There are times when your heart beats so fast you think it's going to pop out of your ribcage. There are times when you run so fast, you imagine what your legs must look like. You imagine if they might be a blur like in a cartoon, or if you're actually running like a snail.

I think now is one of those times.

"RU!"

I can hear his calls. Well, I shouldn't call them 'calls'. More 'screams.' Wait, not even' screams'. More 'screams of pure rage that sound like they've been dipped in pure acid.' Yes. I think that's what you call it.

"RU!" he screams and it sounds like it's been dipped in pure acid. "RU! COME BA--"

I don't get to hear the rest of it because there's the sound of a scream. This is a proper scream, not an acid-dipped scream. This scream is something that rattles the bones inside of my until I'm like a chattering skeleton. This scream is something that makes my heart cry out in anguish.

It's him screaming.

And for the second time that day, I do something Mother told me not to do. I turn.

There he is, lying flat on his face, groaning. His horse continues to gallop a few meters away from him, further and further away through the trees. Its whinnies and snorts tell me it's scared, almost as scared as I am.

The Prince's face lifts and his eyes don't seem to recognise me. The cut on his face stands out on his right cheek, making me wince at the redness of it.

"Ru," he whispers. "Ru, help."

I never thought the Prince could look so helpless. Normally he had been the one to charm and manipulate pretty little girls, not beg like them for mercy.

That means I'm being just like him. If I'm not helping, I'm leaving him to his pain here in the woods. He doesn't deserve that, does he? Well, wait. He kind of does.

"Ru," he pleads and the eyes that once had the sunshine are now full of rain. The tears are like raindrops, splashing the sides of his unblemished face.

Mother told me not to turn but again, I turn, but this time it's for my own benefit--not his. So, I turn away and run.