The night passed and I was grateful that I had been at the feeder recently, or else I would have been feeling much worse than I already was. I didn't get much sleep that night. Evelyn had come down and untied both my hands and feet, but it still didn't change the fact that all I had to sleep on was a concrete floor. That was all my cell was. It had bars from floor to ceiling, a concrete floor and, luckily enough, a small toilet in one corner. Lucky me that had the essentials. I also couldn't sleep since my mind wandered. I started with thinking about what Eddie was doing now. He was surely looking for me, or at least I hoped so, and hopefully he was close. I didn't want to get 'taken care of' by these witches. I wanted to throw Sage over my shoulder and run screaming out of this hellhole. I hadn't planned for this. When I came to San Francisco, I had planned on finding Sage and see if she was here by free will or not. If not, I would have taken her home to court with me and become her hero. Sadly, the situation had of course been more complicated than expected. I was not ready for this whole memory loss thing, and the witches. They were like horrible little surprises that nobody wanted. I was angry and sad and worried and just felt depressed. Everything sucked. In the morning, when the sun started rising, I could hear someone coming down the stairs. I quickly sat up and pressed myself to the wall furthest from the door. I didn't trust these witches. Down came Sage, carrying a plastic tray with some kind of sandwich on it and a bottle of water. Breakfast I guessed.
"Well hi there girl-who-led-me-to-my-doom.", I said joyfully. I was angry at her. Why didn't she tell me? They obviously knew all about me, she could at least have told me that her 'friends' or whatever were dangerous. Sage only nodded as a greeting and then placed the tray on the floor and slid it in through a narrow opening in the cell bars. I looked at the food, but I didn't dare eating it. The witches had prepared it. I didn't trust them.
"I don't even get a recognition? You're not even gonna call me Crazy guy or say you're sorry or anything?", I looked straight at her but she avoided me. She was starting to go back towards the stairs. I wanted her company. It wasn't fun being alone in a basement without anything at all to entertain myself with. She hesitated in her step for a second and turned to face me. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but then closed it again and almost ran back up the stairs. So much for company. I returned to my thoughts and fought against the darkness once again. Now was the worst possible time to get consumed by craziness. Somehow, the shadows sneaked up on me and caught me off guard, and I was plunged into another dream, or was it reality?
It started with a single feeling. I felt tired. My eyelids were close and I was in a soft cocoon of warmth and darkness. It was relaxing and nice, but something bothered me. I didn't know why, but I felt that I had to open my eyes. Something important was waiting on me. I forced my eyes open, it was really hard actually, and was met by the sun shining in through my window. I was back in Palm Springs. I was back in my bed. I found my phone and looked at the date. It was three days after Sage's disappearance. It was late in the afternoon, and if I remembered correctly, Eddie and the others would soon come over to tell me the news that they hadn't found her. They would come here, with sadness as their only emotion, and tell me my soul mate would probably never be found. They would tell me that the alchemists had searched every corner and followed every trail but returned with disappointment and defeat. I would receive the worst news of my life all over again. I was not looking forward to it. I went out in the apartment and took a look around. Yep, everything was the same. The room was filled with paintings that was painted with black brush strokes like the darkness that sadness and worry could bring, but they were also filled with the golden streaks that represented my golden-girl. All the paintings were filled with emotion and most of them still took my breath away. I stood there in the room for a while, admiring my paintings and being torn. Was this a dream? I didn't know and it scared me. Like the last time I found myself back in Palm Springs, my phone rang and startled me. The display showed Jill's name so I hurried up and answered.
"Hello?", I was still a bit skeptical as to whether this was real or not.
"Hi Adrian, we're almost at your place now. Do you want us to bring something?", Jill's voice were tired and filled with concern. So it had happened. She had disappeared.
"Um, no. At least I don't think so.", I said mirroring the tired tone in her voice.
"How are you holding up?", She whispered. She was probably in the car with the rest of the gang, and they didn't know about me and Sage.
"I'm okay. Kind of tired, and worried of course.", I said. It was the truth.
"Yeah, I can feel it.", She muttered. "Well, anyway, see you soon!", She continued with energy.
"Okay, yeah, see you.", I muttered back.
"Bye Adrian."
"Bye.", We hung up and and looked around the room once more. Then, all of a sudden, I was plunged back to the reality in my cell.
I sat up straight. I was back behind the bars on the concrete floor. I was back in captivity. It had been another dream. Or? Nothing was certain anymore. Once again, I was scared. Scared of myself and the shadows that always seemed to take over my thoughts and my actions. It was a terrifying feeling, to feel like something was slowly eating your mind. Suddenly, I heard steps coming down the stairs During my maybe-dream the room had grew darker, so I guessed it was afternoon by now. Sydney entered the room carrying a new tray. Apparently they wanted me well-fed and alive before they killed me. How considerate. She placed the new tray on the ground before picking up the old one, which I hadn't even touched, and then slid in the new tray that held some kind of soup, and a new bottle of water. I was actually hungry. But I still didn't trust these witches and their cooking. For all I knew, there could be frog-eyes in the soup or whatever. She started cleaning around the table and doing different things that looked like chores. All the time, she was biting her lips as if she were nervous.
