Chapter Text
‘’TELL ME WHO THE FUCK IT WAS’’ Wilhelm yelled, with rage not like anything he felt before. Which was scary considering Wilhelm got angry, a lot. His mother always saw it as a behavior issue, making him get extra lessons with his etiquette teacher. But Wilhelm knew in that moment even Mrs. Fransson’s ear piercing screams couldn’t get him to calm down. He doubted anything could.
The man infront of him –his fucking cousin of all people- was the root of his every problem and now the subject of his fury. He could feel himself getting lost in that awful memory again. Back to the night of Lucilia. Millions of comments all disgusting in so many different ways were flooding his vision. Then his mothers disappointed voice ringing in his ears. The whole world watching him naked and vulnarable. In a moment so delicate he was scared to even look at Simon in the eyes during. And Simon… that was it in the end, wasn’t it? Simon had broken up with him (were they even dating at the time?). Simon was the one person that had kept him sane after Erik’s… after Wilhelm had become the crown prince. Months later and he still couldn’t bring himself to even think that of that word. It didn’t suit Erik. Being gone. Wilhelm thought he was going to have his brother by his side until the end of the line. But Erik was gone and Simon was the only one he wanted to be with after. The only person he wouldn’t allow himself to be with. And then Simon was gone from his life too, got a new boyfriend and everything. All because of August.
August who was in front of him right now. Scared and quivering, looking every bit small and pathetic as the crown prince wanted to see him. He could feel his trigger finger shaking, the blinding rage taking over him. Wilhelm heard himself raise his voice again and then a gunshot. He could vaguely see everyone around him flinching, including August. A warning shot to the sky, the last warning Wilhelm was ever gonna give his cousin.
Yet when he directed the gun back at him he could see that nothing had changed. August still had the same look on his face: defiance
How dare he.
After spending months talking about how loyal he was to the monrachy. It seemed Wilhelm was the only part of the royal family August didn’t respect. The mistake, the odd one out. Like he hadn’t heard that his whole life. ‘’The spare’’, ‘’The party prince’’ might as well add fag to the list.
Wilhelm felt the need to rub his chest. An action that was so habitual he didn’t even realize he was doing it most of the time. Except this time it would mean he would need to drop the gun and he wasn’t about to do that. All his thoughts were about keeping the gun in it’s place so he could keep his cousin in his. And god knows August deserved to stay on his knees begging for mercy. August who leaked the video, Agusut who acted like Erik was his brother, August who belittled Simon at every given chance. He was everything Wilhelm hated about the life he was born in to. People who thought they were beter than everybody else, playing their little games with fire and not caring who got burned for their sake. Another gunshot. Wilhelm realized he wasn’t pointing at the sky this time.
Simon thinks he heard Felice scream before the gun was even fired. Sees it in Wille’s trembling hands and August lying in a pool of his own blood. Yet non of that seems to register in his brain. He knows intelectually that Wilhelm shot August and there will be consequences for that. All he can bring himself to care about however, is Wille and the fear on his face. He approaches him as calmly as he can. Hands raised, trying to look as non-threatening as he can. The boy looks back at him with fear in his eyes. ‘’Its okay Wille, just put the gun down yeah?’’
Wilhelm doesn’t. So Simon takes a step forward, unknowingly grounding himself into the moment. It feels like a ceremony almost, a blood oath. Now that he took action –as small as it might have been- he doomed himself to actually live in this moment. And all the pain and suffering it might bring.
From his peripheral vision he can see Sara kneeling next to August, putting pressure on his wound to try and stop the bleeding. Felice is just staring at Wille something akin to horror in her eyes. Wilhelm is like a marbel statue. Unmoving and perfectly reserved in that tragic moment. Simon finally gets close enough to touch his arm and slowly guides him to point the gun towards the ground. As if a spell was broken Wilhelms body comes back to life and he drops to his knees. Gun dropping next to him. He can hear Felice gasp in the background but she is still not doing anything.
