by M. J. Bavis
Leo remained rigid. His blue ocean-eyes were packed with so many emotions it ached to look at them.
“You don’t know what you’re saying.” His voice changed like it did when his exterior became a mask. “You’re choosing the easy road because you’re so lost it seems like the only alternative. You’re wasting your life running after something that will bring you no purpose, and with it, no fulfilment.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, letting it hang. I took a step back, and forth, and back again. Leo’s jawline pulsed as he gritted his teeth.
“I talked to Anita a few days ago. She suggested I study medicine to help people with my gift. She said I could make a real difference and I believe her. And I have friends who—”
“Like Sebastian?” Leo scoffed, catching me off-guard, but I managed to internalise the surprise.
Instead, I shrugged at his biting tone. “Yes, he’s a friend.” My lips searched for words until I’d considered everything possible to say and decided against it.
It turned out the silence spoke more.
Leo’s composure wavered. His eyes were both fierce and hurt, and they held mine captive.
It was Leo who broke the connection.
“I wish I could make you see what you’re giving up,” he started slowly. “I wish I could stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life. I wish I could—” Leo looked down, face twisting with emotion. I swallowed, throat dry. When he lifted his chin up again, it was a different person in front of me.
“—but I can see you’ve made your choice. I’ll go back. Alone. You won’t see me again after today.” Leo turned and walked off before the extent of his words had sunk in fully.
“Wait!” I jogged after him and stopped as he did. Without giving me a glimpse of his face, he raised his hand.
“I’ve waited long enough. Goodbye, Kalika.”
Shivers crawling up my spine, I could but stare as he walked out of my life. As soon as he was out of sight, I buried the memory of his crooked smile into the hole gaping wide open in my chest.
Chapter 31
He was gone. Leo had held true to his word.
I pressed the phone close to my ear, shocked at the suddenness of the news.
“You still there?” Jill queried on the other end of the line.
“Yes.” I gathered my bearings. “Just surprised he actually left. So soon.” Had it not been merely two days since I talked to him? What had I expected?
“I know.” Jill breathed heavy. “He came by yesterday to say his goodbyes. He couldn’t stay another day from the sound of it. I was kind of hoping he’d change his mind.”
I stood at the centre of my bedroom, at a loss for words. He was really gone?
“—but he rang to say he’s on his way home, wherever that is.”
I barely registered what Jill was saying.
“He just left,” I stated, mainly for myself.
“Isn’t that what you wanted? Him getting his life back?”
Had that been what I wanted? “Of course. I want him to be happy.” Was I happy?
“He wasn’t sure if he’d come back for the wedding,” Jill said. “Tony’s been pretty bummed out.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” The weight of blame nearly caused my knees to buckle.
“It’s not your fault.”
Except that it was. I sighed and kicked the bed.
“Anyway, I thought you’d want to know.” The line rattled, and I pictured Jill pottering around her flat. “I’m actually on my way out. My mum’s over for a few days.”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks. Have a great time.” I failed to sound upbeat.
I tossed the phone on the bed. Leo was really gone. The room suddenly felt pressing, the walls inched their way closer. I needed space—fresh air.
It was grey outside; the whole day had been overcast.
I crossed the road but steered away from the park; too many memories to be thinking clearly. Instead, I jogged towards the industrial area. The factories would have closed and emptied of workers.
Even though I’d finally had my wish, something bugged me. Maybe it was the slightly eerie evening, or that I had lost a training partner and sort of a friend.
I rounded a corner, leaving the housing estate behind. I took a step off the curb, but my foot never hit the ground. An arm wrapped around my neck and yanked me back. A smell familiar somehow engulfed me as a cloth was pressed tightly over my mouth and nose.
My arms flung to fight, but it was too late. The force behind me had the upper hand. I was slipping, fading…. Darkness.
*
A motor purred, steady and monotonous. I was moving, but not of my own will. My eyes blinked open, but it made little difference; the dark refused to subside.
This must be a dream.
I struggled to breathe as if the light was my source of oxygen. My arms didn’t cooperate, my legs wouldn’t move.
Hold on. The smell—pungent and overpowering—lingered faintly in my nostrils reminding me of something.
My muscles trashed. I wasn’t asleep. I was drugged.
Clarity of thought overtook the haze and I became aware of thick tape restraining my wrists behind me. My ankles shared the same fate. I attempted to roll on my back, only for my head and side to collide against the limits of the space. With force, my thoughts met each other: I’d been kidnapped.
A scream rose in my throat, but it never made it past the strip of tape fastened over my mouth. Futile, I wrestled against the ties but soon surrendered. Whoever took me had wanted me to stay put.
The darkness was thick but judging from the small space and the humming, I was inside the boot of a car, helpless in having any say of my destination.
I relaxed my muscles to save the fight in them, and instead focused on the most important question: who was behind the wheel?
After what felt like hours, the car stopped. Although stiff and aching, I stayed still to listen.
A door opened, and weight shifted from inside; there had only been the driver. The footsteps sounded too heavy and wide apart to belong to a woman, and quickly they distanced until there was little of any other sound—had I heard a cricket?
