Done For You (Black Veil Brides/Legion of the Black)

2. Wretched And Divine

The blazing, hot sun forced my eyes open. I groaned; my eyes burnt from the brightness. I stuffed my jacket into my backpack and took a swig of water from one of my bottles. I stood up, surveying my surroundings. The City was far behind me now, nothing more than a shadow. The landscape was barren and there was nothing but sand, dirt and dead plants for miles in any direction. Unfortunately, I had no idea where the rebel’s camp was. It occurred to me that I might die out here, but I refused to dwell on that. As cursed as I was, I had to keep going, for my dad, if nothing else.

I continued to walk, the day getting hotter with every hour that passed. Night began to fall again. I stopped to put my jacket on again, but didn’t rest. I ploughed on until dawn, in the eerie silence. As the sun began to peek over the horizon, I caught a glimpse of ruins in the distance. I began to run towards them, a few tears of joy slipping down my cheeks. I’d finally found them! When I finally reached my destination, I inspected my surroundings again. Rust clung to every structure and old, worn blankets were slung over the entrances of the silos and at the base of tents. On a rusted oil barrel Wild Ones and the same symbol I’d seen on The Prophet’s jacket were painted in white. I suddenly realised that, aside from the hot, desert wind, I was alone. I sunk to my knees and fell into the hot sand. They were gone. I really was going to die.

***

‘How long has she been out for?’ a voice asked. ‘Dunno I found her about an hour ago.’ Another replied. There was silence after that. Both voices were male, but, to my disappointment, neither of them belonged to The Prophet. ‘Jake, go get Andy.’ The first voice decided, as I made my assessment. ‘Right,’ the second, Jake, agreed. I noticed that I was still lying in the sand, but, wherever I was, it was shaded and much cooler than before. I heard two sets of footsteps approaching us. ‘What is it, Ash?’ a voice I recognised as The Prophet’s said, sounding tired. ‘Jake found her when we got back. The original voice, Ash, explained. The Prophet just grunted and I felt the sand shift, indicating someone had sat down next to me. I figured it was time to stop acting.

I opened my eyes, slowly. ‘Where am I?’ I asked, sitting up and rubbing the sand out of my eyes. Straight away, The Prophet and the man called Ash were on their feet and towering over me. I took in Ash’s appearance. He had a slight tan and long black hair. His arms were covered in ink, a practise I knew had been outlawed years ago, and had what looked like black claw marks running from his cheek down to his neck. His black clothes accented his muscles well and a silver star hanging around his neck. A silver accented leather vest was adorned with a shiny, silver Sherif’s badge.

Even The Prophet looked different up close. He was more wiry than I’d first thought and had slightly muscular arms. He had to be at least six feet tall and looked much more imposing than I’d originally imagined. His shoulder length black hair was held back by a black bandana, like Ash’s was. A large wooden cross hung from one of his ears and he had a silver ring through his nose and lip. A matching cross hung from his neck. He too was covered tattoos and clad in black from head to toe. A black leather jacket with only one sleeve allowed the inked images to be seen. His ice blue eyes were locked on my hazel ones, holding clear skeptism. I couldn’t help but think of Dad. The contrast between his eyes and The Prophet’s was the same as the contrast between The Prophet’s eyes and mine. He’s spent his final minutes impersonating the man in front of me. He died as the man in front of me.

The Prophet answered my question with one of his own. ‘First off, who’re you?’ he asked. ‘My name is Danielle Raven. But my dad called me Dani.’ I added, out of habit. I realised I’d used past tense. Already, my subconscious had accepted his death. ‘“Called”? Is that why you’re out here?’ Ash questioned. ‘He died three days ago. F.E.A.R. made him up to look like The Prophet and beheaded him in public. They came after me because I recognised him. I had to escape.’ I explained, shuddering as the still fresh memories that would forever haunt me, and blinked back tears.

The Prophet’s eyes widened, suddenly. ‘You’re the girl!’ he exclaimed in surprise, his eyes softening as they locked on me, again, as though seeing me clearly for the first time. ‘Thank you for not giving me away! It would’ve ruined everything!’ he added, his tone full of gratefulness. I managed a small smile. I was still worried that they weren’t going to accept me. ‘Do you have a rebel name?’ Ash asked, seemingly indifferent to The Prophet’s revelation. ‘The Cursed.’ My answer came through my lips without even needing to think about it properly.