Simon goes down with the crown prince. ‘’Typical’’ a voice in his head supplies, he ignores it. He can hear voices coming from Wille’s mouth. At first he thinks they are just whimpers but once he listens closely he can hear what he is saying ‘’I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry’’.
Its a habit of Wilhelm’s to apologize like it’s going to fix everything. A lifetime spent with no repercussions for his actions other than his mothers wrath. The crown prince fucks up more than anybody else in the queens eyes, but she is also the only consequence he is ever going to face.
Simon knew it wasn’t going to be that simple now though. Not even with Wilhelm being who he is. Not even if August survives. He couldn’t bring himself to think about the alternative.
All he could do in the moment was to hug the boy he loved. Try to bring him back to world because Simon knew wherever his head went to couldn’t be pretty. Cradiling Wille like the delicacy that he is, he started rocking back and forth. Chanting his own mantra to go along with the other boys’. Their voices mixing together. ‘’I’m sorry.’’ ‘’It’s okay.’’
He would have sat there for a lifetime he thought. If it wasn’t for Felice’s hand on his shoulder. The little bubble he had created around them broken. He turned to see her speak:’’We need to call the royal court’’
What that was supposed to mean didn’t register in Simon’s head for a second. He vaguely had thought they would need to call an ambulence soon, or the police if they had to. But of course it was going to be the royal court instead. The crown prince had shot the next in line of succesion. Felice must have taken his silence as confusion because she began to explain herself: ‘’He has a beter shot with them.’’ Simon knew she wasn’t talking about August.
He leaned over at Wilhelm ‘’Wille we need your phone’’ the boy in his arms didn’t seem to register a word that was being told to him though. Still mumbling i’m sorry like a broken prayer. ‘’Wille please’’ he begged. Still nothing. Simon knew they were running out of time so he reached into Wilhelm’s jacket and pulled out his phone, handing it over to Felice wordlessly. He wrapped his arm back around Wille, the subtle way he leaned into Simon giving him hope.
‘’Hello, am i speaking with Jan Olof? This is Felice Ehrencrona.’’ She sounded so proper and calm despite everyhting. Simon questinoed why he thought she would be any other way ‘’There has been an accident, Wilhe- The crown prince is fine but we need assistance’’ Simon realized she must have known Wille’s password already. ‘’A gun was fired, somebody got injured’’ He wondered if she was being vague on purpose, to not accidently incriminate Wilhelm if the phone was being listened to. He wanted to listen to the rest of the conversation, to try and understand what they were supposed to do but his thoughts were interrupted by Sara sobbing.
She was still sitting next to August her hands covered in blood. Saying ‘’I’m sorry’’ and ‘’Please don’t die’’ like a sick parody of him and Wilhelm from minutes ago. Simon tried to understand if August was alive from where he was sitting. He couldn’t see his chest moving but it could very well be there, just faint. He felt horrible about Sara being here. About dragging his sister into his own mess.
He felt like the worlds worst brother. There his sister was traumatized after watching a man get shot but all he could think to do was comfort the guy that shot him. Yet he couldn’t find it in himself to feel bad for August. Maybe he would later, after eveything sank in. Right now he just felt resenment for the fact that somehow he got to be the victim in all this while Simon and Wilhelm were never afforded the luxury.
‘’Sara!’’ he called out ‘’It will be fine i promise’’ but she wasn’t listening to him. Still trying to get the bleeding to stop her hands and clothes covered in different shades of red.
Felice must have walked off while talking to the phone because she was returning from the edge of the forest ‘’They are on their way’’. Simon let himself breath out with relief. They were going to fix this after all. No police or ambulances involved. Nothing that would take Wille away from him forever.
‘’Who are?’’ Simon still felt the need to ask. He knew ‘’they’’ probably implicated that Jan Olof guy and some other members of the royal court. Still he wanted to prepare himself for what was to come.
Felice opened her mouth to answer but she was interrupted by sirens. Sirens that probably belonged to a cop car.
Fuck.