Valerie and the Legends of Oscavia

Chapter Thirty-five : Best Friends No Matter What.

The Green-eyed boy sat in the dark, dark cell. The place was absolutely empty except for him. No color, no smell, no sound. Nothing.

The green-eyed boy remained there. He hadn't spoken a word since he was captured. Twice a day, the same set of people would take him out of the cell and tie him down at an altar.

They would chant words and sprinkle potions and the tall, dark man would sit in a high chair, watching and waiting for the last ritual.

The green-eyed boy cried a lot but he didn't fight when the people came to take him out. He didn't want to fight.

He was scared of his powers. He saw the look on Valerie's face when he impaled people with the plants he brought from the earth. She was proud of him.

But he was scared, not proud. Maybe she would have been proud if he had fought the people, maybe he would have escaped.

"Hey!" A voice called sharply from outside the cell.

Diaz's head shot up in fear. There was a silver, eerie light all the time here, since there was no sun. It was bouncing off the black cloak of the man outside.

"Don't panic, I'm your friend" the dark creature said. "Well not really your friend but I'm a teensy bit better than the people here"

Diaz just stared at him.

"Oh okay so maybe I'm just as bad but the thing is, tomorrow you are going to be turned. And I don't see any super hero friends coming to bust you out anytime soon, so I might as well do it myself"

Diaz kept staring at him, his accent was almost like Valerie's. Everyone here had an accent that was almost like Valerie's. Except the tall, dark man on the high chair, he spoke exactly like her.

"You don't talk much, huh?" The man in the cloak said. Diaz couldn't see his face. "You don't talk at all. You know and I'm sure you do, I talk a lot....I have no idea why I just said that. Are you hungry?"

Just as he asked that question, Diaz's nose picked the wonderful aroma of the tastiest snack ever made.

Panusé pie!

Diaz nodded and the cloaked man held out a big piece of the pie to him.

He grabbed it desperately, like it would disappear any second. The only thing he got to eat was thin, white soup. It wasn't poisonous obviously, since they needed him alive.

But this Panusé pie was the best thing that had happened to him in nine days so he scarfed it down as quickly as possible.

"I finally stole the keys!" Another voice said with excitement. A duanti.

"Oh great, let's do this" The cloaked man said taking the keys from his duanti and unlocking the gate.

"Come on, kid. The sooner we get you out of here the better the chance of neither of us dying tonight"

Diaz stood up shakily. Was he telling the truth? Was he really setting him free?

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" The duanti asked worriedly.

"This is a wonderful idea!" The man replied. "And besides, it's a little too late to turn back now, no?"
He took out a smaller cloak and put it around Diaz, making sure it was covering him properly.

"Let's go" He said and started walking quickly down the dark hallway. Diaz followed, his heart thumping hard in his chest.

They kept walking briskly down hallways, turning left, right, flying up stairs but never descending. Diaz couldn't even find his way back if he wanted to.