Crimson Heart (III in the Metal Heart series)

Chapter 3

Duncan POV

We appeared to be in a small house or shack. It reminded me of the first shack I built with Lewis and Simon in the very beginning. Back before I ever met Kim, I don't know if I count those as good memories or not. Back then it was peaceful. There were rivalries, damage, and accidents, but nothing such as the mess we are caught up in now. But, then again, I had never met Kim, I never known what love was. Kim saved me from the steel cage that was my heart. The short period of time that we were together was the best time of mine. And yet, she was taken from me. But nothing, nothing will stop me from getting her back.

As I snapped out of my daydream, I noticed that everyone was huddled around something. "Rythian?" I ask softly, still unsure of the current situation. I finally realized what happened and ran over to Rythian's side. He was breathing softly and had a light pulse, but alive. "He's in a coma, induced by the loss of magic in his blood" I stated. "He will regenerate the magic, however, right now we need to find out where we are." 

I walked out of the shack where I found that we are completely surrounded by woods. I'm not sure if that's good or bad news. I pull out the holographic map, that automatically centers on my location. We weren't too far from the Chinese border. 

After a few minutes of studying the map, Lewis walked out of the shack. "Everyone alright?" I asked him. "Zoey' s really worried about Rythian, she says his heart rate has never been this slow," he sighed. An awkward silence fell upon us for a few minutes. I needed to tell him that we couldn't stay here, but I just couldn't. "We can't leave him, Duncan," he said, as if he was reading my mind. "Well we can't stay!" I yell."Duncan, we would have time to plan and we can't leave Rythian," Lewis reasoned. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY WILL DO TO HER! THEY'LL BEAT HER, BREAK HER, AND RAPE HER!" I screamed. "WOULD YOU PUT HANNAH THROUGH THAT!?""Well... no but it's .... different," he stutters. "IN WHAT WAY?" I yell. "Well, besides her being pregnant, I've... um, I've known her longer," he said. " WHAT!? ARE YOU SAYING I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH HER!?" I screamed at the top of my lungs. 

Lewis stood there speechless as I grabbed my things on stormed off. As I was getting farther and farther away he finally yelled, "Duncan! What are you doing!" "Well obviously no one else will help me so I'm going on my own!" I yelled back whilst stopping. "You know you can't take on all of Asia on your own!" He yelled. "For her, I could do anything!" I retorted. "Duncan, if you can wait-" "No! We can't wait for him to awaken!" I cut him off. "You didn't let me finish, if you can wait, we can work it out so some will stay here and some will go," Lewis reasoned. I turned to face him, this seemed like a perfectly good compromise, yet it still seemed to be flawed. After a period of silence, I gave my answer, "Fine."

I wanted to just take off, but I couldn't. I forced myself to walk back to the shack. When I passed Lewis, he said to me, "Duncan, I know that you love her, we ALL do, and she would wouldn't want you to die because you were alone." "Who says that I would die?" I asked. "I promised myself that I would get you to Kim in one piece, I'm not taking any chances."

We made it back to the shack and explained the situation to everyone. Zoey was the first to volunteer to stay back. "Duncan, I want to get Kim back, but I NEED to stay here with him," she said. Hannah was then told by Lewis to stay back. "I can't have you going out there, plus, I'm sure Zoey could use more support," he said. "Teep should up and walked over to Zoey where he sat back down. "I guess that means that he's staying too," Martyn stated.

At that minute we heard a strange noise, like someone teleported. We all looked over at Rythian, but he was still in the same place. Outside the shack, we heard footsteps."Martyn, how many are there?" Lewis whispered. Martyn closed his eyes and listened, "Only a couple," he whispered back. "There are no magical people in Asia, they can't teleport," Lewis said. "Something's not right," Simon stated.

Lewis, Simon, Martyn, and I all barged out of the door. I was expecting to see two scouts, but what I saw was worse. Standing there was Ridgedog. Standing next to him was somebody I hoped that I would never see again. Somebody that I wanted to rot in the cell that he was thrown into. Standing next to Ridgedog was Sjin.

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A/N Hi guys,I bet you thought that I would just abandon this story. Nope, it's been a long while and I know that I said that this would be a long chapter but I had to cut part of it and paste it onto the next.chapter because I had to make sure that you guys didn't think I left this story. So... some stuff has happened to me these past few months. So first off, the Soccer season ended so, I'll have a lot more time on my hands. A few days after the season ended, I was in a car wreck, I'm fine now but it wasn't fun.School has also ended, so even more time. But yeah, the important thing is that I'm back writing again and will have the next chapter out shortly. Bye!