Hey, guys! Sorry, but I couldn't keep to my promise of Chapter 6. It'll probably be Chapter 8, and at the very most, Chapter 9. I'll be closing the poll soon, so let's see what's up! Okay, well, I hope you like this new chapter!

Chapter 5

The Big Escape

The next day was pure pain and torture. Since Ren was still chained up right in front of me, I couldn't heal myself, plus my arms weren't free, so I couldn't rub my gold blood on my wounds.

I tried my hardest to make sure he didn't see any gold drip from my veins, and I tried especially hard not to get any on the floor. I did lots of twists, and Ren seemed to be worried about me.

When Lokesh left the room, he would always ask me what was wrong, and I'd simply lie and say, "Just doing some stretches. Don't you feel all knotted up and tense from being in those cages? This is good for your back!"

I was an extremely talented liar, but this was something different. I felt a little harder to let these just roll off my tongue, because when I try to talk to him, and tell him lies, I can't think of any. So, I reuse the same one over and over, because, like I said, when I try to lie to him, I just, dry up.

I was some how able to keep my blood off the floor, but everyday it was more of a challenge, because there was always more and more blood, which meant more and more gold to hide.

I wasn't sure why I wouldn't share my birth defect with him, but it was probably along the lines of, "I might like him," and, "If he knew, he might only hang around with me for the gold and the money."

Ren didn't seem like the greedy type, but neither had my 32nd captor. She just seemed like someone who enjoyed abusing toddlers, but she started going crazy after a bit, and she bought a new house, totally leaving me behind in the old one, and some crazy homeless people found me in there after that, bleeding and crying, and they must have seen the gold in my blood, because they bought a house with me, and then they started beating me, too, I guess for more money.

I liked knowing Ren was my friend because that was the type of person he was. I didn't want to have to doubt his loyalty. He was kind of like a pet, in a way, but so much better.

After my first week at Lokesh's I was hoping I would die. I decided to keep my cool, for my own sake, and not talk about it. He let us sleep in the middle of the day so he could torture us all night.

We slept for two hours. I know, because he still hadn't taken my sky blue watch.

I sat on my cage floor for a minute before Ren whispered, "Been quite a while since we've had a nice time to talk. Although, you have looked better," he looked concerned as he scanned my up and down.

He was talking about my black eye, my broken fingers, two of them, the two deep gashes in my cheeks that had finally stopped bleeding, and began to heal on their own, the long up barely a cut scrap running up my neck, the dark black and purple bruises on my upper chest and along my collar bone, my cut and bloody still left arm, which Ren didn't get to see while we were in our cages, so that could bleed gold all it wanted to, my bruised and beaten right arm, and my legs were the worst, because they were the easiest things for Lokesh to reach. They had extremely deep gashes, oozing gold whenever they could, and it would just shoot out, like a fountain or something, so I kept those tucked behind me. He also wrung my right ankle, and it was more than certain broken, and I officially couldn't walk anymore.

I was probably going to bleed out here, anyway. I couldn't heal in front of Ren. He has no choice but to heal in front of me.

I wonder if he thinks I only like him for his special abilities. I thought to myself.

My train of thought was broken by Ren. He took my bruised hand, kissed my two broken fingers lightly and whispered, "This is all my fault. I am so sorry."

I couldn't have Ren thinking this was his fault. Lokesh wanted to hurt him with me, yes, but he also wanted my blood. When he would torture me alone for an hour every other day, he would bottle my blood as it oozed off me, shaking the bottle every twenty minutes or so, so it wouldn't harden.

"Ren, it's not your fault, really," I smiled at him, and he just shook his head and began to weep.

"Ren, please stop crying," I never tried to be gentle with someone else's feelings before, so I tried begging.

When Ren kept on crying, I went back to my regular way I kept myself safe. I got mad and started being rude to him.

I wrenched my hand away and whispered harshly, "If you're so hung up on this being your fault, then let it be your fault! But not matter what, if we ever get out of here," I looked sternly at him, and he looked up and met my glare, "don't try to persuade me not to talk to you, or to get away from you, because you're a bad person, or you're, 'worried about my safety,' because I won't go. Why? You're the only friend I have. And I won't give you up so easily."

I waited for his response. He'd stopped crying somewhere through it, and now he had a cunning grin on his face. He whispered, "So I'm a friend now, huh? How much of a friend?"

I scoffed at him and turned away. "In your dreams!"

We laughed for a little while, then Ren whispered goodnight to me, and that he'd see me in his dreams.

I wasn't tired, thanks to the nap we took, so I relaxed while I heard Ren breathing, too tired to prop myself up and look at him.

About half an hour later I heard lots of screaming and yelling from different places through the building. I was scared, so I pretended to be asleep. Just in case people wanted to kill the witness, I decided not to be a witness.

There was shuffling around the room, so I stayed quiet and relaxed. If I tensed up, they would know I was awake.

I heard a cage door open. As far as I could tell, Ren and I were the only two people here. Was someone rescuing Ren? Would he really leave without me?

I heard a thump, and a crash, and I relaxed harder and thought of the one thing that kept me from screaming out. Those could be worse guys, trying to re-kidnap me. Ren could be keeping quiet. If I scream out, they could kill him.

I heard the sound of shaking fabric, and I heard Ren plead, "Kishan, I need you! Please! She's over there, please, Kishan!"

"We need to get you out of here, Ren. She isn't important right now," I heard another male voice sigh, and it sounded a lot like Ren. Did he have split personality disorder?

"Kishan," he pleaded again, and I heard more ruffling fabric.

