Kin (Annabelle's Story Part Two) (2 page)

“Annabelle, I’m so sorry. I am. I wasn’t allowed to tell you.”

Closing my eyes, I wanted to disappear.

Why was everyone I cared about hurting me?

First Blake, and now Adrian. I felt so deceived. So lost.

His eyes darted to try to capture my attention. Mine bore into the stones of the ground in response. “Look at me, please. We need to stick together.”

My words came out a shaken whisper. “How could you? You lied to me.”

“The Elders thought it was best if you didn’t know about Blake. They didn’t think you’d be able to concentrate. I tried to tell you, I really did. YaYa stopped me.”

“Tell me everything,” I demanded, my eyes locking with his.

“Okay, okay,” he sighed. “About three years before this all happened, we decided to watch you. Your name kept popping up in the newspaper from swimming, so it caught our attention. But then we realized that we weren’t the only ones watching you.”

“Blake was?”

“No, not at first. The Trackers were, but it wasn’t Blake. Not yet. We watched you for another two years before we determined it was time to befriend you, to try to gain your trust. But before we could, the Trackers sent Blake. We kept a close eye on you to make sure he wasn’t going to hurt you. Then we found out that you guys planned to go to that concert in Atlantic City. We knew this was Blake’s opportunity to make his move, so Clemente jumped into action. And, well, you know the rest…”

“So that whole time Blake didn’t really care about me?”

Tears built behind my eyes. My heart felt punctured. My first true love wasn’t real.

As we sat on top of the Ferris wheel, it meant something different for me than it did for Blake. Our Tuesday afternoon trips to the lake were now jaded. Deception fueled the way he caught my eye in Calculus to mock Mr. Snyder. Sitting on the roof of his car while we planned our future was an act of a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing.

 I couldn’t help as each scenario ran through my head. Everything was a lie. Meeting me, pursuing me, dating me, loving me… it was just all part of some
plan
. It was a thought that repeated again and again, sending shooting pains into my gut, physically trapping me in a fetal position, unable to uncoil.

 “Annabelle, I’m really sorry. I never meant for you to find out like this. What can I do?” he mumbled helplessly.

“Nothing, Adrian. You can do nothing.”

His pathetic attempt of reconciliation skyrocketed my sorrow into a state of rage.

Rolling over to turn my back on him, I let my anger radiate through my body. In fact, I welcomed it. I’d rather feel anger than the emptiness in my gut.

I was furious that I’d been so foolish about Blake, about my kidnap, about being manipulated into going on this mission—this mission against my fake ex-boyfriend. The thought of Adrian and how I trusted him set my blood on fire. Essentially, deceit underlined everything that I had experienced in the past year.

Now I found myself trapped in some dungeon God knows where.

Adrian’s voice hit my back. “Listen to me, please.”

I didn’t move. It took all my strength not to cover my ears like some petulant child.

“I know you’ve been hurt,” he reasoned. “I know this situation is horrible and I’m so sorry. You mean so much to me, Annabelle. You really do. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make this up to you, trying to prove that to you. When I saw you lying on the beach, it was the worst moment of my life. I thought I’d lost you.”

“Yeah, then your precious mission would’ve been ruined.”

“No, no, no. It had nothing to do with that.”

“Yeah right,” I said in a juvenile tone. My resolve only took so much.

“Come on, I’m serious. This is from my heart.”

“Really?”

Immediately, I chastised myself for the hope that budded within me.

“Yes, really… of course, really. For three years I heard about you—how you were so kind, and giving, and also smart. Then, when I finally saw you in that net, you were just so beautiful. I longed for you even before I spoke to you.”

Based on recent events, it wasn’t exactly apparent, but trust wasn’t something I threw around casually. Hearing his sentiment made an impact though—a small one. The outer layer of my protective wall crumbled.

