Magicae: Magic

Chapter Six: Lana Rickman: Escape Plan A

We've been planning, for hours on end, and finally the plan is set. We're escaping tonight. The plan is for Holly and Snapdragon, who were tied up more recently—so their ropes haven't rusted yet—to fight against their bounds. It shouldn't take too long—hopefully—and once they're free they'll free everyone else and once we're free from the ropes we'll just jump out the window and down Lily's ladder. I can feel Holly and Snapdragon vibrate the pole and Holly kicks me in the back of my head.

"Sorry," she says.

"It's okay, but watch where you're kicking," I say, wishing I was the one with less rusty ropes. After a lot of struggling and kicking, meaning lots of bruises for me, I hear Snapdragon hit the floor.

"Down?" Nari asks, getting impatient.

"Yeah, I'll get yours undone, Holly," Snapdragon says, fiddling with Holly's ropes. I feel Holly kick me again ("Sorry,") and Holly lands on me!

"Ouch. Get the fuck off me!" I grunt and Holly jumps off, apologizing. Snapdragon and Holly begin to fiddle with more ropes until it's down to Lily and me. Snapdragon's fiddling with mine and Holly's fiddling with Lily's. The ropes snap and we jump up for the first time in at least a day (time feels different in prison). I begin moving joints I haven't moved lately, and Holly pushes Lily to the window, Lily moaning because of how sore she is.

"Okay, Lily, you're up first. Nari, you're the tallest and Jade you're the next tallest. Nari, Jade, you're boosting her out the window," Snapdragon instructs.

Nari and Jade stand right by the window, lifting Lily up. Lily crawls into the little space and before she can balance herself she falls out the window, away from the cell.

"Lily? Are you okay?" I yell. Everyone shushes me and I cover my mouth. I hear footsteps down the stairs and urge Nari and Jade to continue throwing people out. Nari grabs me and hoists me through. I roll right on through and down onto the cloud. It doesn't hurt, as the cloud is soft, and I see Lily standing beside me. Ally falls beside us and I hear Cassandra.

"The little bitches are getting away!" she screams, alerting her mother and sister. I run and Lily and Ally follow.

"Where are we going?" Lily asks as we run.

"Anywhere that isn't here!" I say, pulling her along.

"But our parents!"

"We'll get them later," Ally says, "We can't do it now, Cassandra's coming."

Lily panics at those words and runs faster than ever. She stops at the edge of the cloud and pushes the button on her ladder as Holly comes up behind us.

"They're running after us! Hurry up!" she says, exhausted.

I look behind me while Lily works with the ladder and scream, "She's really close! Shit!"

Lily puts the ladder down and it falls out of her grasp.

"It hit a river! I'm so so sorry!" she says as we start running again. Soon Snapdragon catches up.

"What'd I miss?"

"Lily dropping the ladder," Holly says. Everyone turns to glare at Lily but we don't have time to be angry. We can hear Jade and Nari screaming. They must have gotten themselves out with the Savvys right behind them.

"Where are we going now?" I ask everyone.

Nobody says anything, and there's nowhere to go.

"We'll have to fight!" Ally yells and everyone stops and turns to face the Savvys.

"If we don't die because of this I'm going to kill you," I tell Lily.

Lily doesn't respond. She's too busy getting ready for revenge on Cassandra for strangling her.

Nari and Jade come behind us and now we're all standing there, ready to fight.

Cassandra comes by first and Lily grabs her neck while kicking her in the shins. She just teleports behind Lily and grabs her, levitating the ropes from our cell to bind her. I can tell this isn't going to work, but I know we've got to try. Cassandra walks away levitating Lily into the castle.

Emira is just behind her so I take her on. I punch her in the nose and it starts to bleed. It's disgusting but if it's what I have to do to keep my life it's worth it. She grabs my leg and I fall over, but not before kicking her in the knees. She binds me the same way as Cassandra did to Lily and levitates me before walking inside, heading over to where Cassandra is. Cassandra has hung a bunch of poles from the ceiling above a pit of lava. There are two lava pits, to be exact. One is on the right side of the throne, and there's one big pole with a bunch of people tied to it while the other pit has a bunch of poles hanging over it. Cassandra begins to levitate Lily up to one pole and Emira does the same to me. Before we know it, we're tied to separate poles hanging above lava. Woopdee fucking doo. Cassandra and Emira walk back outside—probably to capture the others—so I take the time to look over at the other pit, only to realize the people on the other pole are our parents! They try to tell us something but clearly can't, and I realize that each one has a gag. I turn to Lily, who probably feels really fucking stupid by this point, and she hangs her head in shame. I hear everyone else float inside and they're tied to separate poles as well.

"That went well," I say sarcastically.

"Why didn't Lily use the ladder?" Nari asks.

"She dropped it," Ally says dryly. Everyone turns to look at Lily as she looks up before hanging her head in shame again.

"Sorry," is all she can say.

"Sorry won't save us," I snap, really pissed with Lily for obvious reasons.

"Don't be mean. She tried. We tried," Jade says, trying to break the tension.

"We failed," I say dryly.

"That's not the point," Jade says.

"At least we can see our parents," Ally says.

"Hanging on a pole over death. Yes, that's very helpful," I say sarcastically.

"At least they don't have my sisters and Ivy," Holly says. "They'll come save us soon." While Holly seems confident I don't. I continue to sulk on my pole until I hear something. Something slip.

"Help!" Ally screams as her ropes slip. I'm about to point out that's a good thing when I look down. Lava. Duh. Everyone reaches a foot out to Ally and she grabs her pole for dear life as her ropes slip. The ropes fall off Ally and she screams again, louder than ever. Everyone except for Ally watches as her ropes fall into the lava and burn.

"I can't hold on for long," Ally says worriedly, "I'll slip." Suddenly, Leila teleports in and looks up at us.

"Oh, poor little girl, your ropes slipped. Guess you'll have to hold on," Leila glares menacingly, "For your life."