T

     Eric was led down to the prison with Lucia behind him, lances pointed at their back to make sure they hurried up. The air got thicker and more moist until Eric found himself entering a dank dungeon with rough stone floors, iron bars set up like cubicle farms to give prisoners five square feet of floor space. Eric was prodded into one that he could barely fit through the door, while Lucia was almost tossed into the one directly across from his. The doors were shut and the keys were put into a guard's pocket, then the guards left them completely alone. Lucia was struggling to position herself in a sitting position with her hands tied around her back, but then she did, she noticed Eric was standing right in front of his door. 

     "Let me help you with that," he said, then summoned a single chain to his hand. It was long and thin, well enough that Eric could insert it into the lock and jiggle it around. The lock was immediately unlocked, and Eric swung the door open before doing the same to Lucia's door. Once he was inside, he untied her bindings and took her gag out. Immediately she reached up and hugged Eric as though he was her comforting teddy bear. "It's alright," said Eric slowly, "I promised I would protect you." 

     "Why didn't you just apologize?" cried Lucia, tears streaming down her face. 

     "I've done this before," said Eric soundly, "if I apologized to them, it would mean I had done something wrong. I didn't do anything wrong, so I didn't apologize. Besides, I'm not going to give you up just because some freaks want me to be the bad guy." 

     "You're so stubborn," cried Lucia, "couldn't you just do what they said?" 

     "Alright," said Eric, grasping Lucia's shoulders. "Lucia, I release you from your contract with me. You no longer hold any obligation towards my commands, you are free to go in any direction that you see fit. I will not stop you, I will not hold you back, I will only wish you luck." Once he said that, the black spiral on Lucia's chest disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place. She looked down her own armor with tears in her eyes, noticing that the mark was completely gone. 

     "Why didn't you do that earlier?" Lucia asked, her tears running in rivulets down her puffy cheeks and across her whiskers. 

     "I'm not one for following orders," said Eric with a cheeky grin. "I'll do it when I want to do it, or when you ask me to do it." 

     "We have to tell them that you freed me," said Lucia happily, "they won't be as mad if they know you're not a bad person!" 

     "Do what you will," said Eric sadly, going back into his cage and closing the door. The lock clicked with a mighty thunk, and Eric sat down on the floor against the cage, his back facing Lucia. 

     "What are you doing?" Lucia asked. 

     "I'm conserving energy," said Eric with a deep sigh. "I don't trust whatever food they bring, so I'll need to fast until the fight." 

     "But you just opened the door," said Lucia, "aren't you going to escape?" 

     "I'm just going to sit here," said Eric in a depressing tone. "You can leave, ya know? There's nothing stopping you." Lucia was quiet for a long time, unable to take this. "I'm sorry, by the way, if I ever hurt you too badly."

     "You didn't," said Lucia, wiping a tear away. 

     "That's good," said Eric, then the sound of footsteps echoed through the dungeon. Eric stayed turned away in the dim light as Emily entered the dungeon with Benny and Todd. They all wore full armor, which gleamed in the light of the torches as they approached Eric's cell. 

     "What the hell is wrong with you," Emily commanded. "Are you proud to be a rapist or something?" 

     "I didn't rape her," said Eric adamantly. 

     "Then why didn't you show up at the hearing?" Emily retorted. 

     "Actually," said Benny, "he didn't know about the grand jury. He thought this was an entirely monarchal system, so the king told him to leave and he did." 

     "How do you know?" Todd asked curiously. 

     "At the wave, he told me in the cave the king shouted at him, so he left without knowing there was a jury." 

     "But still, there was evidence," argued Emily. 

     "Actually," said Benny, as he thought about it, "the only evidence found was the bloody knife and Judy's torn clothes. There was no semen found at the scene, and none of the patrons reported hearing noises beforehand." 

     "Did it never occur to you," said Eric with bubbling anger, "for even a fraction of a second, that I might be TELLING THE TRUTH?!?" His shout echoed through the dungeons with a strong vibration, but he was still faced away from the others. The three heroes stood there, now looking at it from Eric's point-of-view where he hadn't done anything. Eric finally sighed after a long time, "It doesn't matter. It's going to be over tomorrow." 

     "Eric, if you're truly innocent," said Emily nervously, "then this duel is moot." 

     "Don't even start with me," said Eric with a depressing lack of enthusiasm. 

     "Eric, I'll stand on the side of justice," said Benny heroically, "but I need to know that you have justice on your side." 

     "This isn't a game, Benny," Eric said loudly. "You're not Robin Hood, this is real life! This is the way it's always been, change the setting all you want, people are people." 

     "Eric, you need to stop this," said Todd seriously, "Tyler really plans on killing you tomorrow."

     "Good," said Eric, finalizing his thoughts on the matter. 

     "You just plan to let him kill you," Emily said credulously. 

     "Who cares?" Eric asked the three heroes. "Nobody cares about me, nobody's ever cared about me. I don't want to here you guys talking about how life is precious when you don't care either way." 