Adrian gave me the time I needed as my mind scrambled to decide my next move. I wanted to believe his heartfelt soliloquy. If I was going to be honest with myself, feelings had developed from my end as well. Adrian was a rock in my world that threatened to dissolve from uncertainty. Over the past few days, I pushed my nascent affections away because of Blake, because of a relationship that turned out to be a complete lie.

My heart gave in. I slowly rolled to face Adrian. “Promise me you’ll never hurt me again.”

“Now that’s the easiest promise I’ve ever had to make,” he responded, his face serious.

As I stared back at him, the edges of his lips curled into a soothing smile. Another layer of my defenses dissolved.

Reluctantly, I reached my hand out to touch his, yearning for the feel of his skin.

Without hesitation, he returned my sentiment.

We felt like a team again. Well, almost. It would take time until my faith was renewed in “us.” “So what are we going to do?”

“We need to get out of here, that’s for sure. How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Weak.”

“Is your head okay?”

My hand made a move toward the back of my head then stopped. I didn’t want to touch the bump again. The sting from before wasn’t so easily forgotten.

“It’ll be okay,” I said to not only reassure Adrian, but also myself.

“I was thinking,” he whispered. “Maybe we can use your water affinity to get out of here.”

My gazed rested on the bars, examining them. “Yeah?”

“Maybe your currents could move the bars apart. Just enough to squeeze through.”

“I can try.”

As I sat up, I tried to push aside the dizzy haze that clouded my head. Slowly, I positioned myself directly in front of the cell. A row of bars separated Adrian and me. The ones at the front of my cell were further apart than those between us. I targeted the front as the best spot to focus my energy.

Moving closer toward my point of attack, I mustered up as much mental strength as I could. I knew I’d need all I could summon to counteract the deficiency I felt inside.

Inside my head, I screamed.

Move god damn it.

Nothing happened.

The bars didn’t budge at all, not a single millimeter. My body was too battered from the scars left behind and the throbbing at the base of my neck. Each second of screaming caused my head to scream right back at me.

“Adrian, I can’t. It hurts too bad.”

“Okay, okay. Stop. It’s not worth hurting yourself.” His eyes dropped to his hands folded within his lap. “We’ll figure out something else.”

We sat there in silence for what seemed like forever. I tried to create options for an escape, but my mind offered nothing but blankness. No ideas crept into the folds of my brain.

Frustrated, I moved toward the bars again.

Adrian jolted, one hand pushing off the ground to jumpstart his body toward me. “What are you doing?”

“I want to try again.”

“Please don’t hurt yourself. We can think of something else.”

Determined, I focused on the bars, ignoring him.

“Anna—”

I waved my hand in his direction, cutting off the rest of my name.

Once more, my vision locked onto the bars. One by one my fingers made contact until I had a solid hold. Silently, I screamed for the bars to widen. The currents radiated straight from my palms into the cool metal.

I pictured Blake’s face, Blake’s betrayal, and yelled with every last ounce of strength I could muster. I pushed my limits so far that my vision blurred until shadows crept around the edges of my eyesight.

Only a pinhole of light escaped into my vision before I allowed my train of thought to drop.

Immediately, my body fell limp in the water, trying to recover. The beat of my heart matched the rise and fall of my chest. The throbbing sensation almost too much to bear, teetering my body on another round of unconsciousness. My body heaved like I swam a mile, but at the speed in which I’d perform a one hundred meter race.

Jumping forward, Adrian pressed himself against the bars that denied him access to me. His arms shot through the narrow spaces, his face helpless. “Annabelle! Are you okay?”

Then breaking his gaze from my face, his eyes went wide at the sight of the front of my cell. “You did it! Look, Belles, you did it.”

Even in my exhausted state, relief coursed through my veins. I had managed to create a hole big enough for my body to squeeze through.

Mustering up as much energy as I could, I ignored the primal need to recover from the use of my infinity. Instead, I dragged my body along the stone floor through the gap, and then used each vertical bar like a ladder to pull myself to the door of Adrian’s cell. We met there face-to-face, immediately grabbing hands.

“You don’t have enough strength to get me out too,” he started.

