Bring Me To Life (Book One Complete!)

Harriet

Companion Song:
YOUTH by Troye Sivan
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My youth, my youth is yours
Trippin' on skies, sippin' waterfalls
Runaway now and forevermore
A truth so loud you can't ignore
My youth, my youth, my youth
My youth is yours
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An invisible, strong push makes my body fly off Harriet. All the air in my lungs empties, and my head hurts from the crash. My vision gets blurry, and I expect the torturer to kill me, too.

But instead, I see a flash of dark green hair. I hear running and banging and a shout from the warlock. And then it's quiet.

When I can move my body again, I take a giant breath in before coughing and looking around. Kneeling next to Harriet is Akuma. The warlock is unconscious at the top of the stairs, and Harriet is alive!

"I had a feeling you were going to do something stupid, so I followed you," he says with a smile, "I'm sorry I waited so long to help. I just didn't have an opening until then."

I have no idea what's going on, but Akuma helps me up. Then we help Harriet up. She looks bad even though she says she's okay.

All three of us walk up the stairs slowly, still unsure if the man will wake up and hurt us again. We tiptoe around him and huddle around his head. Akuma puts a finger to his lips to make sure we stay quiet before pulling the hood back carefully.

His face is round and puffy like he stuffed too many walnuts in his mouth as a kid, and he has no eyebrows. The only hair on his head is the dark red buzzed mohawk that fades into his skull. The rest of him is just... normal.

So many ideas run in my head at the same time that I don't even know what to think. My mind just feels numb, and I'm more lost than ever. None of us recognize him. We've never even seen him before, or even anyone that looks familiar. He's unconscious, so I know it's not a spell disguising him. And his clothes don't seem enchanted. He's a complete stranger.

My mind reels because I have no idea how he even knows me and how he was able to send me messages to kill Harriet. I have no idea why he kidnapped Rex to torture him. None of it makes sense, but we don't have time for that right now.

Harriet and Akuma cover up his face again, and I'm glad because it was creeping me out. But the hood doesn't help as much as I thought it would. I just want to get out of there as soon as possible, so we get up and push the door open at the top of the stairs. I take a deep breath before walking through, and the smell of sweat floods my nose. Rex is slumped unconscious over in a chair under the light bulb that's swinging back and forth, just like my visions. And just like my visions, he's tied up in chains with bruises and streaks of blood all over him.

I rush over ignoring the pain in my ankle and start to pull at the links before Akuma or Harriet even get inside. By the time they make it next to him, I already have half of them off. And when I finish throwing the heavy black chains off of him, Akuma shows me a vial half filled with a cloudy black liquid.

"Aconite potion," Harriet says, "Whoever that guy is knows what he's doing."

I know from my Magical Remedies class that it stops thropes from transforming, but it also causes immense pain because it stifles the magic that makes them transform. My heart hurts for Rex and my eyes get cloudy with tears, but I don't let the emotions take over me this time.

I stomp my foot to fight back my nerves and pat his cheeks gently. They are clammy and cold, almost like a piece of raw meat. A shiver runs through my body, but I try again...

And this time, Rex wakes up!

His eyes open slowly and he smiles weakly, but he's alive and awake, and that's already more than I could have wished for. I smother him in a hug, being careful not to press too hard where he's bruised. But my tears don't have the same control. They drop all over him, scars and cuts and wounds, showering him in them. I hug him tighter and whisper, "You're alive. You're really alive," over and over again.