Fate of Mist

(79) How Landon Died Last Time

   A splitting pain in my head woke me up.

   I wanted to touch my head, but my arms were pinned in place. After a few rounds of battling my heavy eye lids and the excruciating pain on my head, I managed to open a slit of my eyes. What entered my vision, though a bit unclear, was very unexpected. 

   I was, first of all, not out in the open; I can see a rock floor with walls and a large, dilapidated  pair of doors flung open inwards. The building was not massive, but it was also not small, considering that, in addition to me, it also housed another group of people. 

   I could hear chattering outside the building, leading me to believe that there are more people outside. The gang had one similarity: they were all wearing black with their faces covered.

   So, am I, supposedly...kidnapped?

   "She's awake," someone said. My vision is shifting in different levels of blurriness, and I blinked several times, trying to clear my vision. I can't tell who spoke, half because I'm having trouble seeing, blurry one second and clear another, and the other reason is because I can't see their faces in the first placce, as they were all covered.

   "Mmm," a more female voice answered. 

   Who are these people? Where am I? Where's Xiao Qing?

   I opened my mouth, my lips a bit dry, and asked, "Who are you? Where's the other girl who was with me?" My voice very timely cracked. 

   The female voice answered, "Miss Tang, we are from the prince. Please cooperate. The other girl is dead. Landon should be here soon."

   "What? Xiao Qing is dead?! You killed her? Landon? Why will he be here?" My hand still tied behind, I pulled myself into a curl in an attempt to sit up. My position laying down is opening too much weakpoints for the people to attack me. The stone floor chilled me through my thin robe, and there was a slight pulsing beat to the back of my left skull as my vision continued to shift. I blinked several more times, and finally, it started clearing again. 

   "Yes, we did. No need for unneccessary individuals to know what's happening. And Landon," there was a sneer, " will be here because you are here."

   "Unneccessary individuals? That is a life! A person's life!" 

   "It seemed that she wanted to kill you. Aren't you glad that your enemy is dead? And you have us to thank for that."

   "No! I don't want her dead! She wasn't going to kill me..." My voice shook at the last statement. Xiao Qing wouldn't have killed me, right?

   And Landon...because I'm here...? Does that mean, they're using me as the bait to reel in Landon, the fish? "What are you going to do to Landon?!"

   "Very simple. What else can one do to their enemy during warring periods?" A smooth, sly tone rounded the female's voice.

   "You're going to kill him, like what you did to Xiao Qing. You are inhumane." I answered, my voice dripped in ice, my heart drumming in my chest. Icy helplessness.

   She didn't reply. 

   "He's not going to come," I said, partly to myself. "He knows that I'm a spy and that..." My throat closed in on me, and I had to swallow before I finished my statement. "I've betrayed him." Again. Again. Again.

   What's my purpose in coming here in the first place? To save him and stand at his side and be loyal to him. To change my fate. 

   But what happened? Fate took over. Again.