The Sleeping Prison

Chapter 3

It was no big surprise to Leo that things turned out like this. She knew she had to face her father, she had been preparing for years, but now? Right after she beat her own people and stands next to the people of Shiera in friendship. He would never forgive her.
And she was almost free!
He entered the room, his cool gray eyes fell on her with a overpowering evil. She felt herself stiffen.
His eyes snapped to the guards and the world fell into a swill of action. She bolted towards the door and suddenly she was 8 again after she infiltrated the boys school.
"Seize her!!!!" Her father screamed and the soldiers looked confused but rushed forward anyways. They grabbed her arms and twisted them behind her back. Only Julian had made it out of the cell before the door was slammed shut.
Julian slammed a uppercut right into the the soldier holding her on the right, causing him to twist and pull on her arm in an unnatural way. She cried out. He shoulder was throbbing but she could still move it. She wrenched her good arm out of the soldiers grasp and threw a brutal punch to the chest. He stumbled and struggled for air.
Over her shoulder she heard soldiers rushing toward her. She kick one in the side and punched the other.
She hadn't been scared until then. The two blows should have sent them stumbling backwards, but they didn't.
They seized her in her confusion. They had Julian too.
"Kill the boy and the others, we have no use for rebellious inferiors." Her father sounded nothing like the man who raised her. Nothing like the politician he was. He was like a general.
"Julian!" Her heart seized when she saw the soldier pull out a gun.
"Sir, they said they were spies. Why are we killing them? I checked, she is from Luna and Luna's people never lie." Good little soldier, help me out of this. Question my father.
"I know these are not spies, that one is my daughter."
Leo bared her teeth, Julian tended, the others looked confused and angry. He looked at a soldier guarding the door. "I'm not surprised to see her here. She has never been that bright despite her grades. Always wants to get in trouble and disobey orders. I'm lucky her betrothed is good at breaking rebellious women. Otherwise I don't know what I would do." Her father made a tsking sound and turned away.
"Maybe I wouldn't have been this way if you hadn't left me! Maybe I wouldn't have been this way if you hadn't left and so the only way I could feel you is when I prank someone. Like we used to do together. Maybe I wouldn't be your little burden that you can't wait to get rid of if you loved me!" She was yelling now, Leo hadn't known what she was going to say to her father before this moment. She was pulling against the soldiers behind her, not moving them an inch.
For a second she say pain but just like that it was gone. "You need to learn not to speak to me like that Leonora."
"Why? Don't we have just as much to give to the world as men. In this country women are free. They are free to say and do whatever they want. No leashes, no ownership, no restrictions. Free! I can talk to whatever man I want without permission! As far as I can tell I'm still in this country."
"Oh so you can do dirty little things of in the corner with this monstrosity?" He gestured to Julian. "And this country lost the war which only proves my point further. Women should not be in society." Then his expression changed. "Oh my little Leopard, I am so sorry."
"Don't call me that! And you are not sorry! You are anything but sorry. You enjoy having power and when you lost it when I was 8 you needed power over something! You wanted power over me. Your own daughter! You made me your slave! Then you got all that power back once I was gone! Made all women inferior so you didn't look bad and made sure you always had power!"
Tears streamed down her face and she pulled and pulled against the soldiers behind her but they didn't even budge.
"Your daughter died when you sent her away!"
"My daughter is not dead, she is standing right here in this very room. And I am oh so very sorry. If I ever came across as a man who hated you I am sorry. I do love you, forever and always."
She tilted her head up in disgust.
"You don't love me."
"Oh but I do, you are my daughter which is why I must do this." He pulled out a gun and aimed it at Julian's head.
"Stop! Please! I'll go with you, I'll-I'll do whatever you say forever, just don't kill him."
"Don't you understand my daughter, you will never come with me as long as he is alive. You will keep running back to this boy. Over and over again and he will hurt you over and over again because that's all Shiera's people do. I'm protecting you."
