"Milla!" cried the voice. Milla sat up in her bed, her useless legs dragging against the sheets. Her visitor was none other than Jude's friend Leia. She slammed the door shut behind her, her hair in a messy frenzy and her clothes ruffled and wrinkled. She lacked the ribbons she had worn earlier, which made since considering it was late, and she most likely just woke up.
"What is it?" Milla said, tilting her head so slightly. She craned her neck to peer behind the younger woman, expecting Jude to barge in and tell her to be quiet. But aside from Leia, the doorway was empty.
"It's Jude!" Leia said in a hushed voice. She quickly closed the distance between them, sweat slicking the sides of her face. Her skin seemed both pale and flushed. "Milla, I saw some…some guys or whatever, one of them had Jude on their back. He was out cold-!"
"They took Jude?" Milla said, her eyes widening. They quickly narrowed into a sharp glare "Did you follow them?"
Leia nodded "Of course! I followed them to this really weird building out in the woods a bit of a ways. "
"Take me there." Milla commanded, throwing off the covers and throwing herself out of her bed. In her haste, however, she forgot her legs were virtually useless. She fell with an 'oomph!'.
"Be careful!" Leia chided, lifting the woman up and putting her back on the bed. "Milla, I know you're worried. I'm worried, but you can't just rush in there with how you are."
"Then why did you come back to tell me?" Milla glowered.
"I-I-" Leia stuttered, a chill rushing down her spine. She swallowed down her anxiousness and continued "I was hoping you knew someone who could help. I mean, I know I'm reckless, but I'm not about to go in there alone."
"And you won't." Milla said with a frown "Pardon my temper, Leia. You're right. Rushing in unprepared won't help at all." Her magenta-colored eyes trained to her useless legs. She grinded her teeth, angered by her own uselessness.
Leia followed her gaze. She fidgeted with her hands, looking away.
"Milla, who can I get to help? I know- Oh!" She brightened up "I know! My mom!"
Milla tilted her head "Won't it be dangerous for her?"
Leia sighed "Yeah…But, Jude-"
"Leia." Milla cut her off. Leia looked up in the dark, meeting the woman's intense glare "Jude spoke of a way to fix my legs. Would you happen to know of it?"
Leia nodded "Yeah. …It's a bit painful though-"
"I'll deal with it." Milla said curtly. "What do we need to do?"
Jude wrung out his soaking shirt as he observed the door.
"Anyway one of you can just…blast it off?" He asked.
"This door's kind of thick, Jude. I'm not sure I could." Celsius muttered "Not anytime soon, anyway."
"Unfortunately, the same goes for me." Aska said in a sigh. "I'm sorry, Jude. Were I at my full power…." He trailed off.
"I AM ALSO UNABLE TO." Volt reported.
Jude sighed, rubbing his head. "Okay, okay…."
I'll try.
Jude's shadow peeled itself out from the floor. It stretched out its hands and legs before flattening itself against the floor once again, worming out under the door. Just as soon as his shadow was separated, Jude was hit with a wave nausea. He swayed, slapping a palm against the wall to steady himself. His stomach twisted into a knot as his vision began to haze over. His chest heaved and in the back of his throat he could taste the bitter taste of vomit.
"Shadow, you're hurting him!" Celsius snapped.
There was a small sound, something like a gasp. It was followed by the shadow darting back into the room and nestling underneath Jude again.
I'm sorry.
"I…it's okay…" Jude panted, wiping a sleeve at his forehead. He breathed in slowly thorugh his nose, but that simply set his nausea overboard. His knees buckled to the ground as his stomach heaved and the foul-smelling contents spewed out all over the floor. Just coughed up dangling salivia, making a face at the mess.
"EW." Volt voiced his thoughts.
"Y-yeah." Jude said with a sigh. He shoved the floor, pushing himself up to his feet. He swayed still. "Okay, S-shadow? Were you close?"
…
"He says he couldn't find anything close." Celsius translated.
"Drat." Jude muttered. "Okay, okay…. Volt, you wanna try?"
"CHANCE OF HARMING YOU IS HIGH." Volt reported, and that was that. Jude frowned.
"Okay….. Celsius….?" He frowned, pressing a finger to his throbbing skull. He snapped his fingers suddenly "I have an idea."
"Let's hear it." Celsius said.
"Okay, Celsius, I'll need your and Volt's help."
"CHANCE OF HARMING YOU-"
"Is high, I know." Jude cut him off "But I don't need you to blast the door down. Just to heat it up."
