Chapter 19: Easing The Pain

"I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you."

-- Roy Croft

Authors Note: Hah, I forgot to mention in Chapter 18 that the song that I used was "Your Guardian Angel" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Hah, failure lol. And as for this one, it was "My Immortal" by Evanescence. Just in case you wanted to know~ And thank you for reading by the way, it means a lot =)

Feel free to tell me the good and bad about this story, I won't bite if you do~ I must know!! xD


Did he really just do what I thought he did? Or was this all just a bad dream? Did I just dream up Adam setting my Alex free, or did it honestly happen? I wanted to scream my frustrated sorrow away so badly, but I couldn't, I simply couldn't. I stood silently in the rain like a dead, lifeless doll. He had taken what little life I still had left in me and smashed it into a million shards of nothing. Even if he didn't intend to, it still hurt like he had. Somewhere far off into the wilds he was probably running for dear life and never thought back to Dustin, Cornelius, or me. To him, we were just a bunch of things keeping him from his freedom. But I was too broken to feel angry at him now. I felt deader than ever and on top of that, I felt even more alone now. Then I felt Cornelius's arm snake around mine and gently tug on it to let me know that we were going. But I didn't budge whatsoever. I was never going to leave this spot, even if it meant that I would have to rot away on this very spot. His tugging got a little firmer but I turned to glare at him through tear filled eyes. But to my surprise, he kindly said

"Lucretia, there's nothing here for us anymore. Nothing here for you, let's go. "

"You're wrong, he'll come back." I protested. I aimed to prove him wrong.

"Don't act this way, you just saw him get up and leave. I highly doubt he's goi-"

"You don't know that!" I yelled at him and he instantly shut his mouth. "You don't know that…" I whispered in a choked-out death-whisper. I directed my eyes once more to the wreckage and felt my chest grow heavy and my stomach begin to churn. What if he was right? What if Alex honestly wasn't ever going to come back? Even if he did, he wasn't the same Alex that I had fallen for. He may have looked like him on the outside, but it was the inside that counted. Without any restraint, I pulled away from Cornelius's grip and walked towards the cage. With a slow, shaking hand, I ran my fingertips across its eerie surrealness. It was confirmed, I didn't just dream this horrid nightmare up. It was real, far too real for my liking. My lips trembled and my knees buckled beneath me. I rested my forehead upon the ice-cold iron and thought of him. Behind me, I could hear both Dustin and Cornelius whisper words between each other

"Just give her some time, alright? It's hard for her, just like it is for you and I…" I heard Dustin say first

"I really wish I could, but those soldiers should be coming back any time now. I mean, there was shit going on down here that I can't even explain and it was pretty effing loud too! I don't mean to rush princess but seriously, any time now!" Cornelius threw back into Dustin's face.

"Dude, chill, you can't just rush her like this! We're dead for crying out loud! We have all the time in the world!" Dustin growled

"Not to mention the bomb they'll be setting off soon! That should get her motivated!" He practically screamed. But then I slowly got up from the muddy ground and wandered over to Cornelius. Without looking up at him, I wrapped my arms around him and he tensed up a little but I whispered quietly

"It's alright Cornelius…I know you're hurting too… you can be as angry as you want to be if that's the only way to let it out, it's ok…"

Only a few moments later I felt his arms around me and felt extra droplets fall onto my hair. For the first time, I had witnessed the softest side of Cornelius that I may ever get to experience ever again. But I wasn't going to say a word about this, I never would either. I think all Cornelius needed was just a hug and a shoulder to cry on. So I would forget my pain, just for a little bit, and supply someone else's needs for a bit. I think it would help me too, if only by a little.

We could have been standing there for three minutes, or three hours, but either way, it still felt nice. The wind was picking up a little which caused the rain to come down a little harder. Cornelius finally let go of me and whispered thank you. I didn't smile but simply nodded my head in return. Dustin had gone rather quiet as if he were off into a deep thought so I decided to not bug him until he spoke to us first. Cornelius on the other hand, spoke about other things

"Well…like I was saying, we need to hurry on out of here. They'll be setting that thing off soon and we're still hanging around. So I suggest we hurry."

"But what about everyone else up there? What about them?" I said quietly

"They have to fend for themselves Ell, we can't do anything for them. And that's if they're even still alive up there. I mean, that Adam dude seemed pretty pissed off and I wouldn't want to get in his way. So I highly doubt anyone managed to live…" He responded. I couldn't tell if he was trying to make me feel better or worse because quite frankly, he was just making it worse. Then I remembered something, my father and Mr. Gibbs were still up there. I highly doubted they would be taken out that easy, even if Adam came storming through there. And without thinking, I bolted. As always, Dustin and Cornelius protested my actions but it was too late to turn around now. I needed to make sure that my father was still living, and that Gibbs wasn't.