Elaclea Electronic

Chapter Eight: The Corridor

(School has been keeping me busy, but not busy enough to delay fan fiction writing! Bwahahaha! By the way, I'm writing another LE fic, which is also on called "Perpetual Motion Machine," please check it out! Anyway, here's the next chapter!)

Dio did not react how I had expected him to. I thought he would ask why and not understand even when I explained. Instead, he laughed nervously and said, "Sometimes you make me laugh so much! Is this some kind of a game?" Despite his laughter, I knew that now, he really was scared. His eyes gave it away.

I knew that I had to be as honest as I possibly could. "No, this is not a game. Ressius told me that the doctors from Anatoray are going to do something terrible to you. If we stay here, you'll be in great danger."

A moment passed. Dio stood near his bedroom door, tears forming in his crystalline eyes. "What…what are they going to do?" he asked, his voice a soft whisper. While he wanted to know, it seemed that he did not want to hear it at the same time. If I was in his position, I would have acted the same way.

Really, I did not want to tell him just yet, but I knew that if I wanted him to be safe, he had to know why he was in danger. "The Anatorayans have found some kind of cure for your condition— "

"Well, but that's a good thing!"

"No, it's not. Let me finish. Ressius told me that they will remove the frontal lobe of your brain. While I'm not exactly sure what will happen to you after that, I know it won't be good." Dio wanted to interrupt me, so I had to put my hand up to silence him. He had to know what was going on.

The prince stared at me in disbelief for a little under a minute. The tears that had formed were now falling freely. I wanted him to say something; anything would do. As he lowered his gaze to the floor, I realized that words were not needed.

A friend was.

I stepped closer to him, cautiously. Then, without bothering to ask his permission, I embraced him. He put his arms around me and sobbed into my chest. Although I did not do it, I, too, felt like crying.

We remained like that for quite a while. Once Dio finally calmed down, he went back into his room and appeared a few minutes later. He wore a white uniform identical to mine and carried a small, white bag, which contained his medicine, among a few other items. "I've got enough to last me two months," he stated, "Let's go."

The sun was rising as we reached the glass doors of the palace. People would be out and about any second. My mind raced, trying to find a solution. We could not just run, because the guards, like Cicada, were much faster than both of us. Dio also seemed to realize this. He tapped my shoulder and silently motioned for me to follow him. Since I did not want to create any unnecessary noise, I simply nodded and began following.

It should have been obvious that Dio, of all people, knew ways to get out of the palace. The fact that he had not run away before now surprised me very much. We walked to the right of the glass doors, staying close to the walls. Finally, we stopped when we reached a small grate. To the eye, it looked completely normal, but when Dio took it out of its spot, I saw that it led to a stair case. I heaved a sigh of relief; this was going to make everything much easier.

We hurried into the passage way and I replaced the grate before we continued. Although it was difficult to see, Dio took hold of my hand and the two of us ran into darkness.

The corridor we arrived in was dimly lit by weak gas lamps. It smelled heavily of mold and freezing water dripped from the low ceiling. At least now I could see. Dio stopped for a moment and turned back to face me. The corridor was so narrow that we could not stand next to each other. He smiled at me and let go of my hand, which he had been holding the entire way down. "I'm glad that we decided to do this," he whispered.

"As am I," I said, "But we're not out yet. Let's keep going."

Dio nodded and turned back around. I wondered if he was as nervous as I was, or if he thought of it as a fun game. Either way, we went through the corridor as fast as we could.

It took us twenty minutes to reach another grate. Through its tiny holes, I could see daylight. Dio removed the grate and climbed out, I followed suit. Luckily, no guards were present. We were near the main entrance so we would have yet another wall to climb. "Why don't we just use the stairs?" Dio asked, pointing over at the stair case that led up to the main entrance of the palace.

I was about to protest, but then I remembered that practically no one knew he existed. "I guess that would be all right," I replied with a shrug. Before anything else could be said, Dio started off down the stairs. I assumed that he could not wait to be free.

Once we reached the bottom, we met two suspicious guards. "Why are you two leaving the palace?" one asked.

I answered before Dio could. "The Maestro has asked us to make an inquiry concerning immigration at the train station." I said. It was the best thing I could come up with and I prayed that it worked.

The guard that had spoken frowned. "What are your names?" he questioned.

We did not have time for this. "Must we tell you everything? The Maestro has said that our names are to remain anonymous." I said and strode past them, Dio close behind. Both of the guards were too baffled to say anything else.

As we entered the city, Dio smiled at me. "Luciola, you were amazing back there! I didn't know you could boss those guards around like that," he exclaimed.

I shook my head. "I can't, sir. I just acted as though I could. One does not have to be important to act important."

Dio laughed and I thought that now, things really would get better.

All we had to do now; was catch the train to any other country…which was not going to be so easy.

(End of chapter eight! Chapter nine is well on its way to being done, and there are some new characters in it; Godwin and Gale. Also, in case any of you forgot, since this fic is alternate universe, Dio is 16 and Luciola is 22.)