The Other Side of the Mask

"What's a young girl doing here fighting pirates?"

Her strong accent and gangster style fighting hits me hard. I get a couple cuts here and there, barely missing her too. After about ten minutes of even matching, we both pant. However, the killing intent in her eyes doesn't fade.

"Little girl, you'd better not be holding back 'till the end, or you'll end up a sad corpse," she laughs sinisterly.

The killing intent worsens as she nears. With a sudden dive, I shockingly stabbed her to protect myself. The foul stench of blood fills the air more, this time, coming from my hands. Her blood drips down to the soil as she looks at me with a nasty smile.

"Welcome t-to h-hell," she stutters her last breath.

I shriek in horror as she collapses on the ground. I killed someone! I killed someone! The other pirates back away from me and run in terror. The overflowing horror and blood consumes my soul as I try to escape. My eyes black out.

I find myself back in my room. I rub my eyes and sit up.

"O-oh daughter! You're awake!"

I look over to see my mother and father with tears in their eyes, worried. A warm feeling rushes over me. Oh, I haven't felt this in so long… to be loved like this…

I smile at them, "Of course!"

My parents literally didn't allow me to step out of the palace at all. They even invited the bandits over to discuss. We appointed the bandit leader from the group I had captured before to become the city master of the harbor in the south. The bandits were really grateful, and it was nice. I reflected on the death of Sadie Shih by my hands for the next few days after, while taking dance lessons, politics, history and even music lessons.

Mother had complained, "You need to be more ladylike! Music is a must!"

"U-uhhhh ok...mother…"

I honestly don't get why I need to learn music, I mean, it sounds nice and all, but … anyways, in some free afternoons, I learned swordsmanship with the soldiers. Commander Yang kept blabbering about how great the sword is, and was dissing that the dagger was useless and bad and sHoRt, but like, it's a dagger because it's sHoRt!

"Your highness, it's time for you to sleep," Qu says.

"Ok!"

I close my diary that I have been using to keep track of things that happened, and I get onto my comfy bed. I immediately fall asleep in the comfort and softness. I feel myself as I get washed into dreamland. Hmmm, what dreams will I see today? After a while, a familiar face appears. XiaoLong! His smile and that beautiful night appears. I shudder, even though I know it's just a dream. I, who almost killed him horribly, forsaken his kindness, misjudged him, and now I'm a murderer. I squirm in pain as his image literally haunts me. Why do you keep appearing? Why?

"NO!" I internally scream.

I wake up in the middle of the night and turn on a lamp. I walk over to my desk and sit down. I sigh as I pull out some books about politics and take notes. This'll help me get my mind off things. It surely did, quite well. I focus as I take my notes and ponder about the kingdom I will rule in the future. Shortly after, I finally fall asleep, but on my desk.