Page 41 of The General's Captive
One he shared through our connection made.
Because I wasn’t the only one as the second this happened his eyes started to glow a bright white before, he staggered back letting me go. His shock freeing us both from whatever spell had been conjured between us. I landed hard on my ass as I watched him now looking down at his hand that had touched me as if I had left something behind.
I looked down at my wrists, watching as the glowing light in the flesh started to die down. My eyes snapping back to his and just as he started to reach for me once more I scrambled to my feet and started putting more space between us. His eyes hardened at the sight of me moving away from him before they then snapped to the gate and narrowed. This time glowing a demonic red, before the metal start to twist and break.
Which was when my senses came back to me and I turned and started running. The last thing I heard was whispered this time directly into my mind…
“Fly away Little Bird…”
“…For I will find you soon enough.”
The second I heard this whispered in my mind I looked back over my shoulder just as the General forced open the gates. He then stepped inside, his eyes homing in on me before I saw the white glow in them. After this my head whipped back to the enormous beasts standing in my way of escaping, but then as if it had been commanded by the General the mighty Gryphon rose taking flight in front of me.
I stood frozen in shock as I looked back to the man who had seemingly just helped me escape him, his tall figure now striding towards the floor where I had landed. I frowned before crying out in horror as my gaze snapped to the satchel at my side, feeling the usual weight of it gone.
My journal.
The journal I had forgotten to leave in my room meaning it must have fallen out when I fell, the very one he was now lowering a knee in order to pick it up. His creatures now all running in around him flooding into the base and soon attacking the others. The darker ones each falling before their deaths created a burst of darkness to float to the sky and disappear. Had I been in my right mind I would have asked myself why, but right in the moment the horror of what he now held had me gripped in his icy grasp.
So, with no other choice I ran through the base trying not to focus on all my dead comrades that scattered the ground. Trying not to look for faces I knew as my sole purpose was to escape this hell. Because had I looked I just knew my strength to continue would have crumbled. So, I ran. I ran as fast as I could hoping to find them still at the back of the building waiting for me.
Praying to find Riley on the other side of this madness.
But as the back gate came into view my heart started to sink at the sight of the dust on the road in the distance telling me all I needed to know. As the last of the vehicles drove out of sight I couldn’t help but cry out in a hopeless way.
They had all left me.
Part of me was glad, knowing that it meant those last few fighting would have survived and that Riley was them. The other part of me made me wonder if he thought I was dead and there had been no other choice. I hated how conflicted it made me feel, hated how I had no choice but to keep running for my life as the battle continued behind me. As forces I would have no hope to ever fight against now waged war among themselves.
So, I ran.
Even with the pain from my hard landing pulsing through my hip, I ran like the world was ending behind me. Or should I saylike my world was ending once again.
I didn’t have any weapons and the fear and confusion from what had just happened had made me run without thinking, doing so before the General could change his mind.
But why had he let me go? It didn’t make any sense because I knew he could have reached me. He could have had that Gryphon of his, the one with its golden fur and white feathers, swoop down and scoop me up and carry me off to his fortress or wherever he ruled over. He could have had me dropped at his feet and killed me instantly.
So why hadn’t he?
And why had he reacted that way to my scars?
The General who I had been fearing for so long, yet he had ended up saving some of us with his creatures giving the last few time to escape. Was it some sick game he was playing? Like releasing foxes into the wild and then letting his pack of monsters hunt us.
I didn’t understand it at all, but for now that was something I would have to put to the back of my mind as I figured out how I would get to the Train Yard alive. It was around five hours on foot and that wasn’t taking my injury into account and a limp that was getting worse.
It didn’t help that night was falling fast and with no light pollution making the sky glow from the town of Jerome, it meant that soon I wouldn’t be able to see my hand in front of my face. No, I needed to find somewhere to sleep until morning broke, I needed to hide because I knew that I had walked long enough already and anymore would be foolish. With still hours to go I needed to find somewhere before I lost all light.
But then my legs buckled and I fell to the hard floor, my knees jarring on the dirt road I was trying to follow. The adrenaline hit had left me long ago now leaving me feeling exhausted. As if him touching my scar had zapped me of all energy, taking away what he had given me for that short time.
I tried with all the strength I could muster to get back up and failed. Of course, I knew what I had to do. That I needed to continue to try and find shelter. That I didn’t have a chance in hell at surviving this if I continued wandering the dark in the middle of the road. I looked around me and tears pricked my eyes as fear welled up inside me. No chance at all, not in this vast open space as the monsters could get me from all sides.
My teeth ached from my clenched jaw, angry at myself for not taking in my surroundings as I fled. Then as I sat there on the cold dusty ground completely exposed to the horrors lurking in the darkness, I felt my mind go back there. Go back to the image of him picking up my journal, one that felt like the past three years of my life were now held within his grasp.
I felt exposed like never before.
Fuck but it even had pictures of him in it! I groaned as I hated the idea that he knew I had thought of him. That I hadremembered his face in so much detail. And it wasn’t like he wouldn’t know it was mine, as it had my fucking name in it for Christ’s sake!
Which was when it hit me…he had known my name.
