"Mathew!" Alfred cried out as he ran into the chamber. He shoved the guy with the knife out of his way. He didn't know how hard he shoved, but he heard a major clatter off to the side.
"Alfred?" Mathew squeaked as Alfred went and hugged him the best he could with Mathew's restraints.
"I-I'm gonna get you down," Alfred said quickly and looked up at the chains.
"Alfred, wh-what are you-?" Mathew tried to talk, but he started coughing uncontrollably. Alfred felt something hit his face. He swiped it up with his finger and looked at it, he saw blood.
"Shit…" he mumbled to himself and looked back up at the chains. He had no idea how he was going to get Mathew out of those.
"H-how did y-you get here?" Mathew choked out. "I-I told y-you to stay…"
"I'm sorry, Mattie," Alfred tried to look at Mathew's face, look away from the scars and bruises. "I-I was helping someone and I had to break the promise I made to you."
"Why a-are you here?" Mathew asked.
"That would be my fault," Ivan's voice sounded through the room. Mathew's eyes immediately looked up, filled with fear and Alfred turned around, trying to protect his brother. "I should have guarded you more, balovenʹ." Ivan looked far too happy for his own good.
"Don't call me that," Alfred growled.
"But you are my pet," Ivan walked towards them slowly, his boots clunking against the floor.
"Don't you dare touch him," Alfred spread his arms out, as if that would help protect Mathew.
"A-Alfred, don't," Mathew whispered.
Ivan stepped close to Alfred and gripped his chin tightly so he looked up at him. Alfred's eyes didn't lose their hardness.
"I believe I can touch you both as much as I want," Ivan smiled and Alfred growled.
"You dare touch a hair on his head and I will fucking kill you!" Alfred spat, but Ivan gripped his chin tighter
"Will you now?" Ivan giggled and shoved Alfred behind him. Soon, Alfred felt people grab onto his arms and pushed him down to his knees on the ground. Alfred could hear the clatter of armor that told him it was knights. They held him so tight, he couldn't move and one knight held onto his head so he had to look up.
"So, you will kill me if I do this, da?" Ivan said as he picked a random hair from Mathew's head and yanked it off. Mathew winced slightly.
"Don't you touch him, creep!" Alfred yelled, desperately trying to get out of the knights' grip.
"What about this one?" Ivan giggled and pinched Mathew's curl that jutted out from his hair between his thumb and forefinger. Mathew whimpered and appeared to try to shrink back. Mathew had told Alfred about his curl. It did the same thing as his cowlick.
"Let. Him. Go," Alfred demanded and tried again to fight against the hands holding him down.
"What's wrong, balovenʹ?" Ivan giggled. "You seemed to enjoy this when I did this to you."
"Stop that!" Alfred growled.
"For what?" Ivan tugged slightly on the curl and Mathew whimpered louder.
"What?" Alfred asked.
"What will you do for me to stop?" Ivan asked, he started rolling the curl between his two fingers.
Alfred looked to Mathew, stared into his eyes. "I'll do whatever you want me to." Alfred admitted. Ivan looked like he was about to say something, but Alfred stopped him. "If you let him go."
"Can you guarantee that for me?" Ivan tugged harder on the curl and Mathew yelped. It looked like he was ready to rip the thing out.
"I swear I will work for you. I will do whatever you want," Alfred glared at Ivan. "Now let him go."
"That promise is good enough for me," Ivan released Mathew's curl and used that hand to motion something to the guards holding onto Alfred.
Alfred looked to Mathew, who's eyes were wide. He was shaking his head, mouthing "no."
"A-Alfred," Mathew muttered.
Alfred was about to say something, reassure his brother, but something hard impacted with the top of his head and he immediately went limp in the arms of those knights and his world went black.
Alfred woke up bleary-eyed. He felt something soft underneath him and he was warm, almost too warm. His head was on something soft as well. In his position, he was looking up and he saw stone that made up a ceiling.
