hey everyone! so sorry I kinda ditched this story for a while. I didn't like where the plot was going so I took some time to re-adjust my ideas.

Consequently I have rewritten the last part of the previous chapter and will be going back to others and editing stuff.

so in other words, MAKE SURE YOU READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER OR THIS ONE WONT MAKE SENSE, oh and enjoy (: -m

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Whenever I would cry, I would always grab onto something. I wasn't sure why, maybe it was the feeling of having something steady and solid. Something to keep me grounded while everything else went ballistic.

This time, my choice of gravity was a bed post. The dark wood was lined with deep grains of light brown and flecks of gold. Not a chip or dent is to be seen on the piece of furniture.

I'm not sure how long I've been sitting here clinging to the post for dear life but I know it's been a while.

After I had collapsed on the floor, it took me awhile to crawl across the floor and grab onto it, digging my nails into the wood and pressing my body against the side of the bed so that I was hidden from the door.

Lux had come in to find my hysterical state and with petrified eyes ran out. Minutes later Theo entered, giving me a glance of pity mixed with confusion and horror before walking out.

He returned with Shay after that, who was more confused than terrified.

I continued to stare blankly at the wall across the room as he walked towards me, crouching down. I could see him looking at me, trying to get my attention, search my eyes for any signs of life.

"What the hell happened?" I heard his words but they didn't register with me.

"I don't know, the maid reports finding her like this." Theo's voice responds. They talk of me like I'm not there. They're right, I'm not. I'm sitting right in front of them but I'm not there, I'm a million miles away.

"She was with his majesty this evening." Shay notes and the mention of his name is enough to send me reeling again.

This time instead of crying or sobbing, dry heaves and chokes erupt from my thought. It's as if the air was knocked out of my lungs and I'm going to vomit.

"Get a bloody doctor!" I hear someone shout but I'm too busy gagging to comprehend.

I feel hands on my back and neck and voices are shouting. The noise seemed to get quiet after a few moments, slowly descending into a hum in the background.

My body feels warm and quickly the heat intensifies, feeling like my body has been thrown into a furnace. I scream out and my body falls forward but I'm am unaware.

I am unaware of the voices calling out for help and the ones asking me if I'm okay. I am unaware of the dozen people now in my room, a mix of minders, hunters, guards, lux, and a few doctors.

I am unaware of the hands that are caressing me, patting me and attempting to soothe me. I am unaware of anything and everything that is going on.

The only thing at this moment I know for certain is that King Blakesley killed my parents and I loathed his very existence.

A light passes in front of my eyes and the sudden intrusion to my already fogged vision startled me and caused my to scream out. This time I heard my cries and they scared me, I had never heard a sound like that come from myself before and it absolutely terrified me.

Something cold touched my arm and then I felt a pinch before I stopped struggling and everything went black.

The next time I opened my eyes, harsh light assaulted them from overhead and I quickly shut them.

I turned my stiff neck to the left and cracked my eyelids to see a pale blue curtain. I shifted my head to the right and was taken back by the pair of blue eyes that watched me steadily.

"Theo?" I croaked and then cleared my throat.

"How do you feel?" He asked in his smooth voice.

"Like I've been asleep a two days." I answered reaching a hand up to rub at my eyes.

"Only for eight hours, not two days." He gave a flicker of a smirk and I gathered up my energy to sit myself up.

I was in what looked to be a clinic. I had only been to clinics in my sector where the offices were small and packed but I recognised some of the same materials such as the curtain and the table my body was resting on.

This clinic was larger than anyone I had ever been in but it was still held the same purpose: to care for the ill.

"Would you like me to explain everything that has happened in the last nine hours, or should I leave?" Theo said in a calm voice.

"Explain, please." I turned to look at him, leaving back against the plastic backing of the bed.

"Well, I was enjoying a lovely," he rolled his eyes at the word lovely in a sarcastic manner, "dinner with Michael when your little servant girl came running in saying that you had lost it. I came in to find you staring at a wall, not responding to anything and left to get Shay and when he came back you suddenly went into a breakdown. The doctors think you had a version of a panic attack, on the extreme side of the spectra. They had to sedate you to calm you down and then brought you here."

