Chapter Seventeen: Panic (Wyvern)
I woke up in darkness.
At first I thought I really had died, until I heard a muffled moan a little way from my left leg. I went to move toward it only to find my arms and legs were tied to the wall my back was against.
Strangely though, my mouth was free and I made use of it.
"Kaira?" I ventured into the dark and the muffled moaner gave an insistent "Mmmphh!" of affirmation.
"What happened?" I asked her unhelpfully and she didn't reply, but struggled as I heard scuffling noises on the ground before a gasp and inhalation of air followed by some coughing.
"Ahh, bloody gag. The bastard! He dragged me out of bed and took us down into the basement levels! He's crazy, Wyvern – we have to get out of here right now," she informed me urgently and I began to struggle to free myself as well.
"Ah, my greatest love and enemy are awake. So nice of you to join me," Ryden's voice echoed through the expanse and a soft lamp lit meters away from us two to reveal Ryden sitting on the floor with something in front of him out of the light.
He stood and stretched before picking up a few more lamps nearby to him and lighting them, then placing them near me and Kaira. He paused and re-gagged Kaira, who tried to bite him only to be rewarded with a crack across the nose. She whined through her gag and fell silent, while he returned to his original spot and picked the item shaded from the light and came back over to me.
Ryden sidled up to me and looked at me adoringly.
"You've hardly changed since I saw you in Galbadia, Wyvern," he said softly, his eyes filled with misplaced love. He leant forward and tried to kiss me, but I threw my head from side to side to fend him off and he backed off.
"I'm rushing things. First things first, right?" he stopped and sighed with an air of love and began to pace in front of me with a far off smile.
"I first saw you a year ago when you were at Galbadia and I had to attend a few months of medical training with the Galbadia Garden Infirmary. I saw you get hunted by Kaira's little group and I hated them for it. And you – you were so beautiful... dancing away from them in fear, I wanted to protect you so bad... but I shyly watched from afar until I had to leave. I didn't think I'd see you again and it made me so sad," he drew in a sorrowful breath and shook his head, before looking at me levelly.
"But now it's your chance, Wyvern – your chance to finally pay her back for all the pain she caused you and come away with me," he smiled encouragingly while my expression turned to both horror and an indignant frown.
"I don't want to kill her!" I screamed at the demented man, fighting against my tied hands and legs.
"Just let us go!!!" I roared with all my might as Kaira's bound and gagged form struggled violently in the shadows and I tugged my hands uselessly against the bonds before giving up.
Ryden's eyes gleamed eerily in the poor lighting and he paced towards me with an imploring look.
"She hurt you in so many ways, Wyvern... I saw it all from your day to day life there. She tortured every single day she possibly could without an ounce of remorse," he paused and caressed my jaw lightly, "and now she has to pay," he reaffirmed with an eager nod to try and reassure me.
My eyes widened as he lifted his right arm to reveal the Fervent's shining dark metal blade, pointing to Kaira. I gasped and shook my head, brows furrowing as this psycho smiled inanely.
"No! I won't! I forgive her, Ryden! Forgive her for everything, because she's changed," I explained fearfully – just anything to make him understand and stop this craziness.
Ryden shook his head sadly.
"She hasn't changed a bit, otherwise the two of you wouldn't have fought and ended up in my care, would you now?" he grinned and tapped the blade thoughtfully on the ground with an expression to match.
"What I don't get..." tap, tap, tap, "is why you're so insistent on protecting her, Wyvern." His dark brown eyes bored into mine as if he was trying to break into my thoughts.
"Because we've changed. I've told you – she isn't the same, I'm not the same and Seifer is certainly not the same!" my voice rose in panic as his expression turned to a frown and he leant the blade against the wall next to me.
"Then why isn't Seifer here, doing his exams? Looking after you two? Because he's the same and you can't see it!" his voice dropped to a growl and he picked the blade back up, pointing it close to my throat.
"You don't believe me... you won't kill her will you?" he jerked his head in the direction of Kaira, who'd managed to free a leg, but he ignored her and kept his burning eyes on my frightened ones watching the Fervent urgently.
"No... but you love me, you've always loved me, Wyvern, you just can't see it like everything else..." his eyes fell to the floor and he seemed to sink into a fantasy. I saw the blade inch downwards and began to breathe a little easier – but the worst wasn't over yet. He still had the Fervent, and by the sounds of it, neither Kaira nor I are going to make it out of here alive.
I felt a huge wash of sorrow and tears began to form fast. I took in a shaky breath and thought once more of Seifer. It was a hopeless thought now, but still one I clung on to with an ounce of belief.
"Ryden, listen. There's no need for killing, no need to hurt anyone. Let's just go back to the Infirmary, alright, and talk things over," I tried to reason and Ryden lifted his head, shaken out of his daydream.
"No, Wyvern, it's too late for that now... I want us to be together and Kaira," he turned to her and spat viciously, "to burn in hell for hurting someone so gentle and perfect." He stopped and lifted the sword to my throat again with a more serious look.
"But you don't want me... I see that now. And if we can't be together... then we have to die so we can be together in Hyne's Kingdom," he told me matter-of-factly and I began to tremble as the seriousness he spoke with those words sent chills down my spine.
We were going to die.
He relinquished the Fervent's point from my throat and turned to Kaira, who couldn't free anything more than that one leg and appeared to have given up trying to escape.
"Kaira has to go first," he said conversationally and I made a decision.
"No! Kill me first! If we have to die, I want to die first!" I cried out to him and he returned his focus to me.
"You, my love, want to be released first?" he seemed a little disturbed by this prospect, but began to raise the Fervent to my throat.
"Well, if you're sure, Wyvern. I'll join you shortly, my love," he smiled and began to pull back the sword to stab me with all his might.
"I think you better drop that, Ryden, because otherwise you're not going to make it out of this fucking room," a heart leaping familiar voice growled in the shadows and Ryden's eyes widened in surprise.
Thankfully, he lowered the blade away from me and directed it toward the voice.
"Hey everyone, it's Seifer!" he said cheerfully as his face hardened into a menacing frown and he searched the darkness to no avail.
"Pretty dark in here, isn't it?" Seifer whispered from the emptiness almost conversationally and Ryden swung around to where the voice sounded like it had come from, but there was nothing to see.
I remained silent, if only to prevent myself from becoming a target of Ryden's and looked to where Kaira was. She was on her side, with one free leg kicking her other that was bound to her right hand, while both her hands were tied together so she had been completely incapacitated. Her grey eyes strained upward to meet mine and they conveyed her feelings of being trapped in an instant as she tried working her jaw to shift the gag unsuccessfully.
Meanwhile Ryden still looked around, but the expanse was too big with not nearly enough lighting to see all around. Now he crossed back to me and pressed the Fervent close to my throat – it pierced my skin a little and I felt a slight trickle of blood seep down the side of my neck onto my top.
Now the adrenalin and terror really crept in and I couldn't stifle a small whimper that escaped my throat.
In a flash, a body barrelled into Ryden's so the blade knocked sideways over Kaira and into the dark.
Seifer! He threw his hand out and yelled, "Cure!" and I felt a tingle around my neck which told me the wound was healing. Seifer grabbed Ryden ferociously and threw him into the wall next to me with all his might before pinning the shorter man against the wall – dragging him into a standing position and forcing his face into Ryden's with an expression of rage.
"Now you're going to pay," he snarled and drew Hyperion back.