The ball
Barty walked through the halls of the palace uneasily. His breath was shaky, but he couldn’t afford to show any signs of distress. The ball seemed nice, yes, but he couldn’t feel at ease seeing what he was about to do.
The enormous hall the ball was taking place in was truly beautiful. Every chandelier had thousands of crystals, each wall had an old, expensive painting hung up on it. He recognized some of the artists; having received an extensive education, he was expected to know, by his father at least. He suddenly hoped that Regulus would have him kill his own father too.
Barty cursed the attire the servers were forced to wear at this event. His suit was uncomfortable, his gloves were itchy, his eyes were watering from the colored contacts and his arm hurt from carrying the drinks on the tray. It had taken him hours to cover his tattoos, and it all seemed pointless as no one was paying attention to him anyways.
Barty noticed Princess Pandora. She had long platinum hair and her dress was a beautiful shade of pale blue. She had tens if not hundreds of silver bracelets going from her wrists to her elbows.
He walked past her, handing her a glass of champagne.
“Your Royal Highness”, he said stiffly and continued walking. At least this part was easy enough: pretending to be posh. His father had taught him enough of that.
Royal balls were definitely not his thing. Looking back at the fancy business dinners his father had forced him to attend, this was much worse. For once in his life Barty was glad he wasn’t royalty.
He saw Lady Walburga and Lord Orion Black walking down the corridor towards the toilets. He made a sharp turn towards them, feeling the shape of the blade on his side.
“Pardon me, I seem to have got lost”, he stated. Walburga turned to him, disgust in her eyes. This reminded Barty he would have nothing to feel guilty about.
“The servers station is the other way”, she said in perfect English, not even a trace of her French accent.
“Ah, thank you, however I was looking for Prince Evan. I was told to give him this”, Barty was not to give the Prince jack shit, but he was thinking on his feet. He pulled an item from his pocket. They were expecting a letter. A parcel. Something, anything other than what he produced from his pocket. He made a quick slash at Lady Walburga’s carotid artery, then shoved the knife into Lord Orion’s abdomen. He made three more stabbing wounds before he heard something. He whipped his head around and lunged forward as soon as he registered what he saw. The blonde boy who had just peeked out of the bathroom door now had a hand to his mouth and a knife to his neck. Barty shut the door quickly behind them.
“Well well, if it isn’t Prince Evan” he muttered, trying not to sound panicked.
Barty’s mind was racing. This was wrong. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He cursed himself for not considering this possibility.
There were supposed to be no witnesses. Barty didn’t know if that meant he had to kill a random bystander who just had the misfortune of going to the bathroom. He might’ve been okay with that, but this wasn’t a random person, it was a prince.
“You just killed Walburga and Orion Black” he whispered against Barty’s hand.
No shit, thought Barty.
“You would kill them too if you knew what they did” said Barty in a hushed tone. It wasn’t entirely true. Barty himself wasn’t a hundred percent sure how bad of people they were, but he trusted Regulus. He opened all the bathroom stalls to check there was no one else inside the bathroom.
“I’m not a murderer” said Evan, a knife still to his throat. He straightened up, reminding Barty he was in fact a prince. He did look royal in the light blue suit and blonde hair. But now, he was Barty’s hostage.
“Okay, Prince”said Barty in a mocking tone. He led him to the stall furthest left and locked the door behind them.
“What are you doing?” Hissed prince Evan.
He’s really so privileged that he thinks he can say that even with a knife pointed at his throat, thought Barty.
“We have to get out of here somehow” he said, opening the window. He pointed for Evan to climb out.
“Are you crazy?” Asked Evan.
“We’re on the first floor, you’ll be fine. There’s grass below” Barty rushed him. He heard voices outside the door now, he knew someone had discovered the bodies.
Evan climbed out of the window reluctantly. He did his best to place his feet in the ridges of the stone to get as low as possible before jumping, but he slipped and fell most ungracefully. He yelped out in pain as Barty landed beside him.
“Shhh” he warned, pulling the prince back to his feet and pointing the knife between his third and fourth rib.
What’s the quickest way to a prince’s heart? He thought, laughing to himself. Honestly, he wouldn’t mind an answer to the metaphorical side of that question. It would make the job much easier, and Prince Evan was pretty hot. He saw the car Regulus had had someone drive up. He pulled Evan along, feeling a small pang of guilt as he limped.
Barty pulled open the door and helped Evan get in. He walked over his legs to get to the other seat. The driver sped away, not waiting for them to fasten their seatbelts.