The air feels different this far from the capital.
Too quiet.
Mia shifts in the back seat, glancing out the window at the endless stretch of green—thick jungle pressing in on both sides of the narrow road. It’s beautiful, technically. But it doesn’t feel safe.
"You said this was secure, right?"
Her voice is careful, trying to sound composed. Princess-like. The way she’s been taught.
The driver doesn’t answer.
Neither does the guard in the front seat.
A flicker of unease tightens in her chest.
The car slows.
Then—
A shape moves in the road ahead.
Another.
The driver curses under his breath as the brakes hit hard. Mia’s heart jumps into her throat.
"What’s happening?"
No one answers.
The first sound is sharp. Loud. Not something she’s used to hearing this close.
Everything breaks at once.
Shouting. Movement. The guards scrambling—doors opening, orders being barked. Mia freezes, hands gripping the seat as her mind tries to catch up.
This isn’t supposed to happen.
This doesn’t happen to people like her.
The door beside her is yanked open.
Rough hands grab her arm.
"Wait—wait, I—!"
Mia stumbles out onto the road, panic crashing in all at once. The world feels too fast, too loud—nothing like the controlled, careful life she knows.
"I’m—I'm the—"
Her voice breaks. The words don’t matter here.
They don’t care.
She twists, trying to pull free, but there are too many of them. A cloth is shoved over her hands, her arms forced tight.
"Please—just—listen—!"
No one does.
A vehicle waits off the road, engine running.
She’s dragged toward it, shoes slipping against dirt and gravel, breath coming too fast to think.
This isn’t real.
This can’t be real.
Mia looks back once—just once—toward the road she came from, toward the life that already feels impossibly far away.
Then she’s shoved inside.
The door slams.
Darkness.