     "I care about you," said a small voice from behind the heroes, and they turned to see Lucia cradled in her cage with the door wide open. 

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

     "No you don't," said Eric dismissively. "I know how it is, you want to run away when things get tough. You don't want to get hurt, just like everybody else in the world." 

     "I'm not running," shouted Lucia with tears in her eyes. "You saved me from the slaver, you saved me from the ruins, you saved me from my fears! I'm not afraid, Eric, I don't want to leave you! Please, I want to stay with you!" Her voice was cracking as it echoed through the empty dungeon, bounding repeatedly around as the heroes listened. 

     "Tell the truth, Lucia," said Eric in a low voice. With his back turned to the others, nobody could see him crying even as he kept his voice even. 

     "I love you, Eric," said Lucia in heartfelt emotion, coming out of her cell and putting her hands around his shoulders. She felt the wetness around his chin, then her small hands traced the tears up Eric's face. 

     "Just go," shouted Eric loudly, his tears driving his words, "I'm tired of all of this! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Eric shook Lucia's arms from his shoulders, then he crawled in a different part of his cage and sat there silently crying to himself. 

     "Come on," said Benny to Lucia, "he wants to be alone." Todd and Benny dragged Lucia away kicking and screaming out Eric's name repeatedly while he huddled in the corner of his cell. Her screams died out as Eric could only listen and wait for them to be gone, his heart in indescribable pain. 

     "Why don't you fight," said Emily, her voice like a rock thrown into a calm pond. 

     Eric was silent for a long time, then he said, "What was it like... in your old life?" 

     "I had everything," said Emily with a deep sigh. "Loving rich parents, good grades, top athlete getting ready for national tennis. It was disgusting, I felt like everything was handed to me. I never lifted a finger I didn't have to, even my future college was already paid for. I never took any of it for granted, I always showed my appreciation, but I felt like it was all too easy. There was no challenge to it all, so I rebelled in little ways that wouldn't affect my success." 

     "Like your purple hair?" guessed Eric. 

     "Yeah," said Emily with a smile, "like my purple hair. What about you?" 

     "The exact opposite," said Eric with his head between his knees. "My dad left when I was six, with a woman who I remember said she hated kids. My mom got abusive, but she never hit my little sister, it was always me. Then my mom left when I was ten, because my dad's debt had piled up and she was sick of it. I had to grow up real fast back then, trying to get jobs without telling anyone we were orphaned. I tried to drop out of school, but that got the police sent to my house. I was so afraid they'd find out we were alone, it was all I could do to lie to them. 

     "Everything that wasn't stolen was garbage, including our food. We were homeless for a while, until my sister got sick and wound up in a hospital. They billed our old house, then the hospital said they'd stop treatment if the bills didn't get paid. Then I got a sponsor for an underground fighting ring, she was a real classy lady, too. She payed the hospital bills, then gave me just enough food to survive to the next fight. The fights were brutal, but I got better and started winning. I saw my sister whenever I could, but then the sponsor got greedy. She was holding more and more money from me, but I was, like, fifteen, I couldn't do shit about it. 

     "Then my sister died, and I started losing again. I didn't see a point, so I tried to quit, but they just beat me up some more. I remember Genny going on and on about how much I owed her, but I really didn't care. I won and lost some, just based on how I was feeling about it. When I was eighteen, I ran away from the ring and tried slumming it. I did things I'm not proud of, least of all ate out of garbage cans. Some thugs would show up, trying to get me to join their gang, then I'd beat them up and run. Just before I got here, there was an army of dudes coming after me, and that's when I grabbed these chains and started fighting my way through it all." 

     Eric looked at his hand, picturing the blood stains that once soaked through his pores down into his bones. "I don't know if I killed anyone or not, I just thought of walking home. I was so out of it, I didn't even remember I had no home." Eric was silent for a while, then he said, "I didn't know what to expect when I got here, but something made me think everything would be different this time. Maybe there was a way I could forget my life and be who I wanted to be." Eric's voice was growing more and more insecure, until his final words were quavering with emotion, "I'm just so tired. I want it all to stop! Just stop it." 

     Emily had no response, nor possible answer for that. She still wasn't entirely sure she could trust Eric, but he was certainly acting like a broken man. There were too many doubts raised in her mind to keep quiet about this, so Emily decided she'd investigate for herself. 

     Right before she left, Emily heard Eric shout, "Wait.... I'd like a last request." There was a time when the echoes were all that could be heard, but then Eric requested, "Make sure they don't get to Lucia." Emily nodded her affirmation, then continued up the stairs like a woman on a mission. 

     When she reached the top of the stairs, she ran into a guard with a plate of food in his hands. Emily excused herself, then asked him if he had seen Lucia. He replied that he didn't, so Emily continued through the castle until she found Benny in the castle courtyard, staring up into the brilliantly lit sky. "Where is Lucia?" Emily asked, trying not to make it sound too demanding. 

     "She's with Tyler," said Benny simply enjoying the sheer number of stars. "He offered to take her around the castle, so we let him give her the tour."