Hey guys! Okay so, I've been thinking about what I will actually put in this chapter for a while now, and believe me, I mean that. I was thinking about this chapter since the Prologue. I have a lot going on right now so I don't know when the fifth chapter will get posted, but this should work for now.
Anyways, onto the chapter!
Chapter 4
Turtlelove POV
Shade comes back up to the rooftop almost an hour before sunset. He seems pleased that I didn't leave. I considered it multiple times though. When he comes up, he smiles and apologizes for taking as long as he did.
"I wanted to grab a few extra things before I came back." He explains. The 'extra things' however, seem to be taking up the most room in his arms right now. In fact, I only see two books.
He walks over to the far side of the roof near an inclined skylight, and places a blanket over it so that we can lean on it. Then he pulls out a picnic basket.
When I look at him questioningly, he says, "What? I figured you would be hungry after all this time, and who doesn't like a rooftop picnic?"
I playfully shove him, and he shoves me back, almost making me fall off the roof. He catches me though and we just sit on our blanket and laugh for a while. Out of the basket he pulls cookies, a couple golden apples, and glasses of milk. We sit and eat for most of the hour. Just sit, talk, and eat. Afterward, we lean back against the blanket covered skylight and watch the sunset.
It's truly beautiful. The sun starts to sink directly in the middle of the mountains out in the distance. It's a peaceful sight, and I loose myself in it for a while.
Shade breaks the silence and says, "So, did you like the cookies?"
I laugh and reply, "Yeah, Shade. The cookies were nice." I have turned to look at him now and he's looking at me too. I ask him, "So, what was it like? Being raised by a psycho I mean?"
He smiles and says, "It's different. I mean, I don't regret leaving, but there were some pluses."
"Like what?" I ask.
"Well, for starters, you end up being pretty strong. Not just physically though, you're emotionally and mentally stronger too. You also get to learn pretty quick how to live more independently. Some kids don't leave their parents until they're almost eighteen. Now, I didn't leave the dimension until now, but I was almost completely independent from Him when I was ten."
I've been lost, listening to his voice. It's so easy to forget where I am and what I'm doing when he looks at me with those big, blue eyes. I feel bad for him that he didn't get much of a childhood like most people do. He spent it trying to get away from one of the worst people in the world, who just so happens to be his 'adopted' father.
The sun has completely set now, leaving behind a pink tint to the sky. I almost think Shade will want to leave, but we just lay there a while longer, staring at the stars.
When I look at him again, he looks at me, and for awhile we don't speak. Then, he starts to lean forward, and I do the same. The kiss is small, light. We don't hold it for long, but it's enough to leave us both stunned for a minute. We sit with our foreheads touching, but our lips are maybe an inch apart. Then we kiss again, for a little longer this time. He slowly puts his arms around my waist, and I put mine around his neck. My fingers run through his hair as we hold each other and kiss.
When we finally pull away, he starts to pick up the rooftop picnic, and I do the same. We don't speak much, but that's okay because I don't know what I would say if we did. We climb down the way we came, and start to head back to the hotel. By now, it's dark. The moon has risen over the ocean, and the starts twinkle brightly.
When we get back to the hotel room Amanda is pissed. I mean pissed. She practically spits in our faces the moment we walk in the door. "Where the hell have you been?!" She asks. "Need I remind you, we have a killer psychopath after us? We don't stay out that late unless we're literally asking for it! You may as well have put on neon, waved a flag, and started shouting, 'Here we are! Come and get us!' I should lock you both in the closet! That's the only way you'll stay put! I 'ought to-"
Shade interrupts her rant. "She was with me, Amanda. Calm down, it's fine."
"Yes. That's exactly my point," She continues. "She was with you. The exact person I trust the least, with our safety. What's stopping you from turning her over to Him, huh?"
Now Shade is mad. He starts spitting rage at her in response. "Why would I do that? I. Don't. Like. Him. I care about you. I wouldn't ever do that to either of you!"
The room goes silent as each person sizes the other up. Before it gets too tense though, I step between them. "Look, we all made mistakes today. Shade and I are sorry we worried you, Amanda. You should realize though, if he had wanted to hurt us, he would have been part of the group that tried to kill me in the forest." They have both stopped looking at each other now, and are listening to me. "We are all tired. Let's just go to bed, and talk over what we learned in the morning."
Amanda goes to bed grumbling under her breath. Shade and I, climb into our bed and turn out the lights. We hear Amanda start snoring almost immediately and we both smile. We don't laugh because we would wake her, but Shade can't hold it in and his body starts shaking with silent laughter. I do too and soon, our entire bed is shaking with the silent laughter. Amanda doesn't hear it so after we stop laughing, we manage to fall asleep too.
