Chapter Fourteen

 

 

 

Shane

 

I do not like being kicked in the head or the ribs—or anywhere, for that matter. In general, being kicked sucks. Unfortunately for me, the interrogation guards don’t agree. For the past day and a half since I’ve been captured, I’ve been tortured relentlessly as guards have tried to weasel information about the rebellion from me. The more they have beaten me, the less willing I am to talk, and I have endured a lot of pain due to my stubbornness.

But finally, night has fallen and now they’re gone, leaving me alone so I can rest in this tiny, dingy stone cell in peace. I’m locked in the same dungeon room that Alicia was, and I sit against the cold walls with the same thin white blanket that she had and try to rest.

I don’t know what the point is. I’ll die tomorrow anyway. Maybe I shouldn’t sleep. Maybe I should spend my last moments awake, thinking, looking for a way to get out of here. It won’t work, though. I’ll never escape. It would be better to dream.

Suddenly, I hear a voice outside my cell door. “Step aside, guards. I’d like to see the prisoner.”

It’s Ryan. Great. Someone else to beat me. If they’re lucky, they won’t even have to waste the time executing me. As long as they keep this up, I’ll die from my wounds. You can only kick someone in the head so many times before it kills them.

“Hello, Shane,” Ryan says, entering my cell and closing the wooden door behind him. Instead of hitting me, he sits down across from me, leaning his back against the stone wall. From his pocket, he pulls out a bottle of water, a washcloth and some bandages and tosses them to me.

“Uh… Hi?” I say, thoroughly confused.

“Clean your wounds. You don’t want them to get infected,” he says, nodding to the large gash on my forehead above my eye.

“I’m going to die in the morning anyway. What’s the point?” I rest my head on my knees. I’ll never get to say goodbye to Lainey, to Taeler, to Laura. I’ll never get the chance to have a family or travel or do anything I’ve ever wanted to do. I’d fight if I could, try to escape this horrid dungeon, but I don’t have any strength left—or any hope.

“Look, Shane, I know that things are looking pretty grim right now, but you’ve got to hold on. I’m not going to let anyone execute you. Just have faith,” Ryan says.

“Is this a dream? Have your lovely little interrogation guards kicked the brain right out of my head?” I ask, pouring water from the bottle onto the wash rag and using it to clean the dried blood from my forehead. As soon as I press the cloth to my wound, my entire skull is filled with excruciating pain, and I decide that cleaning the blood off my face is not worth that.

“No, Shane. This isn’t a dream. I’m going to help you out of this. Just hang in there,” Ryan says, gently putting a hand on my shoulder as he stands to leave.

“Why? I’m supposed to be your enemy. Why do you want to help me, Ryan?” I ask. It makes no sense. The head of the Royal Guard shouldn’t want to protect a traitor. He definitely shouldn’t blatantly offer his help to me. He’s going to get himself killed as well, the idiot.

He pauses for a minute before answering, “Let’s just say that I’m invested in you. I’ve got my reasons. Feel better, Shane.”

With that, Ryan exits my cell, leaving me to sit alone and wonder what the hell that was all about. I can’t think for long, though, because only moments later, I hear another voice outside my cell. This one I recognize instantly.

“If you don’t get out of my way and let me into Shane’s cell this instant you don’t even want to know what I’m going to do to you,” Laura whispers, managing to sound threatening, creepy and amusing all at once.

“But, Princess Laura, your father strictly—” one of the men guarding my door begins, but Laura doesn’t give him a chance to speak.

“Is my father here?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Then move, or I’ll kick your ass,” she demands. Obviously, the guards don’t want to get on Laura’s bad side, because a few minutes later my cell door flies open again and she storms through, an irritated expression on her face.

“Laura.” I smile, looking up at her. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail and she’s wearing all black, her normal dress code for the times when she’s breaking her father’s rules.

“Hello, Shane,” she says. Her eyes widen with worry and brim with tears when she sees what has become of me. “Gosh, you look awful.”

“Thanks. You too,” I retort, leaning my head back against the wall. Bruised and beaten, I’m sure I look almost as terrible as Alicia did when I rescued her from this hell.

“Shut up,” she says, kneeling down in front of me and grabbing the wet washcloth from my hands. “Who brought you this?”

“Ryan,” I say, shrugging.

“Ryan, the head of the Royal Guard Ryan?” she says, pressing the cloth to my forehead where my cut is. It hurts just as bad as when I tried to wash it, but I let her help me anyway. It’s nice to be this close to her again.

“Yep. Weird, right?”

“Really weird, but helpful.” She smiles, taking the bandages from my lap and putting one over my cut. She keeps at this for a while, cleaning the blood from my different injuries then bandaging them one by one, in silence. When she’s finished, she sits down beside me, so close that our shoulders are touching, and takes my hand in hers. It’s a gesture that I don’t expect, but I welcome it gladly. We stay like that for a while, our fingers interlocked and my heart beating fast.

Finally, Laura breaks the silence, speaking in only a whisper, “I’m sorry that it took this long for me to come see you. It wasn’t safe.”

“It’s okay. Thanks for being here, though. I’m glad I got to see you one last time—”

“Oh, shut up. I’ve got a plan to save you before you’re executed, so you can just save all of that ‘one last time’ nonsense for when you’re really on your deathbed.”

