Blood Ties

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

        Hope is simply a gateway to despair. Layla’s nails bit into her palms as she clenched her hands into fists, her brows lowered and her eyes watering in intense rage. She was pacing, back and forth, shaking her head and gasping for breath. Her prisoner, her ticket home -home, so beautiful a word it pained her to think it- had escaped. But not on her own, no. Betrayal was, perhaps, even more painful than false hope. Then again, maybe they went hand in hand –Loyalty is a false hope, and betrayal is the despair when reality comes crashing down. Layla unleashed a scream of pure, unbridled rage and shot a fireball at the chair that used to hold her prisoner. Her victory, turned into a failure, as per usual.

        Jake crept into the room, almost silently. Layla did not even look at him, but instead began to speak softly. “I was so, so close to being able to return home. Three years, wasted, three years full of nothing but disappointments and-and failures. But now I realize, that my biggest failure, slave, was allowing you to live.” She whirled about to face him, her eyes flaming, her fist glowing purple, and screamed, “You were the only person in the world that I thought perhaps I could trust! You, you stayed with me when no one else would! You did not care what your family said, you did not care that I was a monster, you stayed, and I trusted you! And you betrayed that trust, you betrayed me!”

        Jake lowered his head, swallowing back the sudden lump forming in his throat, and he wept. He did not weep for fear of Layla, of what she could do, or what she would do because of all this; he wept for Layla. He wept for the broken heart and the crushed spirit that he had begun to heal, and then shattered again. But when forced to choose between what is right and what feels right, he knew what he had had to choose.

        He tiptoed towards her, and knelt, bowing his head low in a complete gesture of submission and accepting his imminent demise. Layla’s eyes flashed, her lip quivered, and she raised a hand to deal the first blow…when she stopped, suddenly.

        “I said I should’ve killed you. But I…now, I can’t, for reasons I can’t fathom. If you betray me again, I’ll kill you. But…perhaps I’ll be lenient; after all, if someone like you can break the bonds I used on the prisoner, the blame lays on my head.” And a rare semblance of a smile touched her lips, and in her eyes there was only regret and forgiveness.

        This was the Layla Jake loved.

        He would deal with all the beatings in the world just to catch a glimpse of her heart.

                                                      ***

        Marco and Star were currently engaged in some sort of tense staring contest, neither moving nor blinking. Marco’s eyes were half-lidded, almost uninterested in her reaction, while her eyes were wide as the moon. Her face could almost be considered comical in its overdramatic surprised expression. She sniffled, finally blinking, slow and long and purposefully. Then she burst into nervous giggles, again, which quickly dissolved into coughs.

        Marco looked at her, unimpressed, and rolled his eyes. “Enough with the dramatics, Star.”

        “Dramatics? Are you kidding me? Dude, if you just found out you were a princess of a magical land, wouldn’t you laugh?” Star glared at him, clearing the residual laughter from her throat.

        “No. I’d try and help,” He said simply, looking at her levelly.

        Star squirmed uncomfortably, glancing away from his serious gaze. “I’m not saying I won’t. Shut up, I need to think.” She refused to meet his eyes, her brows furrowed in concentration. After a few minutes of silence, she let out another breathy, incredulous laugh. “Isn’t it a bit ironic, though, that I am the princess of some magical land? You’d think someone who dreamed of stuff like that all along would be chosen for something like this. I don’t want it, that’s for sure.”