Lies

Chapter 12

I was about to ask him what he was doing, but he shook his head at me.

Dorian said, "Aleksandria, I'm going to allow you to have two minutes with Shadow alone now. Use this time wisely."

Dorian and the two other men walked out of the room, but I wasn't paying attention to them. I watched only Shadow as he stepped closer to me and smiled down at me. He was wearing his all black outfit, but I noticed that he didn't seem to have any weapons on him. I then realized that it was probably because Dorian wouldn't allow him to carry them. I smiled back up at his electric blue eyes and he crouched down so his bright eyes were level with mine.

He said quietly, "Hi."

I whispered back, "Hi."

He smiled and said, "Since they didn't give us much time, I'm going to make this short."

I nodded at him and he took that as his sign to continue, "Dorian offered me a deal and I already took it. There's no going back. He offered to let you go if he was able to keep me instead."

My heart dropped into my stomach as I heard what he said.

I asked him quietly, "What? Why would you do something like that?"

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "This was never your fight in the first place. It was only mine and I need to take my place in it, which is in that chair."

He pointed to where I was sitting, but I refused to move, since I couldn't really move in the first place. I was speechless. He couldn't do this! He had to stay in the outside world and save people!

I said hurriedly, "You can't do that Shadow! You're supposed to stay out there and save people! You aren't supposed to waste your whole life on someone who isn't going to do anything special with theirs!"

He knew that I was talking about myself, but he just smiled and laughed.

He said, "It wouldn't have been the same if I didn't save you. Sure, I might have saved a bunch of other people, but I wouldn't be the same if I didn't save you."

I gave him a confused look, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

I asked him, "So what now? Are you really expecting me to go back to my normal life and act like none of this never happened?"

He cupped my face with his hands as he said, "No. You're supposed to remember that this happened. Use it to your advantage. Get the word out about the dangers of these people so they can hurt no one else."

He looked into my eyes for a minute longer before breaking the eye contact and letting go of my face. The door opened and Dorian walked in with the same men as before.

Dorian said, "Alright Shadow, it's time."

Shadow nodded and one of the men walked up to the chair that I was sitting in. He pulled out a knife and started to cut at the ropes that bound my hands to the chair. As soon as both of my hands were free, I rubbed the spots where the rope had been. Shadow moved to inspect my wrists, but Dorian stopped him with his cane. Shadow looked like he wanted to snap the cane in half as it rested against his chest, but he restrained himself enough not to break it.

Shadow took a step back and Dorian lowered his cane back to the ground. After all of the rope had been cut, the man grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the chair. My legs were stiff, but it wasn't as bad as the last time that I had to stand up after being in a chair for a long time. I took a step away from the chair and Shadow took my place. He sat down in the chair and he smiled at me. I tried to smile back, but I couldn't.

There was no way that I would have been able to smile at him in this situation. He was giving up his freedom to save me. No other person had ever even volunteered to answer a question for me in school, let alone take my place as hostage with hostile people. Tears filled my eyes as they tied the ropes on his hands and ankles, but he just smiled at me.

He said, "It's okay. At least you are safe."

I smiled at him, but we both knew that it wasn't real.

Dorian said, "Now that pleasantries are over with, let's get down to business."

I gave him a confused look, but he just waved his hand at me. One of the men walked up to Shadow and slapped him across the cheek. The sound that his hand made as it made contact with Shadow's cheek made me gasp. The sound was deafening, almost to the point of being too loud in the tiny, enclosed room. Dorian waved at the man who hadn't slapped Shadow and the man approached me. The man slapped me across the face, which made Shadow jump in the chair.

Shadow screamed at Dorian, "You promised that she wouldn't get hurt!"

Dorian shrugged his shoulders and said, "What can I say? It's not like I'm a good guy or anything."

Shadow glared at him and tried to break out of his bonds, but they were too strong even for him. Shadow screamed more at Dorian, but the words just drowned into sounds as the buzzing in my ear became painfully loud. I brought my hand up to rub the spot that the man had hit, but he hit me again in the same spot before I was able to stop him.

My head snapped to the side and the whiplash hurt my neck. I felt liquid running from my ear after he had hit me. I brought my hand down to see what the liquid was and my stomach clenched when I saw that it was blood. I looked back at the man and, before I knew what I was doing, I brought my fist up and punched the man in the face. He staggered back a few steps and brought his hand up to his face, but he didn't give out any cry of pain. He brought his hand away from his face, and I saw that it was covered in blood from his nose and mouth.

He glared down at me and said, "You're going to pay for that one little girl."

Dorian cleared his throat loudly and the man looked at him.

Dorian said, "Just take her outside. I don't want this one getting any ideas."

He pointed to Shadow, who was only concerned about my face. I gave him a pleading look, hoping that it was all part of his plan, but he just gave me a hopeless look back. He didn't have a plan and I saw in clearly on his face, along with Dorian.

Dorian smiled and said, "Take her to the other room."

Shadow screamed and said, "No! No! You're going to pay for this Dorian! One way or another I will make you pay for this!"

Dorian chuckled as he watched Shadow struggled in the chair, but he didn't make any move towards Shadow. Instead, he started to walk out behind the man who was still trying to control his bleeding nose. The man got some of his own blood on my arms as he grabbed me and led me out of the room. The blood on his hand was making my arm wet, which made me almost want to gag. I looked back at the man, but he just glared down at me with disgust.

He closed his mouth and then spit some of his blood at me. I cowered and waited for the blood to spray across my face, but it never came. I snapped my eyes open and looked around. I was back in the room, still tied to the chair. The silence in the room was deafening as I realized that I was the only one in the room. I looked around in confusion until I finally realized that it was all just a dream. Tears flooded my eyes as I came to the realization that no one was going to save me. No one was going to take my place. I truly was all alone.