Infrequent traffic and the bumpy last kilometres had confirmed I’d be where there were few to nose around.
My heart skipped a beat as noises—multiple this time—returned from outside: voices, male, low. I couldn’t make out words or recognise the speakers. I held my breath as the lock clicked, and suddenly cool air flooded in. I had to blink several times to aid my eyes to adjust to the lighter darkness.
A shape appeared in the air and I studied it, forcing my eyes to meet my captor. Gradually, the form became clearer, changing from a shape to a person. I knew the face, but I didn’t understand it. A vile smirk distorted the familiar features.
It could not be him.
“Hello, Kalika.”
A shudder shook me as Sebastian’s hand reached to pull me out of the boot.
Chapter 32
Was this a prank?
Sebastian’s firm grip, forcing me to stand up, told otherwise. Three other men, all dressed in black, stared at me, on alert. I calculated my odds.
“Surprised to see me?” Sebastian’s voice was a drawl, thick with arrogance. Swift, he ripped off the tape, causing my lips to tremble from the sudden onset of pain.
“What’s going on, Sebastian?” I strained against the ties, wanting to deny the truth.
“Aww, still not so witty.” A raucous laugh echoed in the open space. “Do you not know your friends from your enemies?” Sebastian pinned my chin.
I attempted to free myself from his grasp, luckless. His appearance was no longer that of a laid-back student I had called a friend. Before me stood a fighter: poised, confident, menacing. His eyes were now darkly brown, his shaggy hair shaved to a buzz cut, and even his mouth curved differently.
“What do you want?” I glowered.
He sneered. “Well, I want you, Kalika.”
I froze, taking in Sebastian’s tanned face, the bridge of his nose and the lean muscle over his body. Had I not seen it before, or not wanted to admit it to myself?
“That’s right.” Sebastian lifted his chin. “We’re not so different, are we, now? After all, I was your kin…before we were banished from our homes, sent to the other side of the river, and forced to start over so your King could have his precious people stay on his lands.” Sebastian spat on the ground and pushed my face away from him. My eyes flickered to the three soldiers standing by. I noted the single line of crimson paint on the side of their necks—a symbol of their devotion to bringing Narun to ruin.
“You’re from Gorah.”
“Born and bred.”
I breathed in deep, refusing to let him intimidate me. “What do you want from me? How’d you know who I was?”
“Oh, we’ve known about you for a long time. Finding you, now that was the tricky bit, and frustratingly, that stalker leech of yours found you first so we had to get creative. But in the end, you took care of him quite nicely by yourself.”
Leo.
“Now that he’s out of the way…” Sebastian trailed off meaningfully, drunk on the sound of his own voice.
I jutted my chin forward. “What are you after?”
“Same thing we were after years ago: you and your special talent.”
Years ago? Goosebumps covered my arms. What was he talking about?
“Don’t worry, I’ll explain later. Let’s get you inside, don’t want you to catch a cold in the night now, do we? Big day ahead tomorrow.” Sebastian’s face reeked of arrogance. The darkness inside of him wasn’t veiled anymore.
Drops of panic infiltrated as the reality sunk in: this wasn’t going to end well.
Sebastian flicked a knife from his pocket and cut the tape around my ankles. My attempt to kick at his jaw fell short: his arm blocked my leg, his elbow smacked into my gut. I stumbled as he forced me forward, his fingers locked around my arm.
“Oh, and one more thing.” He dropped his grip on me. “Since you know my weaknesses, let’s even the playing field.”
While the last word still hung in the air, I felt a blow between my ankle and knee. I registered the crack before the pain struck like a bolt of lightning. Agony took me to the ground, but no one tried to silence my scream.
“That should deter any escape plans for now,” Sebastian said.
I was barely aware of the men coming on either side of me, pulling me up, and dragging me across the gravel towards a large, grey building. I couldn’t tell if Sebastian followed.
Absorbed by the pain, my only resistance was a groan.
The ache in my leg became bearable. I was on the stone floor of my assigned prison cell, —a cobweb-ridden cellar—legs resting at full-length, back leaning against the rough, slightly moist concrete wall. An older man with shaky hands and darting eyes had come in to place a make-shift splint on my leg. A well-bribed vet, perhaps? But, as long as the bone remained aligned and supported, the healing process would be on the go.
I drifted between sleep and consciousness, trying to make sense of what was the dream and what the nightmare of reality. My head jerked as I slipped in and out of sleep.
Sebastian’s face haunted me, all memories of him now marred. Why had I trusted him so blindly? Why hadn’t I doubted him? Instead, he’d been my haven from the drama that was my life.
Dumb and dumber—yours truly.
What did he even want with me? He’d dedicated the time to gain my trust, and waited for Leo to leave before…before what? What could he want with me that was worth the effort? There were others more valuable.
I rubbed my ear against my shoulder and stretched my neck. The more awake I became, the more the horror swelled inside. Not only was I in trouble, but I was also alone in it.
*
At least no one could sneak up on me unnoticed…
I angled my head towards the door as it whined open.
“Rise and shine,” Sebastian said.
Passively, I met his condescending smile. Why give him the pleasure of getting any emotion out of me?
