyone could, with how loud you were yelling for my dear princess. In vain, you called. She is not going home with you."

Billy stiffened. "What do you mean she's not going home with me? She's my sister! I'm taking her with me, whether you like it or not!"

The prince didn't seem alarmed at all. He remained very solemn, something that irritated Billy, as he shook his head slowly. "No. Like I said before, your calls are in vain. Claria is my dear princess...my first and only princess. I've been longing for someone so perfect for so long. Now that she is here, I shall keep her safe in my palace. She has no use for you anymore."

"Yes she does!" Billy argued desperately, feeling a growing sense of fear inside of him. He remembered when Clara had hugged him, how close he had felt she was to him when she had done so. But now, he felt as if he were slowly losing her, and that thought alone was about to put him into a great panic.

The prince continued to shake his head in his annoyingly solemn manner. He was not bothered at all by Billy's protests, which worried him even more.

"You're wasting your breath. She is mine, and that is final. She has no use for you, because you won't let her be a princess. Isn't that right, my flower?" He said, looking over at Clara, who seemed nervous if anything else.

"Clara, no! Don't listen to him!" Billy was practically begging on his hands and knees for Clara to see past the young prince's lies.

But his protests had failed to work on his little sister, as she looked over at the young prince and said, "Will you let me be a princess, forever and ever?"

The prince smiled and said, while nodding his head, "Until the end of time."