Shadowforce

SCOTT

I was concentrating straight for almost three hours; at least it felt like three hours. According to the mental discussion that we had, we would execute our plan dot at mid night. How would we know that it is midnight? Catherine would tell us, mentally... Before that Brittney and I had to figure out how to get out of the dungeon on our own. According to the plan we first get away from our dungeon and then free Lucy and Drake. Until then, all that Lucy and Drake had to do was locate the key.

At last I was able to completely freeze and break open the chains that bound my legs. I turned towards Brittney to thank her for helping me by drawing up the heat, but I what I saw next shocked me. Brittney lay in the ground... unconscious.

She was unusually pale and was breathing heavily... I tried to rush towards her but since I had not broken the chains binding my hands, I couldn't reach her. To freeze and open those chains would take a lot of time and the heat was returning. Seeing no other choice I tried calling out to her but when even that didn't work I decided to use my last resort... I shouted out for Josh, for Alice even Rancour... I had no choice... I just cried out loud for help.

Surprisingly all the three of them appeared immediately. Alice opened the gate of the dungeon as the three of them entered, they did not even notice that I had freezed open the chains which were previously binding my legs... Josh checked Brittney,

"She is burning... We have to take her to the infirmary immediately, she even has an irregular heartbeat." He said.

Rancour checked so himself, then he held Brittney by her shoulder and... Well he just vanished... I looked around confused, but Josh and Alice did not bother explaining me and just said,

"She will be fine; Rancour took him to the infirmary..."

The key word, "Rancour"... I did not trust Rancour at all...

"What did you do to her?" Alice asked me boldly... was she blaming...me...?

"I don't know... I had fallen asleep and when I woke up I found her like this..."

I could not tell Alice the truth, how could I? It would destroy the whole plan. But according to Alice, Brittney's life was at risk. I was feeling terrified... Josh and Alice then just left. I was busy blaming myself for her condition... if only I had been more careful maybe she would not have been in that situation...

After almost half an hour which felt like decades, Alice brought in Brittney, she left without even tying up Brittney or noticing that I had broken all the chains that once bound me or that half of the dungeon was frozen... Brittney was conscious but her hands were bandaged. The next thing I remember doing is taking her into my arms... hugging her tight, just saying,

"I am sorry... M so sorry... It's my entire fault... if only I hadn't been so selfish... I only I had..." But then Brittney just interrupted me by saying,

"Its fine Scott, All's fine... There is no reason for you to feel guilty..."

Then Brittney explained to me about what had exactly happened. According to the witch doctor slave in the in the infirmary, Brittney had used too much of her magic energy. Thanks to the fact that Rancour was not around, there was nothing to worry that they might be suspicious about anything. Brittney had actually taped to her limit.

Brittney smiled looking at my worried face,

"You can let go of me now Scott..."

"Oh... ya sorry..."

I had actually forgotten that I was still hugging her... I let go her immediately... It was kind of embarrassing but I was too busy being happy that she was all right. Checking her hands I saw that they were completely burned but hence she was under a healing spell there was nothing much to worry about.

Although I felt extremely relieved that Brittney was fine, one thing did bother me... Rancour had said that they had taken us as prisoner to torture us and to slowly kill us... But instead they had actually saved her... they had taken her to the infirmary and put her under a healing spell... that was definitely not what a 'torturer' does...

Something did not seem right.