Lillith took a deep breath and slumped against the cold wall, the icy air scratching at her throat and causing a spasm of coughs to rack her weakened body. Something wet trickled down her mouth and into her hand. Blood. The bright red substance stained her usually snow white gloves – the harsh colour a complete contrast to the milky material. Eyelids squeezed closed over dark purple eyes and Lillith whipped her head to the side, black streaked silver bangs smacking lightly against her face as she did so. Without looking back down at her left hand, the fingers of her right slowly pried to fingerless glove away from her skin and tossed it to the floor. The clock's glowing red numbers were enough of a reminder of her dwindling life span; she didn't need any other prompts.

With a sigh, she sunk to her knees, her pent up energy slowly draining from her body. She needed a rest. Her legs burned from exertion and the poison flowing through her veins felt like acid. On second thoughts, maybe it was. She wasn't putting anything past the sickos that ran this game. But she couldn't stay still for long. One hour and twenty five minutes – that's all she had left to save Ace and get the hell out of this maze. A blurred memory slowly swam into focus, the edges of those wild locks of blue hair sharpening and those deep, knife like onyx eyes becoming all too clear.

Ace was only sixteen. He had his whole life ahead of him. He couldn't die here. Lillith chuckled. Since when had she started thinking of Ace like that? Valuing his life? When they had first met, she had wanted nothing more than to kill the little bastard. But hey... things change.

"You're my partner?" Were the first words the boy had spoken to her. Then he had scoffed and flopped back down onto his tattered mattress, arms folding behind his head and black orbs narrowed harshly. "I'm screwed."

Lillith could still remember the anger she had felt at that moment. How she wanted to rip his head off and show him her strength. But the drugs had still been in effect – that horrible clear liquid that had infected her veins was still seeping from her system, leaving her legs as useful as jelly. So instead she had decided to ignore him. She had sworn that she would never ever speak to him.

That had lasted well. Two days later and she had already opened her big gob and started whining to the grumpy, blue haired teen.

"I'm bored~" Lillith had drawled, flopping onto her stomach and glaring at Ace, as if he was the cause of her lack of activities. Said boy had merely cracked open a single black eye and flicked it over to Lillith, rolling it once before sighing and closing the orb again.

"And you expect me to do something about that?" He had snapped, a hollow chuckle following the rhetorical question. "Entertain yourself. I have better things to do."

Lillith only pouted in response, silver grey eyebrows furrowing. How the hell was she meant to entertain herself in this dingy cell? Letting an annoyed breath slip through her lips, the purple eyed adult rolled onto her back and stared up at the cracking ceiling, orbs tracing the patterns that the weeds made as they seeped through the cracks. She missed the stars. How they glistened in the midnight sky – like golden fairies. Absently, she wondered how long she had been down here, and whether or not it was day or night. Then her trail of thought was broken by an irritated sigh, followed by a creak of rusty springs.

"Fine." A gruff voice had called, and Lillith tilted her head to the side to see Ace looking at the floor from the corners of his eyes and irritated look on his face. "What do you want to do?"

A small, strained smile worked its way onto Lillith's lips as she remembered that. That was the first moment that the boy had ever showed any care, and even now the silver haired girl didn't know why. Had she really looked that pitiful remembering her old favourite pastime that the stoic child had felt bad for her? But that had just been the beginning. Over the next few months he had slowly started to open up, his aggressive front breaking away slowly to reveal the child beneath. He was still rude and sarcastic though, and his soft moments were rare, but they showed Lillith that maybe the blue haired teen weren't as bad as she first thought.

Another set of coughs racked the girls frame and she doubled over from her position on her knees, spitting blood laced spit onto the damp concrete. Damn. Slowly, she raised her head to look at the clock. One hour and fifteen minutes left. She had been spent ten minutes doing nothing but kneeling on the ground, reminiscing about times in her godforsaken cell. With a grunt, the nineteen year old pushed herself upwards, one hand using the wall for support. She could feel the burning, aching sensation return to her legs immediately, but she couldn't rest any longer. With one deep breath, she swiped her arm across her mouth, wiping away the blood, before forcing herself into another run.

One hour and thirteen minutes.

The chains cut into his skin when he moved, the silver ringlets tearing open new wounds with each struggle, causing blood to trickle down his arms. His mind was still groggy; the sleeping tablet they used was strong. Finally, the boy stopped struggling and let his body fall limp. It was no use – his magic was bound by the metallic restraints and after nearly four hours of struggling, he figured he would be more likely to survive if he stayed still.

Suddenly, his mind flashed to his teammate. How was she? There were no rules on the sheet they received, just the words 'Run, run, as fast as you can', so the blue haired teen had no idea whether the silver haired girl was alright or not. Heck, he didn't even know what she was meant to be doing. What he was meant to be doing.

Lillith.

Damn that girl. Her bright smile flashed in his mind and he felt something clench his heart. He would never admit that she had gotten to him though – that through all her whining, sly smiles, hair ruffling, she had chiselled herself a place in his stone heart. Something that he swore would never happen since his family were murdered. If you cared about no-one, kept a distance from everyone, you could never be hurt. But that was a lie, wasn't it? Because by separating himself from the rest of the world, hadn't he just made himself bitter?

Lillith wasn't like him though. She was happy and cheerful. And for someone three years older than him, less mature and more childish. She seemed to trust people easily, but also be ticked off easily. She was kind of bi-polar. And the first time that Ace had first set eyes on her, he had thought that she would get him killed in this game. But who could really blame him? The girl was dressed a bit... extravagantly. Sleeveless white shirt, black wrapping across her chest and a purple corset topped off with knee high lace ups? She didn't exactly scream 'I'm ruthless and I can kill easily'. And she had yet to prove him wrong in that respect. But that didn't stop her from making him trust her.

Ace grimaced at that. He had gone soft. He couldn't even count how many times he had smiled for that girl. Probably more than he had in the last ten years though. Not that they were big, happy grins – no, just the slight curve of the lips. Nothing too bright. Subtle.

The clanking of metal jolted him out of his thoughts as he gazed at the girl across from him, tied up and restricted from using magic, just the same as he. He wondered whether Lillith would come for him soon, as he gazed up at the clock and it's blaring red numbers. He had pretty much guessed by now that whatever this game was, it involved their partners racing to their rescue within the time limit.

He just hoped that that was all there was to it.

Just running and locating.

Lillith.

One hour and ten minutes left.

Guys~ I'm SO SO SO SO SORRY!

You can hate me if you want, I deserve it. I know this probably won't make things any better, but I have excuses...

First - I am now in Year nine which is awful because in England it's the year where you have to prepare for options and you start stuff for your GCSE's and all that Jazz

Second - I have had major writers block for this story. Lillith and Ace were hard to think of idea's for and in the end I had to change the style of these sorts of chapters so that I could actually write more that twenty words.

Third - there was a LARGE obstacle that blocked my way to microsoft word that goes by the name of 'Tumblr' (By the way, if any of you want to follow me (Not that I do much other than reblog stuff) then my username's b-r-o-k-e-n-t-o-y-b-o-x)

And on another note. It was my birthday the Friday before last~ and I spent the whole weekend at the anime expo dressed as Day 1: Alois Trancy, Day 2: Erza Scarlet. It was awesome!

And if you noticed that I referred to Lillith as an 'adult' in one part of this when she's only nineteen, that's because in England the legal age you become an adult is 18, so technically (to me) she's an adult :)

I really hope you guys forgive me!

I'M SO SORRY!