Out From the Shadows

Chapter 21

With every question, my headache worsens. It comes to the point where I wince with each pound.

Scenes start to play themselves in my head; ones I don't quite recognize but still feel a distant connection to.

A girl walking down the street. A woman walking farther ahead. The shadow of a figure creeping up behind the clueless woman and grappling with her. The girl pauses to watch, frightful and frozen in place. The woman succumbs and lays on the ground, dead or passed out. The figure looks around for any watchers and spots the girl. She screams and runs away, but isn't as fast as the figure. It catches up and grabs her from behind as she flails around.

"Stop squirming or I'll kill you right here. Your useless to the cause, so if you behave you might survive." The figure says in a neutral sounding voice.

The girl gives up and the figure shoves cloth in her face and she disappears into the void of darkness.
******
The girl awakens groggily, the woman from the street sitting next to her on the stone floor.

"Why are we here?" The girl asks.

"I don't know sweet heart, but my family will find us," the woman responds. She holds the girl in a comforting gesture, both cold in their tiny stone prison.

The two talk more, mostly about life. Someone, the figure, stomps in and drags the girl out by her hair into another room as the woman shouts and yells.

Time goes by. Food is delivered in small increments by the figure to the girl. On a special occasion, the girl tries to run past the figure, but it catches her by her necklace and yanks her back. The necklace clasp breaks and the opal that hangs from it bounces to an unknown location in the room. The girl receive s a hard slap in the face and is left alone to wallow in her sorrows.

Another day, the woman in the room next door is visited by the figure. They talk quietly, then she yells and screams until noise ceases all together.

The day comes where the door to the girl's cell opens and the figure doesn't enter, but a stranger. The stranger says nothing but leaves the door wide open and walks away. It takes a few moments before the girls jumps up and sprints from the room. She doesn't focus on where she is going, only that she is almost free. When sunshine breaks across her face, she smiles for the first time in a week.

"I'm sorry." I say. I do know what happened to his mother and I lied to him with out even knowing it. Things start to make more sense now; the headaches and my necklace. I was the girl locked down there for watching the crime go down and that opal, Ash's opal, is mine. I had buried these awful memories so deep that it was like I never even lived them. The head aches were from the absence of them and how I chose to forget them.

"Al, what's the matter? Why are you crying?"

I take in a shuddering breath and calm myself to a point where I can speak clearly.

"I was taken the same time your mother was." I start. I explain my recuperated memories in great detail so he can understand. With me filling in the blanks, the story unfolds and I feel a weight being lifted.

Ash can't help but stare blankly at my, zoning out and processing the new and startling information. I let him have his time, though I change into clothes during his episode.

"So you talked to my mother before she died. Did she talk about me?" The strange question makes me regret telling him anything because what I'm about to say will hurt him.

"Yeah. I remember her going on about you and how when you were little, you used to play a game where you were a knight and you had to rescue her, the princess, from the castle. Or another time when you told her that she was the prettiest girl you had ever seen and how you wanted to marry her. But she also talked about your dad, and how... you and her were going to go away for a while. Things were getting pretty rough at home and..."

"Al, you can stop right there."

I feel my face heating up and I bite the inside of my cheek to distract myself.

"Can you remember anything about the two people? Their voices? What they looked like?" He asks, suddenly enthusiastic. If I can recall anything, it will take him a step closer to the people who took his mother.

I imagine the first figure and build up I unique descriptions.

"The figure was broad shouldered and stood very straight. When he talked, his voice was deep and had this graininess to it that made it stand out. I think he was wearing a long overcoat with the collar pulled up to help cover his face, but I saw a bit of red hair hiding underneath."

I had been talking with my eyes closed so I never noticed Ash take out a small, pocket sized notebook and start to jot these descriptions down. When his hand stops moving, I take it as a signal to continue.

"The stranger seems like a woman. The dim light from showing her face a tiny bit as she turned sideways to leave. It was covered in black powder and her hair looked either dark brown or black. Her hair is pulled back in a low ponytail that's tucked into her black shirt. She is petite and skinny."

He scribbles furiously and closes his note book once finished.

"Is that all?" He asks with no harshness in his voice.

"Yeah. If I remember anything, I'll tell you right away."

My stomach grumbles so loudly that my cheeks warm with blood. I know Ash heard, which makes it even more embarrassing.

"I'll go collect some food while you try to rekindle the fire."

I nod my head and he leaves. No more emotions play on his face as he exits.

My body doesn't move once he leaves, no matter how hard I try. The realization is now striker me harder than before.

I was kidnapped.

I almost died.

I couldn't save Ashton's mother.

The weight crushes me. First my lungs as they try to suck in air but only get tiny, short, inhales. Then my knees when they buckle. My heart follows and it fills with fire, scorching every piece of tissue left untouched.

I fought.

I survived.

And it wasn't my fault.

The ache vanishes in an instant. My knee caps
creak as I straighten up and my lungs expand fully to compensate for my even, full breaths.

If I succumb to the darkness gathering in my chest then they would win. The people who took Ashton's mother and would have killed us both, just me a bit later.

I'm a shell of myself as I strengthen the fire and watch the fire crawl along the logs like ants. I just stare, zone out, like Ashton does.

He hates me. How can you love someone like me? Unloved by their parents, who angered the most powerful person on the continent, who is so filled with anger and selfishness?

I don't have anyone or anything. Not anymore.

My feet carry me through the door way and I let them. Each step closer to where my redemption is; where I can make it up to her.

I leave behind the new life I started. To end it.

Now.