When Love Takes It's Toll:

Part thirty two:

WARNING; some readers may find a part of this chapter slightly distressing.... little talk of physical abuse, mental health and people under the influence of alcohol. It's not in detail but just incase....
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Time was running out. Alec and Isabelle were given time to rest... but it was time we didn't have. For all we know Kieran could be right on our heels and we will never see it coming when he catches up.

I had crushed the chips under my foot trying to make sure that they couldn't track us even to find the tunnel.

It had been about 15 minuets since I had taken the chips out and roughly stitched the cut back together with the use of the first aid kit.
"Guys..." both Isabelle, Alec and Simon glanced in my direction waiting for me to carry on, but they already knew what I was going to say.
They all stood up and Isabelle swung the ruck sack on to her back, whilst re adjusting herself to the patterns upon the map.

We continued on down the tunnel, flashlights in hand at a steady pace.
"Okay so we keep walking until we get to two turnings right? Did I say we take left or right?" Isabelle's face was puzzled as she turned the map according to the correct angle of direction.
"I'm sure you said a right turning ..." Simon spoke from behind Isabelle's shoulder.

"Ughh I can't remember!" Isabelle became slightly frustrated. After about 10 minutes we came to the two turnings, Isabelle still frantically looking at the map trying to refocus her memory.

"Let's just go right..." Isabelle still seemed unsure but we didn't have time to stop and think. So we took the risk. The tunnel continued to divulge itself into a dark oblivion, only where we were stood was dimly lit by our torches.

We were walking for some time until Alec became quite clearly agitated,
"Izzy this doesn't seem right... I think we took the wrong turning." Alec's hand was tightly gripped around mine, as he edged forward in order to be heard by Isabelle.

"Yeah.... I'm not sure eith-" Isabelle stopped where she stood, and we all fell silent, above us was a square hatch on the top left of the roof of the tunnel with a set of ladders set against the wall below it.

"This defiantly isn't the way.... but I do know where we are..." Isabelle stepped towards the ladder  and begun to climb it.

"Izzy what are you doing ?!?" Simon panicked, thinking she was completely crazy.
"Simon.... it's okay.... its my home." The was a type of relief on her face, I turned to look at Alec who was still gently leaning against me, his eyes a little red but a face of slight disgust.

"Alexander... it's okay, go." I pulled him off of my shoulder and kissed him gently on the cheek.
"No... I left that place for a reason and I'm staying true to it, I don't want to go back." He gazed up at Isabelle who seemed lightly disheartened.
"Wait Izzy, what if someone's up there?" Simon asked, frantically looking around the group.
"Trust me... no ones gonna be there." Alec mumbled under his breath.
To break the silence after I suggested that Simon went with Isabelle to quickly look around maybe get some more supplies and I would stay with Alexander in the tunnel. Simon agreed and followed Isabelle up the ladder and closed the square hatch behind  them.

I sat Alec down against the tunnel wall next to me, my hand around his shoulder as he leaned in against my chest.
"I've never told you about my parents Magnus... and it's not that I don't trust you because you know I do .... I guess I've never really told anyone ...." I could feel Alec's face becoming hot through my shirt.

"Alexander... you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." I tried to make sure he didn't feel pushed in anyway to explain himself.

"No... I want to, I feel like you need to know. When I was young I never got on with either of my parents. More so my dad, I caught him cheating on my mother. A women slightly younger than him, no doubt she was pretty but she was also his secretary. All the nights he said he had to work late.... well." He paused.

"Alexander, I'm so sorry-"
"Its fine, mum eventually found out and said she didn't want him to live with us anymore and if he didn't get his way... he'd take it out on my mum, sometimes she'd tell me she fell whilst cleaning, tripped over the wire of the hoover or something, I was young but I wasn't stupid."
"I remember Izzy being terrified all the time, every time dad came back home drunk even... I hate him, and I hate that house. Eventually the alcohol killed him, and mum was in such a state she got admitted to a mental unit in the hospital... that's why no one lives in that house, that's why I never want to go back. After both mum and dad were both out of the picture I was around 16 and izzy was around 13, that's when Kieran and his dad found us and took us in, we had no choice, we had no idea what we were getting involved in." Alec sat up and rested his head on the wall, his eyes red and puffy with small tears running down his face.

"Alec... I don't know what to say..." I placed my hand on top of his trying to ease it from trembling.

"I-I guess I never did either ..."
I pulled Alec into a tight embrace, his head buried into the curve of my neck, his tears slowly dripping onto my shirt.

"I love you Magnus..." he whispered under his breath.
"I love you more..." I replied.