We stared at each other for a whole minute without talking. He was trying to catch his breath while I was stunned, still not fully comprehending he was there in the flesh.

“…”

“…”

Reflexively, I took a step back.

“Wait!” he called, extending a hand towards me as if he wanted to reach out to me. I frowned, wondering for a moment if he really thought that was going to work before shaking my head.

“No.”

And that was all I said before I turned around and ran as if death itself was at my heels. Which, considering the current situation, wasn’t too much of a stretch.

Soon enough, I heard footsteps rapidly hurrying after me, but I had no courage to look behind me. With my luck, more likely than not I would trip on air and then everything would be over. I couldn’t allow that, not after everything I had to go through to escape. Not after the effort Adela and Lucas put in for me.

So I kept running without being conscious to where I was going. I kept hearing Mathias behind me; and that impulse me forward. Why was he so persistent? Couldn’t he just let me go? I got he was doing what he could in order to protect his brother, but I also wanted Lucas to live. Was there not a way for the two of us to survive this ordeal?

In that moment, I remembered what I was trying to do before encountering Mathias, and without thinking I slowed down.

What if I told him of the heroes coming? That someone else was in his way to the castle and there was no need for him to use me as a sacrifice in Lucas’ stead? Would he believe it? No, he had to. There was no other option for me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun him, not with him being much larger than me, and my body being so weak and fragile. I was already beginning to feel the breathlessness of effort, and that typical pain on the side that showed my lack of physical condition. I wanted to laugh outloud at my uselessness. In the end, it was reduced to this, no? Me trying to convince him to let me go. Again.

I halted completely and caught my breath. I decided. It was all or nothing. With one last breath I turned around…

But before I could I felt something bumping onto me and throwing me on the ground.

“Argh!”

“Damn!”

Mathias!

“What are you doing on top of me? Get off!”

“You’re the one who suddenly stopped running! I had no time to stop!”

The giant asshole was literally on me. Not in the romantic way, but crushing me like a rugby player with his complete weight on my back. I was suffocating!

“Just get off already! I can’t breathe!”

Finally, it seemed my yell reached him because he immediately fumbled and made to stand up. I sighed in relief, moving my arms to support my weight on my elbows… when he stopped.

“…”

“…”

“Mathias…”

“I’m not crushing you anymore.”

“...Let me go.”

“…No.”

This jerk!

“Mathias, listen to me" since he wasn't moving, I had no other option but try to convince him. But how to? "We can help Lucas together. Let’s call for help. There’s a mercenary group coming over here, if we catch with them we can tell them to come faster! I was just in my way to doing that and…!”

“Elaine… what are you talking about?” he interrupted, his voice suffused with bewilderment.

Ok, I got it. I was talking in a confusing way. What would Mathias know of the mercenary group the heroes belong to coming here? I needed to make my ideas clearer.

“I mean, maybe you don’t know this but I can predict the future, and… and I saw in a dream that a mercenary group will come and storm the castle sometime tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I know that if we catch with them, we can bring along a smaller group to get Lucas out of here, and then when the larger group comes there will be no longer need for a sacrifice because your father will be stopped! So…!”

He scoffed, now with his voice full of derision. “If you're going to lie, at the very least invent something that is credible.”

“It’s the truth!”

Damn this kid! You can believe in soul types and necromancers but not in precognition? What is wrong with you?!

I struggled, angry, but I felt his hand on my head, pressing my face to the ground. His knee was on my back, and with his strength alone it was impossible for me to get free. I struggled harder.

“Mathias! Please!”

“I…” he said nothing, and for the longest time the only thing I could hear was the sound of the night and my own struggling. After a moment, I stopped altogether. What was he doing? Why wasn’t he saying anything? I tried to look at him but as soon as I turned my head he pressed me down again, keeping me from doing even that little action.

“Ugh, what do you want?” I asked, annoyed. He doing nothing was making me more anxious than him trying to drag me back to his dark mansion.

“Don’t talk” he ordered, and I huffed.

“Or what, you will drag me back to your castle and use me as a sacrifice?” I mocked. He didn’t answer. “What? Not going to answer? I remember you had plenty of things to say back there in my room, and even on the balcony. Aren’t you going to justify your actions anymore?”

“I’m not… it’s because Lucas…” he stuttered all of a sudden. The mention of Lucas made my blood boil.

“Don’t use Lucas as an excuse! Are you telling me there’s really no other way?! Stop joking!”

“That’s not it… I… don’t want this either.”

“Liar! Why are you even still trying?! We both know you have no conscience and no goodness in you! You only care about yourself! So what if a small girl like me has to die for your brother? So what if that brother himself is trying to help me escape?! Do you even care what Lucas thinks?! You are a monster!”

“I’m not! I just want to… I just…!”

“Stop! I don’t care what you have to say!” I could feel tears of frustration gathering on my eyes. Damn it! Why was he still trying to defend his actions?! “I hate you! I hate you so much! I hope you die, no! I hope you suffer as much as you made my family suffer! I’m going to make sure to follow you in the afterlife! That you never forget what you did to me! You damn fuck-!”

“I’m sorry, alright! Is that what you wanted to hear?! I’m sorry!”

I stopped struggling as soon as I heard his voice. It sounded both desperate and defeated. Even though in my position I could not see his face, I still moved my head slightly to get even the faintest look at him. That’s when I felt a drop of something warm touching my cheek and sliding down my skin.

Was he… crying?

“Oh come ON! Stop kidding me!” I roared, struggling again. “Don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking dare act like the victim here! Why are you fucking crying? Are you sorry?! Then let me go! We can save Lucas together! Please… just… let me go!”

Fucking hell… he’s making me cry too!

“Save him how? Seeking help from people you think are coming over to do who knows what? How will that help?!” he yelled, and it was the first time I heard his voice so raw and full of emotion. But I didn’t care. Because he was determined to see me dead. “I tried everything… everything I could to prevent this… no matter what I did, how far I was willing to go… nothing ever worked! And then… then it turns out t-that… man always had the upper hand…” his forehead touched my back, and I felt him tremble as more tears fell on my clothes. “How was I supposed to know he held such a strong grasp on me? In the end, there was never another option. It’s your life or Lucas’. He’s the only thing worth anything in this world, and if that man touches him… if he touches him it’s the same as if he kills me…”

“…” why was he saying all of this? Why was he talking as if there really was no option? It made me uncomfortable the way he spoke and his choice of words. It wasn’t like last time, when he was so self-righteous and arrogant in his behavior. But still, it wasn’t… he couldn’t… “I’m… I’m not going to let you sacrifice me” was all I could say as my mind was still in a daze.

“I know” he said after a while, when he calmed down a little. Another moment of silence passed before he murmured; “I’m sorry.”

My body immediately tensed when he raised his upper body, changing his position so he was facing my feet, all the while not letting me go, just pressing my body harder against the ground. With my head now relatively free, I lifted it to see what he was doing.

“Wait” his knee was on my back, so I couldn’t move. His hands were immobilizing my left leg. “Wait, what are you doing?!” I asked desperately, my eyes round and my mouth open in disbelief.

“I'm… truly sorry” he murmured, and he meant it, but despite that, he didn’t stop what he was doing. I struggled again, but it was all in vain.

“Stop, please, don’t do it, don’t…! STOP!”

My pleas fell on deaf ears. A sickening crack resounded in the middle of the night, followed soon after by my blood-curdling scream.

 

End of Chapter 3.