Gracey's POV

    "There's nowhere to hide now, Gracey."

    "Don't hurt me, please don't hurt me!" I cried, my voice breaking as I covered my face with my trembling hands.

    Victoria proceeded towards me, ruler in hand, with an evil glint in her eye. "You never should have left, Gracey. Maybe your family would still be here if you didn't,"

    "What — what do you mean?"

    "They're gone, Gracey. Every single one of them."

    That single sentence echoed in my brain and I felt the ground shatter beneath me. I screamed and screamed till my throat hurt and my mind went numb.

    My family was gone. I'd never see them again.

    "I'll take everything you've ever loved away from you, Gracey, starting with your dear prince. Consider it as payback for ruining everything in my life."

    "Please, don't hurt him! I'll do anything, anything, just don't hurt him!" Tears streamed down my pale face and I feared I would drown in my sorrow.

    "It's too late for that now."

    I immediately sat up, my body covered in a cold sweat as I tried to catch my breath. I was panting as if I had just run a marathon; the dream felt so real. I looked all around me in fear my stepmother would be lurking in any corner.

    It was just a nightmare, Gracey. Get yourself together.

    The night was still dark and I still had a few hours before I needed to get ready for the day ahead of me, however, I couldn't bring myself to fall back asleep in fear I would get another nightmare. I shakily got out of bed and wandered to the other side of my bedroom and took a seat on the windowsill.

    I stared at the palace grounds as I let my mind wander through all of life's recent events. Everything was the best it's ever been: I made new friends, I'm living the life I always dreamt of living, and I'm even finding love. But yet, I was terrified. Utterly terrified.

    The dark January nights have turned to nightmare-filled terrors — with the same one every day — and I'm fearful of the fact that Niall loves me. What if I fall in love with him too? There's no doubt he'll leave me; I've had too much of a bad experience with love.

    But now, who am I to confide in? All of my newly-made friends left for home weeks ago, and I barely get the time to call Reeja. The rare times I get my free time, she's busy at work.

    "Suck it up, Gracey." Was the only advice my brain could give me.

~ ~ ~

I stared at the ceiling, trying my hardest not to let sleep overcome me. It was at last my free time and I was more tired than I had been in months. All I could think of was my nightmare. What if it came true? I couldn't let it happen.

I heard a quiet knock on my door, causing me to jump in alarm. "Come in," I said, my voice scratchy due to lack of sleep.

The door slowly creaked open and the blonde Irish prince came walking in. Niall's eyes searched the room looking for where I was hiding. His expression softened when he finally spotted me on an armchair in my reading room.

"Ah, there you are, for a second there I thought it was a ghost who told me to come in," He laughed. I attempted a small smile, but I failed greatly as I couldn't muster the will to do so; the little amount of sleep I had been getting seemed to be taking a toll on me.

Niall seemed to have noticed, as he raised an eyebrow at my mundane response. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit bored and tired I suppose,"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I won't bother you then. . . ." He turned around and made to leave before I stopped him.

"No no, stay, I need a distraction."

He raised his eyebrows. "So I'm a distraction to you?" He laughed, seeming amused by my words.

"You know what I mean," I rolled my eyes, and before I could stop myself, a small smile formed on my lips.

"I see my presence is already working its magic,"

"You know what, it is. Thank you, Mr. Magician. . . .  You can sit down, by the way, you don't have to stand there," I said as Niall walked over and took a seat on the couch next to my armchair.

"You look comfortable, what book are you reading?" Niall indicated to the forgotten book lying open on the floor next to the fireplace.

"Jane Eyre, it was my mum's favorite book. . . . I thought I would give it a try,"

"That was my mum's favorite too," Niall smiled in reminiscence. I'm not much of a reader, though, so I don't know how good it is."

"It's pretty good so far, you should read it!"

"I'll have to borrow it from you when you finish. . . ." He trailed off as he seemed to ponder what to say next. "Do you have any plans for tonight, by chance?"

"Nothing really, I was thinking just a little walk or a long nap," I let out a little yawn as I thought about my cozy bed; it seemed very beckoning at the moment.

