Luke sat in his cell feeling defeated. He felt he was supposed to protect this group with his life, and now they were stuck in the jail of the Secret Woods.
They were in separate cells of course, so they had to press themselves against the bars to try to see each other.
“I’ve failed,” Luke said, shaking his head. “I feel responsible for you all, and now we’re stuck here. We could’ve let them take Richard then break him out of here. Now, we can’t even help ourselves.”
“No, it’s my fault,” Skylar protested, “I told Chris about my suspicions of Richard’s parentage, and that’s why they were going to take Richard away. I should’ve thought before saying anything.”
Richard was still silent, his face turned away from everyone. It was the most silent Richard had ever been during their trip, even when he was asleep because Luke recalled Richard would snore. A lot.
“Rich, you alright?” Peter asked Richard earnestly, looking at Richard’s huddled form.
“No,” they heard his quiet response, then he turned to them, his face tearstained. “No. I’m not alright. I just found out that my father killed the Skylar’s father! How can that be alright? I’ve been guilty about that incident for years, I don’t need everyone reminding me about it every 5 minutes!” Then he buried his head in his knees which were pulled close to his chest.
Helen looked at Luke, who was in a cell across from her. She gave him a look as if to say for Luke to comfort Richard.
Luke sighed, “Richard, you shouldn’t be guilty about something you didn’t do.” Luke sighed again, thinking about what he would say next. “I know that you all know that he was a general in the Great War. And you know that he…didn’t come back.
Before he left, I begged him to let me go with him. But I was too young. He said when I was older, I could use his sword.
For years, I’ve felt guilty about letting him go. I should’ve stopped him, been there with him when he was killed. But I couldn’t.
Then my mother, wouldn’t…she wouldn’t do anything. I didn’t know what to do, so I hunted. I was 8 years old. And I hunted for my family.
It felt like the right thing to do, but still, it didn’t seem like the right thing to do. I mean, I felt like I needed to do it. I needed to support them, to get them food. But at the same time, I felt like I was too young. Like I shouldn’t do this. I-I don’t know…” Luke trailed off.
Richard looked up now, looked at Luke with his dark eyes. Luke felt that they looked him in the soul. For so long had Luke hated those eyes, those eyes that pierced him like a knife with the blade of hatred and anger. Now they looked vulnerable and sad, like a dog that was begging for food.
Richard didn’t say anything, just stared at Luke.
Luke looked now over to Skylar’s cell, where she had brought her knees up to her chest and was just looking off into space. The pain from knowing who killed her father must have brought back the grief like when she first found out.
“Skye, are you alright?” Luke asked. Her eyes widened and she looked at Luke with anger and sadness. “Don’t call me that. Never call me that!” Her eyes flashed with anger, but then they filled with tears again, and she turned away, “I’m sorry, it just…brings back too much memories. ”
‘Great.’ Luke thought, he’d not only made Richard feel worse about himself, but now both Richard and Skylar were crying. Some leader he was.
But when he looked at Helen, she gave him a reassuring smile and Luke gave her a small smile back.
That was when Luke thought about Peter and Alice. They’d been silent this entire time, and Luke couldn’t see them from his vantage point. “Peter? Alice? How are you guys doing?”
“We’re fine,” he heard Peter explain, but he heard somebody panting or breathing hard.
“What’s going on?” Luke asked, now concerned. He pressed his face against the bars of his cell, trying to look out. Helen looked too and now gasped.
“What? What is it?”
Helen’s deep blue eyes looked into his and she said, “I think Alice isn’t doing so great. She’s breathing hard and shaking. She’s…she’s crying.”
“Ally, what’s wrong?” Luke asked, but got no answer.
“She was just fine, but now she’s… panicking,” Peter explained. That was when Luke realized what was going on. Alice was having something he’d seen his mother have only once before, a month after his father died.
Alice was having a panic attack.
“Alice, I need you to listen to me. Are you listening?” Luke needed Alice to calm down. She might make herself sick or even go into shock.
“She nodded,” Helen explained.
“Alice, I need you to take deep breaths, okay? Take a deep breath in…” he waited three seconds then said, “Take a deep breath out. Deep breath in…deep breath out. Now, I need you to count to 10 and if you still feel scared, take deep breaths again. Okay?”
Luke heard Alice taking deep breaths for 2 minutes, until she said in a shaky voice, “Th-thank you, Luke. I-I just remembered something, that’s all. A-a…flashback.”
A flashback? What could she possibly have had a flashback about to cause such a panic attack?
“Are you okay now? You can breathe properly?”
“Mm-hm,”
“Good. You had me worried there for a second, Ally.” Luke was really just glad that the panic attack was over. That reminded him of the time he found his mother on the kitchen floor, curled up in a ball and rocking while she cried and had those quick, panicked, breaths.
She later told him it was nothing, just stress, but Luke never really knew what had caused it. The one thing he did know was that it could not have been caused by just stress. His mother had been hysterical for 30 minutes straight, and no matter how much Luke talked to her, soothed her, she seemed like she was in a bad dream and couldn’t be woken up.
He had had an odd feeling when it happened, a small feeling in his gut that told him it was bad. Really bad. And now he felt that after Alice’s panic attack.
But before he could finish his thought, there was a loud boom outside, and they all felt the ground and prison shake. Alice screamed and Luke shot to his feet, holding on to the bars, but the shaking had already stopped.
“Is everyone alright?” Luke asked, trying to see everyone.
He didn’t get an answer, but Helen nodded for everyone.
Then he heard someone banging on the door that led out of the prison...
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