Kitsune POV
I have been watching Kit for a few days now it feels like, (but who can tell really?) and she doesn't seem to be all that bad. She hasn't cried yet; not even when she's beaten for not saying anything. She just grits her teeth, clenches her fists, and waits for it to be over. I do the same, so none of the guards ever have much fun beating us anymore. We still scream sometimes though. We don't cry, but we scream when it gets really bad. That only normally happens when we're with Herobrine, though.
Mr. Strong comes in the cell then. He tells us we're both going to Herobrine together. This is odd because I normally go before her, and I wake up in time to see her limp body dragged out of the cell. Mr. Strong comes in and knocks out Kit, then turns to me. He grabs me by the shirt, punches me in the temple, and the darkness enfolds me.
When I wake up, I find myself in the same chair I'm always in, tied of course, but now Kit sits in a chair that looks the exact same as mine to the side of me. One look at her, and I know she's still out cold. So I focus my attention on the back of Herobrine's head, hoping with all my heart I can set it on fire with my eyes. Of course, I don't because I would have to use my hands, and those have been wrapped in glowing gauze since I got here. I tried using my power several times to no avail. Every time I tried, it just caused extreme pain in my hands, so I stopped trying.
Kit comes to, and Herobrine takes that moment to turn around and look at us. He tells Mr. Strong to go, and for a while, he just looks at us. Then he speaks, "So, I suppose you're wondering why you're both here at the same time." A wicked grin spreads across his face as he continues. "I have brought you both here because neither of you have said much of anything since you got here. That, however, is about to change. You see, I asked myself, 'Why won't they tell me anything? They obviously don't want to be beaten, but those don't work. So what is it?' Then I realized, it's because you care about her. You're loyal to her, and you care about her safety and friendship."
"Wow," I say sarcastically. "And it took you how long to figure this out? A day? A week?"
He doesn't answer me right away, he just calmly walks over to my chair and speaks softly. "I knew that the whole time, bitch. I just didn't know how much you cared until now."
Then I see his hand twitch. I assume he slapped me because pain blossoms aross my face. My cheek stings with the pain of the impact, but I hold my tongue, refusing to cry out.
He then walks over to Kit's chair and looks truly excited at what he's about to do. I shiver. "You will tell me what I want to know Kitsune, or Kit here, is going to get hurt."
He smiles, but Kit is looking right at me. "Don't tell him anything. I'll be fine." She whispers.
I almost want to scream. Or cry. Or something! I can't just sit here and watch this. Herobrine finally asks the question that he has been asking for days now. "So, Kitsune. Where is she?"
I stay silent. He raises his eyebrows, as if to prompt me. When I say nothing, his hand twitches again, but this time, he punches Kit in the eye instead of slapping us. She screams at the sudden pain, and her eye almost immediately turns black.
He asks again, "Where is she?"
When I don't say anything, he hand twitches once again. This time, he hasn't hit her. She cries out in pure agony as her arm lays limp, at an awkward angle, at her side.
He asks a third time. This time when I stay silent, he brakes her leg.
"This is the last time I will ask you Kitsune." He says. Kit, sitting beside him, begins to cry. The pain she has experienced today tops everything that I have felt in my whole life. "Where. Is. She?" Herobrine asks for the final time. I brake down crying now, knowing that I won't tell him, knowing Kit will just be in more pain. I hear a tremendous CRACK! as Kit is struck by Herobrine. She goes limp in her chair, out cold. The lump on her lead already forming.
I scream at the top of my lungs, spitting with pure rage as Mr. Strong comes to take her away. As he takes her, Herobrine simply laughs. As if this was all a joke, not him almost murdering someone. I don't even know if that's true. She may be dead and I'm just lying to myself to feel better about it.
"Goodbye Kitsune." He says. I shout every fowl name I know at the demon before I am knocked out.
Turtlelove POV
The next morning, I don't want to get out of bed. I lay there and realize that at some point in the night, I curled by body into Shade's. He's holding me around the waist and my hands are on his; keeping them there. I don't mind though. After last night, I wouldn't mind doing much with him. Anything he wanted, and I would care enough about him to do it.
I know we'll have to get up at some point, so I open my eyes and turn over to face him. He wakes up, groggy from sleep. He doesn't seem to mind us cuddling either. He just keeps holding my waist, and I keep his hands there.
"Good morning." He says. His voice quiet because Amanda, like I thought, is still sleeping.
