Here's a Looooong One...

1/28/10


Prompt: “’I’m sorry,’ she whispered, but it wasn’t enough…” (NaNo)

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, but it wasn’t enough. She knew it wasn’t, yet she had no choice but to walk away, her hand slowly trailing off his cheek. She turned before he could see the tears trickle down her face, and her heart silently shattered as she felt the betrayal screaming through his mind. Damn her for being psychic. She didn’t need his pain added to hers, she didn’t need to feel the rage, the hatred screaming through his mind. He hated her now, she knew it, she could feel it, and there was nothing she could do about it. He wouldn’t believe that she loved him, wouldn’t believe that she was trying as hard as she could to save his life, all he believed was what he saw—his lover walking towards his worst enemy.

It took her days to finally set the wheels in motion, days of unbearable agony. She knew that somewhere, hidden from would-be rescuers, her love was being tortured. She only hoped that he would forgive her. That was the only thing that kept her going through the pain—he was still alive. They wouldn’t break him, they couldn’t, he was too strong, and he just had to hang on until she could get them both out of this mess…alive. But he didn’t know that. He thought she was the betrayer, but he was wrong. She had been betrayed in this just as much as he had, only she at least knew who the betrayer was. She couldn’t prove it, but she knew. And that made the pain even worse.

It was hard to imagine one’s one brother, one’s twin, being responsible for such horror, but it was true. Her brother, her only family, had sold her and her lover to the enemy for mere profit. She supposed that the combined price tag was what swayed him, and he’d always been a greedy bastard, but she’d loved him, felt a sisterly connection to him, but that was long gone now. Now, she just had to bide her time until the last gear started turning.

It was eleven days, twenty-two hours, and fifty-seven minutes since he’d been betrayed. He’d endured countless agonies, but one thing had kept him going. Revenge. He would get revenge on the ones who’d done this to him, but mostly he would get revenge on her. How dare she! She’d pretended to love him, and like a moonstruck fool, he’d believed her, but when he’d been arrested, she hadn’t even been able to summon up a single tear. She’d just said “I’m sorry,” and that was all the confession he needed. Damn her! Damn her to hell.

The cell door opened, and he clenched his teeth, waiting for the first blow. It never came. Instead, the guard toppled over, a silver dagger sticking out of his back. Then she walked in. He scowled, about to hurl a curse at her, when he saw the tears streaming down her face. She moved towards him, her hands held out, reaching to cup his face.

“What have they done to you?” she breathed. He pulled away, pressing back against the wall.

“Why should you care?” he managed to bite out, his throat dry and aching.

More tears came, but she remained surprisingly task-oriented. “I care because I love you,” she said softly, reaching up to unlock the manacles that held him pinned to the wall. “I’ll always love you.”

He snorted angrily. “You have a fine way of showing it,” he snarled.

She froze. She’d known all along that he blamed her, but somehow, hearing it from him made the pain all the greater. She shook it off, focusing on the task at hand.

“I need to get you out of here before they find out the guard’s missing.”

“Why?” he asked harshly. “So they can capture me for trying to escape?”

This time, she stepped away. Glaring at him through the tears, she hissed her reply. “Do you think if I’d put you here, I’d be risking my life to get you out? Do you honestly think I could have ordered this?” She gestured to the filthy cell, to the raw wounds on his body. “I love you, dammit, now let me help you!”

He remained unmoved. “If you loved me, why did you let them do this?”

“Damn you!” she hissed. “Why are you making this so difficult! If I’d tried to stop them, you would be dead now, and I’d have a lot worse then scars on my back. It killed me, waiting for this moment. Killed me. I can feel everything you thought, every blow they struck. Do you think I would have put us through that on purpose?”

Turning around, she yanked her shirt over her head, exposing a network of barely healed scars crisscrossing her back. “I paid for it. I paid for trying to keep us alive. Not as much as you, and believe me, I would have gone through it for you if I could.”

She tugged the shirt back on and resumed unlocking the shackles. She had to catch him as he slid down the wall, unused to putting weight on his battered legs. She eased him out of the cell and down the hall. Glancing around, she slipped through a door, tugging him along behind her. A sudden explosion rocked the complex, and she urged him to move faster.

Finally, they were outside. Confusion and panic reigned as people milled about, trying furiously to put out a steadily growing fire on the opposite side of the lot. Moving quickly, she pulled him into an ambulance that swiftly pulled away and out of the complex, sirens wailing.

Seconds stretched by and she closed her eyes tight, praying that they wouldn’t be stopped. Finally, the sirens stopped, and the ambulance slowed.

She took a breath of relief, but still remained on edge. So was he. On edge, and still looking angry.

“So,” he asked, his tone slightly less vicious than the previous snarl. “If it wasn’t you, who was it?”

She winced at his condemnation. “It was my brother. Apparently we made him a billionaire.” The stream of curses that emanated from him was rather astonishing, and she winced again. “I second that.”

They sat in relative silence for some time, before the ambulance finally stopped. She moved the curtain and peeked out of the window, taking in their surroundings. With a sigh of utter relief, she sat back in her seat.

“We made it,” she breathed.

He still looked at her warily. “Made it where?”

She smiled, exhausted. “Out. We’re on our way home, love, we’re going home.”

Total Time: 25 minutes
Word Count: 1112