The Winner's Crown
Chapter 23 (Richard)

She comes up behind me, her expression a snarl. She is not what most people expect for a lady. But she has that charm to her, a charm that no one else has. That is why I had put her up to the things that I did. It was necessary, and she had agreed to do so. I had begun to feel that jealousy when I'd seen them together. It started little, but it got bigger as time passed by.

We had agreed that she'd need to make a powerful move, and then become distant all at once. That way she, Lydia, would be confused. And also so it could be over. So Carolyn wouldn't have to play the part of misunderstood socialite anymore. The plan was so twisted that we knew it would work. No one would suspect the things we were doing in order to come to the conclusion, the prize, that we'd wanted together for so long, but would never get.

That is, until I'd come up with this plan. We would tell no one. Not even my father, and certainly not my brother. My brother is the thing in the way, the thing we need to get rid of for this plan to work. And I am now more than happy to get rid of him myself.

"Stop moping around you bastard!" Carolyn puts her hands on her hips, glaring at me. I am standing next to the window, watching the sunset in the distance. They are out there, Lydia and Desmond. They are always together, barely leaving each others arms. It's been like this for awhile now, but it really amped up after Desmond proposed.

It had shocked us both, Carolyn and I. We knew that this could happen, but that is why we tried to stop it. And we'd thought it would work, but it didn't. Our first plan failed, but I have another one. One that Carolyn will hear for the first time, right now.

I turn myself fully towards her, but Carolyn's face does not change. She is not afraid of me like most others are. She never has been. But I guess that is because of how long we have know each other, how long our parents have been friends that influenced us to be the same.

"Well what do you expect of me? My father just died! Our plan just failed!" I grab her by the shoulders, my eyes searching hers. I want to see something, any kind of emotion in them. But I replace nothing. I smile, looking back outside the window. The window is made of pure diamond, something I doubt Lydia had ever seen, before she was taken here from her dirty yellow village. My father told me tales of how it was, inside the yellow villages.

He'd said that they were animals. Dirty and disgusting creatures that had no dignity. That had no elegance, no grace, and too much emotion. I smirk at the memory of seeing her inside that arena. She was afraid, I could see it clearly. And her pathetic brother was too. He was beside her on the ground, struggling to break free of the ropes that bound his hands together. I remember the crowd around them, cheering for their deaths.

And yet, that had not died.

Kenneth had been a lucky fool. We had not picked him for a death in the first two rounds of the competition, as we did so many others. They think this is unfair? No. It is neccessary. It is neccessary that we teach every problem like the yellows, oranges, and greens, that they are disposable, that they are weak and we are strong. That was my dad's phrase. He said it almost every time I was with him.

I remember the first time he'd said it. I'd been a mere five years, and had just found out about the competition.

"Lower classes, they are weak. They are disgraceful. We have this competition to show them that we are not. That blues are the strongest of them all. We shall stop at nothing to show them that. You hear me Richard?" My father had shouted that to me, and I had nodded.

I think that was the first time that I knew I was supposed to be King. King Richard Williams, I'd liked the sound of that. But still, Desmond was first place. He'd always been such. My mother called him "special," and my father called him "fit to be King." And those words should not have hurt me as much as they had seemed to.

Venus and Sara are the youngest, so I needn't worry about them. But Desmond, I have always had to try and outshine. With everything. But he would always beat me. With intelligence, with etiquette, even with the fact that everyone wanted to end up with him. But me, I have always had one thing, one advantage, over him. I am better at battle than he is.

My father was the one to raise me after my mother raised Desmond. So I was the only one to truly understand the do's and don'ts of being King. Desmond would never really understand. He could never be taught years and years of lessons that the past King, my father, had taught me.

"Yes! We failed Richard! How does that sound like? Because it sure sounds like a crime to me!" Carolyn flings her hands out in front of herself, crashing them down to her sides in a motion that must have just left a bruise.

"Why Carolyn, my dear, I never said it was over. Now did I?" I lean forward, closing my hands over hers. She looks up at me, her eyes sparkling. She opens her mouth, her lips moving slowly as she speaks.

"What kind of plan do you have in mind?" She tilts her head to the side, pulling her hands away from me and positioning them across her chest. She doesn't wait patiently for my response, her foot tapping down on the floor as the seconds tick by slowly.

