•Pride•

A Living Mirage (28)

AJs POV

I heard a slam. My heart was beating so quickly it could've flown out of my chest. When I looked down to see my girlfriend sliding off the cage into a puddle on the ground, a moment of panic spread even farther then where it had reached before. Then I replayed the scene in my head and laughed. The laughing hurt, as my chest was weak and my lungs ached. But I would not pass up a chance to laugh at my clumsy girlfriend. Sadness soon took over my joy when I saw myself in my torn clothes bloodied and bruised. My hair tangled in a mess, sweeping into my reddened eyes. There was no hiding my ribs, or my cuts. All I was was an object. Disregarded and tossed aside, forgotten and remembered. I would've cried but my body had nothing to cry out. And I looked at jan. Her hair was gone, scratches on her head and legs. Her shoes were shredded away, the blood from her head pooling in her split lips.

This is what was done to us.

This is what had become of us.

My fury raged as an impenetrable fire would in a forest stripped of life. Words were printed in my vision. Words I will not say. But these words were powerful. I stood up using energy I didn't have. I breathed using air I didn't have. I screamed and toppled the cage over with the love and passion I did have.
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Jan's POV

Would I have woken had Adria and her steel cage not fallen on top of me? Likely not. However, I almost didn't wake after they did. I knew that at least one rib was broken. Pain surges through my bones and weaselled into my blood. Which at that point wasn't that much, as most if it was watering the grass in the ground. I wheezed, and bit my lip. Adria looked at me with dry eyes and rolled over, making the cage slide off of my broken body. She looked at me with eyes of pity and anger. I couldn't tell if she was angry with me, but I didn't have time to find out. I heard a door slam, from where I still do not know, but I ran and hid behind a tree.

"Oh, Adria. Sweetheart. You've fallen! Tsk. You shouldn't have done that." Poured a sickeningly sweet voice. AJ grunted. I hear the door of the age open, and the voice again. Have you had enough of the wilderness? Well. Let's get you inside to warm.

"No!" Screamed AJ. "Are you blind? I don't want to be near you. I don't want you to touch me."

My eyes stung.

"Oh, so you'd prefer to spend time with the vicious animals out here?" The clearly female figure growled.

"Oh, sweetheart. They only learned from you." Adria hissed in return. The woman screamed.

I looked out from behind the tree to see a sleek woman throwing Adria to the ground. My throat swelled. That woman was... Familliar. Oh, she was familiar. I should've recognized her voice.

"Destiny." I whispered. Sure, the hair was misleading. Adria wouldn't have known. But I knew des, and I knew this was her.

"Where's your idiot girlfriend, anyways?" Screamed Destiny.

"What do you want with her?" AJ spat.

"Only what she took from me." My heart clenched. Only then did I realize this whole thing was for me. Not AJ, me. Destiny was abusing her, when it should've been me.