Dalliance - Z.M. (An Exquisites Original Story)

38; Heartless

Chapter 38

"You never gave up on me, I'll never know what you see."

(Raine's POV)

The night had finally fallen after what seemed like the longest day of my life.

I'm not sure what time it was, but when Ruiz had made Zayn and I move rooms, the glass paneling of the hallway had hinted at the darkness. There were the better half of a hundred guards which Ruiz had posted at every nook and cranny of the building. Even though I would never attempt to flee without Zayn, I was handcuffed while being escorted. Zayn was, too, even though he was still not conscious.

After deciding that neither Zayn nor I were going to give him any information while we were being treated like prisoners, Ruiz decided to keep us under more humane conditions. Moon had generously offered to torture us again, but Ruiz said that this was not the way he wanted to go about making an ally. I didn't have nearly enough power physically nor emotionally to tell them that they could never make an ally out of me.

So we were escorted to two separate rooms on different sides of the building. I wasn't sure where they were taking Zayn, and when I had asked for us to be together, Moon had just laughed. They took me into a contained room which felt like a heavily armed jail cell. Unlike the basement we were just in, the temperature was moderate and I was no longer shaking. There was a bed posted on the corner of the room which I was sat in before a guard handcuffed me to the headboard. Moon set a bag of food within arm's length but didn't exactly care if I ate. If it were up to her, both Zayn and I would be dead in a ditch somewhere.

Their doctor for hire was only able to treat us with the medications he had on him, which weren't very many. We were given a spare change of clothes since our last ones were drenched and smelt like blood and intoxicants. Zayn had a blood transfusion and was given bandages at the spots where he was beaten. It took the doctor nearly two hours to work on Zayn, and I'm still not convinced he's okay. The doctor said healing someone who they had so recently tortured was a first for him.

When he moved on to me, he was afraid I was only alive because of the adrenaline pumping in my veins. He tried to detox my blood as best he could, and while I do feel a little better, I am smart enough to know that I'm still not healthy.

I stare at the plastic bag of food sitting across from me, my stomach growling at me viciously since I still haven't eaten, but I refuse to eat until I know Zayn has. I'm not sure how long it's been since I've been handcuffed to this bed, but it feels like hours. The unsettling silence in the room only makes my mind wander to dark places. I'm not sure where Zayn is, and I cannot possibly believe that they're doing anything to treat him right. He's probably still unconscious, which isn't a good sign. I want to be with him when he wakes up, but this is clearly not an accommodating place.

My eyes feel so heavy. It feels like it's two AM. There was an eerie fear lingering in the silence. A strange feeling I'd never thought I would experience. It feels like the calm before the storm, the moment when you realize that death is knocking on your door and you can no longer refuse her.

I'm not scared to die. But I am scared that Zayn will. I feel like he has so much left to live for, so many things left to do. Nobody has ever read his poetry or heard him sing, or seen him be truly happy. He hasn't been in love with someone who isn't attached to death and violence. He hasn't traveled. He hasn't seen in his family in years. He hasn't made amends with Kai. He hasn't been loved unconditionally by someone who deserves him. He has barely lived.

There is nothing I want more than for him to get out of this alive.

My thoughts are halted when I hear the keys rattling on the other side of the door. With my free hand, I wipe away my tears and sit up straight, prepared for the worst when the door opens to reveal Ruiz. When he sees me cuffed to the bed, his shoulders fall and he turns around to the guard posted in front of my cell.