The wedding had been beautiful. Of course, Kanae wouldn't have expected anything else. At least, not since her fiancé - no, her husband's - younger sister had left Ohtori Academy. Just as she had always secretly assumed, once that strange girl disappeared, Akio had only had eyes for Kanae. Without Anthy around to encourage his childish habit of spending long nights in the planetarium, Akio had been the perfect partner.

He had thrown himself into wedding planning with a fervor that made all of Kanae's friends swoon. Kanae wanted a big fairytale wedding, like the kind that she had seen in the movies. So, Akio contacting florists and sampling different flavors of wedding cake for her. He had even started spending time alone with her mother to plan a big surprise that Kanae wasn't allowed to hear about until the wedding day. Not once did Kanae feel like she had to pressure Akio into doing any of these things. He seemed to genuinely care about making sure that Kanae had everything she wanted on their special day.

It was like something out of a dream, which became explicitly clear to Kanae when she opened her eyes. She was no longer standing under an archway made from snow white roses, looking into the eyes of the only man she'd ever truly loved. Instead, she was lying on a splintery wooden floor in a dark, dusty room. Her head was aching, as though she had drank too much the night before. That couldn't have been possible, though. She had never had more than a sip of wine from her mother's glass. Even stranger than that, the faint taste of apples was lingering in her mouth.

Kanae sat up and to get a better look at her surroundings. She moved quickly at first, but slowed down when she heard the way the floorboards creaked underneath her. She knew it that it was unlikely that they would break underneath her wait, but there was no harm in being too careful.

Her cautiousness was only amplified by the fact that Kanae had no idea where she was. There wasn't anywhere in Ohtori Academy that was this old. Had she been taken somewhere else?
"Akio? Mother? Anyone?" She called out.

There was no one else in the room to hear her shouting, but she had assumed that the walls would have been thin enough for anyone outside to hear. The walls couldn't be much thicker than the floorboards, since the trapezoidal ceilings were made from the same unfinished wood. The size and the shape of the room made Kanae think that she was in some sort of attic.

The whole place reeked of mold and mildew. The only source of light was a small window that had been covered from the outside. Kanae was trying to think of any buildings on campus that might have had an attic like this, but all of the buildings in Ohtori Academy were far too beautiful to have an attic like this inside any of them. The campus might have been old, but her father and Akio made sure that it was immaculately well maintained.

Kanae was now sure that she had been taken somewhere else. But where? And by who? Certainly her family would come looking for her soon. Well, he wouldn't be able to come looking himself, on account of his illness. But he would surely send someone. A wealthy heiress like Kanae couldn't go missing without causing a serious uproar.

She would surely be on the news, and the police would come looking for her. They would find her in no time. As long as she got food and water she would be fine. She wasn't being tortured. Her captors hadn't even bothered tying her up. So, they probably had no intention of treating her poorly while she was in their care. They must have only been trying to make some money by holding Kanae for ransom. Surely they would let her go the second that her parents paid them.

Maybe the whole ordeal would even help her fiancé how much he really loved her. In a moment of bitterness, Kanae thought that she might be able to suffer through a few days alone in the attic if that was what it led to. It might not be that much worse than the alienation that she felt in her day to day life.

It would all be worth it in the end. After all, that's how it worked in all of the fairytales. If the princess waited patiently, if she kept a brave face on through all of her suffering, she would be rewarded with a happy ending.

Of course, that didn't mean that it would hurt to look for a way to escape. There had to be a way out. Kanae couldn't see a door anywhere, but that didn't mean that there wasn't one. There would have been no way for her captors to get her into the attic otherwise.

Kanae tried to stand up again, only to realize that the ceilings were too low for her to do that. She had to crawl around her hands and knees in order to try and find an exit. It was degrading, at least there was no one around to see her doing it. A few splinters in her knees were bothersome, but nothing in comparison to everything else that had happened since she woke up.

Kanae crawled around on the floor of the attic for a few times before realizing that there wasn't a door in sight. At first, she refused to believe it. It wasn't possible. And even if it was, what use would anyone have for an attic without a way to get in or out?

Kanae didn't know, but she hoped that she wouldn't be stuck in there long enough to find out.