"So are we supposed to just stay here until sundown?" I ask Jasper that following morning.

"An hour before sundown otherwise then it is too late." He tells me.

I shuffle around in my chair, hoping to finally get comfy at some point. "Basically the same thing. I wish we could go now though. Believe it or not, I actually had a better night's sleep in the forest than on your aunt's sofa. And speaking of your aunt, you still haven't explained the situation with her or with anything in your life." I say to him.

"And I'm still not going to tell you anything. You're not the only one with secrets princess." I sigh at him and he disappears upstairs.

It's true that I feel like I slept better in the forest than here. Even though when I was in the forest I knew that people would be searching for me, I didn't know that for sure. In one part of my mind I could pretend that nobody cared that I was gone and I would be able to live the life I wanted to without looking over my shoulder every minute of the day. Now it is completely different. I kept imagining that some of the palace guards would force themselves into this apartment ant take me away but not without killing Jasper and Anita beforehand. I was on edge all night.

Even now I don't feel like I can remain calm. I know the plan for tonight inside out; we leave one hour before sunset and while we are walking on the streets, we keep our heads down. The two of us then head south which leads to a field which then finally leads us to another forest where we should be safer. According to Jasper, our next stop point is in that forest but he won't say where. I can only hope that it isn't an animal's den.

Anyway, knowing this plan isn't helping me. My legs keep uncontrollably shaking beneath the coffee table that I am sat at. The coffee that I am drinking is probably not going to help either. My mind keeps imaging the worse case scenarios as well as well as what is probably happening at the palace.

I can't imagine my mother being the emotional, weeping kind of parent but I can imagine her bossing people around even more than usual. Making their lives a living hell when she really doesn't have to. I also think back to some of the people I have left behind, such as Crystal. I really hope she hasn't gotten into any trouble for all of this. It really isn't her fault. I also miss Louis and the stories he would tell me about his family. I hope his wife is doing okay. Sipping my coffee, I think about it all.

"Are you alright?" A voice asks me and I realise that it is Jasper. He stuns me out of my nightmares.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How come you went upstairs anyway?" I ask trying to make some kind of conversation.

"I guess I was trying to escape my own thoughts as well. It didn't help though." He must've been able to tell I that I was going to ask him that. "I saw a couple of guards pacing up and down the street. We'll have to hope that they have gone later on because I'm sure they'll have a list of permanent residents for the area. If we are not any of them, well then, bang bang to us." Jasper creates a gun with his hand and pretends to shoot himself.

"Is there a back way we can escape through?"

"I don't think so and even if there was, it would look really suspicious for us to leave that way, especially if we got caught. We'll just have to wait." He says and I know I have no choice but to agree with him.

There isn't much for us to do during the day other than to keep packing and unpacking our bag to double check that we have everything. We do have everything.

Anita is out, searching for work. According to Jasper, she lost her job a few years ago and has never been able to find another. He mumbled something to do with a tarnished family name but then never explained any further.

That leaves the two of us alone in the apartment, in an apartment where there is nothing to do. We have to be careful to avoid going near any windows in case we are seen by anyone, especially the guards. If we are caught in this apartment then that is it, not just for the two of us but also Anita who has helped us.

"There are more guards outside." Jasper tells me later in the day.

I look up at him, not believing what he is saying. "More guards? Do you think they know we are here?" I ask.

Jasper shakes his head at me but he looks unsure of himself. "I honestly don't know. They never seem to move to far away from the apartment. I think we're going to have to think of another way out." He says to me. "I don't really know what we are going to do though because if we are caught leaving through the back door..." Jasper stops talking as Anita walks through the door.

"What is this I hear about you leaving through the back door?" she asks us.

"Surely you saw all the guards outside?" Jasper then asks her.

"I did but that doesn't mean you should escape now. You need to stay, that is the safest way. Do you think I want to see my nephew get arrested, or even worse, killed?" Anita tries to guilt trip Jasper into staying.

"Look, I can go by myself. Thank you for getting me this far Jasper." I say because it isn't fair to drag Jasper into this mess.

"Wait a minute princess. Which way is south?" he asks me.

I look at him with a blank expression. "Huh?"

"Which way is south because that is where we were going to be going." He smiles at me because he knows I don't know the answer. "See, you need me princess. I'm not going anywhere."

"If you're still going to go with her then maybe you should wait another couple of days. The amount of guards might die down." Anita suggests.

"I really appreciate everything you have done for me, I really do but I think it will be for the best if we leave sooner rather than later. At least that way we can make more distance between us and the guards." I tell Anita and I see Jasper nod his head as he agrees.

Anita still looks worried though. "I'm still not sure about this." She mutters to herself.

