Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire- Chapter Fourteen

I doubt this one will be uploaded before the weekend is over, unless I get some sort of mega-crazy inspiration from my unhelpful muse. Friday I have a wedding to go to (my uncle is getting married, yay!), and then Saturday we're having some sort of after-party type thingy-mabobber. Anyway.

But I am hoping to finish this before... let's say Tuesday next week. And did you guys know that I get a four-day weekend on my birthday weekend? That's right, be jealous!

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The jail cell was, cold, dank and dirty. Particules of dust floated through the foul-smelling air, clinging to my hair and clothes and making me sneeze repeatedly. Faint light floated in through the small barred window on the stone door. It was shady enough that only an outline of the objects around me was visible, even with my amplified vision.

I kept my mouth closed, for every time I opened it the metallic air left a bloody aftertaste on my tongue. Frigid air surrounded and smothered me, driving a chill deep into my bones. It was a lonely situation in quite a depressing setting.

A pair of eyes appeared at the small, high window, giving me a surge of hope. I stood, pulling myself up with straining arms to look through to the tunnel outside.

"Hey!" the Guard yelled, narrowing his eyes at my antics. "Get back down!" I shifted my weight, trying to find some purchase in the stone walls for my feet to rest upon. My toe found a small crevice that split the rock, and a feeling of relief flowed through my arms as the pressure upon them was reduced.

I concentrated on the Guard's Běnzhí, trying to inject a miniscule amount of Diànyuán into his mind. His eyes twitched, but the hard, unflinching gaze never left mine. Huh? Why hadn't it worked? I tried again, this time pushing on the boundaries of his Běnzhí with everything I had. Nothing.

My eyes widened as I realized my usual trick wasn't working, that I wasn't getting out of the dungeon like that. What was I supposed to do? That had never not worked before; ever since I'd discovered the power I'd been able to use it whomever I pleased.

"You need to let me out," I told him, switching tactics. If I couldn't make him let me out then I'd just have to persuade him to. "I wasn't really stealing it. I was just borrowing it for a second, I would've given it back. I swear."

The Guard rolled his steely grey eyes, backing away from the door. I had to shift positions again to see him, letting out a little grunt when my feet almost slipped from their holds. He was reading over something, his broad back to my cell.

After a while he wrote something down and walked down the right side of the tunnel. I leaned as far as I could to see what he was doing, but soon enough his muscular form disappeared behind a ragged dirt wall.

I dropped to the ground, letting out a small breath of dissatisfaction at the failure of my impromptu plan. Was there any way for me to get out of here? My mind felt muddled, something that was usually only cleared by meditation. I cleared myself a space on the grimy dirt floor, settled into my meditation pose, and cleared my mind.

I was just succumbing to the relaxation state when a scrape of metal on stone woke me from my stupor. A pair of young, feminine eyes were peering at me through the bars, almost glowing blue in the light from a lantern.

My hands and feet found cracks easily and I effortlessly pulled myslef back up to the bars. The young woman started, stepping backwards and dropping a thin metal rtay that held bread and water. Her frightened features were rather birdlike, the bun on her brown-haired head somehow adding to this illusion.

"Hey," I whispered, not wanting to freak her out even more. "Can you do something for me? Can you let me out of here?" The woman covered her mouth in shock.