Chapter 27 : A New Kind of Adventure - Part 11 : All of My Secrets
"Any luck finding Alex?" I asked them.
They looked at each other and smiled, "Actually, we have a surprise for you Lily." Maxwell said to me.
Someone familiar stepped in and I gasped in shock to saw who he is.
"A-Alex? I-it's that really y-you?" I stuttered, is he really him?
"Yes Lily, it's me." He replied.
"Oh my god! It's really you!" I exclaimed, hugging him tightly. I was very happy to see him again.
"Hey, hey. Slow down Lily, you're making me hard to breathe." Alex said.
"Ups, sorry." I apologized and let go of the hug, it was the first time in 3 days that I saw his face again. Well, nothing much changed in him. His skin is slight paler, there's a black eye bag under his red eyes. A sign that he hadn't got enough sleep.
"Where did you get that hoodie?" He asked, pointing at the grey hoodie I wear. Well, my shirt isn't clean yet from blood and dirt.
"Oh, I got it from mom, she gave it to me three days ago." I answered.
"Nice hoodie by the way, now you look exactly like me." He smiled.
...
I awake in the middle of the night by something, I turned to Alex beside me, nothing happened. He was sleeping soundless, well he ate very much on dinner, because he said prison life sucks. He only got a loaf of bread and a glass of water for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and he only got a 6 hours sleep for a day. Except that he sleep with his rooster helmet on, which is an unusual thing.
I turned back and closed my eyes again, the only problem is that Alex always shifted uncomfortably every minute. I saw his face is in frightened look, he's sweating and breathing heavily. Looks like he's having nightmare.
I saw he got up and I pretended to sleep, peeking at him with my right eye.
"Need some coffee." He mumbled, getting up from the bed and headed outside.
Coffee? Isn't that thing made you can't sleep? Why does he need one if he want to sleep, this is unusual. My mother said I can't have coffee because I'm too young to consume it. After a few moment, he returned with a warm cup of coffee in his hand. He took a sip and turned the lamp on the table lamp next to our bed. I resisted my urge to chat with him, but I can't hold it any longer. I decided to got up and sat next to him.
"Hey Alex, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing, just can't sleep." He answered.
"Then, why did you drink coffee when you can't sleep?"
He paused for a moment, "If I tell you, promise that you won't freaked out."
"Alright." I smiled to him, I could feel something bad happened to him.
He slowly took off his blue rooster helmet, I gasped in shock to see that his soft long and messy black hair. It's now nothing but a large strip of black hair in the center of his head. Both sides has been shaven, but what actually happened?
"A-Alex, w-what h-happened?" I stuttered.
"Well, it all begin when I was on that prison."
Flashback...
Alex POV
I was tied to a chair, with both of my arms tied to the chair armrest and my stomach tied to the chair. Well, I was in my cell. Nothing else here other than me and the chair. Two men entered my cell, one of them looks like a scientist and the other one is someone I know. The Emperor.
The scientist said something that I feared to the Emperor. He handed the Emperor a shaving machine, a scissors, and a cutter, I hated both of that thing, because I got a Aichmophobia, I scared of sharp things. Especially cutter, scissors, and knife. Where did that scientist know my phobia?
The scientist exited the room, leaving me and the Emperor alone. An evil smile spread across the Emperor's face. Goddamn it, he's going to torture me to death with that thing. He approached me and bowed down to my height.
"Hello little hero, now we're going to have fun together in this room." He greeted me with a gentleman-alike deep voice, "But there's one rule, you have to answer my question."
"What question?" I asked.
"It's a simple question, where is the Alliance base? I pretty sure you know where is it since you're working with them." He answered.
"No, I don't know." I looked away from him. I swear to god his face really frightened me.
His smile faded, "Alright you little stubborn child, aren't you a little young to be a soldier?"
"No, and aren't you a little bald to be an Emperor?" I mocked.
He chuckled,"Looks like you got a good sense for a humor. But I got something different for you." He pulled out the scissors and the cutter, "You want a new haircut, or a new scar?"
"Not both."
"Alright then, I'm going to try a new haircut for you. But first we need to get rid of this thing." He removed my rooster helmet and put it on the ground, revealing my long and messy black hair.
"Oh, you have some nice hair there boy." He admired, and laughed evilly, "Now tell me, where is the Alliance base?"
"No, I won't tell you."
"Fine then, guess we don't have anymore choice." He proceed to cut my hair randomly, hair started to dropping to the ground. After he finished, I felt my hair shorter and he pulled out a mirror from nowhere. Showing my new haircut. He cut it into a spiky mess hairstyle, I honestly liked it this way.
"Did you liked it?" He asked.
"Yeah, a bit." I answered.
Well, there you go. Did you thinking it was the torture? Nope. It was only the beginning, of the real torture. He's asking the same question, I kept saying no. After he had enough he pulled out the shaving machine and shaved the both side of my hair, leaving a strip of black hair in the center of my head. Which everyone called a mohawk hairstyle.
