The Starling Vigilante [Watty's 2015 Award Winner]

Chapter 27

Stirring, I woke up gradually, my eyes feeling bleary and my actions feeling delayed and slow.

'Morning,' a voice said, his figure unidentifiable and my ears ringing so much I couldn't figure out whose voice it was. Maybe Eddie being tied up and Merlyn trying to kill him was all a big nightmare, and I was waking up next to Eddie. Maybe my life was back to normal.

'Eddie?' I asked hopefully, wishing for it to come true as I woke up properly.

'Eddie is nowhere around here, I assure you,' the clearer, familiar voice of Merlyn confirming the cruel reality I didn't wish I was waking up to.

'What did you do to him?' I sat up at once, angry and concerned.

'What I did to him?' Merlyn repeated sarcastically. 'He punched me!' I smiled to myself at the thought of Eddie fighting back. 'He got what he deserved.'

'What did he 'deserve'?' I asked exasperatedly.

'Let's just say he knows not to search for you, after a little... persuasion.'

So Merlyn threatened him. Badly.

'How do you know I won't look for Eddie?' I supposed impertinently.

'I didn't think you'd want to see him,' Merlyn said. 'After his inability to save you. Oh and his little, er, 'rendezvous', with Anna.'

'WHAT!' I shouted hysterically. Eddie had been cheating on me with someone I thought I was friends with me, and I hadn't even noticed.

'Weren't you a little suspicious when she said she had seen Eddie before you?' Merlyn asked.

I was stupid; I had been desperate to be with Eddie again, when really I should have realised he was seeing someone else. No wonder Anna kept disappearing to places for two or three days at a time throughout the year Eddie had been in Keystone. But unlike Eddie, she could still talk to me like a friend. I just had dismissed it and actually believed her excuses.

I think her fake friendliness was worse than not being talked to at all, now coming to think of it. Eddie had actually acknowledged he was in the wrong.

'But - what about Matthew and Blake?' I asked hopefully. 'They were still friends with me, right?'

'They're gone now,' Merlyn said. 'They wouldn't care if you were here or there. They were never friends with you. Did they ever meet up with you if Anna wasn't there with you?'

Thinking, I realised the harsh reality that was my life.

'No,' I muttered.

'Then there's your answer.'

Staggered, I slumped back, not able to say or do anything. The only things I had thought I had achieved since Merlyn abducted me had been a lie.

But then I realised Merlyn could be the bad guy here. He wasn't exactly the most trustworthy person, and he had got me in this mess. If I only had listened to Yelllow Suit and kept trying to escape Merlyn.

'How can I trust your word?' I asked angrily.

'Of course you can trust me,' Merlyn simply said. 'The anger you've experiencing now, who is it at?'

'My 'friends',' I said sadly. 'And my so called 'boyfriend'.'

'Then direct the anger you're feeling, right now, at them,' Merlyn said. 'I can teach you how to control it to do good.'

'Thank you,' I smiled. Although Merlyn had virtually abducted me and had made me do things against my will for almost four years, he was the only one I could trust at that moment, that seminal moment, of my life.

'So, where are we exactly?' I asked, intrigued. I kind of needed to know that one.

'Starling City,' Merlyn announced proudly. 'You finally ended up where I first told you I was gonna take you.'

Starling... so Merlyn's hopes for me were coming true, and my hopes were becoming less and less possible. All my friends had deserted me. My boyfriend had cheated on me. The only 'friend' I had now was Merlyn.

And trust me, I never thought I would say that. Ever.