“What are you doing?” Elizabeth whispered as she watched me struggle even to get to my feet. I didn’t answer till I was on my feet, “It’s time.” That’s all I said and struggled to get out of the chains even know that was impossible, but it was to get attention.

I kept on until my wrists started to bleed and I pulled and tugged at the chains. Then before I knew it I was knocked against the wall, my wings squashed between concrete and my weight. I thought they actually broke, but I couldn’t check anyways. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and lifted me off the ground and pulled me towards him until I was two inches away from his face. Too close!

He spat, “Keep struggling, you die. Talk, you die. Anything you do, you die.”

I grinned and I never thought it was this easy to die and I spoke, “Is that all you got?”

In a flash, my face was face-planted to the wall. I tried to hold in my agony of pain that filled my body. “More?” I heard him ask and when I turned to face him that’s when the total pain came.

The barrow of his 9mm hand pistol smacked my jaw and there was more than agony in that. I heard a bone crushing crack that mostly I realized was my jaw broken into pieces. That’s when I fell to the ground and hit it with a big smack. I opened my eyes that closed in the mist of the fall and I was next to Elizabeth who looked at me with those hurtful eyes telling me, “Don’t do it.” I turned away and noticed a pool of blood forming from my jaw blood trickling from my mouth.

“Watch out!” Ridge yelled as I turned and looked and I saw the glimpse of the butt of the pistol before it smacked me on my cheek and nose hard. It came again, but more to my head and continued until I thought I was dead or at least almost there. He really hated me and I could tell when he kicked me in the ribs and mostly kicked me hard enough to fly and hit the wall with bone crushing pain in me. And there came the pistol again to my forehead missing my eyes by inches.

When I thought that it would get any worse it did. Someone yelled, “Stop!” I thought it was Elizabeth or Aimon or Ridge, but it was another terrorist coming to my bloody aide which I didn’t want that to happen! He pulled the other terrorist who was hitting me and started a whispering conversation while I looked at my injuries but happened to catch, “They’ll die, and just don’t worry.” I looked up and he gave me a grin that said, “It’s not over.”

I didn’t want this to end like this! I didn’t want them to kill Elizabeth and my children. The whole plan was to kill me!

I guess I do have a thing for Elizabeth if I didn’t want her to die, right? Well, no I still consider her as a friend and if I did love her then I wouldn’t want to die. My thoughts went everywhere and I started thinking do I really love her? I didn’t want to think about that while we were loaded onto the subway getting ready to do their plan. They forced me to sit down next to some old lady to try and make it look not so obvious that they were murders and terrorists. They did have guns and ski masks with them, but they were tucked in the back of their jeans. I was kind of glad there were no gun against my back and no chains!

After thoughts left me, I started a conversation with the old lady who actually knew a lot about flowers. I felt all eyes on me, burning my back and my chest, but I tried not to notice or actually be scared of what they might do to me afterwards especially if they caught me trying to tell her something. The whole plan was to get help and indeed I tried my way to get her attention.

I tapped her bag as she was looking in it for her mints and she looked down as I started doing sign language hopefully she understood well as I told her, “HELP! CALL 911! I AM GOING TO DIE!” She looked at me with a shocked face and I said for a cover up, “I know those flowers are crazy!” She didn’t seem to believe me at all and went back to her purse that’s when I tapped it again and she looked at my hands as I told her knowing she understood now, “The guy in the two seats ahead of us has a gun and is willing to shoot me once I get off! Call the police once I get off and tell them to go to the pipes under the…” I broke off as one of the terrorists grabbed me and pulled me up and pushed me forward to get off the subway.

I looked back towards the old lady who looked away from me. I tried to get her attention but was pushed off the subway with a crowd. That’s when all hope flushed from my skin and my blood turned cold. It was all over, no help was coming and we are all going to die.