Alfred sat up quickly to check his surroundings. He was in his room, the room he escaped from earlier. He was in the bed, the sheets fell off of him and landed in his lap as he sat up. His head throbbed.
He then noticed his clothes had changed. He was changed from the rags from his town to something far more impressive. He was wearing a deep red tunic that had a brown belt around his waist. The gold buckle shined brightly with the light of the torches. The sleeves went down to his wrist and the actual tunic went down to almost his knees. He had black, soft pants on underneath that fit him tightly and he noticed brown shoes off to the side of the bed. He couldn't help but think Ivan dressed him.
"Damn it, Ivan," Alfred grumbled to himself as he got out of the bed. He stumbled for a minute as he was still a little disgruntled, but soon steadied himself. After putting on the rather comfortable boots, he looked over to the desk and found a tray. It had bread and butter with a knife on it, along with some water.
Alfred uneasily spread the butter on a piece of bread and nibbled on it as he paced back and forth through the room. He couldn't help but think. Did Ivan let Mathew go? Why did he knock Alfred out? All of these were pressing questions as he paced back and forth.
After what seemed like forever, the door opened. Alfred dropped his half-eaten bread and walked over to the door. Ivan emerged through the door and quickly closed it behind him.
"What the hell was that?" Alfred demanded.
Ivan smiled when he turned around and got a good look at Alfred.
"You look good, da?" Ivan giggled, taking hold of both of Alfred's hands.
"Why did you knock me out?" Alfred growled at him, forcing his hands out of Ivan's.
"Because I knew you wouldn't leave on your own," Ivan said.
"And why wouldn't I?" Alfred asked and Ivan walked further into the room, past Alfred. "You did let Mathew go, right?"
Ivan hummed. "No," he seemed far too happy for his own good.
"We had a deal," Alfred seethed, just about ready to punch that smile off his face.
"Da," Ivan giggled. "But I did not promise anything."
"You dick!" Alfred yelled, he rocketed a fist forward, aiming for Ivan's face. But he caught it. He then pulled Alfred in close to him so Alfred was pressed against his chest.
"You said you would do anything I wanted, da?" Ivan asked.
"Get the hell off me!" Alfred screamed, pounding his fists against Ivan to try to let him go, to no avail.
"Make me," Ivan hummed and used his free hand to tilt Alfred's head up.
"I will k-" Alfred tried to threaten, but he was cut off by Ivan pressing his lips to his.
Alfred practically screamed, trying desperately to writhe out of Ivan's grip.
"You will do what?" Ivan asked after releasing his kiss.
Arthur watched Alfred and Ivan grow smaller and smaller as the cage was led underground on a path. Arthur had a sinking feeling something bad was going to happen to Alfred.
As they went underground, the light from the sky was drowned out and soon they were surrounded by stone walls that curved upward and connected to form a ceiling. The only light was from the torches that lined the walls. He and the Three Musketeers were all sitting each in their own corner of the cage.
"Wonder what's gonna happen to the Seer," Gilbert muttered.
"It appears Ivan fancies him," Antonio muttered. "Poor kid's gonna be raped or something."
"Don't say that," Arthur muttered.
"It appears you fancy him, too," Francis chuckled.
"Shut up!" Arthur snapped at him. "I don't fancy Alfred."
"What if he were to fancy you?" Gilbert asked.
"Can we just stop talking like this?" Arthur snapped, thankful for the lack of light hiding his blush. To be honest, he did like Alfred. This was the only person he had ever come in contact with that stayed with him for longer than a day. He even went to so far as to leave his town, his home, to protect him. Alfred even tried to ward him off, telling him to go away, but Alfred stayed. He even stayed with him when they ran away from the Three Musketeers, after he had been kidnapped and tied up because of Arthur.
Hell, Arthur did just like Alfred. Just thinking about the boy gave him butterflies in his stomach. Alfred was kind, and he was strong willed, he was also very smart, even though he didn't show it much. He was also quite handsome, Arthur had to admit. The clothes he wore from his village did nothing to flatter him.