"Hey." I say back. We both get out of the bed quietly and he stops. "What?" I ask.
"The books." He says. "We didn't read them and we promised Amanda we would. When she asks about what we know, we won't be able to tell her anything."
"Crap." I say. Then we both laugh as he picks up the two books. I stop him. "Don't you know stuff about him already considering you lived with him since you were a baby?"
"Yeah, sort of." He shakes his head. "I don't know much though. Only which people he really hates, which villages he's destroyed, and the names of his 'henchmen'." He makes a face. "So, I don't know much, but I'm sure these can help fill in a few gaps."
Well it turns out, the books didn't help at all. They were just full of legends and folklore that have nothing to do with what we need to know.
Amanda chooses the moment we finish our books, to wake up. She stretches, opens her eyes, and sees us sitting there with our hardbacks.
She laughs and says, "So, you didn't read anything yesterday, did you?"
Shade tries to play it cool but fails miserably. So we all just sit there laughing until our stomachs hurt. Amanda tells us what she read because she actually found a ground plan for His castle. When I asked her how she found it she said that she got it off of one of the guys from Shade's group that attacked us a few days ago.
It was a pretty straight forward map. The front of the castle was guarded by several men, and a lava moat. The only way to get to it was to either fly, or walk across the bridge past the guards. Once you got through the front doors, it was a pretty basic layout. You walk into a sitting room with a large staircase at the far end. To your right is the kitchen and dinning room. To your left, the stairs to the dungeon. On the top floor was the bedroom, bathroom, and balcony, but we wouldn't need that floor so we skipped down to the dungeon. When you first get down there, straight in front of you lies the interrogation rooms. On the left of you, cells that are completely empty with no windows or light whatsoever. On your right, cells with not iron doors like the other ones, but iron bars so you can see down the hallway.
The castle isn't too big, but it's floating on an island of sorts, above a huge lake of lava. The only way in, is to cross the bridge full of guards. Flying isn't really an option since none of us have wings, or a pet ghast.
When Amanda is done showing us the map and explaining it, I feel like I'm going to be sick because I don't know how we're going to get in and save Kitsune. Shade just looks confused; like he doesn't remember it being like this.
"So, assuming we can even find a way into this hellhole, how are we going to grab Kitsune and Kit, run past all of the gaurds with them, kill Herobrine, and leave?" I direct the question toward Amanda since she seems to think the whole thing is child's play.
"Well you can't expect me to come up with everything! I thought you guys would want to help make the plan considering you happen to be part of it." Amanda replies.
"Sorry. I just thought you might have an idea of how to get in." I feel bad for snapping at her. I know it this isn't easy, plus Shade and I didn't really do anything at all yesterday. Except kiss. I shiver as I think about it and walk over to the window to clear my head. I sit on the window seat and look out at the city.
I end up completely petrified with fear. "Guys? Can you come here and look at this really quick?" My voice shakes as I say it and they're both over to the window immediately.
"Shit." Mutters Amanda.
Down below us, the city has completely changed over night. Men are everywhere with either big guns, or their bare hands. They are all wearing the black jumpsuits with the Herobrine insignia on them. They are patrolling the streets as if they own them, and at this point, they just might. I see several dead bodies already. Some people that I see try to fight the men and get them to leave the city. All they do, is make it much worse. The men gather around another poor soul who has defied them and all at once, they start to attack him. They kill him quickly. I watch in horror as his body slips to the ground; covered in blood.
"Turtle," Amanda says. "We have to go down there to get out of here. I know where the portal is, but we have to head towards the mountains. They are all probably looking for a girl with a shell on her back, y'know."
I know exactly what she means the moment she says it. Leaving on the clothes that I bought when we got to the city, I take off my shell and give it to Amanda. She quickly shrinks it, the way most Minecraftian things do, and shoves it in her purse that she said she bought yesterday.
Shade stares at me in bewilderment. "B-but I thought turtles can't remove their shells."
"They can't." I say. "I'm not a turtle. I'm a half-breed. I can take off my shell because I'm more human than I am turtle."
"Oh." He says. He looks like he understands, but I don't know if he truly does or not. "We ready to go then?"
"I think so." Amanda replied. When they look at me, I nod my head. Amanda says, "Well what are we standing here for? Let's go!"
Sorry this wasn't as long as normal. The next chapter will be though. I used this one as more of a filler if anything. I'm still not getting any OC's so I think I'm just going to call that off. (I may still accept one or two though, if you beg hard enough :) ) Anyways, seeya next time!
~TL