Frozen Solid

Spectrum

Hayden pounded his fists on the back of his captor.  “Lemme go!”

“Sorry~” She sung, running through the dark rainy streets.  He sighed, her grip was iron strong.

“Where’re you taking me anyway?” He said, his fists giving up on their pointless charade. 

“To the dead city of London.  Trust me, I’m saving your life.  One of your own is out to kill you.” She said bitterly.

Hayden felt something inside him break.  Jazmin had been loyal to him for years, so it was most likely… Deven had to be the one out to kill him.  Why?  Why did everyone want him dead?  His parents, most of the maids, and now Deven wanted him rotting in his grave.

For some reason he was feeling happy.  He, who was being kidnapped and had who he thought to have been his friend out to kill him.

She began humming.

It was a long and bumpy ride.  Fortunately it only lasted until the airport.  Somehow his kidnapper had gotten ahold of a helicopter.  How, he had no idea.

He spent the helicopter ride with his face pressed to the window.  It was fun to watch the sea soar underneath him.

“Having fun?” She asked, irritated.  He looked at her, wondering what would happen if he told the truth.

“Uhuh.” Hayden decided was the best answer.  He didn’t know how to feel.

“Is this your first time being out of that house?” She asked. Hayden nodded, really thinking.  Going out into the backyard wasn‘t leaving the house.  He was still inside those walls, always inside those walls.

“I was always confined to their ideals, their cage.  And now I’m… free.”  And he laughed.

“That’s not something a lot of people can say.” She murmured, smiling.

…

“What do you mean?” Deven was dressed in his guard’s uniform in seconds.  He hadn’t expected to be woken up near 2 o’clock in the morning by Hayden’s maid, Jazmin.  The news he was missing was even more alarming.  The bells were going off in Deven’s head.

“I searched his room, he’s gone!  And I was in his room with him just a second ago!” Jazmin cried, waiting impatiently in the hallway.  Once he was dressed and decent, he took the lead, striding down the hallway.

Hayden?  Missing?  Where did the shrimp wander off to?  God, if someone even so much as touched the brat, let alone kidnap him, he’d feast on their brains.  Deven didn’t know why he was feeling so livid over the brat’s disappearance, but he had to say… in this world of uniforms and personalities that had been beaten into children with fear, Hayden’s unintentional uniqueness was like a bright neon color in a sea of gray.

And Deven, having been around so much gray, was drawn to that color like a moth to a flame.  Loise herself, with her soft heart and bright smile, had been a pink.  Deven had thought he’d loved her, because he was blinded by how different she was from the rebels, who themselves were supposed to be different.  How special she had been.  Looking back on it, he had only loved her because he couldn’t see anything else that was just as bright.

She was an open flame.  But as she left, the moth found another flame.  And that moth didn’t like it when the light was extinguished.

Deven opened Hayden’s door, which was unlocked and open to anyone.  The room was empty, and the window lay tenderly shut.  There were no signs of a struggle but Deven just knew.  The fury didn’t spark recognition in his brain.  That was fucking it-- Some had been here.  Someone had fucking kidnapped Hayden!!