And so on, the same question, the same torture method. I slowly started to get depressed and lose my sanity, but the second and third day in prison is the worst. He used cutter and knife to torture me, he cut the left side of my lips with the knife and stabbed the left side of my stomach with the cutter. And I starting to get nightmares and hallucinations. Luckily, there's a prison guard that care enough to take care of me and not letting a thirteen year old boy died from being tortured and bleeding to death.
When the day of my execution arrived, you all saved me and freed me from that damned place. I was glad that you still looking for me and believed I was still alive.
Lily's POV
"Gosh Alex, why didn't you tell me about this?" I asked him.
"Nah, I don't know. I just didn't want to make you worried too much on me like the last time, I'm okay." He answered, Alex has removed his hoodie and white shirt and rubbing the part of his bandaged stomach where he had been stabbed. Both of his shoulder are also bandaged, I wanted to ask about it but I remembered why.
"Yeah, but at least you could've tell me." I replied,"Now what nightmares do you have?"
"It's not just about the Emperor and the tortures, but there's someone else in my nightmares." He put his shirt and hoodie back on.
"Who is it?"
"It's my adoptive older sister, Vicky Donovan-Johnson."
"Why?"
"She's... well, it's a long story."
Alex explained about Vicky, his adoptive older sister. He described her as two-faced person, she act nice when his parents are home, and act mean to Alex, Kevin (his older brother), and Sarah. Vicky will torture anyone who doesn't obey her command, what a mean sister. Her reign over the house was over when Alex's parents found a large pile of drugs under her bed. She blamed Alex, Kevin, Sarah for putting the drug under her bed so she'll be expelled from the house. She actually a drug dealer and addicted to it, she ended up running away from the house. And Alex's dad hated Alex, Kevin, and Sarah because of that. Luckily, his mom is still love them.
"I'm sorry Alex, I didn't know you have such a secret. Did Sophia know about this?" I said.
"No need to apologize Lily. Sophia huh? She didn't know since she wasn't my closest friend like you does." He replied, putting back his blue rooster helmet back on his head to cover his shaved hair. I think that's a quite unique haircut, I kinda like it. But he's too shy to showed it.
"Now, why do you need coffee if you want to sleep?" I asked.
"I kept getting nightmares every time I sleep, I just tried to keep myself awake." He answered.
"Oh wait." I grabbed my bag from the lamp table and pulled out his notebook and journal.
"Here, I forgot to give it to you earlier. Maybe, you could create something to entertain yourself." I said, handing him the notebook and the journal.
"Thanks." He replied, pocketing the notebook and the journal.
"So, about the journal. You said that you actually... loved me."
He froze for a second, "Yeah, I actually had a crush on you, for a long time. I'm sorry if I didn't tell you this, I actually admiring you from the first time I saw you."
"Really?" I asked, I can't believe it. He admired me from the first time he saw me?
"Yeah, I do Lily."
"Well, let's go back to sleep. Tomorrow we have a mission to search the starite shard so we could go home, I don't want everyone complaining because you to look tired."
"But, I can't sleep. I'll having nightmares again if I sleep."
"Maybe, this will make you sleep easier." I said.
I closed my eyes gave him a gentle kiss at his soft lips, I thought it was going to scare him away. But, he didn't even pulled his lips from mine. Instead, he pulled me into a deeper kiss. Well, this is officially my first kiss. Not accidentally, or forced like the last time. After a few moments, I pulled myself from him.
When I saw his face, it blushed deep red. I chuckled silently, it was funny to seeing his face blushed red. I mean, he always does silly things when he did something that he never experienced before. Like stutter, ask something nonsense, and etc. And this one for example, he never been kissed before. I'm pretty sure he's going to do silly stuff in no time.
"L-Lily, w-w-what j-just happened?" He stuttered, see? I'm not lying. And, his face. It's like a mix of surprised and confused expression.
"Nothing, just something to make you sleep easier and forget those nightmares and hallucination stuff." I answered.
"Bu-but-"
"Hey, just go to sleep and get this over with." I cut him off, I let out a big yawn and patted his shoulder, "Alex, just get some sleep. I don't want you to look tired tomorrow."
I move to the side of the bed where I usually sleep, I lie there and closed my eyes. I felt Alex did the same too. But, before I drifted to sleep. I heard someone closed the door, who is it? I'm too tired to check it out.
Nichols' POV
I saw it, Lily just kissed Alex! My parents said that their first kiss is when they were 13. Well, technically they are the other version of my parents. But, when they were grown up and married, could be the other us in the other dimension?
You all must be wondering why I'm suddenly here right? I can't sleep, but when I spotted the shadow of Alex from my bedroom. I decided to follow him and eavesdropped at his conversation with Lily, he had nightmares and hallucinations every time he sleep. Poor Alex, now I know why he isn't at home for the last 3 days. He got captured by the Empire and sent to that horrible place, and he was tortured by the Emperor himself. I have to tell the Daniel, Marcus, and Rosa about this.