God, I was going to smack those terrorists until they die! Why? Because I was kicked and pushed down three flight of stairs in the dark! Very hurtful especially when you just make it even closer to your death than ever. I really didn’t know if I had any broken bones, but maybe just bruises and cuts and a slight concussion. I got to my feet and before I could move an inch I was grabbed by the neck and there came that gun to the spine. “Keep moving!” They ordered and hit me against my back with the gun. I was about to fall over, but I kept my balance. I was blindly moving forward until the lights came on nice and bright and I looked back and there was a light switch right next to the stairs! I mean this is one the most stupid things ever and now I know why they chose to blow this up because it was so easy to get in and get out of! I mean I was expecting a door with a pad lock that they would have to break, but seriously there was a rope and a sign that said, “DO NOT ENTER.” Seriously, why don’t it just say, “TERRORISTS WELCOMED!” That’s why we need more smart people in this world. Elizabeth came up to my pace along with a gun to her back and we knew if we talked our insides would be blown out. So, instead of talking in any kind of voice I used our secret coding of the body. Meaning it’s like sign language, but you use your whole body and don’t use much movement. So, I started out with the shoulder roll towards her meaning “you”. Then I continued for she should know what it means, with the eye roll down up and then to the right meaning “are”. Third, I did the gesture when you are about to bow which meant “going”. Next, I did the easy peace sign that meant “to”. I was stopped when I was shoved in the spine with the gun again. That’s when I looked behind us and didn’t see the entrance and I knew I had to hurry it up. So, I made a risky decision on doing the rest in sign language “get out of here”. She looked at me in disbelief and asked back in sign language, “How?” I answered quickly back, “Trust me.” She turned away and did a slight nod and I knew she trusted me, but that message wasn’t going to be true.

“Here hand out more semtex!” The terrorists ordered and handed out big blocky bombs made of semtex. We had to run down the tunnel and set them up along the way. I went the farthest, sadly. I had to run and I was exhausted when I had to run mostly until were it ends and it took for hours. When I came back I saw the terrorists who looked worried racing the rest of the semtex to us and telling us to hurry. I thought police were coming, but to make matters worse Ridge dropped one of the bombs and didn’t explode yet but would explode any moment now.

“Tie him up!” The leader ordered and pointed to me and I about sprinted, but they grabbed me and slammed me to the ground and tied me to a line of pipes with rope and made sure it was tight. I saw them rushing-ly leave the rest of semtex bombs in a big pile next to me as they grabbed Elizabeth and my children. Elizabeth struggled and I saw pain in her eyes, she didn’t want to leave me. When she broke free she ran to me and our lips met in a kiss.

It lasted for a couple of seconds before she was grabbed and pulled away from me as I watched in horror. Elizabeth screamed my name as they dragged her and pulled her hair to try and apprehend her. Before they disappeared, I never thought I would ever say this and it was the hardest thing to say, “I love you!” I mostly yelled at the top of my lungs and that’s when Elizabeth stopped struggling and her eyes met mine and she mouthed, “I love you Dusk.”

I smiled and before I knew it they were gone before my eyes. I was hurt, I needed them. All the pain that I thought was from my injuries turned out to be from my heart and I knew right there and then I needed to get out of here.

I didn’t want to die anymore. I knew that if I died I would lose much more than if I lived. I was actually being wise today. I struggled with the rope, my heart was thumping as I always looked at the bombs next to me stacked and I started to go faster.

One of my hands popped out and I realized they were in a too much of a hurry worrying about dying then to actually tie it in a double knot and tie it tighter than it was! What a mistake that was to even use rope too! I broke my way out of the rope with a slightly rope burn. I knew I had to run faster than a cheetah to make it before the bombs exploded, but I was weak and I knew I should have never had the thought of dying or else it would have been an easy run instead of a limp/run. I felt death closing in and I knew I wasn’t going to make it at this moment, but kept on. Praying that I would make it before…

Bang!

Before my worst fears come true and now it did. The first bomb where the exit exploded and I heard a huge crack above me. I looked up as I saw it running across the ceiling and droplets of water spilled all over. I had no time to think, but run the other direction and thank god I did because when I looked back I saw a big wave of water rushing, splashing and spraying and mostly eating everything in its way.

I tried to run faster and I made it past the stack of bombs that I was by and kept running until the ceiling fell on me. I was swallowed by water and tackled by debris. I was underwater and I knew it, but I all I could see was darkness and that’s when I opened my eyes…

Water everywhere, I quickly had my mouth closed and held my breath as I stared around, the tunnel was completely gone. I knew I had to swim quickly before I run out of breath and I did so but I didn’t move. I look and I my shirt was caught under a piece of the ceiling and I tugged and tugged but it didn’t move. Panic surged in my blood and I knew I had to take off my shirt and in the mist of doing that it got snagged on my wing. I tugged and tugged, but didn’t know why it was not getting over my wing!

All the air that was in me, left and I was stuck, but I didn’t give up as my lungs ached for air. When I was doing so, I opened my mouth and water rushed in filling my lungs. I started choking and struggling in the water. That’s when my shirt ripped from under the piece of debris, but I knew it was too late. I was already gone and I knew it when everything stopped and I closed my eyes into darkness. I could only remember the feeling of the water pushing me until I knew I there wasn’t water anymore. I didn’t know what happened and I didn’t know anything. Everything went blank in me and I felt helpless until I heard a voice calling, “You weren’t suppose to die!”