Forsaken Flame

Chapter 2: New Beginning

Shane ran down the halls of the compound, not caring about the fact that the guards kept yelling at him to stop. He got back to the living area he had been staying in with Susan.
        Bags were piled high, some piles reaching from the floor to the ceiling, Shane heard some kind of argument happening in the upstairs room. Shane crept up the stairs making sure to keep quiet, once he reached the landing he listened intently to understand what was being said.
        “I told you, I am not leaving now!” Susan’s voice rang out.
        A quieter voice then protruded, “Ma’am your father has called for me to bring you back, he said that two years was enough-” Susan cut the man off with a silent swear that came out plenty loud.
        A new voice came to life behind the door. “Susan, you need to go back, we still need to continue the tests on the boy and if you stay we have to halt all the research.” Shane started quaking at the those words.
        “Never! Never, never, never! I will not allow you to keep hurting Shane!” She yelled.
        “Please, if you don’t come back your father is going to send me away… and you know what happens when people are sent away, they never come back.” The original voice pleaded.
        “I will only return if I can take the boy with me!” Shane could hear Susan’s stomp through the door.
        “I will talk to your father about it but I doubt he will be willing to even hear you through.” The man marched through the door and ran into Shane. “Look what I found, a little rat.”
        “Go away now!” Susan’s voice rang from the room.
        “As you wish,” The man hissed.
        Shane went into the room, “Susan?”
        “I’m right here Shane,” She walked over to him and pulled him into a warm hug. The other man was still standing in the room staying silent. Shane eyed him after being released from Susan.
        “What were you talking about?” Shane asked in total sincerity.
        “Nothing much…” The man spoke up.
        “They are trying to force me to leave.” Susan butted in.
        Shane looked at the man and back at Susan and felt tears starting to make their way into his eyes. “Not you to.” Shane finally lost it and started bawling. Susan forgot for a minute that Shane was actually eight.
        “I wont leave you, and this man here is going to help me make sure of it, I don’t know what happened to you before I got here but I was pleased we bonded and I will make sure I take you home and raise you as a young boy of your age should be raised.” She rubbed Shane’s back softly until he stopped crying.
        “Uh... If I may say something..." Then man who was in the corner finally made a sound, Shane went instantly into defensive mode.
        "It's okay Shane." Susan looked back at the man, "Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"
        "Yes... hello Shane, I'm William, Susan's fiancé." The man walked over to Susan and Shane, Shane recoiled a little.
        "I want to take you home, to where I live so when we get married we can raise you and we will have a full family!" Susan seemed ecstatic but Shane was getting weird vibes from William.
        Shane looked up at Susan who was smiling and couldn't help but smile back. "I want a normal life."
        Shane could see Susan's smile fade away a little, after a couple of minutes of getting to meet William and talk to him a little Shane totally new that he would hate the man. A knock sounded on the door and Susan rushed to open it. The evil man was back, most likely one of the scientists that Shane hated.
        "Susan, your father said that he wants to speak with you right now, I am to watch the boy while you chat with him." The man smiled and Shane shivered he could see Susan recoil at the thought and he new that she wouldn't have it.
        "No, I will have my fiancé watch Shane!" Shane looked back at William who was grinning proudly but at the same time, his smile was chilling.
        “Please no, I would rather stay with the creepy man,” Shane pleaded.
        “Absolutely not, this is a way for William to prove capable father material.” Susan smiled a pity smile at Shane and left the room with the ratty man.
        “So Shane do you recognize me at all?” William was smiling.
        “Should I?” Shane replied with no interest at all.
        “Don’t you remember the day I took you from your mother and shot your father.” William smiled sadistically.
        “Your the one that did that!” Shane could feel himself getting mad and couldn’t push back the feelings at all, he started losing control and could feel the fire wanting to burst forth. “I will make you pay!” He could see a faint light coming from his markings but was to mad to be concerned.
        “Oh thats not the worst part, the worst part is that I’m the one that dragged you here.” William’s smile showed his true colors.