Arthur was pulled out of his thoughts by someone elbowing him in the side.
"What?" Arthur snapped at Gilbert, who had been the one doing the elbowing.
"I was asking what your plan was," Gilbert grinned, raising an eyebrow. "Guess you were too busy thinking about your boyfriend."
"I told you I don't think of him like that, you twat!" Arthur snapped. "And what do you mean by a plan?"
"You've been through more than your fair share of being captured," Antonio said. "And you've escaped every time. You must have a plan."
"I may have a plan for myself," Arthur glared at him. "I don't know what you're going to be doing."
"Come on!" Francis complained. "You need to help out your fellow witches, mon cher."
"Don't call me that," Arthur snapped. "And I should help you? Just like you've helped out all the other witches you've had killed?"
"Hey! We did that to survive!" Antonio glared at him.
"I've survived just fine without having to stab my people in the back!" Arthur growled.
"Enough talking," a knight yelled. The cage had stopped moving and he was working on unlocking the door. "You're going to be coming with me."
"It has occurred to me that this is a very unconventional method," Gilbert laughed slightly as he stepped out of the cage. Just as soon as he stepped off, a knight grabbed his hands tightly behind him. "We could have easily burned down that cage on our way down here." He sighed as his hands were tied tightly behind him.
"Don't be so sure," Arthur said as Antonio was taken out of the cage. "If Mathew is here and he's a Seer like Alfred, then I doubt you could do anything, he would prevent you from using your magic. And then there's the fact that Alfred is here, too." Now he stepped off the cage and felt his hands pulled behind him painfully and a rope taking some of his skin off it was tied so tightly. "You probably won't be able to even sense a witch right now."
"But you could probably still use your magic, right?" Antonio asked as Francis now got out of the cage.
"Yes, but I'm not an idiot," Arthur stated as he and the Three Musketeers were led through a hallway.
Then, Arthur tuned the three out. He took a deep breath and focused, he was going to see if he could find out where Alfred was through Ivan's mind. With both Seers around, Arthur could feel how hard it was to use his magic, but he tried anyway.
Eventually, Arthur found Ivan and carefully read his thoughts. He was being extra careful this time, taking care not to go too deep like last time. He caught a little too much of Ivan that time and he didn't want that to happen again. That man had some twisted mind…
Arthur just focused on seeing what Ivan was seeing. He felt the knights grab onto his arms to make sure he didn't escape, so he didn't have to worry about losing the crowd. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Soon, he opened his eyes and saw what Ivan was seeing. He needed to be careful, make sure Ivan didn't feel him in his mind. Ivan was walking quickly through a stream of hallways and Arthur had to wonder where Alfred was, but he didn't dare search his mind yet. Ivan appeared to be underground, in the same stream of tunnels as Arthur.
Eventually, he stopped in front of a door and flung it open with all of his might. Arthur nearly gave himself away with the shock he felt at the sight. There was a kid who looked just like Alfred, but he knew he wasn't him. He had chains on his arms holding him above the ground. All he had on was a pair of pants and he was littered with scars and bruises. He had a pretty color purple for his eyes, but they looked so dead inside, it was like no one was looking through them.
"You are becoming a real pest," Ivan spat out. He walked quickly over to the kid, who Arthur guessed was Mathew, and didn't even think twice before punching him right in the face. Arthur felt sorry for the poor kid.
"Sorry," the kid could barely choke out before Ivan punched him in the gut. Mathew looked about ready to throw up everything he had with that punch, but Ivan was relentless and hit him again, in the same exact spot.
"I…I'm sorry," Mathew muttered. "I'm sorry…"
Arthur felt like crying. The kid's voice barely came out as a whisper and it sounded like he hadn't had something to drink for weeks.
"As you should be, Mathew," Ivan grabbed onto his chin tightly and forced him to look into his eyes. "I should have killed you 2 years ago."
