Runaway Princess

CHAPTER 8

"DEMIAN, wake up," I was aroused from my sleep when I heard someone whispering lightly into my ear. I turned my head away and I felt a hand groping on my arm.

I slowly opened my eyes. I saw a figure of someone in front of me. I couldn't see who it was because it was dark inside the dungeon but I think it was a girl.

"Its me," she said and held my arm. I sat up on the floor and placed my hand on the shoulder. What is she doing here?

"Why are you here? You're in trouble if someone sees you," I said. She put down my hand and her grip on my arm tightened.

"I'm letting you out," she whispered to me and I stared at her even though I can only see darkness. She stood up and pulled my hand.

I held her right arm and pulled her back down. She gasped a bit and whimpered silently in pain as she carefully took my hand away.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She replied a faint 'yes' to me and I made her sit beside me. I reached for her face and cupped her cheek.

"Isla. Go back to your bedroom, okay? You can't do that, you'll be in danger," I whispered to her. I felt her turn her head to my direction and I could barely see her violet eyes in the dark.

"But you can't stay here! Father might—"

"Who's that?" we both jumped when someone spoke out of nowhere from our left. I saw another figure crawling towards us. It was Garrett.

"O-ow," Isla said when Garrett hit her leg. She folded her legs and hugged her knees to give Garrett more space. He sat down in front of Isla, turning his head into different directions as he can't see us.

"Is that Isla?" He asked and I said yes. He extended his right arm and it hit my face so I slapped his hand away.

"I'm letting you out here, guys," Isla said and I was about to aay something but Garrett stole my chance.

"What? No, you shouldn't!" He whispered/yelled and Isla. She fell silent for a while before she spoke again.

"Why? Why don't you want to?" Her voice cracked, like she was on the verge of tears. I heard her sob and I turned to her. Why is she crying?

"If they don't find us here tomorrow, then they might attack us in our base and that won't be good," Garrett said. Yeah, that was what I was about to tell her earlier. Our other comrades aren't prepared yet since we've used up almost all of our weaponries when we last attacked the palace. We can't leave here and risk putting all of our lives in danger.

"T-then tell them you have me as a hostage," Isla said and I furrowed my eyebrows. What is she talking about?

"I-I'll go with you," she said.

"No! Why would you do that?" I said and faced her. "You don't know how to live on your own."

"I-I'll help with whatever you guys do there, just teach me, I promise," she said, sounding desperate. Why is she suddenly willing to go with us? Did the king tell her to do this on purpose?

"Are you doing this on purpose?" I asked her. I saw her shifting on her spot and I eyed her carefully.

"What do you mean?"

"Did the king ask you to do this so you could spy back on us?" Garrett asked. I saw Isla shaking her head frantically.

"No.. I just want to get out of here," she sobbed again. Her voice sounded like she was scared of something. "Please, let me go with you. I have a plan on how we could get out of here.."

I looked at Garrett and tapped his shoulder. I pulled his arm and stood up and walked into the corner, him trailing behind me. When I faced him he was facing the wrong way so I rotated his body to face me.

"What do you think?" He asked me first. "I'm a bit suspicious about what she's saying, I mean, why would she just volunteer out of nowhere to help us and go with us?"

I crossed my arms and pondered over the situation. If we do as she says and escape here and let her come with us to pretend to be our hostage, her father might just do a surprise attack on us to retrieve her instead of backing off, so we need to be extra careful. To be honest, I also don't understand why she suddenly said that. What is her motive?

"If we do as she says, we need to be extra careful since we can't be sure what the king would do if we said we have her as hostage," I said, looking at Isla's direaction. "We can't be so certain that he'll back off because of that, he might plan to ambush us."

"Yeah. And besides, what if the king really ordered her to do this on purpose?"

To think of it, I don't think Isla would do that even though her father asked her to. I have this kind of trust in me that she wouldn't betray us like that, I know she's kind and she doesn't approve of her father's ways too, so why would she do that?

I took a deep breath. "Come on, let's just take her," I said. I told her to come to us and she stood up and walked to our direction.

"Okay, fine," Garrett said in resignation. Isla went to us and blindly reached for our hands, handing us something that felt like some clothes.

"Those are uniforms," she said. "Put it on and come outside." She went the door and opened it, letting a bit of light in. Me and Garrett squinted as our eyes tried to adjust to the light.

Me and Garrett changed into the uniforms. It was a bit hard since we couldn't see a thing but we managed to do it. After that we went out the door. I closed it silently in front of me to not awaken to other prisoners inside. They might create some noise is they hear us and draw the attention of the guards.

"What happened to you?" I looked at Garrett when he spoke and saw him looking at Isla. I shifted my glance at her and saw her wearing a cast on her right arm. Her lower lip was busted open and there was a black bruise on the corner of her lips. She was still in her pajamas, clutching onto a purse in her hand.

She looked down at her feet. "F-father beat me up earlier," she said and my eyes widened a bit.

What? Her father? Why would he beat her up like that? That must be the reason why she sounded afraid earlier and why she wanted to go away from here. I can't believe there are parents like that who can hurt their kid so badly like this.

I approached her and put an arm around her waist. "Come on, let's go," I said and walked forward. I secured my arm around her as we walked when I noticed that she was limping a bit. Is her leg broken too?

We managed to make it back in the palace. She pulled away from me and turned around to face us.

"Okay. Just pretend that I'm walking around the palace and you guys are guarding me, and then when we get to the gate, knock out the guards?" She said, sounding unsure. Me and Garrett spared each other a look before nodding at her.

I adjusted my cap so that it could cover my eyes. Isla walked again and we waited until she reached the right distance away from us and then we started walking again behind her.

When we reached the gate the two other guards there looked at us. Isla stopped just in front of them and we walked a bit closer so we would be more near the guards.

Isla looked at us from over her shoulder and nodded. Me and Garrett swiftly approached the guards and locked ther necks with our arms from behind. I cupped my hands over his mouth and punched his skull, making him dizzy. I threw him on the floor and kicked his stomach and snatched his gun away from him and hit him on the head with it. He lost his consciousness and I tucked the gun in the holster of my uniform.

"Come on, let's go," Isla said and walked to the gate. She unlocked it and I helped her pull it open. When the gap was big enough for us to pass through we went outside and walked away from the palace.

I hope I made the right decision.