Pet Boy

The Trade

"Royce regained his memories!" Andrew exclaimed. What? Royce remembers everything now?! My heart began racing. 

"I want to see him!" I said while running out into the hall.

"Where is he?" I asked while looking at Andrew.

"That's what I wanted to tell you..." Andrew said glancing at the floor and avoiding eye contact, "Since he remembered everything he stopped cooperating with everyone and the officials are planning on getting rid of him."

"What?" 

"They are going to kill him, Ellie." Andrew said this time staring me strait in the eye.

In an instant, what Andrew had said, left my body numb. My heart stopped and I shook my head in disbelief.

"NO! It can't be!" I cried. Tears burned over and down my cheeks. What Andrew had said, left the last part of me that I had in ruins. Now there is no point in reading a fairy tale book to sleep because in my story, there was no longer a prince. 

As I was watching my life fall apart in front of myself I realized something strange. If Andrew is only using me as an experiment then why would he be concerned about Royce and why would he tell me about it unless there is some motive behind it. He isn't the type of person to do something  if he doesn't get anything out of it.

There was something off about Andrew and I could tell that, even though he came to my door panicked, he didn't really care. No, there was some other meaning to why he was telling me, he could honestly care less about what happens to Royce.  I looked at him with a piercing glare as my tears quickly dried. There must be a way to save Royce!

"Why are you telling me this, I know you don't care if he dies! What is your reason for coming here? What are your real intentions?!" I said moving in close on him. His expression changed. It went from a surprised look to a slight smirk.

"What ever do you mean? I'm doing this for your sake" He said now with a smug look "and his."  

I backed away and looked at him a little confused.

"What do you mean for my sake and his?" I asked warily.

"Well, what I came to tell you was that there is one and only one way to save him." He said while putting his hands in his pockets and walking towards me. Although I didn't back up, I didn't want to just stand there either and just watch as he got closer and closer to me but I couldn't get enough courage to move. He was now so close to me that the tips of our shoes were touching. I went to back up but I was stopped by a wall. He leaned in close to me and I looked away from him.

"It is quite simple to save him, all you have to do is sacrifice yourself." Andrew said as he placed his fore arm on the wall above my head, hovering over me even closer.

I quickly looked at him and pushed him away aggressively. 

"What do you mean?" I asked while slowly walking around him like an animal ready to attack at the slightest movement.

"What I mean is, you take Royce's place and become our test subject and we let him free to go." He said not in the slightest bit intimidated by me.

I scowled a bit at him.

"And how do I know that some lying jerk like you will keep his word?" I said foully at him. Although he seemed to almost always have a cool temper, I saw his face cringe a little as I talked to him rudely.

"I promise to keep my word if you promise to cooperate with me. If you don't believe me, I will let you visit him every once and a while, since he probably won't leave here with out you. If you don't believe me you can ask my brother, Aron to keep an eye on me. Even if you don't ask him though, i'm sure he will still keep watch. Isn't that right Aron." Andrew said turning towards my room. Did he know that Aron was with me?