Rosangela: The Half-Blood Princess

I opened my eyes slowly, but had to close them again due to the sudden bright light.

I blinked my eyes several times. It took me a while to adjust to the brightness.

Looking around my surrounding, my forehead was bunched in a frown. The room I was in right now looked unfamiliar. It was neither the bedroom in the palace nor my room back home in London.

'Where am I? How could I get here?' I asked myself.

I tried to recall what happened to me. After a moment, the images of last night flitted through my mind.

I remembered going to the ball with Prince Maximilian. At the party, King Bellamy introduced me as his granddaughter and announced my engagement to Prince Maximilian.

Tired of walking around the ballroom, greeting the guests, I decided to take a rest for a moment. While Prince Maximilian went to get me some water, Sigmund approached me and asked me to dance with him. But then Prince Maximilian came back and he argued with Sigmund. They asked me to decide with whom I wanted to dance with, and I chose Prince Maximilian over Sigmund. Finally, Sigmund left and I danced with Prince Maximilian.

When the song ended, Sigmund asked me to dance with him again. Prince Maximilian didn’t agree if I danced with Sigmund. At last, Sigmund and Maximilian began to bicker one more time.

I didn’t want to hear them quarreling, so I decided to go to the bathroom alone. But I ended up getting lost in a maze of corridors.

When I was trying to find a way to get back to the ballroom, unexpectedly, I bumped into a man. What’s his name? Ian? Ethan? Evan? Oh right, Ivan.

I asked Ivan to escort me back to the ballroom. However, he took me to the flower garden which was located at the back of the palace instead.

We talked about my parents until suddenly Ivan shoved a handkerchief over my mouth and nose and I became unconscious.

As realization dawned, I shot up in a sitting position. 'Oh my God! I’m being kidnapped. Again.'

I was about to scream for help, but someone suddenly cut me off, “If I were you, I wouldn’t try to scream. We are in the middle of nowhere; no one can hear your scream here.”

I snapped my head to the direction of the voice and found a young man standing at the doorway.

“Ivan?” I managed to gasp out of his name.

“Hi Mirabelle.” His lips curved in a smile as he was making his way towards me.

“Why are you doing this to me, Ivan? I thought you’re a good guy. But how could you kidnap me like this?” I enquired furiously.

Ivan perched himself on the edge of the bed and said apologetically, “I am sorry, Mirabelle. Actually, we didn’t want to kidnap you like this. But we have no other choice.”

'Wait! He said we? So he's not doing this alone?' I thought in disgust.

“You haven’t answered my question yet, Ivan. Now tell me! Why did you kidnap me?” I demanded.

“I promise I’ll explain it to you later, Mirabelle,” Ivan said.

“No, I want you to explain it to me right now! You have to tell me why you kidnapped me at my party—” I stopped abruptly.

At the mention of party, suddenly I remembered something. I looked down and found that I no longer wore my ballgown, but now I was wearing a purple pyjama.

“Aaaaah!” I shrieked.

“What’s wrong, Mirabelle?” Ivan inquired worriedly.

“Oh my God, what happened to my clothes? Who did change me?” I queried, panicked.

“I did,” he answered innocently.

My jaw dropped. “What?!”

“I’m sorry, but you would be uncomfortable wearing ballgown when you slept, so I decided to change your clothes. But don’t worry! I swear I didn’t see anything,” he explained.

My fists pummelled at Ivan’s chest. “You bastard! How dare you change my clothes when I’m unconscious! And you said you didn’t see anything? Bullshit!”

Ivan caught my hands. “Calm down, Mirabelle! You shouldn’t be ashamed if I changed your clothes because I am...” he trailed off.

“Because you’re what?” I snapped angrily at him.

Ivan didn’t answer my question. He just stared at me for a long time.

“Because you’re what, Ivan?” I repeated my question impatiently.

“Forget it!” he lastly said, avoiding my question.

I was about to ask again, but he said first, “You’d better go freshen up now! There are clothes for you in the wardrobe. Or you can change into your ballgown again if you want. I keep it in that bag.” He pointed to a paper bag on the dressing table.

I knew it was useless to argue with him now, so I said, “Fine.”

Ivan stood up and started for the door. He opened the door and turned around to face me.

“I’ll be back to check on you later,” he said. Afterwards, he shut the door after him.