"Well, if it isn't much of a hassle, I was wondering . . . would you maybe want to . . ."  He hesitated, as though not sure if he should say it or not. "Oh never mind, you should probably get some rest, I wouldn't want you to be too tired."

"No it's fine, what did you want to ask me? Plus, as I said before, a distraction would be wonderful," I said, but quickly rolled my eyes once I heard Niall's chuckle caused by my choice of words.

He took a deep breath. "Would you like to . . . go out with me? Like . . . on a date?"

    I widened my eyes slightly when I heard his words. My mind drifted back to the dream I had. . . . I mustn't, I couldn't risk loving him and dealing with the pain of losing him eventually. But I didn't want to be rude and deny his proposal.

    "You don't have to, though, if you don't want to. . . ." Niall added, awaiting my response.

    I took a deep breath, and before I knew what I was saying, I said yes.

    "Oh yay! I was thinking of just going to a little coffee shop downtown for dinner," He saw the skeptical look on my face and quickly added, "We'll wear heavy disguises, don't worry, I've gotten used to this," He laughed. "Maybe I'll come to get you at 6:30 if that's okay?"

    "That sounds perfect."

    What was I getting myself into? I was sure this was going to end in disaster.

    ~ ~ ~

    I took one last look in the mirror. I wanted to look good for my first date, but it was quite hard seeing as I had never gone on a casual date before this. Was the makeup I was wearing too dark? Too heavy? Were a jean skirt and a sweater too casual? Too fancy? I shook off my thoughts as I heard a small knock at the door; it was too late to change now.

    I quickly brushed back the flyaways from my messy bun and dashed to the door to greet my date. I opened the door slowly, to be met with Niall. He wore a dark brown leather jacket over his soft sweater and black jeans; I guess I wasn't too overdressed for the occasion.

    "You ready?"

    "Always will be."

    I followed him out to a small car in the sunny parking lot of the palace. He opened up the shiny gray door of his car to let me in the passenger side, before hopping in himself and starting it. Soft fiddle music began playing from a CD, before Niall quickly turned it off, blushing slightly.

    "I was able to convince Kaitlyn to not have the bodyguards accompany us," He laughed. "See, I got my trinity cap right here! No one should be able to recognize me, right?" He put on his cap and smiled, his expression seeming to ask me whether or not it was a good disguise.

    "Who are you, and what have you done with Niall?" I joked. Niall grinned and started driving away from the enormous palace.

    "It feels good to get out of the palace," I started, thinking about how cooped up I was in the, though large, bustling palace. "I haven't been out of it since I first got here in September. Other than taking walks around the grounds."

    "Really? Do you just not get enough free time with your job, or do you just not feel the need to go out much?" Niall turned to look at me with a confused expression on his face.

    "Eyes on the road, mister," I laughed. "I suppose it's just since there's everything I need in the palace, I just don't feel a need to get out."

    "What about visiting family?"

    "I'd rather not talk about it. . . ." I drifted off and resorted to staring out the window. Niall seemed to notice and understand my backing off and quickly turned on the radio in an attempt to get rid of the awkwardness that arose in the air.

    Soon enough, we arrived at a little café next to a small park surrounded by trees; It was a very inviting place, with lights strewn across the awning in front, with comfortable wood picnic tables.

    "Oh, it's so charming!" I gaped as we walked into the café.

    "I thought of you when I drove past it, I knew I had to take you here,"

    "Oh, Niall, that's so sweet!" I smiled, and I could've sworn I saw some blush creeping upon his face.

    "It's nothing," He said before quickly turning away to look at the menu, clearly wanting to change the conversation. "What do you want to order?"

    "Hmm, that Reuben sandwich sounds appetizing. . . . and the European Hot Chocolate sounds good too," I gazed at the extensive menu; everything sounded very appetizing and it was quite hard to decide on what to eat. Niall gave me a nod and continued to look at the menu.

    "Hello, what would you two like to eat today?" A waitress appeared at the front desk, eagerly awaiting our orders.

    "Hi! We'll take one Reuben sandwich, one French Dip sandwich, two European Hot Chocolates, and a raspberry pie to share please?"

