DARKNESS

DARKNESS | Chapter 21

"There is no way of knowing how things will turn out until they've actually happened."

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Pushing back against the leg pole of my bed, I attempt to raise the bed in order to slip my bound hands off of it. The attempt fails, not for the first time this evening. My breathing laboured from my countless efforts to escape, I manage to rotate my body and hook my shoulder under the edge of the bed.

One. Two. Three.

My shoulder supports the entirety of the bed's weight as I succeed in raising it off of the floor, an ache spreading down my arm and back. Straining under the force, I struggle to focus on my concentration on my hands, gradually managing to figure out how to manoeuvre them and slide them down the pole.

All of a sudden the rope slips off the bottom of the pole and I fall to the ground under the bed.

With rapid movements, my chest rises and falls and close my eyes, my cheeks feeling hot from exhaustion. After regaining some of my drive, I slide out from under the bed and sit up, mentally going over stage two of my mostly-improvisational escape plan.

Marcus should have been smarter in preventing my escape. Surely, after knowing what I'm like and how I behave, he would have gone to extra measure to ensure I was trapped. He didn't. Then again, Marcus should have done a lot of things. He should have trusted me. He shouldn't have constantly underestimated me. He shouldn't have begun to restrict my freedom and put himself under the impression he had the right to control me. I'm nobody's pawn.

Using my legs, I rotate my body once more to sit facing the bed. I lean back, my hands aching under the awkward angle of my own weight as I lift my legs into the air. Carefully, I slide my feet under the mattress, feeling along the bed-frame until I come across my dagger. Stuck in intense concentration, I bring my feet together around the sheathed dagger and begin to manoeuvre it out from the tight space. The grin that breaks out across my face like a bad case of acne is evident of nothing but a smug glee as the dagger drops onto the earth floor quietly. This is actually working.

This new way of life with the Immortals has claimed me like a dog claims it's territory. The only issue with that is the fact that I'm not cut out for it. I'm not prepared for the continuity of unexpected occurrences associated with this world. I miss my home, my life and the feeling of safety. I miss the blissful lack of information I had in regards to my parents' murder and, most of all, his youngest son. Kale gets to me in a way no one has in a long time, and that scares the shit out of me. I want to trust him with everything I have and yet I can't and might never be able to. He's Ashleigh's son. Ashleigh killed my parents. Ashleigh wants to turn me into the Destroyer. Kale could easily be leaking information, despite the gut feeling I get that he isn't. That he's true to his word.

I want everything to go back to the way it was before Ashleigh knocked on my front door. I want to get out of this place and away from it's people. I want to be normal.

My grin once again transforms into a frown of concentration as I stand up and bring my hands down below my butt before sitting down again. My wrists are now bound under my knees and I know I won't be able to slide my legs through so I instead use my free fingers to unsheathe the small dagger. Pointy end aimed at me, I hold the dagger with my feet and bring my bound hands to the blade, beginning to move them back and forth in an effort to slice the rope. Slowly but surely, the threads begin to fray and break apart.

Before long, I'm shedding the rope like a second skin and rubbing at the red rings now temporarily marking my wrists, well aware of the fact that my time is limited.