“I’m not going to leave you.”

“You have to.”

“Adrian, no. I would never do that. Leaving you is just…” I shook my head.  “What’s the point?”

“What do you mean?”

“I have no clue what flower is on the coins. I have no clue where we are. I have no clue where to go from here. I need you.” This last statement left me feeling exposed, especially since I didn’t think needing him for this mission was all I meant. My cheeks blushed.

“All right. There must be a key or something to unlock my cell.”

“I’ll find it then.”

As he closed his eyes, I knew he didn’t have another solution.

“Just be careful,” he said, his brown eyes opening to lock intently with mine.

I tried to infuse confidence in my voice. “I will.”

Really, I was so scared to do this without him.

CHAPTER THREE

I made up my mind to find the key. Problem was, I didn’t know where to look first.

In the movies, the key was always hid in plain sight. The kicker: it was always just out of reach. So the escapee would use his shoe or some article of clothing to knock the key closer. He’d struggle for a second or two, barely touching it with his fingertips. Then, magically, he’d be able to grab it.

That definitely wasn’t the case here. No key taunted me.

“Adrian,” I whispered. “Which way should I go?”

There were two empty cells in front of us. To our right and left, two heavy-looking doors blocked the way.

He pointed to his right. “When they brought us in, we came from that way.”

Nodding, I pulled my hands from his.

Suddenly, he yanked me close, pressing us both against the bars.

Then, he kissed me.

A spark escaped into my entire body and spread until every inch of me tingled. I even felt it in my toes.

The only bad part… his lips parted from mine after only a second.

As much as I wanted to protect myself, the last part of my wall of betrayal tumbled down with that first kiss. A heap of my resolve now littered the ground around me.

 “For good luck,” he added with a smirk.

I still felt the warmth of his lips as my face lingered between the two strips of the cold, steel bars. Shock from what just happened, and my heightened emotions, also lingered.

Regaining composure, I struggled to look to my left.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I promised.

“Okay. Remember: be careful. I’m pretty attached to you, Belles.”

“I will.”

Damn him. The wall was gone, so gone.

Looking back over my shoulder, I wanted one last look at his face before I headed to the door.

I prayed that it wouldn’t be locked. It’d be a surefire way to put an end to things, and quickly.

Fortunately, the door soundlessly slipped open.

Now, I’d never been in a dungeon before…

Imagine that

…So I didn’t know the typical layout of one of these things, but I pieced together that each section housed a quad of cells. As I inched forward, I entered into another group of four cells identical to the one I’d just left.

Quickly glancing to my left and right, all four were empty, and I released a sigh of relief.

Drawing attention to the fact that I roamed free was the last thing I needed. Another thing I recalled from films… prisoners never kept quiet when they saw an escapee.

I cautiously approached the next door, then slid through the sliver of space I wedged open.

Four more empty cells.

So far, so good.

My pace quickened to the door on the far side of the cellblock. After a slow tug, I instantly stopped.

There wasn’t another block of cells in front of me. Instead, a large open area created the shape of an empty foyer. The new surroundings triggered my heart rate to accelerate, pounding in my chest as I tried to figure out my next move.

Straight ahead, an opening to the next floor piqued my curiosity as to where it led. To my left and right, two more doors begged to be yanked open, revealing whatever was on the other side. I hated that Adrian wasn’t here with me, and not knowing which path to take.

When I first faced the dilemma to trust Adrian or not, I counted down from three, then made an instinctive decision. It was a method I’d have to implement again to determine my next course of action. Currently, I hovered outside the dungeon door helpless to be spotted by anyone who passed.

I took a deep breath.

Three, two, one.

Left.

Without hesitation I swam toward the awaiting door. As soon as I reached it, my hand surrounded the knob.

Locked.

So perhaps it wasn’t a fail proof technique.

But at least it eliminated one possible direction.

The other door forced me back toward the center of the room, pausing to make sure no one was coming down through the opening before I crossed beneath. When the coast was clear, I hurried to the other side.