"Got something on your chest?", I asked and raised my eyebrows questioning. She hesitated for a second before opening her mouth and then closing it again. Her hands shook a bit, whether it was because she was scared or nervous, I didn't know.
"Come on witch-girl, You don't have all day like me.", I stared right at her but she avoided my gaze and kept cleaning and looking at bottles and doing different tasks. "Something tells me that you're working on a pressured schedule here.", I hummed softly to myself and she looked at me for a second. She then muttered something to herself that sounded like scolding and then returned to her chores.
"So, are you good at magic? The Sydney I remember was terrified of it.", I decided that I was gonna crack her, somehow. Talking was one of my best skills after all. "I tried healing her once but she screamed and threw a fit just because it was magic.", I kept talking. She twitched a bit when I talked about healing, but other than that, she kept doing what she was doing.
"I drew her in to a spirit dream once too, she didn't realize it at first, but when she understood that she was surrounded by magic, she tried to keep herself from touching anything and she wanted me to end the dream as soon as possible.", She was now staring at me with big round eyes.
"Didn't you know that my affinity is spirit?", I asked innocently. This time, I got a reaction. She slowly shook her head confirming my question.
"I thought you did. You seem to keep close tabs on us moroi. You knew I was royal for example.", I said. She shook her head once more and started moving closer before stopping in her tracks and turning around. She resumed her earlier task of cleaning some empty bottles and I felt defeated. I had been this close to get her to talk to me. Stupid disciplined Sydney. Some alchemist training never seemed to leave.
"Well, okay. One question, have Evelyn told you about her sister?", I prayed that she hadn't. Maybe hearing Ms Terwilliger's name would spark something inside Sydney. She slowly turned her head towards me and shook it as a 'no'. Awesome.
"Well, you wouldn't remember this, but she was your teacher in Palm Springs. She is also a witch, and you had individual studies with her since you were bad ass.", I spoke calmly while Sydney's eyes turned huge in shock once again. Something behind the gray cloak on her aura tried breaking loose.
"Her name is Jaclyn Terwilliger. She's quite nice actually, has a lot of cats. We visited her once when our friend, Sonya Karp, was missing. You used some kind of spell, I guess, to find her. You were awesome.", Something behind the cloak was fighting to be free. The tear in the fabric grew a tiny bit bigger but I still saw that something was gong on under there. Maybe I was reaching through to her. Sydney walked over to me and stood in front of me. She opened her mouth once again but hesitated and closed it.
"Come on, I can see that you're dying to say something.", I walked up to the bars and leaned against them, putting myself closer to her. "Take a walk on the wild side Sydney, maybe it's not as bad as you think.", I challenged. She looked like she made a decision and then she spoke to me for the first time in a long while.
"I'm not allowed to talk to you.", Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"It's okay, I won't tell.", I whispered back. That put a smile on her face. A rare smile. A smile filled with the purest admiration and amusement. It was beautiful.
"I never wanted you to end up like this you know.", She muttered. "This is all my fault. I knew they were watching my every move, I knew that you were moroi. This was bound to end bad.", She seemed disappointed in herself. I never wanted my Sage to feel like that. It didn't matter if she didn't remember that she was my Sage, She should never feel like she disliked herself.
"Don't beat yourself up about this. It's my fault. I was the one that looked after you, I was the one that first took contact. My fault and my punishment.", I said, voice filled with regret. By doing all this, I had put her in trouble. I deserved whatever I was getting.
"No, it is my fault. If I am the one you say I am, then I am the reason we both ended up here. If I am this 'Sage' then I apparently didn't fight much when they took me.", She looked straight at me, not wavering one bit. It seemed like she had spent a lot of thought on this.
"No offense, but you were never a fighting person. To be honest, you kind of sucked at self defense.", She looked offended, but amused. "You were more the logical and smart girl, who could speak a lot of languages and knew everything about cars.", I said truthfully. Something sparked in the aura once again. She gasped.
"Have you ever told me that I can change tires on a car in ten minutes while speaking Greek?", she suddenly blurted out before clasping her hands to her mouth in surprise. She looked like Jill when she did that.
"If I remember correctly, you told me you could do it in five minutes rather than ten.", I smiled. More progress. It felt good. Too bad I would probably be dead before she broke through entirely.
"So it was real? I didn't imagine that conversation?", She asked, eyes wide once again.
"It was as real as your tattoo.", I simply stated and sat down on the floor. She smiled before we both heard a distant 'She should be done down there by now, I hope for her own good that she isn't talking to the vampire.' and Sydney looked panicked. She started backing towards the stairs.
"I'm sorry for whatever they will do to you, remember that.", She simply said before hurrying back upstairs.
"I promise.", I whispered and closed my eyes. This was taking a toll on my feelings. The hope that came and went left me tired and beaten up inside.
A/N: I have decided to just keep on writing and see how far this story will take me. If it doesn't become that many more chapters, I will probably not make a sequel, but we'll see! And again, thank you to everyone who reads and reviews and follows this story, it makes me happy to know that there are people out there in the world who appreciates my work!