A sinking feeling began to spread in my stomach and I sucked in a deep breath. Everything from last night hit my at full force.

"Now what I'm curious, is to what caused this psychotic breakdown." Theo said in a business like manner and I shut my brain down before it could begin to spiral out of control again.

I froze in my sitting position on the bed, reeling  in breath after ragged breath.

Flashback of my dinner with the King poked and prodded at the back of my mind but I forced them out, not being able to deal with them right now.

"I can't." I whispered to a deadpanned Theo.

"Okay." He nodded once.

He didn't get up and leave like I though the would but instead stayed there in the chair, silently watching me.

I laid back down on the rickety mattress and pulled the blanket up to my chin. I wanted to disappear and my prayer was answered when my brain got tired of fighting off the threatening thoughts that were trying to attack and forced itself into sleep mode.

I awoke later on that day with a dry mouth and a pounding head. Sitting up slowly I examined my surroundings and jumped when I saw Theo still sitting in the chair staring at me.

"I'll go get the nurse." He flatly, and stood up before stalking out of the room.

Moments later Theo came back in following a frail woman woman with short greyish-blonde hair.

"How are you feeling, dear?" She asked in a wavering voice as she came to stand beside me.

I nodded only slightly when suddenly a glass of water was thrust into my hands.

"Here." Theo said and I gingerly took it from his grasp.

I gulped down the water in four large swallows and then sighed at the relief.

"I'll have Theo escort you back to your room now." The nurse said and watching me for a moment and left the room.

"Let's go." Theo ordered softly and I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, my legs wobbling a bit.

I was still in my dress from the other night but now small creases were visible in the fabric.

Theo began to pace out of the room and I followed, just at a slower pace. When he realised I wasn't going to be able to keep up with him he slowed his strides to match mine.

Neither of us said anything as we followed the maze of halls back to my room.

When we arrived Theo took a identification card from his pant pocket and scanned it, allowing us entry.

The first thing I noticed (because it was kind of hard not to) was that someone had opened the curtains. Blinding light pierced my eyes and I groaned in frustration.

Ignoring Theo I made my way to the curtains and drew them shut. Then as always I turned on the lamps and then breezed past the awkward Hunter Captain on my way to the closet.

I bumped the door closed behind me and found some black spandex shorts, matching sports bra and a thin nylon jacket. I found some running shoes as well and put them on, bursting out into the room, finding relief at being out of the dress that had been present in my darkest hours.

I had to get my mind off of the impending truth of my parents death. Yes, I had assumed they were dead when they were taken in The Gathering, but now it was like they had died all over again, and in a more gruesome way.

My feet carried me to the door of my room and I had placed my hand on the handle when another, much larger hand, slammed itself onto the door, rejecting my desire to leave.

My eyes flitted up to Theo's in annoyance though I left my face completely blank. All I wanted to do was go run, and now was not the time for him to be telling me off.

"Where do you think you're going?" He quipped.

"The gym." I gritted my teeth.

"You're not leaving this room until you tell what the hell happened the other night." He pressed, still calm.

I sucked in a deep breath and cramped my eyes shut.

"I don't want to talk...I can't." I managed to get out.

"I'm not giving you a choice, Eleanor."

"I-" The word left my mouth but I trapped the ones that followed it by biting my lip. I was scared to talk, for fear of what I might do if I did.

"What did he say to you?" Theo prodded and the word "He" implied the King and the thought of him made me want to vomit.

That man was the most wretched person on the planet and I hated him, I hated him with every fibre of my being.

"Eleanor." Theo shook my shoulder and my head snapped up, a storm brooding behind my grey irises.

"He killed them."

I left the words tumble out with a straight face even though I felt my inner self start to crumble in.

Theo's expression didn't change from one of no emotion but when he saw my resolve faltering he just nodded his head and took his hand off the door, opening it for me.

He was letting me go?

I slapped myself together and dropped my head as I walked away towards the gym. I heard his footsteps behind me but kept going.

He followed me to the gym, I should have known he was going to do that, and found a wall to lean against while I stretched my feet and legs before getting in position on the little track.

