Abigail looked back at me. She was as shocked as I was. There was no way we were getting out of this one.
Aaron laughed. “Pathetic. Take them.”
The guards came and pulled us apart, violently dragging us down the hall.
“Hey! Stop! Where are you taking us? Aaron! Stop this! Aaron!” Abigail yelled trying to break free from there holds.
“Abigail, stop it’s no use,” I said too weak to fight anyway.
“Where are you taking us? Stop this!”
One of the guards smashed his elbow into the side of her face, making her immediately go limp in their grip.
“Abigail!” I then received a punch to the ribcage. All the air left my lungs.
As I gasped for air we stormed through a large set of doors. We entered a massive room filled with more guards then I could count. On the right wall was a small platform with a throne on it. In front of it on their knees were five other prisoners. They took Abigail to the front of the of the platform as they dropped me to my knees in between the second and third prisoner. I looked to the right of me, there was a woman whose tears mixed with her blood. She looked so scared. I looked to my left to see a man who was so skinny you could see every bone in his body. He didn’t look scared though, he looked like he had been through this routine before. I realized I caught myself staring when he looked over at me. Strangely he smiled.
“Do I know you from somewhere? Are you from Ether?” I asked.
Before he could answer I there was a loud echoing bang. I looked back to see Aaron smack Abigail across the face.
“Hey!” I yelled.
“Abigail, would you like to explain what you were doing earlier?”
“Go to hell,” she spat.
He stepped down from the platform walking around all of us knelt on the floor. He stopped behind me. “Maybe I should just kill Chase then if you won’t cooperate.”
“What is it that you even want? You literally have all of Ether,” her attitude earned her another hit to the face from one of the guards.
“Well, what about Adam here?” he stepped to stand behind the man sitting beside me.
Again I looked at him with wondering eyes.
How do I know him?
Abigail didn’t say a word. Aaron pushed between us to get back to Abigail. “Oh, so now you have nothing to say?”
***
Abigail was laying in a pool of blood before I knew it. They had beat her as an example. But never once did she say a word. But what killed me the most is all I could do was sit there and watch.
“I’m done with her. Get rid of her,” Aaron waved to the back of the room. Two guards picked her up by the arms, dragging her across the floor.
“Abigail,” as she was pulled pasted me I followed their path. On the opposite side of the room was another set of doors.
Are they letting her go?
The doors creaked open and the guards disappeared. A few moments later they came back without her.
“Where did they take her?” I whispered, looking over at the man.
“They brought her back to Earth.”
Again I caught myself staring.
“Don’t worry, she’ll be back to get you. Her and your friend.”
“What?”
“It was so good to see you again, son. Even though I will never see the light of day again I got to see you. My heart is full.”
He was grabbed my two guards as two came and held on to me. It was then that it felt like my heart exploded in my chest. “Dad?”
I immediately tried to get out of their hold. I used every ounce of energy I had to try and get to him.
How did I not realize? Chase, what is wrong with you? You have to do something! You have too!
“Da—” Before I even had the chance to have another thought Aaron slit his throat. My Dad’s body dropped to the ground in a pile of skin and bone as blood quickly pooled around him.
My body went limp. Tears flowed from my eyes.
Aaron knelt in front of me lifting my head so I was nose to nose with him.
“Now,” he grinned at me, “you understand what pain is.”
I spit in his face. I received immediate punishment for it.
“Don’t even bother,” he laughed. As he stood he wiped his face. “Bring him to the cave.”
As I was dragged away I couldn’t take my eyes off my father.
After all these years I had thought I lost my father, it was really just Aaron all along. I should have known. I should have looked harder. I should have realized sooner. I could have done something. Did Abigail know? Did she try?
I was thrown into a small cave that had two metal plates and cups pushed off to the side. After I was locked in I turned to face the back wall. Engraved on the back was small lines grouped in fives. They stretched over almost the whole back wall. Everything in my body knew that this is where my father was held. I traced my fingers over some of the lines.
All this time and I did nothing. All this time... lost.
I collapsed to the floor curling into a ball. Tears ran down my face, “Dad, I’m so sorry.”
***Abigail***
I felt my feet hit every step as they dragged me up the stairs. The doors flew open letting light flood in.
“What are you going to do to Chase and James? Please don’t hurt them.”
They laughed. “That’s not our call to make sweetheart. They’re probably already dead.”
They threw me onto the forest floor. The two guards that had been standing outside began down the stairs behind the other two. A moment later the doors slammed shut making the ground beneath me shake. I lifted my head to see a few drops of blood on the leaves.
Chase, I’m so sorry.
I laid my head back down, starting to cry. Everything ached in my body.
