The pad of my fingers feel the golden initial, lost in the past of my memories while rotating the crest. Aloof to what is around me, but could hear Charlotte and Ray speak amongst each other as they search for the new hiding spots of the organizations. It felt foreign, painful memories nipping the darkest parts of my brain, things I never wanted to resurface and relieve behind my eyes. And reminded of how when I last saw my brother, maggots were tearing through his flesh.

What could have been? I found myself wondering. What would it have been had we been in a better position in life. What could have changed if both my brother and mother were here, and she never fell sick. And would I have had to give up Tiana.

I run a hand down my face, seeing if I could rid any last visuals of her. Testing myself to see if it was possible to hate her. Seeing if it were possible to hate the only woman that immobilizes me just by the thought of her alone. And like all the attempts, I couldn't do it, couldn't last a second, even when I tried. And it bothers the fuck out of me.

This does not only prove the rumors of her, but it shows that Adelhied was speaking the truth to me all those years ago. My question now, is how do I proceed, how do I continue on, and will I see her differently?

Something burned a hole into my temple and clench the jewel into my hand, drifting a glare towards the wall. The burn suddenly subsides and It felt at that moment, I heard soft patters of multiple feet in the walls.

"Nasir sir." Charlotte called. Unhurriedly I drift my eyes to the two sat on a small table, Ray with a laptop and tattered papers. "I think we found something." she says, and my attention is fully grasped dusting the feeling off my shoulders.

Hope lights a way into my chest as I approached, Ray twists the laptop to my view, and displayed on the screen was a hidden video cam of buried into the tree, leaves rustling by the wind and in the recording were a few cars that drift by until one stops right into the scene.

The visual colors are black and white, but a single leaf hid the license plate.

"When was this recorded." I asked

Ray twists the laptop and pressed a few buttons. While the buttons click I look back over to the walls, searching for its ears and eyes.

"Last Thursday sir, December 12."

"Very well."

He twisted the laptop back to me and I hunch over to the scene, the car stops right in front of the camera at the right passenger side, and a tall faceless man steps out, sporting a suit around his thick body, couldn't tell the color too well but I could assume grey. The angle of the camera is perched well but the wind shifted the leaves just as he twists his face and all I am left with is a beard.

"Who else has seen this footage?" I questioned.

Ray shrugged, "These are the newest files, I am still trying to get the image to clear."

"No one else has seen this?"

He nodded, "No sir."

And just as he spoke, the wind shifted the leaves, and the face was revealed. A grin stretched across my face to the familiar face. Just as I thought. The man from the conference, the one with the white beard and challenging glare.

"What is it?" Charlotte says, observing my gleam. Both rise to stand at my side, "That man has visited before." she added on.

I drift my eyes to her, and she nods, "Yes sir. He has been a frequent visit since your imprisonment, one of the maids has been the one to tend to his needs when he arrives, and she tells me of his dark fantasies when he is not sleeping with his wife."

The information simmers, and I recollect the ceremony he wanted to conclude. My temporary fog cleared in that moment, and I chose.

"Keep an eye on him Ray. And Charlotte -" I sighed, turning my eye to meet hers. "Treat the Queen, until she is better,"

I won't lie to myself and say I tried, because I didn't. I will stay by her until the end, just the same way I hope she will choose to stay by me in the end.

"Burn those pills and bring her back to us."

Back to me

Just as the two were ready to give their nod of dismissal, something thuds right through the walls. On cue, Charlotte retrieves her blades, Ray backs away, and my gun drawn from my waist. These walls did have eyes. I watch with a glare as the white smoke dusted into the room before dispersing, crumbles of white dry wall dusting onto the floor as the figure groans into the cardboard that couldn't sustain their frame.

"Oww" the figure groaned, while scrunching themselves on the floor.

Charlotte steps in closer but stop by the wave of my hand. Through the tendrils of white smoke, I hinted the small frame compared to the average grown man and the petite physique.

"Stupid wall." The figure commented tightly, and I hinted the soft squeak of a boy. My gun lowers and ushered for Charlotte to do the same with a simple look, tucking the medal back into my straps.

We watched as a small hand plant at the top of his ruffled dark hair, that is now dusted with white, and steadily lifts himself until he rests on his knees.

My lips parted and a memory stuck at those eyes, emerald green and the resemblance to his mother. He finally gathers himself and looked towards the three of us. "Uhhh ... Hi."

"What are you doing here?" I commanded.

"Oh sweety, are you ok?" Charlotte interjects, rushing towards him. Her hair strands blowing by the gentle wind until she is at the little boy helping him to his knees.

His worrisome eyes don't falter from mine while he blushed red at the cheeks at Charlottes proximity. "Uh yes I am fine th-thanks."

I slip my hands into my pockets, displaying a dark glare. Why hasn't he fled this castle when he had the chance? has he hid from his mother? or how much has he heard.

"What were you doing in the walls?" Charlotte rightfully questions. He glanced to her before trailing them back to me.