“Friends tend to greet each other, you know. It’s polite.” Sebastian squatted in front of me, savouring the state of my leg.
“It’s also good manners not to break each other’s legs.”
A scoff parted behind Sebastian’s pursed lips. “You know—” He patted my bad leg as he straightened to standing. I held in the whimper. “It doesn’t have to be like this. If you cooperate, we can make you much more comfortable.”
“I like it cold and damp. What do you want with me?”
“Not your charm, that’s for sure.” I saw a glimpse of the Sebastian I knew in the face of my captor. He walked across the room, lifted his foot against the wall behind him and crossed his arms on his chest. “So, what’s it going to be? Are you going to help us willingly or—”
“I really don’t see how I could be of any use. If you’re after names you—”
“Names? Of the Guard?” Sebastian sounded as if I had offended his intellect. “That we can get anywhere.”
“Then why me?”
“Don’t act stupid, Kalika. Surely you realise what an asset your gift is?”
“My gifting?” I dragged my palms back along the floor until my wrists hugged the wall.
“If you’re trying to buy time it’s pointless. We’re in no rush,” he said. “Yes, your gifting! You know the weaknesses of every member of the Royal Guard, past and present. Now that in itself is priceless, but we believe with the right training you can do even better.”
Shivers ran from my neck, down to my tailbone. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it.” Sebastian lifted his chin. “Think of how much power you could possess if you extend your gift to not only seeing the weaknesses in people but in gates, defences, walls, towns, Kingdoms, even battle strategies. You would be—”
“It doesn’t work that way,” I cut in, a little relieved.
“Not yet.”
“No, really, it’s not something I could do even if I wanted to. Not that I’d ever do anything to help you.”
Sebastian tutted. “That’s because you haven’t had the right teacher. Your king wants to keep your talents to a level that suits him. He’s afraid you could become more powerful than him, so he keeps you on a short leash. Yet with us…you could be invincible.” Sebastian’s eyes—black-brown without the contact lenses—glazed over.
Goosebumps spread from my spine to my arms. I stared him down, fixated by, and uneasy with, the darkness in his gaze.
“What makes you think I would do anything to help you?”
“Isn’t that what traitors do? Jump ship?”
I fixed my glare on the other side of the square room. A single shelf interrupted the otherwise grey wall.
“Ah, touchy subject. They do say the truth hurts the most… That is the truth, isn’t it?” Sebastian pushed his foot off the wall and took a step, then another towards me. “You’re a traitor, a coward, a runaway…a killer. What reason could you possibly have to go back? Would they even take you back?” He nudged my foot with the tip of his boot as if kicking a lump of rubbish.
“See, with us you can start a new life; you can be someone powerful. You could have a life in the king’s courts but be free to do whatever you like. Imagine, if just the mention of your name would invoke fear.” Sebastian’s words seeped with a lust for his own desires.
My bottom lip rolled underneath my top teeth. “I may be all of those things and I might not be able to ever return home, but I would never, ever, turn against Narun and the King.”
“Haven’t you already renounced the King once?”
My neck tensed up. He knew? How did he know?
“I will never become one of you,” I said much quieter.
Sebastian retorted with a dismissive wave. “We’ll see about that.” He gave me one final l
ook before leaving me alone with the echo of his subtle threat.
I will not make the same mistake twice.
I rested my head against the wall, plotting my options for escape.
A few moments later, the lock turned again, and a man built like a tank appeared in the doorway.
“Get up,” he growled with a bass voice.
“I have a broken leg.”
“You still have the other.” The stone face remained; he was doing his duty and he wasn’t going to stray from it. “Get up.”
What chance does a crippled antelope stand against a lion?
I sighed and sucked in my lips. With the help of my arms, one leg, and the wall, I propped myself to standing. Eventually.
“That took time. Good.” The man stepped over, scooped my arm behind his neck and dragged me out too fast for my limping leg.
He took me along a narrow, all-stone corridor that led us deeper into the ground. The humidity made me quiver and the stench of stale air disagreed with me heavily.
We took a left turn; the corridor narrowed, and the ceiling lowered. Light diminished with each step, but the lack of it hardly bothered the man dragging me.
We stopped as my sight was adjusting. The man lit a hanging lightbulb fastened next to a metal-framed door. The rusty hinges squeaked open, revealing a small, oblong room—low ceiling, damp stone walls, uneven concrete floor. A simple bed lay at one side, toilet and sink at the other.
“Welcome to your new home.” The man shoved me in, and I stumbled, slamming my palms against the floor. Dirt embedded its particles under my skin thanks to the scraping motion.
The door locked behind me. It would’ve been pitch black had a narrow trickle of light not protruded through the hinges of the door. I heaved myself up to the bed and sat down on its thin, worn mattress.
It could be worse. I think.
Chapter 33
Day 8. (I presumed.)
It was getting harder to keep track of time. I hadn’t seen or heard from anyone since I was moved to the dungeon. My only interaction, if you could call it that, was a daily plate of porridge pushed through a hole under the door which I shoved back after it was empty. At first, it was my means of tracking time, but I could swear they kept changing the time of delivery as another way to mess with my head.