"Julie," she heard behind her. She turned around and saw Luke standing there, and everything she had been feeling was set on fire like a lit match falling on gasoline.
"You!" she screamed walking over to the bars. "What the fuck, Luke!"
"Princess," he whispered, nervously looking around. "Please be quieter."
"Be quiet? You literally fucked me over, kidnapped me, and you want me to be quiet?" she screamed at him. She hated that her eyes started filling with tears and that her chest was tightening up. She took many deep breaths as tears slipped down her dry skin. "You betrayed me." She was quieter now, speaking as normally as she could between sobs. "I thought you were going to protect me. I thought you were just so secretive because your past was painful, but it was because you were planning on hurting me. Why did you have to pretend that you liked me, too?"
"Princess, please," Luke said. He couldn't look her in the eye, looking up at the roof.
"You guys should've just killed me," she told him. She put her head against the cells, crying. "You were supposed to protect me, Luke. You were supposed to." She heard metal clicking against each other, and saw Luke was unlocking her cell.
"Let's go," Luke said to her. Julie backed up away from him as the door opened.
"No," Julie told him, wiping her face with the back of her hand. Luke frowned motioning her with his hand, but Julie took another step back. "No. You're crazy if you think I'm going with you."
"I'm trying to get us out," Luke said, whispering. "Please. Trust me."
"I already did once and look where that got me," Julie said to him. "Fuck you. Leave me alone." He winced, but he just took a deep breath after.
"Come on, please," Luke begged her. "I will explain everything. I just need to get us out of here first."
"Explain now," she said.
"I don't have time right now. We need to leave now before they realize I lied to the guard," Luke said. Julie stood there for a moment, staring at his face. She was so hurt, and she felt like she was still on fire. It was an unwavering pain that she felt inside of her, a form of grief for Luke who wasn't dead, but no longer standing in front of her. "Please, Julie. I will tell you everything I swear. I didn't want to do this. I swear I didn't. I had to." Luke looked Julie in her eyes, and she wanted to call him a coward. But she didn't.
"Let's go then," she snapped at him. Luke sighed in relief and started unraveling rope that was on his side. He walked over to the window in the main cell area, and he tossed the rope out. She walked over as he tied at around a post in the cells. "What's this?"
"Remember I once told you they taught us how to scale building in the academy?" he asked her. She nodded. "Well, I'm going to have to do a refreshers course with you." Julie looked out the window and saw how high up they were. The castle lake was still surrounding them, but there was a small patch of land where the castle was.
"You're insane," Julie told him.
"I got you if anything," Luke told her.
"Well, you first," Julie said, standing away. Luke gave her a small smile, and she scowled. "Do not smile at me."
"Yes, ma'am," he said before starting to climb out.
"Do not call me ma'am, either" she yelled at him as he started making his way down. She watched him hold on to the rope as he kicked his way down the castle walls. She was going to die for sure, but that was Luke's problem.
When he got to the floor, he yelled directions at Julie that she partially ignored. She mimicked the way he climbed out and took a deep breath as her entire body was outside the castle, her bare feet planted against the stone. It hurt, but she had enough adrenaline for her entire reign now. She slowly made her way down, taking her time as she knew it would bother Luke who seemed angsty to leave.
When she got to the ground, Luke reached over to help her, but she pulled away. "Don't touch me," she told him. Luke backed up, and he seemed hurt. She was the one that was wounded, stabbed through the chest and ripped open. He had no excuse to mope.
"There's always some boats at this corner, let's go," he said to her as he rushed off towards the lake. Julie followed him, her feet sinking into the muddy grass. She was angry, so cold and miserable in pajamas. Luke was dressed in a Kingdom of Malachite uniform, and she wanted to spit on him.
They approached a small motorboat, and Luke got in. Julie got in after him, struggling but not getting his help. He turned on the engine, and they started leaving away from the large and gloomy castle. She wondered what his plan was. They only had so much time before they realized she was gone. She wondered if there was a plan at all.
She looked at Luke and realized he was staring at her.
"I'm sorry," he said to her. He looked down at his hands, ashamed. "So so sorry, Princess. I had to do it. Since I was fifteen, they've had me." Julie looked over the dark lake, away from him. The mist surrounding them was freezing, and she felt like she was going to catch a cold. A bird flew over them, and she sighed. She had to listen now.
"Explain more," she told him. She sounded bitter, but she needed it to be explained. She wanted the air to be cleared out, so she could fall into his arms. So he could promise her it'd be alright. Because that's what she wanted to do.
"My parents have been activists for years. It got bad a few years ago, and I started protesting with them, too. King Caleb had this ten year plan to get us to go to war against your kingdom and win land. And he was going to drag us all in with him. My mom was a main organizer and... I mean for a while it stopped. We didn't do anything. They had killed my friend Cassie and a few other kids. They only missed me because I went home." Cassie. The girl Luke had brought up a while ago. That's how she died. "And then the knights got worse. They killed my guitar teacher, Murray, for no reason, and we erupted. And they shut us down so fast. They kidnapped my parents and beat them half to death." Luke took a moment to settle his breathing, and Julie wanted to reach over and calm him down. She was frozen on her side of the boat as fog froze her cheeks.
