Nada's Escape

32- Like a Dream.

A decisive knock lands on the door and snatching my hands from Darcell's becomes trivial. My heart mutates with icy fear. Darcell shoves me towards the tiny trapdoor. Like Alice I fall fast, but not fast enough. A glimpse of the feet beyond the opening door meets my eyes before the trapdoor is pressed down upon my head.

"You. You're hiding something from us." A loud voice booms above. Various heavy footsteps clatter into the room. I hear a lengthened zing and a blue glow permeates the gaps in the floor. "Your indiscretion will be punished."

The sound of blue fire hitting flesh is sparks hissing and skin sizzling. Darcell's body hits the boards hard and vibrations run through to the dirt wall at my back. The blue fire crashes at him again and then a third time. A gruff cry is forced from him the next time but they don't stop. Violent vibrations shake me like a leaf. He is jerking with every hit.

When it stops I am pulling so hard at my shorts I'm surprised the cotton hasn't ripped in two. In the silence I still shake. After how hard we've tried to conceal my presence they're going to find me.

I already have the pills at my lips. It's the only option. If they are callous enough to burn the skin off one of their own I know that they will kill me at the very least. Fugitives are not cause for sympathy among the Huntsmen.

They taste like iron and salt and stick gummy to my throat as I dry-swallow. They burn my oesophagus like vodka, heating my stomach and I pray that this means they work quickly. The trap door above my head is flung away as I feel my skin shrink. A single bulky arm comes down from the light and my eyes burn and tear over. A hand buries in my hair and thrusts me up into the room.

My tears cease but my heart thumps like a rabbit's. Looking down at my body I feel the surreal really take control of my life. For my clothes are slowly slipping off the body of a small boy. I kick my legs to keep balance in their grip and the boy's kick too. I am held up at eye level to one of the men. He has a scowl that puckers the scar on his forehead, deepening as he looks at me.

"What sort if fey-boy is this?" He grunts. I am dropped to the floor in disgust.

The smallest of the three men shuffles his feet. "Maybe he wasn't breaking any laws?"

I pull myself upright and look over at Darcell. My eyes widen but won't close to shut out the sight. Long welts of burnt skin the width of a hand cross his body. His clothes smoulder and the wounds weep tiny beads of blood. Even his cheek is brutalised. His eyes stay closed. I can't even be sure he is alive. I crawl over and push his shoulder wordlessly. He doesn't move. I carefully place my hand on his chest above a welt. I feel it then. A fall of his chest, a sigh that I echo.

I press my lips together as the men tear me away. They fire questions at me but I don't release the pressure of my lips upon one another; I'm holding in a screaming rage. My eyes are stuck on Darcell's still body, all my energy pouring into a prayer for him to move.

So I barely notice when one of the men picks me up under the knees like a child. I don't move a muscle even though my clothes are all over the place. Even though the leather bracelets on the man's arms scrape into my shoulder. I stall all other thought by imagining how the blue fire wounds must burn. What a weapon of horror.

The next thing I remember clearly the three brutes are leaving. I stand in a white living room. Huntsmen and human women come in and out, looking at me and whispering to each other. I feel woolly-headed, like this is all a dream and I'm the only one who knows it. I should not have left him there. Should have thrown up the trapdoor before they got to him. Screamed, "Here I am, just take me!"

"What's your name little-one?" A man as tall as the sky asks. My mouth falls open but there is nothing behind it. He bends down closer but he is still miles above me, wispy white hair like the clouds around his old face. As he catches my eye my stomach rolls. I see a dark-skinned boy in the telescope of his pupils. Not right. This is not right. He touches my arm with concern and I realise goose bumps have risen all over my body, tingling.

It's only then that I realise he's trying to enthral me, testing if I'm human or Huntsmen. It's like I'm already enthralled though. I feel his questions brushing my skin but I can't make out the shape of them. My head hurts and my skin feels too tight, suffocating me. Something weird is happening in my abdomen too. A snake grinding through all the passageways.

Then something foreign inside me rips through my intestines. A lash of pain like blue fire.

"Help me." I whisper. I'm not asking the sky man but Darcell, streets away and left for dead. My eyes roll back so that I see crimson. I feel burning through my entire torso. Too hot to be held inside this small body.