The Medoran Chronicles~ A Fanfiction

Part 11

   ALEX'S PERSPECTIVE:

 Alex opened her eyes but the room was so dark, she questioned her consciousness.

  Her only source of light was heavily filtered through tinted glass further darkened by dragging, bloody handprints. It highlighted the floor where her blood didn't stain it. She felt her hair sweep itself over her face in its knotty clumps. Slumping back into the rock, her bitter chant returned. It was fueled more by fear of death than ever before...Or, she tried to convince herself that it was fear and not a twisted sort of relief. I'll die in here, never seeing anyone I love again, and become a forgotten body. No-one will remember me. This will all end...

  A hydraulic hiss echoed. She drew herself up against the bed frame. Through the curtain of hair, she made out a tall, slightly trembling figure. The man had black hair covering his face almost imitating a shadow, with the rest of his figure hidden by a loose robe— but she would recognise it all anywhere. 

It was Kaiden. 

  Before she could brush her hair out of the way and leap up as she so wanted to, she saw a gleaming silver knife in his hand. It shook side to side in its owner's fist, and before Alex had the time to scream, it was driven down into her chest.
                                                                                                   
                                                                                               *

 Blackness was all Alex knew: blackness, flashes of a starry sky, vaguely-familiar black scales, bloodshot eyes, tear-stained faces, beeping machines, blood and blackness...


                                                                                                *

  Alex jolted. It must have been a dream, she thought. It had to have been! Kaiden wouldn't stab me...Maybe it wasn't him? But, bubbling beneath her internal pleas, she knew that it had been Kaiden James who had brought the knife down on her chest. 

The pain of the stab wound or her time in Traevarg combined was comfort, compared to the agony of betrayal.

 If her body hadn't become so numb at the despairing thought, she might have wondered why the material above her was soft as silk and not the now-familiar traesos. 

   For some inexplicable reason, no tears came to her eyes. Alex lay on the bed, staring at the roof and white curtains. No, no, no...That can't be right. Kaiden loves me. He wouldn't...Can't have... She stared for what could have been hours at the vibrant, too-happy-for-the-situation flowers which bloomed a rainbow across the sunny, white room. She vaguely recognised the space as Fletcher's critical-care ward. Flowers, cards and chocolates had overtaken the desk, flooded the floor around it and crawled around the bed frame. And, near the corner of the bed, she saw a lithe black form laying.

   Before she had time to call it, Soraya skittered away. Less than a moment later, a set of curtains whisked open and a figure strode through. Alex narrowed her eyes before shoving a fist in her mouth and clamping her teeth down around her sobs as she recognised Fletcher's face. She didn't know why seeing the concerned frown made her so emotional. Nonetheless, her face was drenched in tears and she shuddered. 

'Alex,' soothed Fletcher. He had purple rings under his eyes. 'Calm down, Alex.  Everyone is safe. Kaiden is okay. You don't need to worry.' 
 
   'Y-you say that like it's a good th-th--' Alex's tongue caught against her throat painfully and her eyes widened as she panted, '--thing.'

  Fletcher's mouth opened to say something but then he looked away and instead decided to ignore her comment. When he caught her gaze, she saw hurt filling his eyes but couldn't summon regret.

   'Alex,' he began, pursing his lips so tightly they turned white. 'I don't know the entire story, but I do know that... Please know that everybody has been looking for you, but I'm afraid to say that all that time with an open, infected wound on your shoulder is irreparable. Here, I'll show you.' He gently helped her sit up, pulled out a device and placed it behind her back. When he showed a screen to her, she gasped. On the skin surrounding, there was a soft glow of vaeliana but covering her shoulder blade to her hips, was a scar. It was as if someone had poked their fingers into her flesh and left the print there, for, spreading across her back like a disease, was a collection of thumb-deep holes. She reached behind her back to feel them, and they were indeed as deep as fingers. She tried to gasp but it was caught in the lump in her throat.

  'It was the infection; it killed the flesh and had begun to rot the bones. It's quite a miracle you survived. It shouldn't cause any lasting pain, but the scar will remain with you for the rest of your life. I'm so, so sorry.'

 'My God,' she breathed. Even to her own ringing ears, Alex's voice sounded feeble as a six-year-old's.

  Fletcher stroked her forehead with his thumb before leaving the room, shaking his head pitifully.