The Prophet raised an eyebrow at my reply. ‘Show me you’re cursed.’ He replied, skeptical again. Sudden anger boiled in my veins and in the pit of my stomach. How dare he question me? He may have been the leader of the rebels, but he didn’t know me after five minutes! ‘My mother abandoned me and my dad when I was six to join the rebel cause and died trying. F.E.A.R. have run my life ever since the day I was born. I was forced to watch my father’s death, the only parent I had left, because of you.’ – I pointed an accusing finger at The Prophet – ‘F.E.A.R. made him impersonate you. If you’d never come to The City, he’d still be here. And on top of that, I had to kill someone who probably once his friend just to survive.’ I finished, barely managing to keep the now angry tears from falling. ‘We’re all orphans here, some by choice, some not.’ Prophet snapped, striding out of the tent in a huff.

I was standing now, in a hostile stance. Ash made annoyed sound and rolled his eyes at me. I was relieved that he thought Prophet was the one overreacting, and not me. ‘Ignore him. He’s just pissed off cuz security’s been heightened around The City. I’m The Deviant, or Ashley.’ He added, changing the subject in a light-hearted tone. I smiled at him, a genuine smile. ‘Nice to meet you. Uh, back to my original question though; where am I?’ I asked. Ashley returned my smile. ‘You’re in the desert with the Rebels. We’re usually known as the Wild Ones, though. This is our base camp, or the surface, anyway.’

‘Surface?’

‘The main camp is underground, in the old tunnels. This is where F.E.A.R. will target if they decide to attack, though.’ I nodded, slowly, beginning to make sense of this new world. ‘Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone.’ He decided.

Ashley opened the tent flap and led me outside by the hand. Small groups of black clad men and women were running around, busy finding others or possessions. If the surface was this busy, I wondered what the underground would be like, if it was the centre of operations as Ashley said it was. No one noticed that there was a stranger clutching onto, who I gathered was one of their leaders’, hands, or if they did, they ignored me. ‘I’ll just introduce you to the leaders, my co-leaders. I leave the rest of the Legion until Andy calls a meeting.’ Ashley explained, leading me into one of the silos this time. I didn’t ask him who Andy was. I was fairly certain that “Andy” was The Prophet’s real name.

Inside the silo, there was a large, gaping black hole in the centre of the ground. A steel ladder, that was beginning to show the first signs of rusting, led downwards, into the inky blackness. I vaguely wondered if this was some kind of trick. That they’d have me climb down and remove the ladder, or that the ladder would end, midair, and I’d fall to my death. But I shook the thoughts from my head. I had to trust the rebels. I had no other choice. They were my only hope for survival. And I was already beginning to trust Ashley. He let go of my hand and climbed down into the inkiness, disappearing from sight. That was when I realised that any mistrust towards the rebels was badly misplaced. Presumably when he reached the bottom, he called for me to come after him. I pushed the last remnants of thoughts of a giant prison cell from my mind, and stepped onto the first rung, carefully. After a painfully cautious climb down a ladder that I knew would soon become familiar, I reached the bottom. It was surprisingly light and the inkiness I’d seen from above, seemed to have been an illusion. The stone walls were lined with dead sticks of wood that had been transformed into torches, which burnt brightly. I was glad I wasn’t claustrophobic. As I’d thought, there were many more black clad rebels rushing around down here. ‘The other end of the tunnel leads into F.E.A.R.’s torture chambers and jail. We’ve been trying to break through for months.’ Ashley informed me as we walked away from the ladder.

We finally made it to what looked like a centre of some kind. The room was round and stretched out for a few hundred metres. More torches lined the walls and the room was fairly empty, aside from a platform that sat at the far end of the room. The only occupants of the huge area were a group of two girls and three guys. ‘Guys, we’ve got a new addition.’  Ashley announced as we began to approach them. The five of them turned to stare as we came closer.

AN:// Hey, so I finally updated! What do you guys think?