"No, Ren! Get up. We're going now."

I heard a thud, and Ren whispered harshly, "I'm not leaving without her!"

"Ren!"

"No, Kishan! I won't go! She means something to me! Also, I'm her only friend."

"How do you know?" Kishan whispered harshly.

"Because," Ren whispered harshly still, "she told me so earlier! I will not leave her!" Ren finished with a snarl.

"Fine!" Kishan finally gave in, but he was obviously angry, "but I wonder what Kelsey will say when she comes to!"

He knows Kelsey, too? I think she'll be a little disappointed about what happened to Ren, I thought.

My cage door squeaked as it came open.

"Can you walk?" came an upset whisper.

"Can you fly?" I asked sarcastically.

Kishan grumbled something about injured women and Ren being a fake hero, when I whispered sternly, "Ren is not fake! He's no hero, either, but he is not fake!"

I opened my eyes and sat up slightly, and found myself looking into golden eyes.

The golden eyes reminded me of my blood issue, and I whispered quickly, "Just hang on one second, I think I can walk."

I reached over to my bloody leg, and started rubbing my blood around. My cuts and even bruises instantly healed, and I whispered, "Other than my twisted ankle, I'm fine."

The golden eyed man reached his hands in the cage, and scooped me up tenderly. "I'm quite anxious to see what you look like. I want to know why Ren likes you so much."

He pulled me out of the cage slowly, trying not to jar my injured ankle, and he walked me over to Ren. "This her?"

"Was there anyone else?" Ren asked, and he smiled at me, then looked me up and down again. "Your leg is healed. Already."

"Yeah, I came from a long family line of fast healers," I lied. "I can manage walking on my own."

"But your ankle," Ren protested.

"I'll be fine. I overheard your argument, so I'm going to guess you guys know each other. He'll take care of you." I moved my good leg off of his arm, and placed it on the floor.

He lowered me, and I stood gingerly.

Ren glared at the man and whispered, "You need care. I'll watch over you as we walk back."

The golden eyed man protested, "No! You're both injured! I need to watch Kelsey,"

"Wait, she's here?" I interrupted.

"You know her?" the golden eyed man asked.

"Only her name. Ren asked me to remember it for him four days ago. Ren, do you remember that?"

"I remember talking to you. Not her." Ren asked, confused.

"Okay," I whispered, worried about Kelsey. "Let's just get out of here."

Suddenly, four men and a stretcher burst into the room, and they picked up and placed Ren onto it.

He struggled, but they begged him to stay.

The golden eyed man got frustrated, and he stalked off to Ren, whispered something I could catch, and punched him in the face, knocking him out on the stretcher.

I gasped. My worry turned to anger and I limped up to the golden eyed man and punched him in the jaw.

My hand burned like crazy, but I felt satisfied as the golden eyed man fell to the floor with a sickening thump.

The men and the stretcher marched out of the room.

As the golden eyed man stood up, obviously angry, he stalked toward me with his fists clenched, when a girl on the floor, about my age, groaned and stood up shakily. "Ren?"

The golden eyed man lowered his gaze to the floor and whispered, "That's Kelsey."

The girl, Kelsey, stood up, and looked around, confused. "Kishan, where's Ren?"

The golden eyed man said, "He just left on the stretcher. If you leave now you might catch him.

Kelsey ran out of the room immediately.

"Okay…" I said.

"She's stressed. Let's go." Kishan sighed.

I limped out of the room, ahead of Kishan. I was still mad at him for punching Ren.

When I finally found my way out of the building, most of the people had fled.

I was limping pathetically through the woods, following a lantern's light, when Kishan caught up to me and spun me around to look at him.

He looked exactly like Ren, only he didn't. His eyes were golden, and instead of a white shirt, his was black.

Ren wore white and blue. Kishan wore black on black. Neither of them had shoes. Looking at Kishan's face, I saw a younger Ren.

I stood my ground, though, as I stared into Kishan's golden eyes. They were his defining features.

I stared Kishan down, then he smiled sweetly and moved in closer and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

I turned my head and backed away, turning away from him.

"What did I do to upset you?" he asked.

"What did you tell Ren?" I changed the subject.

"I'll answer you if you answer me." He stated. "Final offer."

"You didn't have to hit him like that," I said quickly. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him I'd look out for you, and that I was sorry I had to do what I did. I don't like hurting Ren. But I do like to yell at him."

He turned me around and smiled playfully at me.

I wrenched myself away again, and I snarled at him. "Touch me again. See what happens."

"Alright," Kishan stepped forward swiftly, and grabbed me in a close, forceful embrace.

I tried to push him off me, but as I struggled, he only held on tighter.

He clicked his tongue a couple of times, watching me struggle, which only made me struggle against him harder.

All of my struggling was really upsetting my bruised arm, and it made my blood arm bleed more, so it was basically pointless. But, on the other hand, it helped me get my anger out.

"Really, why fight me?" he asked cunningly.

I growled at him. "I'm still mad at you, doofus!"

"Maybe this will help."

Swiftly, he dipped me, picked me back up against his chest, and kissed me.

The kiss was warm, tender, sweet and simple, and only lasted a couple seconds. Around seven, maybe eight.

We broke apart, and he loosened his grip on my waist, and raised an eyebrow expectantly.

I pretended to ponder my thoughts, then looked back at him and said, "Nope, still angry."

I violently shoved him off, and he stumped back, and I limped back off through the woods alone.

Okay, well I'm about to watch The Legend of Korra! Can't wait! Bye!