Chapter 11.

“La nuit pâle, la nuit tombe, pas une femme à l'horizon

Tu te demandes comment tu feras, à la merci des oiseaux rouges

Puis soudain, ça te revient, un secret si bien gardé…” Amour Dan Les Motu - La Femme

February, 2137

Eveline

As we left the palace we went through some side streets still around the royal palace until we took the main avenue to reach the city center, known as New Waybrook or Glory's City, since at night we could see the lights and the various billboards glowing miles away with their vibrant and fluorescent colors.

The city at night was extremely beautiful and I loved looking out my bedroom window at it when I sat on my window seat to read, but the experience was totally different when I ran away from the castle to see Grandma.

It was fascinating to see the advertisements and holograms distributed among the tallest buildings in the city, see the new means of transportation traveling through the sky known as "Space cars", observe the infinity of stores with the most varied types of food, clothing and technological utensils used today.

But the town also had it’s dark part, where soldiers and other law enforcement officers were not allowed to approach, this place was known as the Vortex and was on the edge of Old Waybrook, near to Havoc, and all sorts of illicit activities happens there, ranging from prostitution to drug trafficking and stopping as far as we know in gun smuggling, but we are not sure of any of this. Someday, when some of the guards approached this part of Waybrook they were severely attacked, and in this time we lost some of our soldiers who were publicly lynched in the execution square in front of the royal office in the center of Glory's.

Since then we don't know what happens there, what we have is just little information but fortunately the crime in the place does not affect the rest of the city and the inhabitants of the center live in a certain harmony with those who live in the Vortex.

The only people who can't cross the line separating Glory's from the Vortex are us from the royal family and our employees, so when we need to go to Havoc we use special paths created exclusively for the monarchy since the Vortex district was created, but generally we never go very far there since that part of the city is home to only ruins as the district's name says, and there's nothing that really matters on that side of the city, we only use the especial paths to go to neighboring cities.

Soon it was completely forgotten in the north of the town of Waybrook.

I am brought back from my thoughts to see that Roman is standing in one of the countless headlights used for vintage vehicles, and I see that we are accompanied by a multitude of them. I look around seeing extremely old cars and cars that existed until a few years ago before my grandfather died, and I see one of my favorites among the crowd of cars, a beautiful black Mustang with red fluorescent lights inside, my guard notices my interest and looks in the same direction as me and I hear a low chuckle.

"Do you like cars?" I hear him asked over the roar of engines and Space Cars flying overhead and I nod still looking at the car a few feet away.

“Yes! I would love to ride one of those, but my dad would kill me for wanting to drive alone being a royal, he says I could get killed anytime,” I say and watch him open his visor to watch me as my helmet was with his visor raised too.

"So you don't know how to drive?" He asks curiously as his eyes roam over my face attentively and I bite my bottom lip as I formulate my answer.

“I know how to drive but I learned it in a clandestine way so I don't have a license to ride around the city, one of these beautiful vintage car,” I say and he nodded, turning his attention forward and I closed my visor thinking how boring my life appears to be for him.

I then take a firm hold on his waist and try to focus on other things but as soon as the headlight opens I hear him mutter something that makes my eyes widen in surprise.

"I think your highness should think a little more about what you want to do than what others think you should or shouldn't do," and as soon as he finishes his speech he speeds up and heads off in the direction I've previously explained to him early, which completely amazes me because he's absolutely right.

As the shock of his statement reverberated through my body, I continued to watch the rest of the city's attractions, including the amusement park that always opened in the spring after we held our annual dance and our charity center on the outskirts of the new part of town where we hold teas and beneficent events throughout the year.

But my favorite place was the amusement park, the only thing that bothered me was that I couldn't go there alone and every time the royal family went the other subjects were forbidden to come near us which bothered me a lot.

I continued to watch the city and the closer we were to grandma's house the more the fluorescent lights dimmed and gave way to more neutral lighting, so my guard turned onto the last street indicated and at the end of it I could see the house in a light blue tone where grandma lived.

He then went there and parked his motorcycle in front of the house turning off the engine then I let go of his waist and leaned on him to get off the vehicle and he did the same, but I ended up tripping on the sidewalk and almost fell, but he was quick to grab me around the waist and pull me to my feet again.

I felt my cheeks redden under the helmet and was grateful that I was still wearing it so he wouldn't see my embarrassment and think that a few minutes ago we'd kissed in the palace garage without the slightest worry.

As soon as I stabilized I looked up and noticed that he was already without his helmet and his green eyes were glued to me as well as his hands that were firmly holding my waist. I excused myself in a politely way and disentangled myself from him and removed the helmet, so I turned my back to him and walked towards the entrance.

As soon as I stopped in front of the door I rang the bell and after a few minutes my grandmother opened the door and smiled when she saw me there. She was wearing a beautiful floral dress that matched her brown hair and eyes, and she pulled me towards her to a big bear hug.

"Hello sweetheart, I thought you forgot about your old Lady here, how have you been?"