FC (Original)

I’ll help you , Kaiden had remembered the look on Ulyssa’s face. Pain, sadness and anguish pasted onto her face. It had been a few days since he last saw Ulyssa and here she is again at the threshold of his oak door, smiling as if she’d not remember anything that had happened a few days ago.

“Hey Kaiden!” Ulyssa said in a cheerily tone as she entered past the door which was hanging on it’s hinges.

“Hey…” Kaiden answered back warily, did she really not remember?

“Why did you come here again?” He asked Ulyssa a bit confused at her cheerily attitude.

“I um...I came her-I came because I needed to tell you something.” Something had changed Ulyssa’s mood like a switch, he could tell that it was important.

“Look… I really want to save you but I can’t. Kaiden, Quarter will kill you, he will soon... but I can’t let you die. Listen to me, you need to talk to the warlock, please...” Quarter was going to kill him? He knew it, that bastard. 

“Wait...talk to the what?” Kaiden was clueless.

“The warlock, please talk to her.” Ulyssa sighed in mock distress.

“Okay.so...when are we gonna do this?” Kaiden tried to continue the subject only receive a pathetic look from the rider.

“Okay! So what now?” Kaiden rambled on.

“We’re going to sneak out and speak to the warlock tonight, meet me near the paddock” Ulyssa said in a serious tone.

“Okay.”

---

Kaiden walked out of his cabin confused and lost in deep thought, he had seen that warlock before, but where? That was when he saw Quarter in the corner of his eye shouting at a... cage? Wait no, that was when he realized that Quarter was pacing toward him with a maniacal grin, he heard someone scream his name just as he realized what fate had prepared for him death.

Before he knew it he was already pinned onto the rocky ground by Quarter who had a dagger in his right hand which was pressed at the nape of Kaiden’s neck. Wincing as he felt the blade cut into his flesh.

“Any last words outsider?” Quarter said his voice quavering with madness just as blue flames engulfed his blade, he threw it away with a painful scowl.

Blue flames, it reminded him of something but what? It was when he looked to his right to see that the creature who had been in the cage was now standing up the same fire that had burned Quarter coming out of her hands. As he approached the cage he realized that he was infact seeing the “warlock” he was supposed to see.

“Remember me?” The warlock had said to him behind the rusted bars of her cage, her voice was like honey poured on shards of ice, it was so hoarse yet he could still remember it. The words came unintentionally, running out of his mouth like water. He said the name as if he’s said it so many times.

“Katie?” 

---

“Who else could it possibly be?” She smiled crookedly. Examined her burnt hands and bloodied nails that she had used to break the lock.

“Katie?” Kaiden couldn’t believe his eyes, this was not the Katie he had known, the Katie who had always been so annoying, so pathetic. The person standing in front of him was no longer what he had thought to be regal and aristocratic in a way. She looked exhausted and pale, there was purple under her eyes- her delicate hands worn, the nails stained with blood.

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to speak to you.” She spat with a disapproving tone.

“You okay?” He knew that Katie had been beaten again and again. Quarter had used her magic but she refused to tell them where the others were yet he didn’t know that it affected her this much…

“W-what do you think?!” Katie smiled a little and started to laugh. “You don’t know what I’ve been through! What they call me! WHAT THEY USED ME FOR!” She was screaming at him. She looked pathetic, the high sorcerer, chain dangling from her neck. An emotional wreck.

“I-I’m sorry I would have been here faster but-” Kaiden struggled to explain

“But what?” Katie cut him off “Because you didn’t want to see me? Didn’t care? Just because I’m not like you?”

“Wait what?” That was when she realized the he had never known, and if he did, he would hate her more.

“That I’m not like you...just look, you don’t have to know.” Katie mumbled out to him in a small voice as she turned around to face the other direction.

“But if I don’t know then what? I’m not going to hate you or something…”

“Yes, you will.”

“What are you talking about Katie?”

“Trust me.”

“Why are you so stubborn?!” Kaiden had enough off Katie’s wallowing not realizing what was going to happen.

