Disclaimer: Physical violence, cursing, gore, & death.

As we grew closer to the alleyway I was thankful to Valenor that we didn’t run into any other knights or ValBots. Every now and then I had to stop to readjust Daphne otherwise she would slip. Marcelie still hadn’t said anything after she asked where we were going. I think she was in shock. 

The alleyway was in front of us now. I stopped before going in and I gently placed Daphne on the ground. I turned to Marcelie. “Marcelie.” Her brown eyes were glazed over and tears were streaming down her freckled face. She couldn’t hear me. 

I shook her by the shoulders. “Marcelie!” Still no acknowledgement that she heard me.

“Marcelie?” I whispered and put my hand on her cheek. I wiped stray tears away. I felt bad for what I was about to do but we were in a time crunch. 

I slapped her hard. The sound resonated off the buildings nearby and Marcelie’s head snapped to the side. My handprint was beginning to appear on her tan face. There was no reaction from her for a moment then more tears began to fall.

“F-Felix?” Marcelie sobbed out. She was looking at me.

I breathed out a sigh of relief. She was here again. “I’m right her-” Before I could finish speaking she slapped me. 

“Don’t hit me.” She sniffled and rubbed her face.

I chuckled a bit and gave her a tight embrace. “I need you to grab Daphne and follow behind me. We have to meet someone in that alleyway. If anything goes wrong I need you to run away with her and find somewhere safe. Don’t go back home.”

Her face was buried in my shoulder. I felt her nod her head. I heard her whisper out, “what about you?” 

“I’ll be right behind you guys. I promise.” I let go of her and willed myself to give her one of my signature grins to appear more confident then I felt. “Let’s go.”

I helped Marcelie put Daphne on her back. I looked towards the alleyway and prayed that Violetta would be there. If she wasn’t, I had no idea what to do next. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let harm befall Marcelie and Daphne again. I took a deep breath and entered the pathway. I dragged Marcelie in behind me.

A shadowy figure was standing in the middle of the alley. “Violetta?” I said hesitantly with hope. 

There was no answer but the figure began to walk closer. “Violetta?” I ask again. 

Again there was no answer. As the figure drew closer, I realized that this person was not Violetta. The shadow was too tall and too broad. I felt a shiver make its way up my back. 

I turned towards Marcelie, “run!” When I said this the figure began to charge towards us. I shoved Marcelie out of the opening to get her running and followed behind her.

I turned around to look at the man he was a few feet behind me. I noticed that ValBots were beginning to come out of hiding from behind trash bins. I kept running. Marcelie was about 10 feet ahead of me. Something hard hit me from behind suddenly. I landed with a thud on my face and I felt my nose snap. A metallic taste filled my mouth and then I felt a terrible ache. I screamed in pain.

“You damn rebels thinking you’re so smart!” The knight was on top of me. He had tackled me to the ground. “You killed my cousin in the capital. I’m going to fucking kill all of you trash. I can’t wait to hear more of your screams.” His gruff voice held a sense of insanity.

I felt him knot his hand in my hair. He lifted my head by my hair and slammed it down hard into the ground. He did it again and again. The third time I heard a sickening crack from my head before a searing pain made itself known. 

I gritted my teeth and refused to let him hear me scream in agony again. My ears were ringing. “I-is this all you can do?” I huffed out. I hope that this would be enough to buy Marcelie time to run away with Daphne. The ValBots couldn’t go far without their knight after all.

“You brat.” He turned me around so that I was now on my back. I groaned as my head was jostled. He was straddling me.

I gave him a glance over. He had a sharp long nose and rust colored hair. His beard was patchy and a shade darker than his hair on his head. He was pale like a ghost. I looked him in the eyes. Green eyes that seemed eerily familiar peered back into my dark iris.

“You’re really,” I swallowed thickly tasting blood in my mouth, “ugly, you know that?

That seemed to piss him off. He punched me in the nose.  I felt tears leak out of my eyes, but not a sound came out of my mouth. I didn’t care what he did to me as long as Marcelie and Daphne were safe.

He gripped my throat and squeezed a bit. His hands felt rough with callouses. “I’m going to kill you and then I’ll find those girls and kill them too.” He applied more pressure. Air was no longer reaching my lungs. I clawed his hands in hopes that I could get him to release.  This was going to be how I died. Black spots danced in my vision and my eyes felt heavy. The world was going silent to my eyes. I no longer heard the man speaking above me. I hoped that Marcelie and Daphne would forgive me. 

I closed my eyes in preparation to die. Suddenly the weight on me was lifted and I sucked in a breath of crisp air. I gasped and coughed trying to catch my breath. I peeled open my eyes to see what saved me and I saw that it was Marclie. She must’ve tackled the knight off me since she was currently wrestling with him on the ground. It seemed like a stalemate fight as they traded hit for hit. Neither gained the advantage on each other and they constantly rolled each other off of them. I glanced around hastily and noticed I didn't see Daphne sitting anywhere nearby. Marcelie must have set her down in a secluded area. 

I tried to get off the floor to help Marcelie, but as soon as I got to my knees a wave of nausea and vertigo had me tilting to the floor again. All I could do was watch as Marcelie and the knight fought. Eventually she landed a hard blow to his cheek and rolled them over so that she was on top of him. Her advantage didn’t last long as he grabbed her by her ponytail and slammed her down. He was on top now and he was holding her by her neck. I could hear her hoarsely cursing at him. He tightened his grip on her neck and the cursing stopped. She was clawing at his hold with one hand and trying to hit him with the other. He leaned back so that her punches were out of reach. His eyes were closed. 

Fear coursed through my veins. He was going to kill her. I needed to help her. I tried to stand again, but my knees buckled. Before I hit the ground again cold hands grabbed me on each of my arms and I was forced to my knees. I was in the grasp of ValBots. When did the knight have time to send his ValBots to me? At no point did he call them or gesture for them. 

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you boy.” Two ValBots seized Marcelie’s arms and the knight got off of her. The knight turned towards me. A dark bruise was beginning to form on his right cheek. 

“Since your friend here was so hellbent on saving you, I think it’s only fair she watches you die first.” He drew out his sword and approached me. 

I caught Marcelie’s eye. If I were going to die I wanted to see her one last time. She was family, a sister if I ever had any. Her face was bruised and cut up. Tears leaked down her face and she was trying to break free of the ValBots grip. She was trying to yell something at me but I couldn’t hear her as fear took my senses. The knight was in front of me. He raised his sword high, readying to swing it towards my neck. 

“My sword is quite dull, so this’ll take a few swings.” A grin was plastered on his ugly face as he spoke with amusement. 

He began to swing his sword back, but then stopped. He looked behind me. 

“Well look another-” An arrow was lodged into his throat before he could finish. Blood spurted from the wound.  He fell back with an awful gurgling noise and then stilled.

Both Marcelie and I fell to the ground when we were released from the ValBots grips. They seemed to shut down after their knight was killed. I didn’t understand what was happening. I looked behind me. There was a person in a dark cloak standing a little ways behind me. They pushed their hood down and a woman with short black hair and bright blue eyes was staring at me. 

“Felix I presume?” She said, still looking at me.