        Shane couldn’t control himself anymore and rushed at William and heard him gasp a little, Shane felt something cold hit him, he turned around and saw that the ratty man was holding a fire extinguisher.
        “Well, well, finally showing your powers.” The man smiled and looked at William smiling brightly, “Good work getting this brat to use his powers, I will put him in the room, just tell Susan that he went looking for her.” The man grabbed Shane’s arm and shoved him towards the door.
        “Wait how did you slip away from Susan, I can’t manage to escape her even for a moment, I need to learn the trick.” William pleaded.
        “Just tell her your going to the bathroom when she is in the middle of a serious conversation with her father.” The ratty man smiled and shoved Shane out the door, Shane couldn’t stop him or break away and was forced to follow him, but when Shane saw that they weren’t leaving the living space he grew confused.
        “Now, now, looks like Susan never even thought of bringing you down here, to your room.” He smiled widely.
        Shane saw a door and the ratty man used a keycard to open the door, Shane struggled harder after seeing what was inside. The ratty man dragged him in and shoved him on the small bed. After hooking Shane up to a couple of machines the man walked out and closed the door behind him, Shane could hear something being punched in from the other side and knew that the ratty man was entering a new passcode.
        The room was dark and Shane couldn’t see anything, the machines made it almost impossible to move from the small inflatable bed and he no longer had any strength left to use his voice, he started growing agitated but then as he laid in the dark he grew more frightened.
        At first Shane started to grow used to the dark knowing that at any moment Susan would come rushing through the door he used this method to push away his fear and trying to keep the truth at bay, but as time slowly moved on his small glimmer of hope and trust started to wain, Shane found it harder and harder to fight the sinking feeling that had swelled up in him, the fact that Susan was probably long gone and he was now at the mercy of the people who would torture him until his powers were fully understood.
        Every day in that horrid room Shane could feel his courage waver and his fear grow, every other day rat man and someone else would come in a examine him, Shane couldn’t hear or speak, nor could he protest to the tests they ran on him. He was barely able to make out shapes and only really saw their horrifying shadows on the wall, grew to recognize those shadows and fear their every return.
        About two months later the dark the door finally opened and Shane saw Susan rush in with William behind her looking ashamed and sad along with the ratty man who had his face was covered in blood. “Shane, Shane…” He felt Susan shaking him but couldn’t fully focus.
        “Like I said, we are keeping him sedated, he is in a dream-like state and can’t see, hear, or speak!” The ratty man screeched, just to flinch when Susan came a step closer to him.
        “Look Isaac right now you have one option, my father said I could take Shane back with me, so you can ignore the President and you hurry up bringing Shane out of this comma type state. Now!” Susan seemed mad and Shane hoped she would bash the ratty Isaac’s head in.
        “Susan…” Shane managed to mumble. He still had not strength to talk though. His fear of the dark now the strongest thing around him.
        “Shane, oh, I’m so sorry, it took me to long to figure out where they put you… I didn’t know that they did what they did… I will make it up to you though, we are going to leave this place, you are coming to live with me in my house.” Susan glared at William. “And we are so taking a break until Shane decides that he is willing to have you around William!”
        William flinched a little and Shane could feel himself wanting to smile but to afraid that the darkness would steal that from him, along with the rest of his soul.
        “Let me out…” He managed afraid that he was going to stay stuck there and no one was going to free him, only force him to undergo more horrific things.
        “Okay, hold on.” Susan got the two men to work setting Shane free, once he was free and finally able to move after all the time restrained; he ran out the door of the room and Susan followed him out, he went back to his favorite spot in the room, the couch. “Are you okay?”
        “What do you think?” Shane snapped still slightly frightened, “I was stuck in their for at least a month!” Shane shivered and curled into a ball facing away from Susan.
        Susan looked away, “Shane, I’m so sorry, if I had known…” Susan heard some sniffles coming from where Shane was. “Shane?” She sat down next to him and lifted him up against her. “I will never let anything like that happen again! I’m sorry, I was searching everywhere for you!”
