I Will Not Leave or Forsake You

Chapter Five: Escape

I saw the light.  I felt the warmth that it emitted and I wanted to be with it.  I knew that my lord was with me at last.  I could feel the pain that I had felt before slipping away from me.  I could feel the overwhelming sense of rest shrouding my body like I was immersed in a pool that I was slowly sinking into.  I wanted to be here.  I wanted to rest.

A shadow covered the light above me, and I gazed upward.  No.  Please.

"It is not yet your time child.  You have not fulfilled the purpose that I have created you for."

The light was quickly fading, and I ran towards it but could not reach it.  It was just outside of my grasp.

My eyes shot open.  I was back in the wet bed.  I was back in the cellar.  The pain had returned to me.

I was alive once again.

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Each moment that I was awake I was suffering.  Constantly I would feel spasms and twinges of pain and discomfort.  Constantly I was wet and cold.  Constantly I was scared and tired.  Yet, I continued to persist.

I slept more than I did in my whole life.  Sleep was far less painful than being awake was, so I tried my best to sleep when I could.

I wouldn't see Alastor many times.  Occasionally he would come to peer in at me from the doorway, but he didn't enter again.  He knew I was too weak to fight him any longer.  It was an assumption that he was correct to make.

I tried to convince myself that the man was no good.  I would give myself the pep talk over and over again about how he was my enemy.  I told myself that he was hurting me and that I wouldn't help him any longer if I escaped.  Yet, still the days of when he was younger would creep into my mind.  I remembered how young he was when I first met him.  At eight years old he had such painfully wise eyes, but at least at that time he would allow himself to feel. More often then not his dominant emotions were caution and wonder, but each day brought a new thing for him to marvel at.  Even though I tried I could not entirely rid myself of the memories of him as a child.

I thought of the villagers.  Perhaps the reason that my lord wanted me to live was so that the people wouldn't have to suffer by the hands of Alastor.  Maybe I was meant to keep him in line by allowing him to abuse me rather than them.  Even though that would suck if that were my fate, it comforted me to know that I could be saving the lives of many others.

But what could I be alive still for?  Why wouldn't my lord just let me die?  I longed for it each moment that I was awake.  What was my purpose for being here?

I didn't know.  I wasn't sure that I would ever entirely know; however, I suspected that I would find out sooner rather than later.

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I watched the drip from the ceiling from my place on the bed.  It continued to drip, and I moved once to move the bucket beneath it before finding myself back in bed.  The sound of the drip hitting the surface of the water soothed me somehow, and before I could drift to sleep at the sound of the drops I heard the door open.

Alastor looked into the room to see the drops.  I am sure that he had heard it.  He seemed angry, but as usual I didn't look at him.  Alastor kicked the bucket as hard as he could into the wall and glared at me as if I was the one who had started the drip.  From the doorway I can see that the sun was just about to go down.  I think about how this would be about the time that I would ring the bell, and I wonder if I have been in here for a single day, weeks, or perhaps even months.

"Why is this bucket here?"

"Clearly there was a drip.  I wasn't sure how else to fix it besides to leave the room which you have made clear I may not do."

"Obviously not," he snapped back, "so enough with the witty remarks."

"As you wish."

Alastor appeared in front of me and dug his fingers into the hole in my back.   I cried out, and once again fresh pain emerged from the laceration in my flesh.  He listened to me cry out and too it as encouragement to dig them even further into my skin, and I almost passed out from the pain.  He smiled a little and then felt satisfied.

"I'm going to go fix that drip.  Wait here."  He chuckles a little at his own joke.  "As if you could leave."

 I could tell that my tan skin had paled from all the blood loss.  My appendages were starting to change color and my lips were cool.  They probably looked blue.  I knew I had a sickly appearance about me, but at the moment it was the least of my concerns.  I watched Alastor leave the room, but was surprised when he forgot to close the door behind him.  That was a mistake that he never made.  I almost thought it was a trick, but I listened to his footsteps get further and further away until they started climbing the stairs.

I knew this was my time.  I knew I had one shot and nothing more.  I knew I needed to go now.

I was careful to be stealthy as I slipped out of my bed, and I crossed the floor as silent as I could manage.  I slid through the doorway, and I took a deep breath when I saw Alastor's back heading up the stairs.  

Suddenly, I sprinted to reach him just as he had opened the door.  Just as he had turned to look at me I threw him as hard as I could in the opposite direction.  I was losing sunlight, and the sun was half beneath the horizon.  Just as I reached for the door to exit Alastor grabbed my ankle and I rolled down the steps with him.

"I told you that you could live," Alastor hissed, "but now...  Now you're going to die."