  Alex tried to settle her breathing. She was lucky to be alive, she reminded herself. Scars don't determine my character. And I can cover it relatively well, I guess. But she felt the pockets of skin where her tee-shirt missed across the scar; she sensed the bedsheets snag against the deeper holes. Whe imagined the faces pulled when people all saw the revolting thing.

  Alex couldn't help it as her breathing went ragged. She tried to focus her attention somewhere else as the panic set in, and when she heard voices, her pulse seemed to slow slightly.

  'Be careful with her.'

  'Why?'

  'She's just...Been through a lot. I'm afraid that she's not well; she seems to dislike you...a lot.'
 
  'I deserve it... What I did to her...'

  'Kaiden. For goodness' sake, why do you think she stayed with you those years? It was clear she wasn't happy, but she did stay. She loves you. She just doesn't know it. I won't get involved, but she knows first-hand how evil, conniving and, seemingly, persuasive he is. She'll forgive you if you let her.'

  'She was being tortured in a prison for over a year a few hundred metres away from me, and, flipping hell, I had the power to get her out. What did I do? I let her rot while I was getting mansions made for me. I can't forgive that; I refuse to.'

   A frustrated groan, a soft grunting noise, a shape sent a shadow through the curtain, indignant protesting, before--

   Kaiden's tanned face had once been what she had looked forward to seeing the most every day, but now the sight of them brought silent tears rushing down her face. 

  He rushed forward, and she gripped the face she had missed so desperately for dear life. Her knuckles faded white with the tension. She pressed her lips against his, savouring the warm taste of his mouth, wishing that this was forever... Forever... She pressed her teeth over his bottom lip and his hands travelled to her neck. Alex almost moaned and subconsciously pushed her body against his. She had missed his taste, his smell, his body, his mouth...

  'Alex...' He reached forward to stroke her face, but Alex fought every instinct she had and shoved him away, gasping. She lurched back against the bed, tears still blurring her vision. 

  'Don't come near me,' she hissed through the pain in her chest. Soraya Shadowed in and gave a half-growl, protective of her owner but wanting to greet Kaiden. 

  Alex heard a choked sob in Kaiden's throat as he began, 'Alex, I just wanted to say how sorry I am... What I did was so wrong and I regret it. I'd give my life if it meant you didn't have to go through that.'

  A traitorous pang of sympathy struck her but she closed her eyes and battled it away. 'You didn't need to give your life. You didn't even need to be in pain. You just needed to get out of that palace, come to the prison and I wouldn't be in this situation right now! Nor would you!'

  'I know... I-I know. God, I know. But I didn't and I need you to forgive me.' Kaiden's eyes glistened in the light.

  'How do you expect me to forgive that?' Anger flared in her chest. 'Kaiden! I wish I could forgive you but I can't! Of course, I can't. You shouldn't expect me to forgive you for stabbing me.' 

  'That wasn't me! That was a desperate person trying to get home, and willing to do anything in order for that to happen.'

  'Even to stab me? Or worse, stab anyone? I could have been any innocent prisoner in there, and you well could have killed them.'

  Kaiden's face shuttered. 'Honest,' he breathed. 'I will never do that again, I swear.'

  'You're damn right, you won't! You won't ever come near me again!'

  Soraya whined, confused as to why her two favourite humans were fighting— or knowing perfectly well, and not knowing what to do to stop it. 

  'Alex, you can't do that!' Kaiden's face was wild and his body was trembling uncontrollably.

  'Oh, can't I? Oh, I won't then, master. I'll obey your every petty command. At your service.' For years, the resentment had been boiling beneath the edge but him stabbing her was the ingredient that brought it spilling over the edge. 'Kaiden, you don't control me. You like to think that I'll just live my life in that house, your pretty toy, but you don't control me. You never will.'

   Kaiden was at a loss. 'I brought you back, Alex...'

'Really? I didn't notice,' she grumbled in monotone.

He seemed to know just how pitiful he sounded. 'I flew back with you and Xira and Fletcher treated you with Karter...Alex, just give me a second chance, please.'

  'Why the hell would I do that?'

  'Because...I-I love you. I always have and I'll never stop,' he pleaded, kneeling at her bedside. 

   Alex ignored all her instincts and scoffed shakily. 'Kaiden, this is the end of our--...Well, whatever I thought we had.'

  Kaiden stood, not completely comprehending what she had said...Then he visibly jerked, and his body dissolved into the air. 

  Alex shrunk back against the bed, her ragged breaths sounding like wind rushing through trees after a storm. 

  What...had...just...happened?