You're Never Alone

Chapter 39

Word Count: 2415

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The next day Dan wakes up to people grabbing him and pulling him out of his cell before throwing him into the middle of the room. He falls with a thud as he opens his eyes and looks around. In front of him stands Alfie, Skye, and Marcus, soldiers that used to be under Dan's orders. He instantly snaps awake and stands up on shaky legs, looking over at the cells containing his friends.

    "They're not gonna wake up until later when the sedative wears off," Alfie says with a smirk and panic fills Dan's eyes.

    "Oh don't worry, Danny. We just want to play a little game," Skye says stepping forward and Dan glares at the three people in front of him. Marcus steps forward and Dan looks at him with a hard expression, not flinching as he crosses his arms.

    Marcus gives him a smug smile. "The king and the rest of the soldiers have been notified which means this is just between the four of us. We're going to play a game of chase. We'll give you a two minute head start and you're gonna run through the palace from us. If we catch you, we get to torture you and your friends. The only rule is you can't leave the palace."

    Alfie steps forward until he's closer to Dan and grabs his wrist, clamping a metal cuff with a small symbol of fire on it. "If you leave, this will kill you the instant you step foot out of here and if you decide to try and hurt us or help your friends escape, we can electrocute you until you're nothing but a fried corpse."

    "Three, two, one, go," Skye says with a sneer and Dan bolts out the door past them as adrenaline floods his veins.

    He runs up the stairs and onto the main floor through a metal door off to the side of the palace. He bolts down the hall and sprints around the corner, down another hall that leads him to the front where the stairs that lead upstairs are. Dan darts into the front room and scurries up the stairs, turning right near the wing of the house where his room is. As he goes quickly down the hall and into his room, he can't hear the other firebenders yet but he knows they're coming after him.

    In his room he quietly shuts the door before searching his room for the syringe full of power booster. He grabs a box from beneath his bed and pulls out a syringe filled with red liquid. Dan puts the needle into his vein and injects it, instantly starting to feel it work. It'll take a couple minutes to fully kick in but it's enough of the serum to get most of his powers back. He shoves the box back under his bed before scrambling out of his room and back into the hall.

    He leaves his door open as a distraction for the guards if they pass his room and he's sprinting again. Dan runs to the hall connecting to one of the other wings of the palace before quickly skidding to a stop as he hears running footsteps and voices coming from the wing he's about to go into. He turns around and begins sprinting back the way he came from and goes back to the main room, breathing heavily from the amount of exercise.

    Knowing he doesn't have enough time for stairs, he jumps over the railing to the main floor and swiftly lands before he begins going to the other side of the palace. God he forgot how big this place actually is. As he passes the dining room, he can see his father sitting at the table eating alone. Thankfully the king doesn't see him through the partially opened doors as Dan sneaks by.

    As he goes towards the wing in the back of the palace, Alfie is suddenly in front of him and Dan stops dead in his tracks before turning around and running back the other way. Unfortunately he's beginning to slow down and it's causing him to begin losing to these soldiers in this stupid twisted game of chase. He makes it back to the main room before he goes under the stairs and into the very back wing of the palace where all of the meeting rooms and guest rooms are.