Enlightenment

Part 21

              I didn’t meet his eyes. “I don’t know… but it’s true what he said. I can’t stay here much longer without- without eating. The results will not be pretty.”

“Oh” He was silent for a moment, “what will happen, to you?”

 I took so long to answer that he began to look impatient.

 “I’ll begin to… lose my mind. The longer I go without blood the less of me there is. I will become more savage, more animal. More like the creatures that you are used to dealing with.” I finally looked into his eyes for an instant. “I’ll find it extremely difficult to distinguish between my friends, and my enemies."

              I looked away again. I didn’t want him to see me like that, and I didn’t want to let it show how much the loss of control would frighten me. 

              After the silence had stretched on for too long I risked a glance at him. To my surprise his eyes didn’t show disgust and accusation like I assumed they would. Instead they contained something that looked suspiciously like sympathy and a mix of other conflicting emotions that I couldn’t identify.

              I looked away, now was not the time to focus on the complex issues between us.

              Now that I was calmer and clearer headed I examined the situation more closely. The room we were in seemed fairly ordinary in most aspects. Probably we were in the warehouse somewhere.

              I studied one of the manacles on my wrists. It still looked as solid as ever, but when I looked more closely I realized the metal had started to bend. It was now more oval than round. I gave an experimental tug but stopped when pain shot up my arm.

              I turned my wrist carefully. In this position I didn’t think that I would be able to break the metal straight away, I didn’t have enough leverage. However, if I bent it a bit more I might just be able to slip my hand through…

              Inhaling deeply I gritted my teeth to prepare myself. Then without giving myself a chance to reconsider I yanked my arm down as hard as I could. My clenched jaw muffled my cry of pain but Jamie shouted;

“Jade stop! You’ll hurt yourself!”

              Ignoring him I examined the metal and held back a groan. Still not quite enough… I repeated the motion and this time I didn’t let myself make a sound.

              My mouth curved into a triumphant smile for a second. The metal was now much more deformed. I twisted my hand around ignoring the burning. My blood coating my skin made it slick and easier to move.

              After several moments of trying to ease it over the part where my thumb joined my hand it suddenly gave with a crack that I was fairly certain originated from my hand and not the metal; although I was already in too much pain for me to tell exactly where it came from.

              I resisted the urge to yell triumphantly and instead adopted a grim smile. Then I was able to twist around and brace my hand on the wall behind me, so that I could use it to push off and provide extra force for me to break the manacle on my other wrist. It took me a few tries but eventually I managed it.

              Now I was posed with the problem of what to do about the ones encasing my ankles. The actual ring around them looked thicker and therefore stronger… but the chain connecting them looked breakable…

              I leaned down and got a strong grip on the chain, wrapping my fingers around it tightly. I managed to break it with a swift pull, but I had to wrap the remaining parts of the chain around my legs so that they were out of the way. There was no way I was getting the actual manacles off at the current time, but luckily my skin was mostly protected by my boots.