It was an afternoon in mid-September. The center of the city was crowded with people, each attending to their own business. Adrian sat inside a coffeeshop and calmly looked at his watch.It was almost time for him to board the subway. He took one last sip of his coffee and left the coffee shop. He turned to a corner of an alley and opened a small door that was hard to notice. He carefully closed the door behind him and walked down a large, dark set of stairs, until he reached a bright, blueish area where the platform is located. Before him, a large, blue wall with a continuously shifting pattern blocked his way to reach the end of the stairs. “Please verify your identity” was written with a fancy, golden font on the wall. Adrian pulled out a card from his pocket and placed it on the center of the wall. After a few seconds, the words on the wall shifted to “Welcome” and the wall opened like a door, pushing his card out at the same time. Adrian placed the card back into his pocket and walked down the stairs to the actual platform.This platform was no different from any other subway platform based on its looks, but strangely enough, it was located underwater.
The card inside Adrian’s pocket provided him with a thin film of light almost unnoticeable around his entire body. This cover allows him to breath under water and make sure that he wouldn’t get wet. There were not a lot of people on the platform, but it was also not a small amount. Everyone was calm and casual, equipped with the same cover. Nobody seemed to be surprised by the specialty of the platform. Just behind the subway track, was the bottom of the ocean. Colorful corals decorated the sea floor and occasional sea creatures passed by. Most fish chose to ignore the platform, but when sometry to reach it, they get blocked by an invisible wall that stands between them and the train. This can successfully prevent the fish from getting hurt by the train or disturbing the people. Just as Adrian approached the boarding area, a large, vicious looking shark swam into his view. It looked like a great white shark, and it loomed above the platform, casting a dark, scaryshadow. Some people were surprised, but none screamedor shouted. They were all completely sure about the security of the invisiblewall and for some it was not even the first time seeing a shark passing by. Adrian looked up at the shark, then directed his attention away from it as the train slowly came into view. The doors of the subway slowly opened, and Adrian walked in without another look at the shark. After the train started moving, the shark turned towards his direction and looked at Adrian as if displeased by him ignoring it, then swam away to the place it came from. “One of the greatest things of the underwater subway,” Adrian thought, “is definitely seeing all sorts of ocean life swimming around.”
Adrian’s phone rang just as he was about to fall asleep on the silent, long subway trip. He rubbed his eyes and answered the call with a yawn. “Hello?” He asked and glanced at his watch as he waited for a response. “Prince Adrian, have you gotten on the subway yet?” A calm voice of a man reached out from the phone. It was Adrian’s family’s butler. “Yes,” Adrian answered, “I’m going to reach my homein less than an hour. Is there something urgent?”
“Less than an hour would do, Sir. Your father wants to have a talk with you, and I don’t think he’s in a pleasing mood this afternoon.” The butler answered. Adrian sighed and hung up the phone.
His father was never in a good mood and Adrian had a bad feeling about this conversation. The worst possibility was a displeasing argument about who was going to rule the kingdom. Adrian was part of a strong family that rules the ancient city under the ocean, Aquapolis, the capital of Atlantis. He was the firstborn in his family, so it was going to be him who would take his father’s place as the new king. He was taught well and wanted to rule the kingdom since he was young, but then he lived a few years on land with the humans as a normal person. He did not have to worry about anything and enjoyed his job as an editor. His father was reaching an age not suited for ruling. He wanted Adrian to become the new king and take his place since it was a tradition passed from long before. However, since Adrian wanted to become a normal editor, he refused his father’srequest again and again.
Adrian soon fell into a series of harsh arguments with his father and neither of them decided to take a step back. Since nobody wanted the arguments to happen frequently, they decided to stop arguing for a period of time. Adrian had a brother who was two years younger than him. His name was Liam and Adrian wanted him to be the king instead of himself. Liam was an attractive, polite young man who did not know about ruling, but was the only choice apart from Adrian. Liam was always cheerful, positive, and loved to interact with citizens, so the citizens adored him and viewed him more like a friend than a prince.