    "Perfect! That will be £18.37."

    Niall took out his wallet, getting ready to pay before I stopped him. "No, I'll pay. You're taking time off of important work to talk to me, so it's the least I can do to pay you back."

    "No, I'm paying because you're taking time out of your work to come to talk to me, and you'd have to deal with Melody finding out I took you, and I asked you out. So I'll pay to pay you back for all of this."

    "No it's totally fine I can —"

    "Here's the money," Niall cut me off and handed the impatient waitress his wallet. "I won't take 'no' for an answer." He smirked and led me to a table in the corner of the café after taking his wallet from the waitress.

    As we waited for our food, we talked about everything ranging from the weather to gossip about Melody — which was our longest going subject by far. At last, our food arrived at our table and the delicious smell of chocolate filled my nostrils.

    "It tastes amazing!" I said through a mouthful of my sandwich. "Thank you for discovering this place!"

    "I'm thanking myself for discovering this as well," He said. "Can I have a bite of your sandwich? It looks very good."

    "As long as I get a bite of yours," I traded my sandwich for his and took a bite. "You have something on your face," I laughed as I noticed the mayonnaise leaking from Niall's sandwich. I reached forward and brushed it off his chin; he smiled in response. Our eyes locked and I quickly looked away. I wasn't sure why it was so overwhelming to make eye contact with him, I'd known him for months, but I still wasn't used to it.

    A few minutes of small talk passed and our conversation shifted in to talk about our childhood. "When we were younger, Greg and I used to throw snowballs at passing cars whenever it snowed — probably not a great idea, but we were children, so you can't blame us," Niall smiled, reminiscing his days back in Ireland. "But one day, I threw a snowball at my neighbor's car — I didn't know it was her — and her husband saw. He ran towards me, picked me up by the collar of my shirt, and kicked me."

    "Oh my. . . ." I laughed, caught off guard by the turn of the story.

    "It was very traumatizing at the time, but it's quite funny to look back to in all honesty. Anyway, I ran home crying to my dad, who gave the neighbor a piece of his mind; the neighbor apologized later that day," He laughed.

    "That's a very interesting story, I don't think I can beat that," I smiled and tried to think of a funny experience in my past. It was quite hard to think of something, I seemed to block out most of my childhood. But there was one particular experience that was still engraved in my mind. "But here's an embarrassing one . . ."

    "Embarrassing stories are the best ones to listen to,"

    "For sure . . . So when I was about 6 or so, I was at a shopping mall with my parents and my brothers. My little brother Milo kept wandering off, so being the controlling older sister I was, I kept pulling him towards me to hold my hand,"

    "Oh boy, I think I can see where this is going. . . ."

    "You've probably guessed it . . . Milo kept pulling his hand away and kept wandering off. So, I grabbed it again. But the second I grabbed his hand, I looked down and realized Milo went to stand next to my mom, and the hand I was holding was a random little kid who was staring at me with utmost fear," I laughed. "I was so embarrassed, I don't think I'll ever get that memory out of my mind."

    Niall laughed his booming laugh, causing me to smile.

    "This is probably the most fun I've had in quite a while!" I admitted. It was fun to sit and talk about life, without having to think of life's troubles.

    I guess I spoke too soon.

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A/N

heh, don't you just love cliffhangers? can y'all guess what's boutta happen? ——>

AND I'm SORRY I TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE SCHOOL AND EVERYTHING HAS BEEN SO STRESSFUL😩

also part of the reason was cuz I was reading an amazing fanfic that i spent all my free time reading- it's called 'Artwork' by _miiki and its sequel 'aquarelle'. it's a harry fanfic aND IT'S SO FREAKING AMAZING I CAN'T GET OVER HOW AMAZING AND WELL WRITTEN IT IS AND JUST AKDHSJHEJAJD SO GIVE IT A READ I PROMISE IT WON'T DISAPPOINT

anywho

thank you guys so much for the continuous support, i love you all SOOOOO much *mwah mwah* 💋

have an AMAZAYN week ❤️❤️❤️