Just a chapter

Chapter One: Escape

I tried hard to open my eyes. Still slightly incoherent, I grew frustrated at the blurred partial vision. My contacts wouldn’t adjust, or maybe I didn’t leave them in. Where were my glasses? I groped blindly for them. Since I had left… something. I had problems sleeping since I had left something. I tried to remember what I had left. What problem did I have? What was I looking for, my hand subconsciously feeling the empty space over my right shoulder? I couldn’t seem to remember anything. A second ago I thought I knew who I was, where I was… but it seemed to be slipping away faster than I could bring it to a conscious thought. Had it been a dream? I reached up to rub the sleep from my eyes, only to jerk my hands swiftly away from my face. Startled by the lumpish, wet, thing on my face I screamed. Flinging my head and sitting to attention I tried to dislodge it. Pain rapidly replaced the panic. The sudden motion sent my head spinning, throbbing. My breaths came short and ragged; my chest felt like it was being crushed. I crumpled forward, trying to placate the sharp stabbing in my stomach, maybe trying to stop my intestines from spilling out. It felt as if my torso was a gaping hole. I was aware of every heartbeat… pounding against my body, as if every beat was a hammer blow inside my chest. A wave of nausea forced me to heave, compounding the pain. My nausea worsened as I came to the realization that there was nothing to vomit but a mouthful of bloody acid.

            The pain cleared my groggy head as my prison cell came into focus. I reached back up to the wet lump, well aware that it was my face, or what was left of it. My features barely recognizable, it was more a swollen, grotesque lump of torn flesh. I carefully rubbed around the oozing bruises trying to drag the sleep from my eyes. I wished I could remember what I had been dreaming. It might have been important, maybe a bit of the past or even hope of the future. But now I felt it would be easier to catch smoke between my fingers. I eased back against the wall, too weak to hold up my broken body. As my heart slowed my cracked ribs screamed less and I settled back into the pain.

            It had been months since I had been captured and every day was agonizing torture. I couldn’t give them information, Liacem knew that, but it pleased him to hear my screams. The screams at first flooded my ears, making me deaf. The pain burned into my vision making me blind. Eventually I learned to become the pain, and it became me. Whatever had been me before was demolished, my screams faded into the background. I watched everything from the outside, seeing the pain, existing as the pain. It kept me alive. I don’t know if I wanted to stay alive, but something inside me kept fighting. I wasn’t sure why. I was dead; it was only prolonging the inevitable.

I looked around my cell. Against the west wall was a rock outcropping. It wasn’t very wide and about two feet off the ground. It was the only thing resembling furniture and it was my bed. The south wall had a small window along the ceiling and the door was on the north wall. Aside from that it was solid rock. Each wall was about the length of an average girl and just barely tall enough to stand up in. All in all they had ensured the room was devoid of hope.  Not even the barred window could offer consolation. It was eye level with dirt and every eight seconds a guard’s feet paced by. It truly was the icing on the cake so to say, the last reminder that my life was no longer my own, every painful breath was granted by my tyrannical captors. 

Hope was not really an issue anymore though. I found myself remembering, day dreaming so often anymore. I tried to dwell on pleasant memories, my life with Vai or even my life before him. It was all blurred through a veil of pain, a pain that had entirely consumed me. Strong memories, like the passion of our merging, were more readily recalled. Ironic, I fought the merging for so long, but eventually I fell to fate. I couldn’t recall much of our surroundings, I am not even sure if I could remember what he looked like. But I could remember the firm white wood against my bare skin. I felt the heat of his body against mine, and I could see his eyes, tan, like the color of a puma and soft as rabbit’s fur. I tried to bring more of the memory to mind, but it was a futile effort. The vision obscured by the painful memories between then and now.

I mostly recalled the little details of the first days I was here. I hadn’t been able to focus on them then, but I could go back now. Now that I was the pain I could look back. The capture had broken my leg, it hadn’t set right. I could remember them breaking my hands, most of which had healed. My back had been whipped so often it festered, and my face had taken the brunt of their ironclad fists. The gashes on my cheeks seeped. I could see what I looked like in my mind, a repulsive, bloody mess. I would be forever hideously scarred, if I got the chance to heal. I wouldn’t heal though; today they would drag me from my cell and kill me. It would end. The thought of an end scared me more than anything. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live, I wanted to be. I wanted something more than pain. I gripped the stone around my neck, the hope that they couldn’t steal from me.