"A plan that has no way to fail, if we carry it out correctly. And we will. This time we will not fail, this time we will get what we want." I move to her again, taking her hands back in mine. She stares at them entwined before looking back up at me, her expression sour.

"And why should I believe that this time will be any different? You failed once before, you cannot fail again." She whispers this angrily to me, her cheeks looking as if to be set on fire. She is mad at me, I am aware. But she has that right, I assume. I did make a mistake in my strategy, on how to reach our goal. But this time is going to be different.

"You need to trust me. I am your only option for what it is that you desire." I smirk as her face falls at the truth ringing in every one of my words. There are times where she forgets that she is not a blue. She is not quite my equal. Not yet.

"And you swear that this time it will all end right? This time, we will succeed?" There is doubt in her eyes, but I can tell that no matter my answer, she will participate anyways. We are a team, the two of us, in the sense that we have the same desire.

"I promise dear." I breathe out, and with that, she pulls her hands back away from my own. She does not leave though, staring out the window with me as we try to kill the time away. Desmond and Lydia stand where the light is fading, and we watch as the shadows begin their way over the couple. They are lovesick those two. My brother is pitiful. He is in love with a yellow, a girl with nothing to her. Lydia is thankfully, in every way, different than Carolyn.

How we managed to trick her, to confuse her for so long, that a girl elegant as Carolyn was in the slightest bit interested in a yellow like herself...it baffles me really that she could have been so foolish. But I doubt she has ever been in love before, so it was easy for her emotions to carry her in all the right places we'd needed it to. That is, until the very moment we most needed it to be in effect.

Carolyn was supposed to become Queen. But the stupid yellow ruined that plan of ours as well. I had encouraged my father, who had been friends with Carolyn's parents for forever, that it would be righteous if she was the one to become Queen. That was step one of our plan, to get her engaged and then married to Desmond. But the yellow had to be in the way of that too, filling Desmond's mind with a future spent loving her. So then we had to figure out a way in where we could confuse Lydia so greatly, to the point where she did not know who to choose, Desmond or Carolyn?

I think that Carolyn knew that Lydia was new to love as well, so it was easy to trick her, to manipulate her. Carolyn is a great actress after all. We took a shot at it, thinking that maybe just maybe she could possibly be in love with Carolyn, or at least think that she was in love. She had known her after all, when Carolyn used to visit the yellow's village. So it would be a fascinating experiment, seeing if this could really work out.

Carolyn has an idea on why it failed. Lydia already had an emotion so strong towards her. The emotion of hatred. Carolyn had taunted yellows in the village, that was her hobby, that was why she would spend her time in the village. Making enemies. Lydia was the first one she'd made. And they had hated each other from the start.

But that was just another factor to our private experiment. To see if the strong emotion of hate, could transfer into making her, making Lydia, think that it was love instead. Besides, there are many strong emotions that can be twisted into making people believe is something else.

For Lydia, it was hate into love. Not real love, but rather just an illusion of love. Something to keep her away from the Prince while Carolyn became Queen and then the next stage of our plan could begin. But the illusion had faded when we'd needed it most! Lydia had interrupted the wedding and had caused a scene too. It still could have ended our way, if it wasn't for my older brother.

He had gone to rescue her, the idiot had. And then he ended up killing my father. I say my father, because no one ever really cared about him but me. I was always the one that respected and loved my father. He is the only person I feel cared for me, even just a little bit.

Carolyn turns towards me, a scowl on her face and I smile as my appreciation for her turns even bigger. She is alike me in many ways, and sometimes I think she is even more bitter than I am. Sometimes. But it doesn't last long.

"So, what is your plan exactly?" She asks, her teeth clenched together tightly with the words.

I turn back away from her, my hand tightening against the sword hanging close to my side. I've kept it there, ever since my father, my King, died. My fingers run over the hilt of the weapon that was used to kill my father, and I eye the blade hungrily. I want revenge, and I have wanted this for awhile. My brothers blood dripping all over the sword. I will show him no mercy, just like he did my father.

"He has to die." I murmur my response to Carolyn. She does not cry. She doesn't show any emotion to those simple words what-so-ever. Instead, she bursts out laughing, and I look back out the window once I know she is on board with this brilliant idea.

"Your days are numbered brother." I whisper underneath my breath.