"Uhh - it's been my new hiding spot."

"In the walls?" Ray say from behind me.

He is cautious looking at me in the eyes, and Charlotte catches on, gliding her eyes to me.

"Uh do you want to call your mom?"

And he suddenly jerked.

"What is her nu-"

"No Char-" I cut in, my voice resonant and dark, ladened with evident anger spewing in my chest. "He is supposed to be free of his mother, she willingly gave him up to be sacrificed that day." Charlottes eyes slowly brim with anger, the two watch my every move as I stride closer, "My question is, why did you not flee the castle when I opened the door for you that day?"

As if he faced death, he quivers underneath my dark glare, averting his eyes while he furrows his brows. Charlotte raises a hand around him in a protecting stance, but the young boy voiced his words.

"I had no where to go."

"So you chose to stay where you were imprisoned."

"They didn't find me."

"It was only a matter of time."

"Well they wouldn't!"

I'm instantly annoyed by the combative demeanor he displays, already I have other challenges, and now a young child? Charlotte hints the thumping vein aside my temple and the involuntary twitch at the corner of my lip.

"Uhh, is there anywhere you can go to?"

"No" he says flatly, otherwise I wouldn't have lived in the walls.

Charlotte cocks her head, her patience was never one to test, but in this particular case, she had more patience to hand out than me. "What have you been doing to survive?"

"The maids have been leaving food on the table, and I have been living off of that, and showering when there is no one near us -"

"Us?" Charlotte and Ray say in synch. I furrow my brows, as he caught on to his slipping words and shrunk.

"Where are the others." I demanded, my voice going more colder than previously, rumbling the remaining dust of the dry wall.

Sheepishly his eyes glide back to the massive hole in the wall, and soft patters scrape on the wood until another figure emerges. Another rescue, that chose not to flee from the castle grounds.

Specks of red paint my eyes, and my pulse begins to quicken.

"Who are you?" Charlotte questions softly to the timid boy, sporting a white long sleeve and basketball shorts. Timidly he steps out the hole, almost toppling over the broken wooden shards and the white specs of the dry wall crumble down to his dark dreads.

"Hakeem." he says.

"Both of you have been living in the castle for how long?" Ray asks.

"We had no where to go. After my mom gave me up, Hakeem and I spoke in the walls, and found a way to dig into them and live ever since."

"How far do these walls travel?" Rays question now guides to Charlotte.

And she stands, hovering above the two kids. They stand side by side like brothers, averting my gaze at all costs as Charlotte looks into the hole. Observing the length and size. "They go far from the looks of it." she says, lightly tapping onto the wood within. White dust pour from above, speckling down onto the frames.

"I think they are all interconnected sir." she says to me, her black leather speckled in white as she is stepping out.

"It goes from the kitchen, the rooms and even the bedroom of the Queen."

My ear flicked like a thump. "You watched her?" I say, and Hakeem shook to my tone.

"She has never been in her room, except for recently."

Charlotte stood by, almost watching the information simmer into my head. "Does she appear unwell?" she urged gently, crouching down to their lever.

"She has been lying in bed for a while, she doesn't move nor talk."

A nerve pinched in my chest.

"King Gunter has been screaming at her, forcing her to take these medications. And ever since than she is unwell." Hakeem says. They both stand strong, side by side as they vent the words off their chest.

Charlottes eyes glide up to mine, and I turn my glare over to Ray, our minds synching together in silence.

"You guys can stay with us for a little while," Charlotte says. "We could use a few young ones on the team."

"Cool!" they say in synch.

"First order of business is to keep quiet and out of the way as possible, but you will be the Queens guardian, first thing you need to do is take those medications from her nightstand, so that way she never gets it."

"Can do!" Hakeem's voice beams.

I arch a brow.

"I have always been a fan of the Queen."

The two ramble on, along with Charlotte in the background, listing the things only they could achieve, while uncertainty swims freely in my eyes. Kids should never be involved with what we do, I am reminded of what the three of us went through. Why should they condemn their lives freely? I part my jaw ready to say something, when the boy with green eyes diverts his eyes towards something on the bed.

"Uncle Joe?"

I twist my head, Ray follows, and we see the laptop. The man with white beard is displayed.

"He is your uncle?" Ray clarifies.

"Yes. It was him that suggested to my mother to give me away, in return for something."

My fisted hands clench tighter in my pockets. We need these little fuckers more than I thought.

"What else do you know about your uncle?" Ray urged.

"Not too much, but him and my mother like to gather ceremonies, and visit the poor people a lot. He liked other kids more than me."

My blood runs cold at the way those words were spewed.

"Don't worry about him." Charlotte says, "Both of you are protected by us we won't let anyone touch you."

"That's why we stayed." Hakeem says.

Ray steps to my side. "Why?"

Hakeems voice trails and he drifted his eyes to mine, "Because of him." he points to me.

And the air silences.

"We knew he would come back."

I finally speak through my pulsing nerves. "How so?"

"Because it was the Queen that begged to release you."