Scarred**ON HOLD**

Chapter Two

Tanner’s POV:

I strained to hear anything outside the room I was confided within.  At one point I tried melting the metal door that Damien had taken Jennifer out of, it didn’t do any good.  “Jennifer!” I called again desperately, but received no response other than the deafening silence that surrounded me.  There was nothing I could do.  She was gone.  It was up to the rest of our troop to discover us now.

I struck the door, then slid to the ground almost immediately.  Why?  I thought, why her?  Why didn’t he take me?  Of course I already knew the answer to this question, Damien did too, but Jen...she doesn’t even fully know who she is.  And I prayed to God that she’d figure it out before he killed her for it.

The metal door began to swing open, I sprung to my feet, ready to attack whoever it was on the other side.  I didn’t get a chance to though.  The dark, cloaked figure before me simply stood there, immobilizing me with his mind alone.  Completely paralyzed, I felt like ice crystals were beginning to form in my veins in place of the hot coursing blood.  At this point I couldn’t tell if he was rendering me motionless, or if the pain from the chill was so unbearable that I couldn’t move.  Either way, the only thing I could think about, was wether or not Jennifer was ok.

Suddenly my legs were moving, steadily, one after another.  I was following the cloaked man against my will.  My lungs were constricting from the frost that covered them, making it increasingly difficult to breathe.  I desperately tried to stop myself from moving as we began our descent down a long, dark, narrow hallway.

Then we came to a stop at an emerald green door, with the numbers 32 imprinted on it in gold.  It opened slowly, with out anyone having to touch it.  I was now moved forward, into the bare room, and forced to my knees.

Jennifer’s POV:

He had resulted to hitting me now instead of using his power, apparently he found it to be more amusing for his fist to physically make contact with my face time and time again.  Striking me again, I saw blood start to drip from his hand.  My blood.  A metallic, battery-acid like taste filled my mouth and I sputtered, trying to spit it out before I swallowed it.  He grinned, chuckled.

“Had enough yet?” I didn’t respond, simply looked at his over-the-top fancy patent leather shoes, and spit even more blood directly on them.  He didn’t take that too well.  Grabbing a fistful of my hair, he yanked my head back and forced me to look at him.  “I’ve had enough,” he turned his head slightly to the right of his shoulder, towards the door, “bring him in.”

The door creaked open slowly.  I saw Tanner enter the room, and saw him be forced to the ground by an invisible force.  Not this, not again.  I couldn’t watch Tanner go through the same pain as he did earlier.  Damien saw the frightened expression on my face, and was delighted by it.

Taking his time, Damien made his way to stand next to Tanner.  The door swung closed, and three of us were left alone in the barren room.  He lifted his hand, as if he was going to hurt Tanner again, and I screamed;

“Wait!”

He waited.  His long, slender fingers poised perfectly in mid-air as a smile crept to his face.  “Wait” I said, quieter this time.  Tanner was looking at me now, confusion evident in his eyes, I focused my attention on Damien now though.  “The dust,” I said, my voice cracking in numerous places, “it can do anything you want or need it to do.  But its effects only last for forty-eight hours.”  He looked pleased with my answer, and began to advance upon the leather sack in front of me that held such precious dust.  “But there’s a catch.”

He stopped himself, and turned to look at me, annoyance practically radiating from his body.  Flicking strands of bloodied hair from my face now, I soaked up how good it felt to be in control of him now.  “The dust only works after saying a spell from the Book of the Scarred.”  He froze in his tracks now, his expression turning dark, storm clouds forming in his eyes.