"I-I'm sorry," Mathew muttered, he tried to move his eyes away from Ivan's so he wouldn't have to look into those deep pits of despair.
Ivan roughly released his chin and turned on his heel to leave the chamber. He moved his arm towards a man who had been standing in the corner this whole time. Arthur noticed he was holding a huge knife as he stepped forwards.
Then, Arthur heard a thought that didn't belong to him. It belonged to Ivan.
Good enough of a show for you? Ivan asked him.
Arthur severed the connection. He opened his eyes quickly. If that was Mathew, Alfred would probably have felt what happened to him, that was probably what happened in the forest not too long ago. And if Alfred could feel that, Alfred was going to try to save him.
"Now I'm going to be an idiot," Arthur said. He quickly created fire to burn off the rope and shot air at the guards holding onto him so that they flew against the wall. If Arthur was right, that chamber was just behind them. So he turned around and ran that way as fast as he could. He even used a little magic to boost his speed.
He guessed through a couple turns and it seemed like that chamber was a lot farther than he anticipated. That was when he ran into a dead end.
"Shit," Arthur grumbled to himself and turned around. Eventually, he came to a four-way turn. Two of them had soldiers beginning to flood their hallways. So he took his last option and turned left. He tried to run faster, but he couldn't and he was now running out of breath. He could hear the knights behind him, their armor clanging together.
Mercifully, though, he found the right hallway and the right door. The door was wide open and there were a dozen soldiers already inside. So Arthur quickly cast a spell on himself that would make him practically invisible. He tried to look in through the doorway, but the knights were beginning to move out, so Arthur had to press himself against the wall so he wouldn't be touched.
They were carrying an unconscious Alfred through the hall. They were only holding him up by his arms so his feet were dragging behind him. Arthur wasn't stupid, he knew he wouldn't be able to do anything to help, so all he could do was watch as Alfred was dragged away. Ivan followed out after them slowly.
Arthur could barely hear Mathew muttering from the room. "But…you-you promised him…"
Ivan completely ignored it, closing the door behind him. He looked happy, almost satisfied as he left the hallway. Arthur waited a bit to make sure no one else came through the hall and he released his spell from himself. It was getting very hard to hold.
He didn't dare touch the door, he wasn't sure he could handle himself if he saw Mathew in that state again. So he chose to try to see if he could find Alfred.
The palace was like a maze, it was hard to find his way through and stay in the shadows so no one saw him. He had to knock a few people out with a spell because they saw him but, other than that, he went unnoticed.
Eventually, after a whole night of searching, Arthur came across a room where he heard the unmistakable sound of Alfred yelling.
"Get the hell off me, you…" then Alfred was muffled. His voice came back soon. "Stop doing that, you dick!"
Arthur stopped listening, he quickly knocked out the guards around the door with a spell and unlocked the door. He heard a slam against the door, like a whole body was thrown against it.
Arthur quickly opened the door, dreading what would happen. Luckily for him, Alfred tumbled onto him, caught off balance by the loss of the door. Arthur caught him by the arms and he noticed that Alfred had his clothes changed. Arthur nearly blushed, he did look better with proper clothes on. Arthur couldn't help but notice that his hair was extremely messed up.
Arthur looked up quickly, seeing Ivan's terrifyingly pissed off face, and shuddered.
"Oh, thank God!" Alfred yelled. He stood up quickly, grabbing Arthur's wrist and tugged him down the hallway.
And here was a little bit of Arthur's perspective of the last chapter and half of this one. And all he wants to do is help Alfred! And all Ivan wants to do is rape Alfred. See the difference? Yeah... Next chapter, they try to get away and things start to get intense, so look forward to that.
One thing before I go... I have a pole up on my profile, asking a very important question now that you know Ivan's so evil and a major douche. So if you could vote on that pole, I would be ever so greatful.
And please review! This story is going to be ending soon...but the more reviews I have, the better the ending will be.
And I own nothing...as usual...