        Shane curled into her and let loose the tears that had been holed up inside him since he was shut in that dark, horrid room, “I don’t want to be left alone again,” He cried a little more, “I don’t want you to leave me alone with them.”
        She smiled and held him as he cried, “I promise they will never again lock you away.”
        Isaac started moving away, slinking back into the shadows where he could escape attention. Susan looked at Isaac and shook her head no, he slowly came back, reappearing like he had never even tried to escape.
        “Susan, you should tell him about the room,” Isaac laughed, Susan shot him another glare, while he smirked at her.
        “What about the room?” Shane sniffled, “Did you know about it?”
        Susan frowned and kept her gaze from traveling to Shane, “I was supposed to make that your room while you were with me, but I never once thought of putting you in there!”
        Shane, “But I thought you looked everywhere, why didn’t you check there? You must of known it was a possibility.”
        “I just didn’t think that those two imbeciles would do something so terrible.” She watched Shane process the words carefully.
        “May I speak up?” William asked stretching his voice thin and almost unnoticeable.
        “No!” Susan yelled at William with a look of hatred and betrayal plain as day on her face, “By the way, the marriage is cancelled until you can repent for what you did to Shane!”
        “Fine then!” William turned to face Shane, “I’m sorry I followed Isaac’s advice, I thought it would be for the best, plus if Susan adopted you, I knew you would never learn to listen to me, or do as I say.” He looked at the ground, remorse plastered across his face, along with deception. Shane looked away and William frowned as his last hope faded. “Come on! What do I have to do to make you forgive me!”
        Shane looked back, his brow furrowed as he contemplated what to make William do. “Then you can let my parents go!”
        William looked at the boy astonished, “I can’t do that, I have no authority over them or the other Forsaken.”
        “But if they are free then they can go back to leading the others, I can’t stand to be here while they are locked away!” Shane was breathing hard, his argument growing thin and scarce.
        Susan sighed and hugged Shane to her, “I’m sorry, even my dad has no control over that, the first president, my grandfather was the one who put this into motion and only he could call it off. Sadly he is dead now.” Susan could feel Shane’s silent frustration.
        “But-” Shane looked at her and then at William.
        “But what child?” William barked, clearly annoyed and regretting his decisions.
        “I want them back!” Shane could feel his pent up frustration overflowing, “I never wanted this! You were the one that took me! I was living peacefully with my mom and dad and you ruined that!” Shane was in full blown screaming mode, tears washing away all of his hope and anger.
        William tensed up and suddenly became bright and cheerful. “Your parents aren’t around.”
        Shane looked at him confused, “What do you mean?”
        William sighed and looked to Susan for help, “They are dead.”
        “Wha-” Shane exploded with shouts and screams, “They can’t be! They can’t!”
        Susan started to tear up, “It’s true,” She reached out for Shane only to be shoved away.
        “Don’t touch me! Don’t come near me!” He left the silent room of remorseful adults, he ran through the halls, pushing his way through the crowded areas until he was outside. Shane’s breathing was hard and very labored, he didn’t care though, he sat and cried until he couldn’t breath.
        After a while Shane fell asleep, but it was more like a hazy fog that filled his depressed mind, he could feel someone lift him off the cold, frost heavy ground, and take him into the building. “Your okay now,” Shane could hear the dark foggy person say.
        “Who?” Shane said, his brain trying to wake up and get him to notice this man was not nice.
        “I’m your friend, I will not hurt you, for you are the prince, I have sworn to protect the prince, and that is you Shane.” The shadow person sped up, it seemed the building was growing farther while the hazy mountain that was seeming to grow closer. “I have been watching you, almost your whole life, I am a friend of your parents, I saw them get captured and I swore to rescue you. Today I’m making good on that promise.”
        Shane’s brain started processing more of the information, even though it was coming slowly, the person seemed to notice that Shane was becoming more awake and seemed mad at the fact. “Where are we going? I don’t know you, where is Susan.” Shane started struggling.