            Fear drove me to attempt what I hadn’t in months. The stone grew hot in my hand. My soul was joined with Vai’s, it was on that connection that I focused. I had to hurry; for Liacem would feel me as well. I reached into the forest, searching for any sign of Vai or the council. If they were near I couldn’t tell. Had the bond somehow been broken, or was my focus that poor? I needed to know he was coming. I didn’t think he could save me but I needed to know all the same. I crawled down onto the floor. On my hands and knees, no better than a dog. The idea didn’t really bother me anymore. My foot had been broken two nights ago and I didn’t want to try my weight on it. Crawling onto the floor I assumed a more focused position. Tapping into the rock, the symbol of our union, I searched for its sister stone. I felt its heat and I traced the source. For several minutes I wandered the forest, unsure of my direction. I tested the wind and the water and the earth, looking for clues to him. Focusing even harder on the stone’s link, I strained my soul to the point of agony. I knew sweat was beading up on my body from the exertion, but I forced the thought away.

Again I threw myself out further, my spirit at its limits. And then I found him, his presence, somewhere far away. Running through the woods, the branches whipping bloody cuts into his tan skin. He didn’t slow, his breathing deep, his feet even and swift. He must have felt the stone grow warm because his eyes fluttered in recognition. His forehead creased and I felt his strength cast in my direction.

His vision flooded my mind. I could see my face, pale, beautiful. My blonde hair was cascading down around my body; wisps of it veiled my icy blue eyes. We were at the tree, its white branches stretching up, skyward. They were twisted and gnarled, devoid of life. I felt his hands settle, heavy, onto my shoulders, warm and reassuring. His memory was so clear, me standing at the tree. The lucent, green, gown fell loosely around my shapely body. His breathe on my ear. Suddenly, he pulled from the deep recesses of my shattered mind, my memory. I could see the branches towering over me. I felt my body tense with fear, anxiety, and anticipation at his touch. I pushed him away to look into his eyes, but the vision blurred.

I was staring into Liacem’s black eyes; they burned my thoughts. I tried to pull away, run back to the safety of my body, but I felt the thick black around me. I fumbled wildly in terror.

“Please, make it stop!” I pleaded in my mind.

I heard Liacem’s deep laugh as he receded. Again I found myself in Vai’s arms, but it made little difference, Liacem’s cruelty was complete. There was no hope, now that he knew everything, we were in his game and we were going to die.

Thick, sweet compassion pushed the misery from my mind. I let Vai’s memories flood my vision. I saw the first day we met; he stood as a statue, there in my small house. His father and mine, talking in low whispers. I stared at him, so afraid. I didn’t understand things, I was only ten then, but I knew that this young handsome boy was going to change my life.

Then, I watched myself, watched him watching me. He followed me in the shadows. For five years, he was there at Christmas, outside the window. We never noticed, in my world we didn’t acknowledge it. I saw him watching me through teary eyes when my mother died. The priest holding me back from her lifeless body. I didn’t understand why. My father was clutching her to his chest, screaming her name. Next, I saw him the night my father died. Three months after my mother, I buried him beside the only woman he ever loved. No priest came this time, and no one held me back. I was fifteen years old, lying in the dirt, sobbing my parents’ names. And then, the scene shifts again. I was at the tree, but this time looking into his soft tan eyes.

Vai pulled us back to reality, and he was running through the brush. In his veins I felt the pounding of the taut leather drums. I could see the council, in his mind’s eye. They were gathered around the tree, its ashen tendrils sprawling into the heavens. Its pale green leaves fluttering down like rain. The tree could sense the end, as did Vai and the council, yet they still resisted. The council’s dance empowered Vai, lengthening his strides and numbing my ever-constant pain. Their dance was primal and yet graceful in their flowing gowns. A child kneeling at the center of the tree, her hands pressed against it. She was straining with the effort. She bonded herself to the tree as I did myself to Vai and since then we were all tied together.  I was going to be the death of her too. Tears streamed down my face to match her already tear streaked face. I was going to be the death of us all.

            A sharp blow from an iron gauntlet ripped the connection from me. The pain tore into my face. Ripping through the bruised flesh, fresh blood pooled into my mouth and ran down my neck. I came fully into my body to feel my shoulder slam into the wall. A sickening crunch echoed in the tiny cell and I writhed in pain. My shoulder was crushed. They shouted at me and I tried to understand but I was deafened by my scream. I choked on my blood and a few of the teeth that had been dislodged. The blow had caught me off guard. One of them grabbed a fist full of hair, dragging me across the room. Not wanting more of the same treatment I focused on their voices. Spitting out the blood and teeth, I calmed myself.