"…BZZRT."
"He means 'Understood'." Aska said.
"And me?" Celsius asked.
"Once the door's heated up, I need you to freeze the out edges of it, do you think you can manage that?"
"You offend me."
Jude laughed "Sorry. But yes, if I'm right, that should either split the door in half or make it collapse in on itself."
"UNDERSTOOD." "Got it." Volt and Celsius said at once. Electricity sprung from nowhere, sending Jude's hair standing on edge as it crackled threateningly. It snaked to the door, racing up its surface and slowly turning it red. As abruptly as the lightning stopped, the ice started. It shot across the room, creeping into a crevice in the door.
A loud crack was heard as the crevice darted outwards. The door snapped in half, each jagged piece falling opposite each other onto the stone floor. Jude swayed, but still managed to smile.
"It worked." He grinned and crept through the door. A long corridor spread out in three directions. Each fairly unhospitable with dark shadows and the sound of dripping water. Jude chose a direction and started down.
He kept low to the ground, paying close attention to the sound of his bare feet smacking across the floor. The hallway was cold and dim, lit only by a few shaking luminescent plants. There was no other trace of people here. It was just an eerie quiet that sunk into his damp skin and echoed in his mind. Even the four were quiet.
Eventually, the dark hall came to an end. To one wall was a pair of large doors made of a thinner steel than the one he was locked behind. Jude gently put his fingertips to it, prepared to give a push when the soft sounds of whispers brushed his ears.
"Not that way." Celsius muttered. Jude gave a silent nod, beginning to back-pedal when suddenly he stopped. Taking a deep breath, he slowly leaned foreward and pressed the side of his head against the door.
"…Mathis kid."
"Kind of cruel to hand his own son over to us, isn't it?"
"So he did drug me." Jude sighed quietly. He shook his head and put his attention back on the conversation.
"Wasn't he the one who put his kid through all of that crap anyway? I say it's an improvement! At least this way he knows where he stands."
"I don't know….I feel bad for him."
"I do too, honestly. The poor kid…."
…
"Y'know he's close to twenty, right?"
"Thank you." Jude muttered softly, shuffling away from the door. He quietly got to his feet and went off at a cautious trot. The rough floor dug into his feet and he scowled in pain. But he had no choice really, but to keep going.
"Jude, you heard what they said, right? That…well, apparently…"
"Dad put me through something." Jude finished Celsius's sentence for her. "I…I don't really know what. But I don't really want to figure it out right now."
"Right." Celsius sighed.
Someone's ahead. Shadow whispered.
Jude skidded to a stop, looking around in a frantic search for any cover. Unfortunately for him, there was a severe lack of the typical potted plants and random debris you typically find in a dungeon like place. However, there was a large, dark crack in the wall that was narrow, but maybe just wide enough….
Jude pressed his body into it, grunting a bit as his body was dug into by stray bits of stone. Once he was nestled in enough, he kept his breathing quiet and stood as still as he can. Outside his hiding hole, he heard the footsteps of people walking by. Two…three, pairs of footsteps striding down the hall with a quiet pat-pit-pat of their footsteps. Jude allowed himself a sigh.
"Don't think you can handle three of them?" Aska asked.
"Not without Milla." Jude said in a whisper.
Celsius whistled and Jude ignored her.
The people walking by were yelling something…
"The door's busted and he's nowhere to be seen! What else could you think have happened!?" a man snapped.
"Calm down. The boy doesn't know his way through this facility. It's very likely he hasn't escaped yet." Said a woman's voice.
"Whether he's been rescued or he's found his own way out, remember he's never quite alone." Said another man, much, much calmer than the first.
Jude swallowed nervously as their voices came closer to where he hid.
"They noticed we left!" Celsius snapped angrily "Of course they'd notice! GOD, I'm so DUMB!"
Jude winced at the loudness of her voice and silently thanked Aska and Shadow for calming her down. He strained his ears and his mind to listen to the conversation going on outside the wall… But there were no more voices. Jude struggled to ignore the arguing spirits in his head, thinking perhaps that were the reason he could hear nothing. But there was still nothing….
A face appeared in the opening of the crack. A pale face with white and red hair stared at him through deep-sunken eyes. His thin lips curled up in a smile.
"So here's where you scurried off to."
A/N
Hey look a decent sized chapter.
By the way, I refuse to believe Jude's 15 frickin years old. He's way too mature. I say he's 17 at the LEAST.