Call Ryan. You have to. You can’t stay here.
I took a deep breath, finding my voice. “Ryan!”
I curled up into a ball hoping that my cry was enough. I knew that one of them heard me. Suddenly I could hear something running along the forest floor.
Get up, could be an attack.
I put my hands under myself using all of the strength I had to get to my feet. I stood ready for whatever was coming my way. But when I saw the white wings of Owl I collapsed to the ground again.
“Abigail, Abigail!” Ryan ran over to me scooping me up in his arms.
I immediately started to cry again.
“It’s alright. It’s okay,” he wrapped me in a tight hug.
“He was there. I had him. Chase. I found him,” I said through short breaths.
“Will get him. We know where he is now. Don’t worry.”
“And I think Aaron was going to kill James.”
“James? Who James?” He loosened his grip so that I could look at him.
“James.”
“James? Chase’s father? No way. He’s alive?”
“I’m not so sure now,” tears escaped from her eyes. “I should have done something.”
Owl hooted, we both looked up at him. I had forgotten he was there.
“He right. Let’s get to Ether and then we can figure everything out.”
I nodded. Ryan rose to his feet. He extended his arms to help me up.
“Are you okay?” he asked as I got to my feet.
Opening my eyes, I nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.”
***
“Okay, I think I have everything I need,” Ryan walked back into my bedroom placing a big box on the end of my bed. Owl sat next to the bed on the side table.
“What in the world is all of that?”
“Well, I have some bottled water, a few snacks for you, lots of first aid stuff to clean you up with, and my very favorite snuggly blanket that only makes appearances on special occasions so you should feel special.”
I laughed, “thank you, Ryan.”
He cleared everything off the end of the bed only keeping the few things that he needed to start to band
age me up.
“Ryan, something doesn’t make sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a tree just like mine in Limbo. But whereas the one in the City of Spirits had hardly any leaves on its branches this one was full.”
“What?”
“Yes, and when I was forced to touch it boiled my skin where my mark was. Chase healed it some.”
“What?”
“And you know how we’re told that Limbo and Ether are equal?”
He nodded.
“They’re not. James told me the story and yes they’re created equal, they have the same amount of cities and things like that. That’s it.”
“Yeah, when I was trying to get out it was so confusing.”
“And the tree wasn’t in a city like the City of Spirits. It was in the main city. Well, I’m assuming that’s where we were. God, I don’t know anymore.”
Ryan handed me a bottle of water.
“I don’t know. There obviously must be some reason. All the elements seem to be the same in the Worlds but it’s not equal,” I paused. “We’ll have to do some more reading I guess. There must be an answer somewhere.”
“So the tree was full?”
“Yeah, there was only a few leaves fallen. So maybe it’s like the symbols. When Limbo is winning their tree is full. When Ether is, our tree is full.”
“Would make sense I suppose.”
“I really hope that James isn’t dead.”
“How did you get to talk to him? How did you even find out it was him?”
“I was locked in the dungeons with him.”
“Chase is going to be devastated.”
“They were both in the main room with me. They were beside each other.”
“Oh no.”
“How are we going to get them back? We need to do something. Soon.”
“I know. Are you going to be okay though?”
“I’m not a hundred percent but I’ll live,” everything in my body said that I was far worse than that.
“Um, okay.”
Suddenly a pain shot through my right arm like I had never felt before. I grabbed my wrist as I looked down at my mark. “Ryan, look.”
My tree shook as if it was in a hurricane and then three leaves slowly fell.
“Oh no.”
“Ryan, you know what that means don’t you?”
“James.”
I dropped my head in defeat. “He was there. I could have done something.”
“Look at you, Abigail. What were you going to do?” Ryan asked.
“Poor Chase,” tears streamed down my cheeks.
Ryan had tears in his eyes too. “Let’s try to get some sleep. They’re not going to do anything to Chase now. We’ll get a little rest and then go get him back. It’s time for us to get our city back.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - RYAN
I shot awake almost falling out of the chair that I was sleeping in. Owl was hovering in the window, growling. I ran over to see the night sky suddenly turn blue. I turned around running over to Abigail’s bed.
“Abigail, wake up. We have to go,” I said shaking her awake.
“What’s a matter?”
“They’re coming. We have to go.”
“What is it that they even want? There is literally nothing up here but us. They have everything. These people are ridiculous,” She was cranky. I could tell by how she was trying to get out of bed that she was hurting and waking her up from a dead sleep probably didn’t help. She has cuts and bandages all over her and most of the bruises she had were now a deep purple.
“Power. They want to destroy everything.”
“Lead me where we need to go.”
I slowly walked out into the hallway.
No one.
“Okay, come on. We have to make one quick stop.”
