too early for a title geez don't pressure me (future)

one of the only parts in a thing that is clear for me. that is even then not clear yet.

He doesn't look at all like nearly two days in the dark caused her to imagine he would. The sickly yellow light from the hall is throwing strange shadow over his face, sharpening the deft angles of his features and deepening the bruises. His face is actually only slightly more flesh toned than shades of blue and red and purple, but Allie can still make out a narrow nose, high cheekbones, and a sharp jawline. 

Lucas' hair is not blonde and curled around his ears but dark, cut shorter at his neck and longer on top, falling over his forehead as though he'd styled it the day he'd found her and it's just been losing a battle against gravity ever since. 

His eyes are grey, or grey-blue, it's hard to tell - a coming storm is the first metaphor that springs to mind and it's terrible, but there's no time to come up with something better. His face is just inches from hers and his voice is so urgent that something cold smarts at the base of Allie's spine.

"Listen to me."

 

Lucas' fingers tremble very faintly as they rise, his hands cuffed, to touch her cheek or maybe brush back her hair, but they don't make it that far and hover somewhere between her jaw and the pulsing rhythm of her heart in her throat. Allie wonders if he can feel it in the air. She thinks of those callouses she'd felt over her mouth that first moment in the dark, and suddenly would give anything to feel them on her face again. 

"Pretend you know. Just enough, not everything. Not where she's gone. They'll believe you." 

"But-" He's told her almost nothing. She knows almost nothing. What is she supposed to say? Who is she supposed to say it to?

That question is answered when rough hands grab her arms and go to haul her to her feet. Allie can feel her body reacting without a distinct command; a noise lurches from her throat, torn out as she thrashes and tries to throw herself back down on the cold floor, towards Lucas, even though his hands are cuffed and he wouldn't even be able to catch her. 

The arms yanking her up are unyielding, the grunts of a man in her ear as Allie continues to struggle. Panic is dominating her every thought. It was stupid, she thinks desperately, as Lucas leaps up and she's being pulled out of the room. It was stupid to think they could just wait in the relative safety of the dark in that room and just think of a way out. 

"Lucas!" She doesn't have to pretend to be afraid. She can feel the fear in her very core, like a living thing that has hold on every part of her insides, that twists her stomach and squeezes her heart even as her arms and legs continue to squirm. 

There isn't time for pleading, for pleases and help me's, no time to ask him why their mothers chose this path for them and if they'd known it would lead them here. There is just his name and this newfound, earth-shattering certainty that if Allie can just get back to him, she'll find enough courage to seek the answers to those questions herself.  

"Lucas!"

"Allie!" 

Even though his hands are useless it still takes two other men to hold him down. Lucas is pinning her eyes with his, his expression open and almost hungry, like he's just drinking in the sight of her until he drowns in it. Allie realizes then that this is the first time that he's laid eyes on her, just as she did him, but then a moment later she realizes that she is wrong. 

Because he's seen Morgan. 

Does he see her sister in her face? 

Is that all he sees?

"Allie!"

The door slams shut.

The man pulling her down the hall is laughing. Dread spreads ice cold down her back, numbing her everywhere. She is dragged through another doorway, and then even the yellowed hallway she'd yearned for is gone. 

Author's Note

person subject to change - it's been ages since I've written in 1st maybe I'll try that again. I only have vague ideas about what's going on here, so if it's confusing, well I'm confused too. we should get t shirts. written in one go so feel free to ignore my disreputable grammar.