Ch. 14- Guardian

Days Missing: 14                                              3:08:54 AM

 

Alexandria

 

I jolt awake, body broken into a sweat. My chest heaves as I try to catch my breath. Tears fall down my cheeks, my fingers trembling. Roan’s face is imprinted in my brain, like when you stare at a light fixture too long, and the image remains burned in your mind, even after you’ve looked away.                                                         

"Alexandria, it's ok.” Someone whispers softly. “It was just a nightmare." Aiden's voice floats right by my ear, and my heart stops beating so fast, my breath slowing. I rub my eyes with my knuckles, until little white sparks bursts across my vision. He reaches out his hand and strokes my hair. I face him. The bruise on his eye is turning black. There's a gash running down the side of his neck. It’s new. I reach up and stroke his face. He leans into it, closing his eyes, sighing from exhaustion. Lex is sound asleep in the corner, facing the wall. His body twitches. None of us sleep very well.

"Why are you up?" I ask, my voice rumbling deep in my chest, feeling heavy from the tears. He opens his eyes and my hand falls lightly, landing in my lap. "I had a nightmare too." he says, as if this was normal. Both of us seem to have these nightmares now. I know it has something to do with Roan taking him out of the cell every other day. Aiden never talks about it, but Lex and I know what Roan does to him. Roan has gotten in the habit of taking me out of the cell every other day too. Yesterday he got really rough. He had a knife this time. Sliced my cheek open because I kept struggling.

I look into Aiden’s eyes. There's something else. A secret. I can see it swimming aimlessly behind his eyes. “How did you and Lex get tangled up with Roan?” I’ve been wanting to ask this for a while, but only now do I actually have the guts.

He sighs, and turns his body towards mine.  His chest heaves, something clearly heavy on it.

He looks at the sleeping lump curled up in the corner. “Lex had found me sleeping under some abandoned railroad tracks when we were younger.” He says, eyes still locked on Lex.

“I was starving. I couldn’t find any food. Lex gave me an apple. It was small, but the gesture broke my heart. I realized I wasn’t alone. From then on, we had each other’s backs. Lex’s trained in the art of Wushu. He had an abusive father, so he learned how to fight. He’s very good.”

Aiden smirks, staring at the floor. “He really knows how to kick a*s.”

This makes me laugh softly. I bet he does.

“We scrounged around for about two years, living from place to place. It was a good life. For us.”

Aiden pauses, reminiscing.

“It was winter. There wasn’t any food. We were starving. I saw how frail Lex was becoming. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was scared. I was too. Scared that we would die of starvation. Becoming desperate, I left our hideout one night to search for food. I didn’t tell Lex I was leaving. I was wandering down an abandoned alley, looking for dumpsters, hoping they would have scraps of food in them. Instead, I found something else.

It was dark. I remember eyes, glaring at me from the shadows in front of me. Then I saw him. Roan stepped out of the shadows slowly. He continued to glare at me, his jaw set. I was frightened. There was pure evil etched all over his face. I took a step back, and bumped into someone standing behind me. I whipped around, Xander staring back at me, baring his teeth in an evil grin.

“Going somewhere?” Roan had said. I turned back around to face him, and he had moved in front of me, Lennox also emerging from the shadows. I was surrounded. I remember Roan flexing his fingers and arching his back. As did the others. I tried to make a run for it, but Xander grabbed my arms, holding me still. Roan walked up to me. He ran a fingernail down my cheek, and I shivered…”

Aiden trails off, staring off in the distance, mind lost in the terrible memory.

“Xander threw me to the ground, face down. He pinned one of my arms down, while Lennox pinned the other. I felt Roan’s hand splayed across my lower back, pressing into it.”

I look at the ground, afraid of Aiden’s next words.

“It hurt so much. Like my body was being ripped to pieces. He was so rough. I was crying the whole way through, begging him to stop. But he didn’t.”

My lip begins to tremble as I look at him, and fresh tears fall down my face. One trickles into the gash on my cheek, setting it on fire.

Aiden looks at me, and sees the tears. He takes my hand and holds it, rubbing my knuckles.

“Roan took me back here. I was missing for a day before Lex realized something was wrong. I don’t know how he found me, but he did. He crashed into the place like a maniac.” Aiden smiles. “He knocked Lennox out with one punch. He was so brave. But it wasn’t enough. They brought him down.”

Aiden’s voice faltered.

“We’ve been here for a year.”

A year.

Lex stirs in his sleep.

I look at his sleeping form. They both have been through so much. Much more than either of them deserve. A protection for Aiden as grown inside of me. A connection. The wounds that Roan has inflicted on us has bound us together somehow. Both Aiden and Lex take care of me, as if I were their sister. And it makes my heart break. I don’t even know how long I’ve been here. I’ve lost count. I just know that it’s been too long.

I lock eyes with Aiden, who stares back at me with big eyes.

“We’re gonna get out of here.” I breathe, gripping his hand.

“Somehow.”

He smiles reassuringly. That smile gives me a hope that I shouldn’t even have. Sleep suddenly sweeps over me, my eyes feeling heavy. Roan takes all my energy from me. I just want to go home.

I lay down on the cold floor, wincing as the gash on my cheek begins to burn again. Aiden lies right beside me, his face close to mine. He intertwines his fingers through mine. I feel safe when he’s near. He seems to be the only reason I even have hope. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have an older brother. I think I finally know now. He’s my protector. My guardian.

I drift into a dreamless sleep, the tears finally drying on my cheeks.

Reviews

[Alleyway Rover]

Back at the dungeon we have some rising tension, I like that.

Aiden’s backstory, again, wants me to know more about this world that you’ve created. If it is the same world I live in, these characters all exist in a corner of it that I have no experience in.

Be carful now that we know who took Alexandria because she doesn’t and this is told from her perspective. She can’t use his name if she doesn’t know who he is.

If she does know who he is, then he either has to conceal his identity or she has to flat out tell us who he is early in the story. Having a character conceal information, especially in 1st person POV, is likely to make the reader cry ‘foul.’

This is just a bit of information if you are interested: As martial arts go, Wushu is pretty much useless in any fight where the competitor is not also using Wushu. It’s a beautiful art, and it is designed to be that way. It’s a sport and as such is as constrained by rules as baseball, football, etc. There are lots of flourishes and forms, all of which will get you killed in a street fight. If you really want to assign a style to Lex (and Lex could just be a good brawler, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that) I would suggest Jeet Kun Do, Krav Maga or even Aikido which are much more useful in a fight.

Though one has to ask, if he’s such a good fighter, why is he still trapped here?

“There was pure evil etched all over his face”

Every time we see this guy you use the same description, or one so similar they’ve become indistinguishable. In future drafts, think about varying it up some and always remember to show, not tell.