She nodded following behind me. As we turned the corner I slid to a stop making Abigail run into me.
“What—” Abigail stopped when she saw what was in front of us.
The red-haired woman from the City of Spirits was standing in front of us. “Hello.”
“Hi,” I nodded.
“How is Charlie?” Abigail asked.
“He’s wonderful,” She smiled. “We don’t have long.”
“What’s happening? Are they coming?”
“First, come here Abigail. Give me your hand.”
Abigail glanced at me before extending her hand.
Once the woman took her hand Abigail’s body began to shake. I took a step closer just in case she fell.
“Are you okay, Abigail?” I asked. I had my hand out ready to catch her.
They released hands, Abigail looking over at me. All of her scrapes and bruises were gone. “She healed me.”
“Now, you must go back to Limbo if you want to save Chase.”
“What? That just sounds like a death mission,” I couldn’t believe what she wanted us to do.
“It’s the only way to get Chase back.”
They’re going to kill him. He is going to kill him.
“We’ll do it.”
I turned to Abigail, surprised.
“The Spirits will protect you, but you won’t have long. You will have your own challenges, Ryan.”
“What do you mean?”
“You will need to stay here and protect Ether.”
I shook my head. “No. No way. Abigail can’t go down there alone again.”
“Someone must protect Ether. That job lies to you, Ryan.”
“How am I supposed to get Chase out of Limbo alone? I just barely got out of there myself.”
“You have until sunrise.”
Before we had a chance to react she was gone.
“I hate that. Poof. Gone. Kind of rude really,” she started to pace. “What are we going to do, Ryan?”
“Good question.”
“How are you going to protect Ether alone? And how am I going to get Chase? Hard to say where he even is now.”
When I didn’t answer right away she turned to me.
What can we do? There must be something—
“Wait, what about the watch?”
Her eyes narrowed, “what about it?”
Owl hooted. He knew what I was thinking.
“You use the watch.”
“How? Can I?”
“I’m not sure. But it’s the only thing I can think of.”
“What are we going to do if that doesn’t work?”
I shrugged, “not sure. So let’s hope that it does.”
She nodded, “well do you have one of those purple stones? You could use that to protect Ether.”
“I don’t know if I have another one. I might know where to find one though.”
“Well, we better get moving then. Sunrise isn’t that far away,” she sighed.
***Abigail***
“Okay, so we have everything we need?” I looked down to see what I liked to call my armor now strapped to my body. I had two straps of knives over my chest, one on my right arm, and one on each thigh all holding small throwing knives.
“Ah, as good as we’re going to get I think,” Ryan had changed into his guard outfit. I assumed that he felt more comfortable.
“Okay, you have the stone?”
Ryan opened his hand so I could see it.
“Are you going to use it right away?”
“Might as well.”
“Are Chase and I going to be able to get back in?”
“Oh, that’s what these are for,” he reached into his pocket. He opened his hand to show three smooth green stones just like the purple one.
“What are those?”
“They allow you to get through the barrier.”
“Really? Cool!”
“Both you and Chase need one for both of you to get through. I will keep one too. It’s hard to say what this attack will be like. If I can, I will come to help you. Once you find Chase it won’t be long until they come after you,” he handed me two of the roc
ks, putting his back into his pocket.
“Do you have the watch?”
He reached into the other pocket, holding the watch out for me.
“So is this going to work?” I asked taking it.
“Try it.”
“Just me?”
“Sure.”
I looked down at the gold pocket watch, hesitating. “Are you sure? This is going to hurt you is it?”
“Don’t know. It might not even work. Just try it.”
“Okay, fine,” I pushed the button on the top letting the face of the watch open.
When I looked up from the watch Ryan and Owl we’re frozen in place. I waved my hand in front of them but got no response. I walked behind them closing the watch.
Ryan turned quickly. Owl hooted, upset.
“Wow! It worked!”
“Do you feel okay?”
“I think so,” he patted his chest.
“Well I think that’s it then,” I said, placing the chain of the watch around my neck. I didn’t want to lose it.
“You need to go. It’s sunrise.”
Our walk through the palace was quiet. I had to look over every so often to make sure that Owl was still with us.
When we pushed opened the main doors the skies were starting to turn red with the sunrise.
“What’s that saying? Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Ryan nodded.
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, Ryan and Abigail are screwed.”
Ryan chuckled. “We can do this. We need Chase back. We need Ether back.”
“One step at a time, please.”
He smiled, turning the lock mechanism making all of the gears and bolts move on the back of the large doors. “Owl will watch you over the wall. Once you get to the top of the steps he will let me know and I will use the stone.”
I nodded. Suddenly I felt like I couldn’t move.
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