"How come you yesterday you wanted us to leave so quickly and now you don't want us to go at all?" Jasper asks her. "Please tell me that you didn't alert the guards that we are here. You did, didn't you?" he asks and it suddenly all makes sense.

Anita's face drops when she realises that she has been caught out. "Jasper we'll have to go now." I tell him and he agrees.

I follow Jasper towards the back door with Anita chasing afterwards. Just before we reach the door I hear the front door slam open and footsteps following us.

They have found us.

"Come on this way." Jasper says to me while we are running down a back alley way. I can't see any guards behind us but I know they'll be following us. I keep up the best I can and soon enough we are getting closer and closer towards the end of the town.

The building become less squished together and more spread out. We run into a neighbourhood which look to be a family friendly one and all of a sudden, Jasper tuns right into someones garden.

"What. Are. You. Doing?" I hiss at him but spluttering my words while I catch my breath.

"We'll hide in here." He points to an unlocked garage and I have no choice but to follow him.

The two of us crouch down underneath a window, squashing our legs up to our chins. In the distance I can hear voices yelling for us to stop running and that we should surrender ourselves. The voices become louder and louder as they get closer to this house. I hold my breath and stay as still as I can at this point and I notice that Jasper is doing the same. Soon the voices begin to fade away and I catch my breath again.

"Put your wig on. Also change your clothes and leave the bag here. We might be able to throw the guards off if we look different." Jasper whispers to me. I nod at him and I begin to look through my bag for my spare change of clothes.

I pull my clothes out of my bag. "Are you going to look away?" I ask Jasper.

"Of course. I'll be facing this way anyway while I'm getting changed." He says to me.

I put on a different coloured t-shirt with and a pair of jeans before pinning my hair up in the way that Anita taught me to. The blonde wig then slides easily onto my head. When I turn around, Jasper has also changed into another top and pair of jeans.

"I was thinking about how Anita has probably told the guards exactly where we are supposed to be going so won't we need a new plan? Also what if she has told them about the blonde wig?" I ask Jasper hoping he has thought about that.

"You're right. We still need to make it to the point in the next forest though. We might have to go a different way there but the only other route I can think of is by walking along the old road and that's really exposed. Though there are more areas to hide in than the field we would originally be crossing. As for the wig, we'll just have to hope they keep looking for you with black hair rather than blonde." Jasper says to me.

Jasper walks back out to check if the guards have gone before I come out. He comes back to tell me that everything is clear so I dump my bag in the garage like he told me to and sneak out. We walk through the estate which eventually leads to what used to be a main road.

Back before the unspeakable disease there used to be many cars that travelled along this road. Now hardly anyone in the whole country has a car because they can't afford one. This road is lucky to see one car a week and that is only because the palace isn't too far away. I have been driven along this road many times to travel across The Island for royal activities and I have never seen another car pass us.

"We should probably stay near the bushes and the few trees to give us more coverage. They will be the best places to hide if we need to. Hopefully we won't do."

"That sounds fine by me. Let's just hope none of the palace cars pass us by." I say to Jasper who nods at me.

It feels nice to be in such a familiar place, even if it is only a road that I have glanced out of a car window a handful of times.

"You know when you asked me if I knew which way is south? Well now I do. It's that way." I say pointing in the direction of south. "When I was younger my mother used to take me to the coast for a holiday in the summer. She used to always say 'we are going down south again this year.' I've not heard her say that in years though now." I tell Jasper.

"You're certainly right. I don't think it is going to take us as long as we thought to get to the next forest. It is only a couple of miles from this point. If we hurry we'll make it to the forest before nightfall."

I begin to walk faster with him. There are no working lights in the area so when it is nightfall we will struggle to see, other than the light from the moon but even that won't be much. At least in the forest when it is dark, there are more places to hide so if the guards are looking for us, they will have less chance of finding us.

It takes us an hour before we reach the forest and it is even bigger than the previous one. The trees are closer together and there are so many more of them. The sizes of them are huge. I can't stop staring at them. "I've never seen trees so big." I tell Jasper.

"Really? Well I guess it is time to go in and see what it is like inside."

***
A/N: happy #RoyalWednesday everyone! First of all I want to say thank you for getting this story over a thousand reads! And we're only on chapter 8, that's amazing.

You've got until Halloween to send in any covers for the cover contest. So far I've only had two entries so please just have a go!

What did you think of this chapter? Where do you think this story is going to go? I'm interested in hearing you theories.

Also any ideas for a cast? Personally I always picture Kendal Jenner as Alexandria even though I don't really like the Kardashian clan. I'm interested to hear who you picture as the characters.

That's all for today. Don't forget to vote and comment.