Weaving Destinies

I drifted slowly back into consciousness as I heard a faint sound.

“Is that… a bird?” I thought groggily. “I haven’t heard one since before Callagroth…” Images of Callagroth suddenly flashed before my eyes. I tried to open my eyes, but they seemed sealed shut.

“Don’t think you’ve managed to get away, Faith,” he hissed into my mind. “I’ve trained you well; you’re too valuable to release from my captivity. I’ll be waiting for you!”

With a small and muffled scream, I sat upright and opened my eyes. I was still in the meadow, Callagroth’s lair nowhere in sight. I sighed thankfully and looked around. Suddenly, I remembered what I was forgetting.

“Alec!” I yelled. My eyes darted around until I saw his body lying nearby. I tried to get up, but I was still exhausted from Callagroth’s endless torture. I crawled over to Alec and collapsed next to him.

“Alec? Alec, wake up!” I exclaimed, jabbing his shoulder with my finger. “Come on, open your eyes and talk to me!” Trails of blood decorate his torn clothing, leading from the jagged cuts on his arms and a particularly large wound right near his heart. I checked his wrist for a pulse; I couldn’t find one.

“Oh, please please please don’t leave me here alone on another planet where a supervillain is trying to do more than kill me!” I begged, shaking Alec’s shoulders. I pressed my head against his chest, listening for a heartbeat. A faint thud resounded in my ears. I breathed a silent prayer of thanks.

Suddenly, I felt an arm wrap around my back and hold me uncomfortably close to Alec. Looking up, I saw that Alec was awake and embracing me.

“I’m glad to see that you’re not dead, but don’t make me be the one to kill you!” I threatened, squirming and trying to pull away. He loosened his grasp and allowed me to scoot backwards.

“My beautiful Faith! My own darling! My dearest-” Alec began to say.

“Will you get to the point already?” I interrupted, irritated.

“I thought I would never see you again,” he said softly. “I have trained before in castles of illusions much like Callagroth’s, but I never imagined it would be this hard. If you can seek out the correct path, everything usually becomes clear. There were many monsters and such to fight off, but most were easy enough to destroy. Once after a particularly long battle with a water serpent, Callagroth himself appeared. He fought me until I was nearly dead and then began showing me the worst visions. You were on Earth again, and I… I had never seen you look so happy.” Alec’s eyes saddened.

“What did you see?” I asked quietly.

“You were dancing with another young man,” Alec answered, as if the words hurt him. “You have never looked at me the way you looked at him.”

I knew exactly what Callagroth had shown him. Lucas, along with being a talented actor, was also a fantastic dancer. He had entered numerous dance competitions with Sophie, but at Homecoming last year, he had saved a few dances for me.

“Really, I don’t know how to dance,” I insisted as he pulled me away from my date, fellow sophomore Isaiah Modesto.

“Just follow my lead,” Lucas smiled. We started with a basic stepping back and forth, and then Lucas signaling for me to spin. I spun once in one direction and twice in the other. He pulled me around in a complex looping pattern that landed me safely in his arms. I dropped to the floor as he held one of my hands and let me spin before pulling me back up. Everyone was watching.

“Did you see the new move I was trying earlier with Sophie?” Lucas asked, whispering in my ear and making me blush. We had all come in the same group, and Lucas had been teaching something to Sophie in the parking lot. She hadn’t wanted to try it at the actual dance.

I nodded, and Lucas stepped back. I took a deep breath and jumped, my knees landing on Lucas’s right thigh. Grasping me firmly around the waist, he pushed his right leg up slightly to provide momentum as he lifted me high into the air. I wrapped my left leg around his back and kept my right leg elegantly extended. For a split second, as I hung upside down across his chest, I saw Sophie across the room looking furious.

Lucas gave me a helpful push, and I slid up and across his shoulders, landing gracefully on the floor.

Everyone, including the teachers, applauded and cheered. Lucas dipped me low to the ground as the song ended. He brought me back up, and our faces were mere inches apart. I was breathing heavily and light-headed from all that spinning around. His dark brown eyes were searching my face. He looked like he wanted to kiss me, and I wanted him to kiss me. I started to lean forward, and while he didn’t mimic the movement, he tilted his head and closed his eyes.

“Lucas! You must be dying of thirst!” Sophie exclaimed loudly. We quickly stepped apart as Sophie shoved a plastic cup of pink punch into his hand.

“Sorry, Livvy. I didn’t get you one,” she said, her voice friendly although I knew she was not sorry.

“That’s okay. I’ll go get my own,” I smiled. I glanced quickly at Lucas, but Sophie had already grabbed his attention. I slipped into the crowd, where Madison swiftly detached herself from Johan to drag me to the girl’s bathroom for a serious talk.

Alec looked heartbroken. The idea that I had already fallen for someone else had apparently never occurred to him. It was hard to look at him. I traced the patches of dried blood on my arms, trying to keep from crying pathetically over Lucas. Maybe one day, I’d make it back to Earth. Maybe Lucas would miss me during my absence and finally put the past behind him.

“How did you get all of these?” Alec asked, sitting up and running his hand over my bruises and scars. Some of them were deeper than others, but most of them looked as if they had been made only yesterday.

“What has he been doing to you?” he asked in a quiet, horrified voice. I tried to smile at him, but the memories of the past few days were still too raw and painful to pretend they had been nothing.

“You seem physically and mentally drained! My love, what torture has Callagroth been putting you through?” he asked again.

“It’s nothing,” I forced myself to say.

“Please, Faith. I want you to tell me. Everything that happens to you is an utmost priority in my life. I love you more than I can say, and I cannot bear to see you hide your feelings from me!” he exclaimed, reaching to touch me again. I shrank out of his reach, frowning.

“Too good to be true,” I reminded myself. He didn’t really care about me. He was just playing with my heart. It was only a game to him, a game where the prize was his full, unrestrained power, a game where letting him win meant another heartbreak.

Alec sighed and looked down.

“At the end of my journey through the castle, I knew that I would have to face my greatest fear in order to be set free,” he said. “I did not think it would be as bad as it was, but in the end, it caused me to faint from such emotional stress. When I had reached the door leading to the exit, something showed me a vision.

“It was you, Faith. You were trapped in a cage in a dark room. You looked frozen and emotionless, but tears were falling from your eyes. You slowly died there, alone and in pain. I could not bear to see you this way. The worst of it is that I felt a truth in this vision. There is something that you are not telling me, something that is preventing you from trusting me entirely. There is something causing you great pain and suffering. You are trying to deal with it on your own, but if you do not tell anyone about it, you will die this way,” Alec said gravely.

“It’s not true!” I shouted, standing up with renewed energy from rage. “I don’t have to tell you anything!” I didn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust him. And most of all, I was afraid of what would happen if he found out. He would be just another Lucas, repulsed at my very existence.

“Perhaps not. But Faith, I want you to know that if you ever need to talk to someone, I will always be there for you. I promise to always be by your side,” Alec stood up and tried to reach for my hand. I roughly pulled away.

“I don’t need you by my side!” I yelled furiously. “I’m fine by myself! I don’t need anyone, and I certainly don’t need you!" I was trying hard to fight back tears, and I hated myself for that. I was so stupid and pathetic! I had no right to cry!

I angrily stormed away from him before hitting the invisible wall again. My screams of rage filled the air and sent flocks of bird flying away for miles.