'Another One Bites the Dust' by Queen
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I scrambled through the gap under the thin wall which separated the dressing rooms, my feet disappearing through the gap just. I sat on the carpeted floor, putting a hand over my mouth to quiet my heavy breathing and the other in balled in a tight fist in nervousness. The feet stood in the room with the flashlight's beam landing on all of the dresses I'd tried on, along with the clothes I'd received from Clark's family, which lay in a pile on the floor. I

It seemed strange to see clothes on the floor, messily thrown down to land in a messy pile. All of the clothes I'd ever seen before were either on someone or neatly hung up in a royal closet.

"What a surprise. They left clothes on the floor again. I swear, those people they hire, they just get worse and worse. Well, I ain't picking them up. That ain't my job and I don't get paid enough either." A voice said to themself before the ray from the flashlight receded down the hallway with the footsteps echoing as the shiny black boots followed closely behind.

Once I could no longer hear the heavy footsteps or see any light, I let myself relax as my hands fell down to my lap and my breaths slowed and quieted. Calm again, I rose and cracked open the dressing room door, careful not to chance revealing myself to him. His back was turned as his flashlight sweeped over a mannequin. I watched him for a few minutes, patiently waiting for him leave and scout another area of the store so that I could leave through the only entrance - the one he stood facing. But instead of leaving, he started blasting Queen's 'Another One Bites the Dust' and singing along as he sort of danced around.

I quietly shut the door, seeing that he was never going to leave. I sank down and leaned against the soft-brown door. Well, this is great. I could get caught and and have trespassing added to my list of crimes - fraudulence of royalty, stealing, trespassing. Well, I guess it could be worse.

I leaned my head back and listened for a moment to the guard singing 'Another One Bites the Dust' off key.

I laid down on the red carpet and reached over for a few dresses to use as a pillow and a blanket , figuring it would be best to get some sleep.

As I lay there, watching the ever-moving feet of the guard, I felt something pull at my heart. I missed him. Clark. He had always been the one who was braver, happier. Even though we hadn't really talked about how I was going to return to the castle and prove my innocence, but I just knew that he had a plan. After all, he always was the one with answers to a problem. He was who I would go to whenever I was faced with a little particularly tricky problem. I just - I wanted him to be there. Not just with a solution but emotionally. To tell me that it's all going to be alright. That I'm not going to face the death sentence. Or be arrested. I could feel the sleep overcome me and I gave in, shutting my eyes closed.

• • •

Someone's shaking me. I groan and roll over, I feel a spark of pain as I roll over my gunshot wound. She stops shaking me when I roll away and open my eyes. I quickly sit up, the brief period of forgetting my situation leaving me. I could feel the panic rising within me and my thoughts zigzagging in my mind, unable to focus. My wild eyes meet hers.

"Kar?" I say quietly.

"Yes, Venetia." She says casually, as if I wasn't a wanted criminal. She warmly smiled at me as a strand of her black hair escaped from her tight bun hung by her cheek, tainting her professional appearance.

"What? How did-?"

"You called me 'Kar'. Only you do that."

The panic left my body and left me with hope - hope that I might make it. 'Kar' was none other than Karina Abelli. She used to visit us in the palace quite often and was a fashion mogul. Around my seventh birthday, the visits stopped and her career turned for the worse.

"Come here." She says, opening her arms to me.

With a smile on both of our faces, we hug. With everything that's happened I needed it. A sense of love. I'm don't know when or if I'll ever see my family or Clark again. We pull apart, standing up and I notice that the dresses from last night were gone. Even the clothes I'd worn when I first stepped into the place.

We rose and she stepped back from me. "Let me take a look at you. Oh, last time I saw you, you were just a little girl! Come with me and let me get some food in you. You look famished." She said as she guided me toward the doors.

"Not famished, but hungry enough." I told her.

She drove us to a cafe in her car, an old red bug.

As soon as we were seated the questions started.

"What happened?" Karina asked me, her curiosity peaked.

As I explained to her what happened, I saw her curiosity and worry for me peak and lower again only to rise again.

She reached across the table and took my hands in hers. She looked me straight in the eye, her sympathetic ones searching mine. "I am so sorry all-all of this happened."

As she continued to sympathize with me I sipped my chamomile tea and ate my Nutella crêpe.

"Kar. I know how bad this is, but I just don't know how to fix it." I told her, averting my eyes from her overly sympathetic gaze.

"We'll figure it out. After all, two heads are better than one."

• • •

It's been nine days since I moved into Karina's house. Nine boring days. For a week she kept me inside all day, only letting me outside in her small backyard. She wouldn't chance me being caught again. 'You're too messy. You always manage to get so near the cops and escape last minute. Your luck is going to run out someday.' She'd argue when I'd ask to get out. Two days ago I convinced her. She gave me a job. A boring one at that, but still, it's progress. I put clothes away and help customers at her small boutique which I'd wandered into earlier.

"Venetia!" Karina exclaimed as she ran up to me. I yelped and dropped an armful of sundresses.

"Don't do that!" I told her and smiled as I bent over to pick up the dresses, brushing them off.

"Sorry." She smiled impishly. "But I think I found a way to fix this. To prove your innocence."