'Sophie!?' I croaked but I just couldn't believe my eyes.

'Shush, keep your voice down', she looks around to see if my croak went unnoticed, assuming it didn't she looked back at me. 'When we go in, there are two soldiers er paladins they are quite heavily built but you can take them out once you have hit me.'

'Hit you!?' I whispered learning from my previous mistake.

'Yes, just once so I can fake unconsciousness like you did' she smiled at me, 'then release Griffin and jump to at least three places before you jump to a hospital. That way we can't follow you' it felt wrong that she said we but I tried to compose my face to respond to her orders.

'Okay… but I can hardly walk let alone fight' I complained.

'Find the will to fight but don't talk to me in that room because it's being monitored' as she finished her sentence I realise we had stopped at a door marked 'Interrogation room' noticing my hesitant face she pleaded with me, 'Just keep him safe, please Jamie?' she looked like she was about to break by the unsteadiness of her voice which was a direct contrast from when the other paladins addressed her.

I stepped forward to hug her and whispered, 'I will. I promise.' Then I embraced her porcelain body into my arms and the touch made me miss Alice and the way her hair used to caress my face. I broke our embrace and stood behind her like a prisoner would. We entered the room it was a white painted room which had blood stains over it, there was no window but CCTV cameras in each other moving around simultaneously. The two paladins were standing next to one another with their hands in salute position, with a nod from Sophie they relaxed.

There were two chairs next to each other in the centre of the room, one was enter and the other had Griffin's limp lifeless body dangling on it. I was frozen staring at Griffin who didn't look like Griffin but a beaten, bruised, cut and unconscious version of himself. Griffin was breathing but slow and irregular breaths, he looked pained even in unconsciousness the pain was written all over his face. Strangely enough his face only had a cut on his lip and black eye forming. The heaviest area of bruising was his chest which was bare and connected to wires; probably the same torture method they used for me but Griffin had it much worse than I did.

'Is he alive?' I asked with a stern edge to my voice.

'Barely' one of the paladins said while smirking. Sophie grimaced to try and hide the pain in her eyes but it was still there.

I turned around to try and gain some composure over the situation when I saw myself in a TV screen. It looked like a paused CCTV camera footage of me; I'm chained to a pole, body propped up against a wall recoiling from being zapped with electricity. An image like this would sure to break Griffin; my face carries the same pained expression Griffin has now. I wondered to myself whether I still resemble the boy in the TV screen, pained face, bruised, hopeless. Breaking my train of thought a paladin walked towards me and smiled.

'Hey Jamie, take a seat', his voice was taunting.

'I'd rather stand. Thank you.' I said with a sarcastic tone.

'O- okay...' The paladin stuttered. 'Well we wanted to ask you a few questions and it's very important you answer them. Okay?'

I shrugged then said 'go on then.' Right now am I face to face with the enemy, I just need to find the will to fight.

'So, what do you know about the paladin resistance?' He asked with a smile on his face which didn't suit his rather heavy build. I slightly looked at Sophie and she was staring at me then ever so slightly flicked her eyes to my interrogator and back. Her encounter was noticed but ignored so I closed the distance between myself and the paladin and spat the word, 'nothing.'

Before he could react I punch him in the face sending him plummeting to the ground; the other paladin was armed. So my instincts told me to arm myself, I grabbed my chair and turned around with it smacking the paladin in the face. Both paladins lie on the floor as limp and lifeless as Griffin but not nearly as bruised as him. I fell to my knees searching for the paladin's weapon when I felt my head knock to the ground. I turned over on the floor and hovering over me was Sophie calling for backup; it took me a few seconds to realise it was part of the act. I slid my legs into her ankles and she fell to the ground and I punched the side of her jaw but not as hard as the punches I gave the others. Even though I had to do it I still felt bad punching her. I took her sword and stabbed both the male paladins in the chest but there was no time to be disgusted.

I fumbled trying to release Griffin quickly but managed to untie the knots. Griffin's lifeless hull was easy enough to pull onto my back; with struggle I dragged us to the corridor outside the interrogation room.

'STOP!' 'HAULT' the horde of armed soldiers commanded, trapping us from both sides of the corridor.

Without hesitation I jumped Griffin and I to safety. My knees gave way and I fell to the ground, whatever little energy I salvaged has gone now. I feel weighed down with injuries but then in my heard I heard Sophie's elegant voice, 'Just keep him safe; please Jamie?' So I crawled leaving a trail of Griffin's and my blood; onlookers cried out in French but their voices were like ringing in my head. I held on to Griffin's arms around my neck and jumped again, this time onto a bed it has been a long time since I have been in this room. Alice's room. My arrival probably woke the whole neighbourhood so I wasn't surprised to hear frantic footsteps coming up the stairs.

'Alice hunny is that you!? You've come back', Alice's dad sobbed as he ran, 'I haven't seen you for weeks, I miss you so much. I'm coming Alice!' I couldn't register everything apart from that I needed to get out of this room, so I jumped to a road near my old house leaving behind Griffin's and my blood. I can't believe it; we forgot all about Alice's dad, he must be worried sick. We've just disappeared of the grid for weeks, I started to breath frantically as I realised there was a police van outside my old house. Something about the uniform the 'policemen' were wearing suggests they weren't policemen they were paladins camped outside my house. I have no house now. The paladins have taken everything away from me; apart from Alice which reminds me I need to go so I jump Griffin to a hospital. I saw one in San Francisco on the school trip so I jump outside there with a hard landing I feel myself slip away.

I don't remember anything but when I woke up I was in a hospital bed with a drip in my hand. Griffin was next to me with a drip and other various wires attached to him with an air mask over his mouth. My drip however doesn't have any medicine attached to it so I get up, head feeling dizzy and body ached. I looked to Griffin and seeing him in that hospitalised condition and knowing that it was my fault; I knew I couldn't stay.

I jumped to the beach where I last saw Alice; I am filled with the guilt of leaving her here alone but I just want to embrace her and know that she's alright.

'Where have you been for the last two days!? Jamie I was worried sick!' I could recognise her sweet voice even when angry anywhere.

With a sharp turn I cried out while embracing her, 'ALICE! You're okay, I'm so sorry I was gone!' I pulled out of our embrace to crush my lips against hers. I've missed this so much; her warm lips mould mine as I hold her delicate hips. Her lips trace my face, she kisses a bruise on my face and I wince with pain. Alice notices and pulls away from our embrace and screams, 'You're hurt!? What the fuck happened!?'

Shocked by her anger I don't respond and let her examine the rest of the bruises on my body. We stand there in silence until she sees my hand with the end of the drip still attached.

'Where's Griffin!? When I see him I swear to God I will-,' Alice's rage is cut off by my expression.

'It's a long story Ali, a long story' I sigh tiredly.