The One That Got Away

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

Xander sprinted like a maniac to Layla's room. It couldn't be true. He couldn't have failed her twice. He ran through the keep's corridors, shoving people as he passed by, down the stairs to the kitchen staff's section. Reaching the room, he was met with a wide-open door and an empty space. The things Sofia had bought her were still there, but Layla was nowhere to be found.

Earlier this morning, while taking their breakfast in the great hall, queen Sofia sent one of the maids to ask Layla to join them. The woman returned, along with two horrified-looking guards, the ones stationed outside Layla's room, to announce she was missing. To an infuriated, threatening Xander, the guards swore, they never left their place or fallen asleep.

King Lucius started shouting orders to find her immediately, all the while stating to his bewildered wife that this was definitely proof the girl was a witch and had fooled them all. To Sofia's obvious question what was the purpose of the ''witch'' since she hadn't done any harm to anybody, he scoffed and gave new orders to investigate the whole of the keep, to make sure no one was harmed. Xander just ignored him and headed straight for Layla's room.

It didn't make sense. If Layla was really a witch of wicked intentions, she would stay until succeeding to hurt the person of interest, probably him or queen Sofia. If someone -the thought froze the blood in his veins- wanted to hurt her just like they did to Lila, they would have found her dead.

If the girl was telling the truth or believed it in all honesty to be the truth, she may have tried to return to her supposed world. But she would never leave him like that, not without saying goodbye, without giving him the chance to change her mind. Most of all, she would never be able to leave the castle alone. Someone had helped her.

She promised not to escape him again. She promised.

Christoph's voice drove him out of his thoughts. "Xander?" He sounded worried. "What happened?"

 A terrible deja vu feeling overwhelmed him. Don't go in there, Xander...

"Layla is missing. If indeed she is nowhere to be found inside the castle, she had to have help to be able to leave." He looked at Christoph. "I'll go and talk to Margaret, see if she knows something. You talk to the guards, ask them if anyone, and I mean anyone, came to Layla's room before she vanished." Xander started marching towards the kitchen. "We will meet in half an hour in the throne room."

Thirty minutes later, the royal couple, Xander, and Christoph were at the throne room. Everybody's efforts to find Layla have been fruitless. Margaret was no help either. All Xander managed to do was upset the poor woman, who almost collapsed on hearing about Layla's disappearance.

Only Christoph had made some progress. "I come bearing interesting news. It seems that Layla had quite an unexpected visitor before she vanished." He gazed at him. "Lady Livia. She was the last person to see her."

Livia. Always the one to create trouble. The cause he was estranged from his parents, as she was constantly nagging them to convince their son to marry her. The reason he almost lost his best friend, Christoph, who had an infatuation with her, and she only used his feelings to get to Xander. She had been a prime suspect for Lila's death, being one of the very few people motivated to harm her. Unfortunately, her social status didn't allow much room to question her appropriately.

The admission of Layla that this woman, or a woman like her, was her former best friend and betrayed her, only added to the amount of suspicion lingering around that snake. That witch the universe had decided should be his wife, and he resisted it with all his might. And now Layla was miraculously gone too.