Her throat closed, she struggled even more"If you do this I will never forgive you, I will never go with you. I will run again and again. I will never love you again, I will hate you forever!" She spoke the truth, she could forgive for him hurting her but not Julian.
"Is this the person you replaced me with? A inferior?"
"What does it matter when you love them!" Her voice broke. There was that word again. This time it wasn't teasing it was truth. She loved him, her best friend, every molecule of her loved him. Her best friend, and as much as he annoyed her, she loved her best friend.
"Leo, I-I l-love you too." Julian's voice quivered under gun point. "Don't forget that, don't hide, be strong my lioness." He closed his eyes, he leaned into the gun willing my father to fire.
"No! Julian you will not die! I forbid it!"
He laughed, in the face of death he had the nerve to laugh. "I don't think you have the power to forbid it." Then to her father he said, "go on, do it! I want it to be quick. I want to die right here with my only family I've ever had at my side."
Her father's hand tightened on the gun but he didn't pull the trigger.
He lowered the gun and looked at the soldiers. "Lock him up with the others, see that they all have food, water, and medical care. We will send them to a camp tomorrow but for now they will stay here. The camps will want them strong."
She was shocked, he was going to live! Her best friend would live another day!
They all would, part of her had almost died when Julian was at gunpoint. Now she could live, as long as he lived.
"I will go with you, father." She put as much hate in that word as possible. "Let me say goodbye."
The soldier loosened their grip on the her arms. They held her at gunpoint. There was no use in fighting this privilege. She moved right to Julian and said, "be strong. I will come back for you. In a world of death I will return to the life, the life that weeps for the death."
His eyes widened, he understood. She would met him at the willow when they both were freed. If they were ever freed.
She wrapped her arms around him, he was strong but it felt like she was holding him up.
"My lioness.... stay you. Do not change. Stay strong."
"Goodbye, my one and only best friend." At that his last bit of control was lost and he was crying. His face buried in her red hair. She pulled away from him and moved to the wall of the cell.
"Thank you guys." Her hand clasped Grace's hand. Then she moved to Will and James, "stick together, your best together."
"Like together together, because that is so gay and we are not gay." Will, holding a joke in the worst of times.
"Shut it Will!" A chorus had sprung up in the cell, she smiled a sad wishful smile.
"But no, look I'll take care of your boyfriend too. Me and James both will look out for Julian, ya know I knew him before he met you, he was nothing." The weight of Wills words fell on her and she didn't even bother to correct him on the fact that Julian wasn't her boyfriend.
"Hannah, look out for everyone for me please." She nodded.
"Luke, I know you can't hear me but stay strong, and don't let anyone beat up on you. Use your brain, stick close to Hannah."
"Goodbye." The soldiers moved in on her and she knew her time was up. She walked over to her father.
She was blindfolded and her wrist were tied, she also knew about the guns aimed at her head, in her opinion to was too much. She would have followed with no problem if she could ensure the safety of her friends.
•••
Julian still stood when she, blindfolded and at gunpoint had left. He was then shoved in his cell.
Suddenly he was 14 all over again. The blind panic he felt when she hadn't come. Had she been caught? Is she hurt? Will she ever come back?
Empty. The only word that would come to his mind was empty.
Leo, his one and only best friend. Gone.
He had to move on though, keep fighting and get to the weeping willow. His command was clear.
It was his way to his commander. His leader.
His lioness, and the tears flowed again, her red hair, light blue eyes. A lion. She would fight but could he?
Since they were young they, Will, James, Luke, Hannah and Grace, had impersonated great battles in history, she was always his commander. At first he had hated it, why did she have to tell him what to do? But now he had come to appreciate her leadership.
"Is it true? Is she really from Luna?" Grace asked. He nodded. "Why was she here? I'd kill to have any money, that would be great," Grace said.
"Luna is not all it's cracked up to be. She hated it there. She was treated awful, here was her refuge." He told them the truth.
One day I will be here, one day, then the next at a camp hundreds of miles away at best.
He would escape tonight.