“Fine! You want to know?! So be it!” Katie screamed as blue fire enveloped her body blinding Kaiden but before he knew it. He stood staring at Katie grasping for ideas. Her brown eyes had turned gold and had slit pupils like a cat, her hands holding on the torn hem of what was left of her cloak. 

“Katie… I uh-are you… a warlock?” Kaiden was clueless before his head was starting to ache a little.

“Yes...Haven’t you ever noticed , like how you wanted to kill me so badly because of it? So how about you kill me, soldier?” She spat at him.

“Katie...” He tried, his head aching a little more.

“Well it seems like no one’s going to care and even if they had known, I wouldn’t have mattered to them anyway. If we were to survive and they were to come and save us, it would have been you who they’d cry for, who they wept for, not me. So all those years I had lived by don’t matter because no one would love me… because of what I was… and who I’d make them become… outcasts, loners, people had called them a disgrace just because of who they loved… I know that you feel bad but you should be happy to die, unlike me, chained to life by a golden chain I dare not to sever because what lies after it. Death... Yet over the past few week I’ve felt like I’d like to die.” She smiled, cold staring back at him. “It’s really scary...it’s...unnerving, I don’t know what to do.”

“Th-they?” He stuttered out as his vision became blurry. Katie looked at him with a disgusted face.

“You know who! Your friends! Abbey! Cher! Stanley-”

“AGH! S-STOP!” Kaiden suddenly cried out, grasping onto his head as his vision blurred. His head started to hurt more as the names processed through his mind. He didn’t know those people, or did he? Did people know him? 

Before anything else could happen though, Ulyssa ran over and took hold of Kaiden’s hand before leading him away from the tension.

---

Darkness, Kaiden was so familiar with the sea of blackness that laid before him, he had seen it so many times, too many times.

“Kaiden, Kaiden!” That voice, so familiar but who? His vision whitened before anymore thoughts could be processed.

“U-Ulyssa?”

He felt a pair of arms lift him up before he fell back into the dark abyss.

---

“Kaiden? Can you hear me?” As Kaiden opened his eyes he could see white and brown blots of what he assumed was someone who um… rescued him?

“What?” He blinked a few times before looking around, all he saw were a pair of two brown eyes staring into his. Shocked, he slapped the figure in front of him.

“Ow! What was that for?!” His vision clearing more, he saw a girl. She held onto her cheek as some strands of her caramel hair covered her face a little.

“Who… are you?” He then asked.

“Um, Kaiden? What are you talking about? It’s me, Ulyssa.” Her face held a ‘are you dumb?’ look, indicating that he was apparently supposed to know her… but unfortunately, he didn’t.

“Kaiden?” He questioned, (attempting to) raising a brow.

“...Kai? Are you alright?” ‘Ulyssa’ reached for his face when he swatted her hand away.

“S’cuse me but… I don’t know you, so can you please keep your hands to yourself?” Ulyssa’s eyes dilated as her mouth gaped open in shock.

“...What? It’s just logic, you would feel uncomfortable too if I was up in your face, right? Unless you have some weird problems but that’s not my problem.” Kaiden(?) shrugged.

“Oh gosh, don’t tell me that you forgot… again! Lynx! Lynx!” She turned around rapidly and ran before coming back to grab Kai- um… the sick guy’s hand to lead him outside,despite him protesting and demanding for her to let go.

Ulyssa didn’t go far when she felt someone step on her foot. Shuddering a little, she turned to see Kaiden attempting to pry her hand off of his arm.

“What are you doing?” She asked, looking at his attempts with much amusement.

“Let go! This is kinda weird!”

“How is this weird, Kai-”

“Look... “ He cut her off, “I don’t know you, well at least I assume I don’t know you… But since I don’t, please kindly let go of my hand. And my name isn’t… Kaiden, okay?” The look he was given was a mix of perplexity and confusion.

“Well, if your name isn’t Kaiden. What is it then?” (insert name here) scoffed before replying.

“Well that’s easy, my name’s Kyle.”