        “Stop now, calm down, you are safe, my name is Trent, I went in there to break you out!” The lines on the persons face cleared revealing a built up man. He stopped after getting close to the mountain base and put Shane down, “I am not here to hurt you, but if you don’t calm down I will have to drug you! You don’t want that do you!”
        “HELP!” Shane yelled, the man was slow to react but once he realized what was going on he moved his big hand over Shane’s mouth. An alarm sounded from the base, men in black started pouring out going in all directions, a small group of about seven started coming towards them.
        “You asked for this!” Trent said, he worked to quickly take out some medicine from his bag. “Swallow this now! You will only be paralyzed, I promise you will be fine.”
        He slowly lifted his hand and Shane took the chance to bite him, he moved his hand back in surprise but quickly threw the medicine he managed to keep a hold of into Shane’s mouth. Trent quickly put his hand over Shane’s mouth to keep him from spitting it out.
        Shane moved the medicine around his mouth and refused to swallow, Trent seeing this took a bottle of water and put a mouthful of water into Shane’s mouth covering it up again and plugging his noise. Shane struggled no longer able to breath, he swallowed the water and felt the effects of the medicine immediately, the drug soon made it impossible for Shane move even a muscle all he could do was watch.
        At some point the guards finally reached Trent and Shane. Shane was on the ground, Trent had wrapped blankets around him and started a fire to keep Shane warm.
        “What are you doing here!” A guard said.
        “I found Shane out here, I used to be one of the people responsible for his care, he had a fever and I thought transporting him back to the base would be too tricky, when I heard the alarms go off I started this fire so it would be easier for your group to find us.” Trent said, Shane knew he was lying through his teeth but it was impossible for him to tell anyone that.
        “We’ll stay with you out here until he is able to be transported back inside then.” Another guard said.
        “It’s fine, I am perfectly capable of watching this boy, I thought I saw a Forsaken with him earlier, before I reached him, you might want to check around. We might have a breach.”
        A guard lifted up his radio, “Yeah, we may have a code 192, a potential Forsaken may be loose inside the compound.”
        “Okay, all units check around. Did you find the boy John, the princess has been worrying her head off?” A faint voice said from the other side of the radio.
        “Yeah, he is outside, one of the doc’s found him, he seems to have a fever and is being kept stabilized out here, over.”
        “Please go ahead and search, I will keep watch over the boy, if any trouble comes near I will scream,” Trent was starting to convince the guards when the faint voice let out an alert.
        “The boy is being drugged, the Forsaken is most likely the man, what is his name?” The voice said, many cracks from the other side of the radio sounding on the other side.
        “My name is Johanson!” Trent said quickly, Shane saw the sweat dripping down Trent’s face and snickered on the inside at the dumb man, he obviously didn't know about the chip that had been inserted into Shane’s left arm.
        “Its Johanson,” The guard said into his radio. It only took a few seconds for the guards eyes to almost pop out and all of them to raise their guns at Trent. “Real name now!” The guards said.
        “Trent, temporary leader of the Forsaken group and infiltrated your base to get Shane the prince back to his people.” Trent said, a smile crept up his face and a second later a wall of flames was separating him from the guards. Shane struggled to break free of the drug, his system going into overdrive burning it away, when he could finally move he saw that the guards had immobilized Trent and were putting some kind of cuffs on him.
        “Are you okay?” A guard said moving over to where Shane was just pushing himself up, he seemed honestly concerned which made Shane feel bad that he knew the man was mostly likely not concerned with him but his own reputation as a guard.
        “You wouldn’t care,” Shane with the help of the guard gets off the cold ground and starts wobbling back to the place he was forced to live and get used to, never wanting to escape, because that was how they programmed him.
        When he finally reached the wide and tall building he entered and collapsed by the door, regretting not letting Trent take him away, he felt the fear of the whole day starting to tear him apart, he looked outside, at the dimming sky and the now fluffy pink clouds as the sun started to sink behind the now small mountain.
        Susan found around the time the sky had finally grown to a full black and was able to reveal the hidden stars that were never around during the day. Shane fell into her arms and fell asleep, tears finishing their  decent down his face as his mind relaxed and moved on to slumber.