How I Wish

CHAPTER VIII

(If you are reading this on the 17/10/22 or afterwards without having read the previous chapters since my last update, please re-read the story as it has been edited, and some new content inputted - don't worry - the story remains the same, just better written with some cleaned up plot holes.)

Chapter VIII

"Who told you?" I asked, hoping Kyle or Brian had been the one's to tell the truth, as they had been my only true supporters in that basement. When Nathan had told me Kyle had lied about me – well it left me wondering if maybe I was incorrect in my assumption of my innocence.

If maybe I was as bad as my parents.

Pulling back, I was left feeling bereft as Sir Blackbourne led me back to my seat on the cot, where Healer Green was already waiting.

I gently perched on the edge as Sir Blackbourne returned to the only chair in the room, where he leant forward with his elbows on his knees and looked me in the eye – his grey eyes unreadable.

"Mr Gentry - Brian-" He added when he saw my confusion over Brian's last name. "-told us everything. Including how you tried to protect them from your... relatives on a daily occurrence." Hope beat a small tempo in my chest, and I sucked in a breath at knowing that Brian – the terrified prisoner who had feared Jack – had been brave enough to be honest.

Because of him, I was...

"Does this mean... I'm f-free?" I whispered, scared of knowing the answer – but desperate to hear the words I never thought I would hear until the day I took my last breath.

"Indeed Miss Sang. You never should have been a prisoner in the first place." Everything felt like it stopped with those three words, as surely I was dreaming.

I couldn't be free.

Almost my whole life had been nothing but locked cages, and hopeless despair with only one wish deep in my heart I never dared speak aloud – not since Brandon anyway.

How I wish to be free.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, and the two males in the room with me blurred at the edges. My heart beat erratically in my chest and my breath felt hard to catch.

I was free.

No.

It just wasn't possible.

"Tell me again. Please." I begged, my hands gripping the dress over my chest as I blinked against the tears filling my vision.

A warm hand grasped my own, and I jerked my head up to find Healer Green watching me – his slightly blurry mouth dipped in a sorrowful frown.

"You're free Sang." He swore and the dam burst.

"I-I'm f-free." I breathed, the words like heaven on my lips as I cried, great heaving sobs bursting free from my very soul. My body rocked and trembled from both my sorrow for all those trapped summers and my joy at it all finally being over.

Unless...

"You s-swear this isn't some c-cruel joke?" I sobbed, afraid this dream was going to be snatched away from me, where I would wake up back in the blood ridden, damp cell screaming from the step-monsters latest brutality inflicted upon me.

"Oh Sang." Healer Green whispered, his voice cracking. Using the hand holding mine, he gently pulled me into his body where he wrapped his warm arms around me, and I sunk within his embrace, feeling safe and protected. "I promise you, this is no joke or act of cruelty. You are free, and if you tell me you want to get in a boat right now and leave, as much as I would hate it – I would do it for you, to prove that you are free to do as you please. I hope you decide to stay and give us the chance to help you heal, and to earn your forgiveness – the right way – whether you believe we deserve it not or not. And when we reach shore, I... we would like to help you find a new home, one where you are safe and free of those monsters who kept you trapped and tried to clip your beautiful wings." I closed my eyes and listened to each word he spoke, his chest vibrating against my ear as he gave me a new dream – one I hadn't even thought to have.