The Lost

40- Help

He walked and I waited, though I wasn't really sure what for. Every nerve in my body seemed to twist and knot at the slightest twitch of his hand until I was paralysed. A shaking huddle. I hated my cowardice, but I was terrified to move. Unable to move. The one time I could remember seeing him close to angry was when I had tricked him into freeing Micah. Sure, he had been annoyed before that... like when you tried to escape that first night... I shivered. But annoyed wasn't angry. And what had been the result of before, when I freed Micah and ran away with Az? It made me go faint when I thought about it. The scar was still there.

"She was sweet," he said suddenly, making me jump out of my skin. "Lyn, wasn't it?"
Somehow, I twisted over my shoulder and looked up at his face. Lyn. I had the strength to pretend to be brave at the mention of that precious girl. My frown probably didn't look very convincing, because the human was smug. Taunting.
The snarl that followed that look was completely real, "Don't say her name. You have no right after what you did to her."
The giant person may as well have just laughed in my face rather than look at me with that detestable smile.
"Is that a threat?" He brushed some hair away from my eyes with one of the carving nails. When I didn't flinch, he raised his eyebrows, "Well. Look at you. Angry, are we?"
"Of course I am! You think that it's okay to treat a child like that?! She's done nothing to you!" Calm down. For your own good, calm down Azure.
But then the accursed creature went and smirked. He looked down at me with the most belittling little arch to his mouth, and such an unspeakable anger blinded me then like it never had before. He didn't feel any remorse for doing that to her. Did he not care how he had caused those hot tears, made her scream and tremble like a leaf in the wind— did he not care how she would have nightmares about this for years?! About him and how he had tormented her?! I already knew he didn't care. Not at all. He had no heart— just some bloodless cavern where compassion should be. So, very stupidly, I cursed at him.

The swear was hot in my throat, in my chest. It was that look that made me do it; the way he was gazing at me, amused by my real anger. It felt so good to curse at the beast, and so very wrong at the same time. But it was what Aspen would have done if he were here.
"That's a bad word." Sam said.
Aspen, Aspen, think of him. I stuck my head up like he always does, pressed my lips together and tried to replicate his glare. He had never seemed afraid of Sam. Well, not before being taken away. "You're awful," I scowled, then repeated the words again, "You're psychotic. And I hate you. Fuck yourself!" Swearing still didn't sound right when I did it. As much as I tried it still sounded so childish, ridiculous. The first time it had sounded angry at least, but now I was back to producing nothing but a wobbly, pitching shout.
He took a lengthy look at me and chuckled, "Look at this. Who do you remind me of..?"
My shoulders dropped a little, a crack in my stance, before bravery was completely gone and I had returned to keeping myself curled far away from the fingers. I stared at Sam with disbelief. He stared right back at me, quite content with doing so. There was this horrible sensation of having my emotions stripped bare... was it really that obvious? To him it probably was. Sam had been with Aspen for weeks; he knew him inside out. I realised with another dangerous surge of hate that Sam probably knew Aspen only ever swore when he was pushed to it...

He sighed and shook his head, "You and that boy, honestly. I think that you're obsessed with him..."
Sam looked over me for a moment, almost thoughtfully, which was followed by an entertained sort of smile. I scowled at him. Probably a mistake, not that I cared much in the moment.
A second later, my throat constricted when I was prodded into his tightly woven fingers, held in place. A gentle pressure glissaded along the area behind my ears.
The human purred, "He just adores you, Azure. I wonder, does he know you're out here all on your own?"
My feelings of despair worsened. This human truly did love splitting us up, didn't he? Intentionally or not, it was all he ever did. For the love of gods, what do I do? Trying to fight my way out of captor's grip was all I could come up with. But Sam's fingers pressed against my tensed arms and that was the end of that. I cast a dirty look over my shoulder but refused to move again.
"He's never very far away from you..." Sam murmured... and I caught the awful, sadistic smile flicker across his face.