            “Ge’ up”, the guard barked.

            I struggled to my feet only to be kneed in the kidney. I was braced for the impact but it still cut my breath and sent me to my hands and knees.

            “Drag your feet again an’ I’ll give you reason ta crawl!”

            This time I rushed with the pain to a stand, looking the guards defiantly in the eye. Two men stood before me. The one that spoke to me wore heavy leather armor. He was no one of rank or importance. His size was massive, he stood a head and a half above me, and each arm was as big as my waist. On his back was strapped a crossbow, and a small dagger rested on his hip. He was purely a guard, not a true soldier. They were the worst of the army, never fighting or risking their lives. A cowardly lot that stayed in their walls and beat helpless captives. The second was a general. Not Liacem himself, but one of the elite. He was clad in sleek metal armor, the edges laced with gold plating. On his back hung a battle-axe, at his side a broad sword, and under his arm a helmet. His eyes glowed with cruelty, and his smile reeked of death. He was a soldier, a warrior, and he had acquired the position through his swift and accurate ability to slaughter armed, experienced fighters. He wasn’t a huge brute, in fact, if I hadn’t known better I might have described him as delicate. He was a creature of cold beauty, brutally magnificent, and I despised him.

            “I’m going love wa’chin’ you choke.” the guard sneered.

            The general ignored the guard’s intimidation effort, his eyes cool and far away.

            I pulled my thoughts away from the general, and back to the brute. I was to be hung and it probably wasn’t going to be a quick and easy process. Disappointed by my lack of response the guard took a good jab at my thigh with his dagger. The tip of the knife went in and out rapidly and despite my efforts, a small whimper escaped my throat. The whine brought a broad grin to his face. I felt the blood running in a rivulet down my leg. He stepped close, his rotting breath in my face. One of his hands forcing my chest back against the wall, the other grabbing the stab wound firmly. I fought back another whimper as the pain shot up my leg.

            “If I wasn’t in such a rush we could have some fun. Pity we don’t have the time, eh?” he beamed, his body odor and breath becoming unbearably thick.

I spoke quickly my voice surprisingly steady, “I try not to mingle with dogs anyway.” I turned my head from his stench.

I needed to buy Vai time to get to me. I glanced back at the guard, his face flushed as his mouth drew into a smile. Seems like I was on the right track, or a really wrong one. The general looked surprised at my bold jest.

            “Why you. I’ll teach you a lesson for tha’ one. I guess we’ll just make the time,” the guard growled.

            He grabbed my wrists and twisted me onto my knees. I felt the soft tissue surrounding my crushed shoulder tearing. Rigid, I swallowed back the pain, and clenched my eyes shut.

            “Hm,” the general interrupted.

            The guard ignored the warning, pinning me to the ground with his mass. The assault ended abruptly as the guard’s body went stiff. I opened my eyes, confused at the sudden stop. The guards had never been hesitant. I looked up to see a blade protruding through his chest, his eyes wide with surprise. Blood pooled down his body, thick, warm and sticky. It quickly saturated my chest. The general removed his sword and kicked the bulky body to the side of the room. The move was so swift, so smooth, I wasn’t sure it had happened at all.

            “There is no time for your crude behavior, and I am disgusted,” said the general. His voice was as icy as winter and his words devoid of mercy for the dying man.

 He turned to me. “Get up. I have no time for games.”

            Forcing myself to my feet I stood shakily, my arm hanging limp and useless at my side. My stomach covered in a thick coat of sticky, crimson blood. I tried to walk forward only to crumple under my own weight. The general grabbed me impatiently under the arm and half dragged me from the room. Glancing back I saw the dying man’s body convulsing.

We exited the cell and a second soldier just outside grabbed my other arm. I quit trying to walk at that point and let them drag me. I could feel the skin on my feet being buffed away by the rocky ground and didn’t care. My shoulder burned, I was going to die, my last hope to buy time had just shuddered and now lay sealing my fate in its own blood and I no longer cared. We were all going to die, and all I could think about was this nightmare ending.

    The long of the short of why I am not finishing this 10000 words in. I have real life events that talk about my story and I don't want someone I based a character off of to read this story and see the monster they were in my life.       

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