"And that's how I met Bobby," Luke said. "He was already working in your kingdom I believe. He got me into the academy. I was always going to be your knight in case they lost the war. They want to use you as ransom."
"Ransom?" Julie rose an eyebrow. "Well, that's pathetic. I'd die for those people."
"I know that now," Luke said. "They don't."
"Why did you do it?"
"To keep my parents alive," Luke told her. It clicked now, and Julie felt the fire being put out. "They're still locked up. They've been locked up this entire time, and I don't get to have them back until King Caleb wins or he dies." Julie knew what it was like. To desperately want your parents back. She'd do anything. Anything at all. "I'm sorry, Julie," he mumbled again. "So so sorry. But it's your life over mine now. I swear I'm getting you back home," he said to her.
Julie frowned and started to cry again. Why did he make everything so hard? Why couldn't she have a break? Just once. Just one day she would like to not feel like she was being pulled at every limb at the same time. She couldn't keep falling apart like this. It was too much.
Julie and Luke didn't talk for the rest of the boat ride, and they pulled up to an island. It was still dark out, and very few apartment buildings at the beach front had their lights on. There were colorful yet worn down apartments that looked like they'd fall apart at any second.
"Where are we?" Julie asked Luke as they got out of the boat.
"My home," Luke said to her, inhaling the air. "My real home. Sacrament."
They walked through the quiet island, but Julie didn't feel scared. She often didn't with Luke and although she was still burnt out from looking at him, there was comfort in having him around again. His eyes wandered around every piece of the town they walked through, Julie realizing this was probably the first time in years he had been back.
"Nothing has changed," he muttered to her. "Things are just older." They got to a small apartment building, and they walked off the metal stairs that sent chills up Julie's spine. If Caleb didn't kill her, hyperthermia would. Luke picked up an empty plant pot by the door, and he took out a tin box. He got out a key and used it to open the apartment.
Julie walked in after him, and he looked around with the same wandering eyes. The furniture was covered in drapes, but it wasn't dusty or smelled like a storage unit. She assumed neighbors took care of it by the way a lively plant draped around the living room. Luke walked up to it and touched a leaf of it.
"We got this a week before we got sent away," Luke said. "She's big now." Something about Luke calling a plant a her made Julie's heart warm, but she was still bitter. Still throbbing with ache. Or maybe the throbbing was coming from her body as it started to unfreeze. Luke looked at her, and his mouth fell in an o.
"Let me get you warmer clothes," he said to her. It was a small apartment, and he walked into one of the three doors down their hallway. Their kitchen and living room were in one, and there was a very small dining table with a clay vase in the middle on top of the drape. Julie walked around and saw faded pictures on the wall where the window would let sun go through and hit.
A baby Luke with his mom. A toddler Luke with both of his parents fishing. Luke with a couple of friends in elementary school. Luke and his mom in a lot of photos alone. He was a mama's boy. She wondered how much there were alike. She saw a picture of Luke where he had to be around fourteen. He was tiny.
Luke came back out and handed Julie a hoodie and sweats and a pair of sandals. "They're clean, they just smell like wood."
"That's fine," Julie said to him. She walked into the restroom to change and saw it was also clean. Luke had gotten her some of his mom's clothes, and it fit perfect.
She walked back out and saw that Luke was now standing in another room, the lights on. She walked in and stood behind him in the small room. There was just a twin sized bed, a bedside drawer, and a closet. There were knick-knacks that seemed to be DIY projects shelved on the walls with a couple of books.
Luke turned off the light and looked up at the ceiling where he had the same glow in the dark stars Julie did.
"I can't believe they're still here," he whispered. And it hit Julie heart first. Luke was still a baby when they took him. He still had his stars up. His toys out. An open book on his bed. They took away his chance to age up in that bedroom. To grow out of the clothes in his closet.
And she broke down crying on his floor, Luke freaking out, not knowing whether to hold her or not, standing over her and looking around. Julie looked up at him as she cried and reached out her hand towards him.
Luke's face softened, and he sat next to her on the ground, holding her. She didn't realize how much she needed his touch. "I'm so sorry, Julie," he whispered into her ear.
"It's not your fault," Julie said to him as her tears wet his uniform. She ran her hands through his hair, and he squeezed her tighter. "You were just a kid. Just a baby."
Luke began crying with her.
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A/N: Hello everyone! It's been a few weeks, but I had to power through my JATP Big Bang fic which will be up July 14 hehe. I'll be back to updating this one without such long breaks.
I low-key made myself cry here with this ending scene man. I really missed this fic and y'all <3 I hope you enjoyed it and that it was worth the wait!!