I woke to tears still running down my face. The men had left Brandon chained in the corner and were nowhere to be seen. I got up from my chair and wiped my face. I stared at my hand, which shook badly, as I finished. If this was what one session did to me, then what did the tons of sessions that Brandon took do to him?
I strode over to him quickly, kneeling in front of him, trying to get the blood away from his face.
"Oh, gods, Brandon. Talk to me, please."
His head rolled to the side and he began to mumble incoherently.
"Please Brandon, just wake up. Wake up and help us both."
I slammed a fist into the ground, tears rising from my eyes. "Brandon, please! I need you right now. Don't just doze off and leave me."
He continued his mindless mumbling. I felt the tears fall down my face as I pulled him into a hug, sobbing into his shoulder. My shirt was stained with his blood, but I didn't care. My friend was dying at the moment I needed him most.
"Ashley..."
I stiffened. "No, keep crying. They're watching us. Don't nod or speak or acknowledge me in any way. We need to do this quickly."
"Now, I'm going to droop into you. When you pull me off, try and get blood onto my wrists. After we get loose, remember this."
"There's two guards outside of the room on each side. There's also a spike trap on the third step out of the room. Turn right, left, go straight for two corridors, then right again and you'll find our stuff. There's three guards in there. Then, the exit should be outside a couple more corridors down. You'll find a grappling hook in my backpack. Use it to get out."
"This is all in case I can't make it and can't guide you. Don't let them get you, Ashley. I can't let you lose your life here. Drooping now." With that, he sagged into me, his arms crossing behind my neck, relaxed. Shakily, I wiped my shirt as if to clear it off and removed his arms from my neck, careful to smudge his wrists.
Just then, S entered the room, flanked by two guards. "What are you doing? Get up."
I stood up and he pointed to the chair. "Sit down. I'm afraid Brandon will have to take a punishment for this. I sat down to see Brandon's hands on the edge of the shackles holding him up. S drew his blade, eyes on me. "I can't believe you still won't listen."
He swung his blade only to find his sword gone. He turned and Brandon was gone. He grabbed my hand. "Come on, let us go." His eye was shining blue as he ran, wincing from multiple wounds.
"Stop, get them!" S turned to find two piles of dust on the floor. He turned to us, glaring. I yelped as Brandon pulled me and we began to run.
His memory was perfect. Immediately as he left, he was able to kill both monsters with one wide arc swing of the sword he had stolen. I took a sword from the body of one of them and followed after him.
We made it to the room with our bags without any problems. We grabbed our packs and headed out to the exit.
There was a helipad spot in the middle of the room with a giant opening on the top of the room. Brandon pulled out his grappling hook without hesitation and shot it. It snagged around a branch outside. Many guards turned and started to make their way towards us. He nodded to me.
"Come on, Ashley. Let's go."
I was about to grab his hand when a thought popped into my head. "That guy still has the horn."
"Come on, Ashley, just come. We need to go."
"We have to get it."
"We will find another way!"
"No! It's our quest!"
"Ashley! Come on!" At that moment, a thrown sword caught Brandon in the side. He yelled and pulled it out, stumbling a bit. His eye had turned to its regular shade of brown. I screamed in worry and ran to help him up. The moment I touched him, we suddenly shot up and fell into a patch of grass outside the city.
He grabbed my hand and started to lead us away from the pit. "Come on. We need to put some distance between us and them." He stumbled off into one direction and dragged me along with him.
Eventually, we found a small clearing that was pretty far from the base. Brandon stopped, took a deep breath, and fell onto his back, closing his eyes. I hurried over to his side and flinched.
I was finally able to see the gravity of his wound. It was a gash in his side, dripping blood all over the grass and already creating a gigantic puddle. I panicked and rummaged through my pack for medical supplies.
"Ugh." He tried to sit up, but ended up back on his back. "Looks like the end of the line."
"No, Brandon." i rushed over and tried to stop the bleeding. But, the blood just kept rushing out, staining my hands, the ground, and the bandages. "Come on, Brandon. Stay with me."
"It's up to you, then. Finish the quest. You can do it. I know it."
"No, Brandon. I can't do it without you. I need you to stay with me here, on Earth. You're not dying on me yet."
He smiled weakly, eyes still closed. "At least I got to save someone's life, one last time. I'm glad it was yours." With that, he lost consciousness.