I raise my eyebrows. “What does this plan consist of?”

“Alicia and your psychotic blonde friend,” she replies, smiling at me.

“Oh, great. My fate rests in the hands of a half-dead traitor and a lunatic.”

“And with me. I’m helping, and I’m going to keep you safe. I also have a backup plan in case theirs fails. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried. I trust you. It’s them. Your sister hates me. I don’t know why she would do anything to help me,” I wonder aloud.

“She doesn’t want to get on my bad side,” Laura teases. “She’s been there before and it landed her in a dungeon.”

“I suppose that’s a good point,” I agree.

“You’re going to live a long, good life, Shane. I’ll be sure of it,” she says, resting her head on my shoulder. I put both my arms around her and rest my chin on the top of her head. The sweet, peaceful moment doesn’t last long, as it is interrupted by a large commotion coming from outside my cell. Moments later, the cell door is flung open and Taeler appears in the doorway, my little sister in tow. If I could stand up for longer than twenty seconds, I’d kill her. What is she thinking, bringing Lainey into this mess? My sister shouldn’t be here.

“Hey, Shane, I tied up your guards, hope you don’t care. Wasn’t easy to do with your sister on my back either, but they weren’t expecting me. I knocked ’em out cold, then Lainey sort of helped me tie them up. You know, for a seven year old, she ties a really good knot. I mean, I did most of the work, but she got to put on the finishing touches. Oh, hi, Laura,” Taeler begins, putting Lainey down on the floor. My sister runs to me and flings her arms around my neck, holding onto me tightly. It hurts, but I’ll be okay. If my life is in Taeler’s hands, it’s probably best that I say my goodbyes, just in case.

“Hi, Taeler,” Laura says wearily, rolling her eyes at Taeler’s theatrics. While Laura likes to show off by flipping out of trees and throwing knives with pinpoint accuracy, Taeler likes to show off by causing all sorts of unnecessary commotion.

“I don’t particularly care that you’ve tied up my guards, but I do care that you brought my little sister on your insane mission to break me out of here!”

“Oh, we’re not breaking you out of here yet. The place is swarming with extra guards. It was extremely difficult to sneak into the palace, probably because I brought a small child with me. I actually just needed to talk to some other rebels and get the down low on your execution tomorrow, but I figured you could use some cheering up. So, I brought your sister.”

“If I don’t die tomorrow, I’m going to kill you.”

“Oh, shut up. You know you’re happy to see her.”

“No, actually, I’m not.”

“You don’t like me, Shane?” Lainey says, her eyes welling with tears.

“Of course I like you, Lainey. I just want you to be safe, and you aren’t safe here,” I say, hugging her.

“Taeler is not ever safe,” she says, eyes widening. “Taeler is crazy.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, kid,” I say, ruffling her hair. She climbs into my lap and lays her head against my shoulder, clutching my tattered shirt in her little fist. Although I’m upset that Taeler put my sister in danger, I’m happy to see Lainey, to know that she’s alive and relatively happy.

“Who is this girl?” Lainey asks, looking at Laura and touching her cheek. “She’s very pretty.”

“Her name is Laura, and I think she’s pretty too,” I say, glancing at her from the corner of my eye. Laura’s cheeks have reddened, and she’s staring at her feet, refusing to make eye contact with me.

“Oh, give me a break,” Taeler sighs exasperatedly, putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head. “All right, Lainey, sorry the visit was short, but we’ve gotta get out of here.”

“But I want to stay with Shane!”

“Sorry, munchkin. You can’t. We gotta go now,” Taeler says, scooping my little sister out of my lap and into her arms. Lainey holds on to my hand for a minute then lets go as Taeler begins to walk toward the door.

“I love you, Lainey,” I say. I have to tell her, just in case it’s the last time I get the chance.

“I love you too, Shane! Feel better!” she says, smiling at me from over Taeler’s shoulder.

“Hey, Taeler, wait!” I say. She stops in the doorway and looks back at me.

“Yes?”

“If your plan fails… If anything happens to me… Promise me that you’ll take care of my sister,” I say, a few tears managing to form in my eyes. I will not cry in front of Lainey or Laura. Neither of them need to know how afraid I am. I have to stay strong, stay brave, but I don’t want to die.

“I swear on my life that I will, Shane,” Taeler says. “But it won’t come to that. You’re going to be fine. I promise.”

I nod, and Taeler and Lainey hurry through the doors, running from the dungeon to fight their way to the safety of the forest. I hope they stay safe, that Lainey doesn’t get hurt because Taeler was foolish enough to bring her here.

“I’d better make sure they get out of here safely,” Laura says, reading my thoughts and standing to follow after my sister and my friend.

Before she leaves, she stops and looks over at me one last time. “Sleep tight, Shane. And don’t worry. I’m going to keep you safe, even if it’s the last thing I do,” she promises as she exits the room.

After all I’ve done to get myself into this mess, I don’t deserve people like her looking out for me. But I’m thankful that she is, and I trust that somehow, someway, she’s going to help me out of this. If I live to see another day, I’ll owe it all to her.