“Blaise?” a soft voice whispered stirring me. “Wake up”
I opened my eyes reluctantly and a harsh white light made them sting and tear up.
“Eurghh” I moaned as I tried to let my eyes adjust to the lighting. I turned my head slowly to see Amber perched on the metal bed I was lying on.
“Are you ok?” she asked whilst pouring a glass of water from the small metal bedside table. I struggled to sit up due to a sharp pain all over my body.
“Yeah I guess” I muttered solemnly.
“You had a lucky escape.” She smiled handing me the glass but I pushed it away.
“Where’s Ava? Is she ok? What’s happened?”
“Woah slow down. She’s just in the next cubicle” I suddenly noticed my surroundings. I was in a small room with a white curtain around it and the only furniture was the bed and metal table.
I jumped up despite the stabbing pain and ran as quick as I could, pulling my curtains then the next cubicles curtains apart. I gasped for breath and clutched my ribs when I got to her cubicle.
“Oh hi ugly” Ava said as she gingerly stood up from her bed but a huge grin spread across her face and I smiled back.
“Umm I don’t know what I look like but if it’s anywhere close to you, it’s appropriate.” I said as I looked her over.
She had scrapes along her cheek and a small lump on her forehead. Ava’s right arm was in a sling and her left was very bruised. Those were the only injuries I could see as she was wearing long, wide navy trousers and a white t-shirt but I was sure there were many more.
“Trust me. You look 100 times worse.” She stated and collapsed onto the bed with me sat on the end. “So I’ve heard rumours that you took on a Magician” she chuckled and her eyes glinted as they always did when she laughed.
“Well, yeah” I replied and barked a laugh as her mouth dropped.
“Really?” her voice was barely audible and I launched into telling her the whole story. When I finished she gave a low whistle.
“Enough about me. What happened to you?” I asked curiously.
“Ok, well you know when that light thing came through the floor?” I nodded. “Well Lake managed to grab me and do this hover thing whilst Lila opened this secret corridor thing. There was a lot of dust so the Magicians didn’t see us. So we got into this corridor and that’s when I realised you weren’t behind us. We couldn’t see you in the room below so we assumed you had found another way out but now I know you were under a pile of rubble.” I laughed which made my ribs ache. “Then we started running down the corridor” I interrupted then.
“What about your wrist?”
“I’m getting to it. So we were running down this corridor and suddenly the floor was destroyed again by a light thing and it came so out of the blue, we fell down the hole and that’s when I hurt my wrist.”
“Magicians?” I gasped.
“No, Marlon.” This time my mouth dropped. “Yes, he heard footsteps above him so thought it was Magicians and blew the floor up. He got quite a shock when Lake landed on him. So that’s how all this happened” she gestured to her injuries.
“What happened then with Marlon?” Ava’s eyes darkened angrily.
“Well I asked him if he’d seen you and he said no. I got worried then and said we had to find you and he said…” she trailed off.
“He said what?” I demanded.
“He said that we should just leave you. Said we had to save ourselves and not waste our lives on yours” Tears started to fill her eyes and my throat constricted to only make a small choking noise. “I tried to argue. I kicked and screamed at him but Lake pulled me away. Marlon wouldn’t listen, just turned away. Ignored me and then they locked me in a room. Then I was told they found you and…” she just gave a weak smile.
The curtain to Ava’s room suddenly opened and there stood Marlon. Blind rage filled me and I threw myself towards him. He stumbled then I slammed into an invisible shield. I hit against it but he just stood there, eyebrows raised in slight amusement.
“YOU WERE GOING TO LEAVE ME TO DIE!” I roared and hot, furious tears formed in my eyes.
“What is going on?” Amber shouted over my hissing and screaming. She gently pulled me away from the shield and turned me to face her. “What’s happened?” she asked calmly.
“He was going to leave me to die.” I snarled.
“Right. Yes he was. But he didn’t. He was convinced not to.” Her blue eyes bore into mine.
“Ava?”
“No.”
“Who then?” I asked, the fury starting to drain from me, although I started shaking because of the searing pain all over my body.
“Oran.”
