♔

Many people had taken care of Adeline while she was in rough shape, though she rarely remembered it. She figured it was some type of karma that William would show up at her bedchambers. Out of all of the people in the palace, though, he probably ended up at the right door. “Calm down,” she spoke, falling backwards slightly as he walked in, knowing that it wouldn’t do anything to actually calm him down. It made sense, knowing that he was on a bad trip. Adeline had seen quite a few over the past few years, though it had been almost a year since she had experienced anything close to it. 

After rehab, she might’ve relapsed with alcohol but she hadn’t been tempted to touch drugs. Yet. Though Will’s current state didn’t make her miss it at the moment. Grabbing him the water off her bedside table, she walked over to where he sat and handed it to him. “PCP?” She walked towards her bathroom, grabbing a towel and running it under some cold water. “Will a cold towel help at all? I’m not really wanting you to throw it back at me. It might do something to help with the sweating.” 

William was probably the only person who hadn’t taken care of Adeline when she’d had her drunken hazes. However, there was one big difference between the two of them. Despite both their faults, William had succeeded in making not just his father, but most of his relatives hate him. Nicholas and Henry being the welcome exceptions. He was quickly beginning to learn that Adeline might fit on that list as well. They had too many similarities for them to completely shun each other out. 

“Angel dust,” he clarified, figuring that if she were to know it, she would probably know it by its street name. He downed the bottle of water quickly, his mouth feeling like a dry sponge. The water helped somewhat, but he was still feeling terrible. “I’m sorry,” he stammered, though not to Adeline. He could hear his father’s voice ringing through his head, though he was not here. “I didn’t mean to kill her. I’d die if that made her come back.” He was stuttering with every word and his eyes were erratic, shooting from one place in the room to another, though he didn’t register what he saw. “I didn’t mean to kill her!” he suddenly exclaimed, his voice louder than before and folding his arms tightly around his chest, the anxiety attack he’d been holding off evidently hitting him.

Hearing the first knock on the door, Adeline quickly closed her journal and got up from her bed. “One moment,” she called out, moving quickly to shove it in a drawer, before someone potentially barged into her room. The habit was formed during her stay in rehab, some sort of hobby they encouraged, and it had somehow stuck. At the louder knocks, she jumped slightly.  “I said one moment!” The princess recognized the voice that yelled from the other side of the door, her eyebrows furrowing. Why would he be at her room at this time? And why so urgent? “Will?” 

The urgency in his voice made her move quickly, almost running over towards the door. “What?” Adeline spoke before she saw him, the door flying open to reveal her very disheveled and anxious cousin. She hadn’t seen him like this before. He smelled, though, like drugs and alcohol and it caused her stomach to flip. “Come in,” she urged him, not completely understanding what was going on with him, but knowing that if anyone saw him they’d only yell at the both of them. And it was obvious to her, because she had been in states similar like this, that being yelled at was the last thing he needed in. “What the hell happened to you?” 

Though of course there were multiple ways into the palace, the way he had gotten in ensured that he would have to walk passed his father’s suite. William wasn’t one hundred percent sure if he’d be in, nor would he be awake if he was, but he didn’t want to risk it. He’d gotten himself in plenty of trouble with his Christmas stunt and he wasn’t about to repeat that incident. “Just–– just let me in,” William snapped, not really waiting for her permission before pushing himself passed her into her bedchambers.

He was burning up. “Do you have water?” he mumbled, his mouth dry and a few drops of sweat dripping down his temple. As he headed towards one of the fauteuils and passed the mirror, he jumped –– he swore he saw his father for just a second, but it was just him. “Nothing. Nothing happened to me,” he finally spoke, though she’d asked him moments before already. “Pre-drinks and PCP happened to me.” The PCP, a known hallucinogenic, usually gave him a good buzz, but this time it had completely fucked him up.