Starting slow I ran around a few times, increasing my speed gradually. Soon as I began to pick up speed I settled into a nice jog and then into a full run. My calves burned but I didn't care. Eventually I brought myself into a sprint.

At this point I couldn't feel my legs anymore as I moved, my arms pumping beside at high speeds. My breath was laboured and heavy and I began to take large gasps of air as I pursued another lap.

A noise ticked at my ear but I didn't register it until it repeated itself.

"Eleanor, stop."

I didn't want to stop. I couldn't stop. I wanted to run my body into the ground until I couldn't feel it anymore. I didn't want to think, I didn't want to feel, I didn't want to exist. I wanted to fall asleep and never wake up.

"Eleanor, stop."

The voice reached out to me again, but I had to ignore it.

"Eleanor you're hurting yourself, stop!"

I pushed my body harder and faster my feet were flying underneath me.My heart was beating so hard against my rib cage I thought it was going to break but the only thing that broke was my concentration when I was smashed to the floor.

A force slammed into me, knocking me to the side and I sprawled out on the floor, snapping out of whatever phase I was in, my eyes frantically searched for the force but all I was met with was Theo's uniformed body holding mine down.

"No!" I screamed. "No!"

And that's when I lost it...again.

Sobs wrecked through my body like tidal waves. I could feel the burn in my legs and sides and my breathing was coming up short.

"Calm down, calm down." He said quietly in a steady voice as I broke down.

All of my energy was exerted and I had none left from running, so crying threw me over the edge and I felt myself get dizzy before the world went dark.

This time I woke up in my bed.

Well not my bed, but the bed I slept in the palace.

I could tell by the sheets and the scent of the pillows.

I lay there beneath the comforter for a while just resting before turning over. When I saw a person sitting next to me in a chair I expected to see Theo but instead I was met the dark brown eyes of Shay.

He was reading a book of some kind and I watched him for a moment before speaking.

"What are you reading?" I mumbled in the silence and his head shot to look at me.

"Um..." He said, flipping the book over to read the cover, "The Rose Garden." He scrunched up his nose at the title and then tossed it aside.

"Where did you get it?" I asked.

"In that stack of books over there." He pointed across the room where someone had placed several large stacks of books. "A maid brought them by earlier today."

"Oh." I said simply.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, turning towards me in his chair.

"I'm okay." I said, not even asking myself if I really was. I didn't want to think about if I was or not. "Where's Theo?"

"He left around two hours ago since it's my shift." Shay replied.

"Shift?"

"Yes. Theo and I have been taking shifts watching you, making sure you're alright."

"Sorry." I muttered. Now that I had snapped out of whatever mental state I was in, I felt guilty for all I had put them through.

"He told me...about what the King did...I'm really sorry." Shay said softly and my stomach clenched at the mention of the King.

I nodded in acknowledgement.

"Can I tell you something without you looking like you want to hit me every time his name is mentioned?" Shay asked, folding his hands over his knee.

"Yes." I seethed, knowing I would not like where this conversation was headed.

"King Blakesley feels guilty about what he did to you. I can tell. When you had your episode the other day he tried to visit you in the hospital but I assumed something he had said was what caused it and I had to plead with him to leave. He also wanted to take a shift with me and Theo but I know that if you woke up and he was here, you'd either hurt him or hurt yourself. So instead he sent you books like you had talked about and there's a radio on the shelf now so you can listen to things and there's even a television in the closet so you can watch the news. He has been coming by every hour to see if you're awake yet and he wants to talk to you. I've said no because now I know what he did that caused all of this" He gestured to my erratic state," but I want to know what you think."

I sat still for a moment, processing all he had told me.

"I'll talk to him." I said and Shay's eyes widened.

"You will?"

"Yes, but only if you and Theo are there to make sure nothing happens, I don't want to be some with him." I stated my condition.

"That sounds fair." He agreed.

"Good." I nodded and kicked off the sheets and stood up, cringing at my beyond sore muscles. "Now I'm going to go change and then can we get something to eat?"

"Yes." He answered and I smiled as I walked past him and into the closet.

I closed the door behind me and leaned back onto it, the most wicked and sinister smile crossing my face.

Of course I would talk to King Blakesley, I had to. For it was now apart of my plan.

Because I was going to kill him.