Fairy Tail: Swallow the Fire

4. At Their Mercy

“Nothing,” William replied.

A tense silence passed through the air for several moments, and with each second that passed I prayed that he would just go away. But the sound of keys jingling and the door opening dispelled the little hope I had.

“What is that smell?”

Nausea washed over me when he stepped in, causing me to curse inwardly as I closed my eyes shut on instinct.

“Alright, why did one of you disrespect our hospitality and throw up all over the floor?” His voice dripped with sarcasm as he talked, which only served to make William mad.

“Does it matter who? Anyone would after having to taste that garbage!”

The familiar sound of the electricity magic sounded through the cell, as well as the sound of William’s grunts of pain. In the next instant, I could hear him dropping to the ground.

“Tsk, tsk. You’re supposed to treat your hosts with respect. Maybe you need to be treated to some disciplinary action to correct that behaviour.”

“L-Let me go, you asshole.”

Hearing the sound of clothes shuffling, I opened my eyes only for them to widen as I saw the guard dragging away a struggling William. When I saw this, I felt my heart drop.

They are going to torture him…for something I did…

I forced my body to move, weakly rolling onto my shoulder when I felt Bosco’s hands on my shoulder. With his help I was able to stand up, although I was still swaying in the knees.

“W-Wait,” my meak voice called out, “It…it wasn’t him…it wasn’t him!”

The guard and William both turned to look at me. William was shocked, and the guards face was unreadable under the mask. Stepping out of Bosco’s hold I held my legs, weak and wobbly from going weeks without eating food.

“It was me. I’m the one that vomited on the ground. Let him go, please. I’m the one you want.”

William was silently begging for me to shut up, but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t let him take responsibility for my actions. It was something the old matron had beaten into us, practically. To always take responsibility, no matter how serious the problem. Even if you lied at the start.

“Well what do you know,” the guard said with a smile on his face, “All of this started because you weren’t honest with me. You have good friends, little girl.”

Then, a sudden surge of pain penetrated every fibre of my being. I couldn’t even hold in a scream, as the spontaneous attack caused every vein in my body to feel alight in flame. I could hear someone screaming my name, but I couldn’t tell who…

When the pain my left my body I collapsed to the ground and could hear William yelling and fighting someone, as well as the guard calling for so something, but the ringing in my ears overpowered my senses. The familiar sensation of Bosco holding my face and trying to check up on me bought me back to the surface of the numbing fog. When I did, I noticed the two guards had dropped their swords and were pinning William to the ground. But more importantly…

The cell door was still unlocked.

Bursting forward with strength I didn’t know I had I ignored Bosco’s screaming and grabbed one of the swords from the ground and stabbed it through the unaware guard’s spine. The sound of Bosco’s yelling and the blood splattering the ground alerted the other guard. William used the distraction to break free from his grasp and hit him in the throat.

William grabbed the guard’s sword and readied himself as the commotion drew the attention of several guards. I moved to grab the staff they use to cast their magic but red energy came out of the cuffs around my wrists and started to drag me away.