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There Is a Light
Alexander Bane woke up in a cold sweat, sitting up
instantly. He flailed wildly when he realized his arms
were tied down to the bed that he couldn't see. He
couldn't see anything, in fact. Wherever he was, he
was in complete darkness.

He knew that these were iron manacles holding him
down; the cold metal bit hard in his skin. Somehow,
though, he managed to break loose. There was just a
snap, and the chains holding him down were broken.
Then he clawed at the cuffs, and he felt metal shred
away under his fingernails. He knew this was
impossible, but he was too scared to think about it
for even a moment.

When Alex finally gathered his senses, he realized
that he was not in total darkness. He could see
concrete walls around him, and tiny punture holes in
his arms, most likely from needles. He looked around
for the light source, and saw a tiny crack of golden
luminescence from under a door. He carefully slid off
the bed and regained his balance. His body felt new.
When he was comfortable, he walked over to the door
and twisted the doorknob. It wasn't locked. He
pushed it wide open, and shielded his sensitive eyes
against the sudden burst of daylight. When his eyes
had adjusted, he looked around. This was some sort
of storage area. Everywhere he looked, there were
warehouses. There wasn't a soul in sight, and when
he walked forward and glanced behind him, he saw
that he'd come out of an abandoned warehouse as
well.

He knew it was cold - he could see it in his misting
breath, but he couldn't feel it on his skin. He was
wearing nothing but underclothes and a hospital
gown. He didn't even have shoes, but somehow, the
freezing temperature didn't bother him. He glanced
under his fingernails and dug under one, realizing
that there were metal shavings from where he'd...
torn off iron cuffs?

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," came the bored, deep
tone that jolted the young adult up.

He didn't reach full consciousness at first, just the
pounding headache that seemed to dull everything
else...but that one voice seemed to part the pain and
made it's way directly into Mercutio's brain. It wasn't
until exactly three minutes of the migraine that he
began to become aware of, well, everything.

The moment he cracked his eyes to peer into the
stream of sunlight going directly into his eyes
everything seemed to happen at once. Everything
seemed to magnify by a billion times and made
Marcus want to just pass out again. When did the
sun become so bright? Since when did silence seem
so... loud? It was as if his senses were trying to
compensate for years of complete oblivion and
nothingness.

"Get used to it, princess."
Okay, who the hell was that?

After a few minutes everything seemed to become
normal again and the headache turned into nothing
more than a dulling throb, but after the sharpness of
everything previously everything just seemed out of
focus. There was so much to process and Mercutio
could only take so much. Marcus became aware of
the rope stinging his wrists and the man smirking
down at him, whom he could barely make out in the
limited light. He became aware that he was cold and
felt a thin fabric separating him from the sharp, cold
air.

"Well? Get up," the man demanded.

Even though the man had only spoken less than
fifteen words to him, Mercutio already hated the guy.
"Shut up and tell me what's going on!" His angry
command echoed off the walls, irritating his head
even more.

+++


Curious now, Alexander walked over to another
warehouse and tapped hard with one finger.

Concrete broke away. He pushed hard with both
hands now, and cracks spread along the side of the
small building. He frowned in confusion, and pushed
as hard as he could. The wall instantly caved in, and
he coughed as dust filled his lungs.

"Thank God!" a voice yelled at Alex from where he lay
facedown in the rubble. "I was beginning to think I
was trapped!"

Alex lifted himself out of the debris and saw a young
man who must have been just a few years younger
than himself. He was standing in front of Alex, and
he was wearing a similar hospital gown. "What...
what's going on?" Alex asked, confused. He glanced
behind dark-haired man and saw a bed and iron
manacles similar to the ones that had held him
down. These ones, however, weren't broken. "How
did you get out?"

The man shrugged. "I don't know. I saw a key on the
floor, and I sort of... twisted myself. To be honest, I
had no idea I was that flexible. I got it between my
toes, and then unlocked it." True to his word, the
man flicked a key up from the floor with his feet and
caught it with two fingers. "Pretty cool, huh?"
Alexander just grunted and glanced around. He was
still confused as to how he'd just broken an eight
inch-thick concrete wall with his bare hands.

+++

"God, would you shut up?" It wasn't the man's voice,
it was a feminine voice. And all it took was the quick
look around he did with his head that it took for the
man to vanish from sight.

Cursing under his breath, he focused on finding the
source of the new sound instead. His voice was
rough and cracked, as if he hadn't spoken in awhile.
The girl's, however, was fluid and well practiced and
close. Glaring into the shadows for any sign of
another person, he found none and returned to
sitting upright with his hands tied to a metal bar. But
with the rope being loose and frayed, he managed to
wriggle out of it, rubbing his wrists once they were
free from the bounds.

Mercutio would of moved if it weren't for his legs
feeling like lead.
There was a sound, like something collapsing, but he
could care less. Marcus closed his eyes and waited
to fall unconscious again.

Then, someone started to shake his shoulder,
earning a low growl from him.
Cracking his eyes open, he saw the silhouette of a
girl, probably younger than him, but he was too
exhausted to take in the details. He could make out
the glint of handcuffs dangling from one of her wrists
though.

"Come on sleeping beauty..." she muttered sounding
doubtful but concerned.

+++

"I"m Seth," the man told Alex after a few seconds of
silence. "Seth Sable." He offered his hand.
"Alexander Bane," he replied, shaking his hand.
"Should we check the other warehouses? There
might be more people."

Seth shrugged. "I was thinking we should get out of
here, but... that sounds like a good idea, I suppose."
Alex nodded, and began walking along and opening
the doors of the other warehouses. Where there were
no doors, he broke down the walls while Seth stared
in awe. He didn't say anything, though - Alex seemed
focused on making sure they left to stone unturned.
For some reason, he couldn't stand the idea of
leaving while there was stillt he smallest chance
somebody might be trapped.

+++