The conversation that was about to happen was probably about Liam. Just thinking of the conversation made Adrian sigh again. “Liam would surely become a great king after learning about how to rule. He was clever and would sure be loved by the citizens since they already know him well.” Adrian thought.
Soon, the subway arrived at the platform in the capital of Aquapolis. Adrian hopped off the train and called his driverto take him to the palace. A large, black vehicleshaped like a race car without wheels glided through the water andstopped in-front of Adrian. The windows rolled down and an old man with a solemn face appeared. “Prince Adrian, I’m afraid that an accident happened at the palace. I must take you to the king immediately.” He said as the door ofthe vehicle opened.
“What do you mean? My father’s not in the palace? What happened? Is my mother fine?” Adrian asked as he climbed into the vehicle, his expression turning serious. “Your father will tell you everything, Your Highness. We must hurry.” The driver said, speeding off to the opposite direction of the palace.
Just as Adrian was wondering where they were heading, he suddenly realized that this direction was where the safe house was located. The safe house was a large building with two floors that usually turned invisible. It was built by Adrian’s grandfather and the royal family had never used it before. It was constructed with unbreakable walls and enough resources for the family to survive an entire year and was fundamentally designed for a huge disaster. The accident was definitely something big. It was also secret to the outside, so nobody would discover them hiding here.
Adrian has become more and more anxiouson the trip. He called Liam if he knew what was going on, but nobody answered the call. Finally, they reached the safe house. His butler was already waiting and quickly escorted Adrian into the safe house. “Adrian,” a deep voice called out from a man standing atthe end of the hallway, “come here.” Adrian quickly approached his father and followed him into a small room. “What’s going on?” Adrian asked as the old king took off his cape.
“Liam was caught off guard in the palace by some assassin. He was killed and his body was taken.” The king said, his eyes darkening. Adrianwas stunned. “What did you say?” He questioned with some hope remaining,trying to get another answer from his father. “Liam’s dead, Adrian. Dead.” The king repeated.
Adrian stepped back from the king in disbelief, still refusing to accept his brother’s death. “No, this must be a joke, right? How could he have died so suddenly? Wasn’t he living with grandma on land?” Adrian asked, confused, and hurt. “Liam came to the palace this morning,and nobody knew why he would come so suddenly, but we were all delighted to see him. There was already something wrong with him this morning. He kept looking outside the windows and was scared every time something happens or creates loud noises. This was also why I called you to come and talk with us. We needed to discuss the inheritance of the throne since all three of us werehere. No one saw the assassin except for Liam himself. He screamed and disappeared just a few moments before you came. The assassin left a message that he killed Liam and there was also blood on where Liam was taken,” The king said.
Adrian rubbed his eyes and sat down with the king. “How’s my mother reacting to this?” He asked. The king shook his head, “We did not tell her. She would go insane from the news.” Adrian nodded and started going through reasons why his brother would be murdered inside his head.
Liam was always polite and kind to everyone. He didn’t have any enemies either. He had some strange friends, but Adrian knew none of them so he couldn’t contact them either. According to what the king said, Liam seemed like he knew he was going to be assassinated this morning. This was the strangest part of the story. If Liam knew he was going to be killed, why didn’t he stick with the powerful king and alert others, instead of coming to the palace and getting killed here?
Adrian calmed down and told himself that since his brother’s body was not found, he might still be alive. “Did Liam say anything strange to you this morning?” Adrian questioned the old king. “Yes, actually. He told me that I needed to think about somebody who was forgotten and that she could help. Quite strange that you brought it up.” Somebody who was forgotten. Adrian repeated the line in his mind. Who was forgotten that was important enough for Liam to bring it up? After a long time of listing names in his head, Adrian finally thought of a name, a very special person, inside his head.