Sold Out

I strike my alarm clock, banging it into silence. My sister groans and pulls the covers over her head. I open my eyes and look around the bare room.

I get out of bed, tripping over a suitcase in the middle of the floor.

"Lana, we were supposed to unpack last night," I complain.

"Why bother? You know we’ll be moving again in a few weeks at best." As much as I hate to admit it, she is right. It seems like once a month we move.

I sigh. It is a losing battle.

"Amelia? Why did we move here?" Like I really know. I am only a year older than Lana, but they don’t tell either of us anything.

I stand, then immediately fall to the floor. Images from something I can’t even remember haunted me.

"Amelia? Amelia, wake up!" I get those dreams sometimes, always of the same people, always of the same fateful night. The two girls look so familiar, and yet at the same time, so different. Almost like royalty.

But of course that’s ridiculous. The royal family has no children, and haven’t for several years.

"Lana, I’m okay." She sighs in relief.

The visions stay with me for the rest of the day. This time it’s different. Usually I can’t remember it until the next time it comes.

Twice more that day it comes. Twice more it terrifies me. And twice more I wonder why it is coming to me.

That night our parents call us into the living room. Their tense faces put me on edge. They are going to tell us, they say, the truth.

"Amelia, Lana, we’re not really your parents." My chest tightens and I cannot breathe. I know my expression is pained, yet I have realized this long ago. She continues. "Your real names are Adalia, Amelia, and Lana, your name is Lia. You are the last remaining members of the royal family. Your father, King Joseph, was killed only yesterday. He wants you to take over." Her expression is sad. Even though we aren’t related, we are a family. "Princess Adalia, you will rule the kingdom. Lia, you will aid in this." Everything makes sense.

"But my mother-she’s still alive!" I protest. The dream showed her being taken, but I know that she was still alive. She has to be.

"The king who took her, King Zachary, is of the Forbidden Kingdom. They are to be married. Spending so much time with him as his slave has changed her. If she was to come back, our kingdom would no longer be good, but as evil as his." Married? My mother is going to marry him? I am confused, hopelessly lost.

"My mother could not be evil." I say this fiercely, unwilling to believe what she is telling me.

She bows her head and sighs. "You and Princess Lia will go to the castle tonight. A servant of your father’s is coming in only a few minutes. You will travel under the veil of night."