(5 March, 2018)

Aur’s love of candles had most probably been destroyed forever, and they had always loved candles. Their flickering light had once been comforting, the soft, yellow light had always been something they looked forward to when the sun set. They had often chosen candles instead of normal lights. Though it seemed like that was all going to change now. The room they was in at the moment was dark, and it would have been darker if the candles so carefully placed around the room, hadn’t been there. As it was, the candles were far enough away from them that they couldn’t make out any particular features of the room. It was bright enough that they would have noticed if anyone was in the room, which they were thankful for, they read a lot of books and they didn’t want anyone ‘creeping out from the shadows’ as was so common in fiction. They had previously had a reasonably ordinary life, reasonably. They were training to become a healer, a profession that wasn’t exactly common in their family. The vast majority of their family had trained in fighting techniques, though there were a couple of lawyers and a history keeper, that they knew of. They had never had any interest in learning how to fight, so they focused on learning how to heal. It was a long process, vastly different to learning how to fight, but just as difficult. One benefit was that it generally limited the amount of strange people kinapping and chaining them up. As a matter of fact, they had never heard of something even vaguely similar happening to a Healer-In-Training, a Fighter-In-Training, well, that was an entirely different situation. But here they were, chained up, by some strange person, and involved in absolutely nothing to do with fighting, except for their family. Not that that really counted, or at least, it shouldn’t have counted. But perhaps it did, people tended to be talented at placing two and two together incorrectly. However, even if their family did count, Aur had no idea why they were brought here. Nothing remarkably strange had been going on. Not until now, at least. So all they could do was wait, and do their best to be patient. Well, that’s what they suspected someone else would do. Instead, they struggled and screamed and were generally as loud as possible.

Then suddenly, hours after they had become hoarse from yelling, their captor entered the room. “Let. Me. Out,” Aur said, their voice strong and loud as they glared, despite the ache in their throat.
“Sweet child, do you really think that I’ll do what you say?” he lengthened his words out, taking pleasure in the honeyed drawl, slowly taking off the mask he wore. His fingers were long and delicate, they seemed to linger everywhere, just before he moved, they supposed that he was enjoying the fact that he could take his time. The mask fell away from his face and Aur gasped. They had been expecting green skin or something terrifying, but their captor was nothing short of traditionally beautiful, beautiful even by Aur’s preferences, something seemed almost familiar about the man, but they didn’t need extra thoughts clouding their head so they simply glared.. Aur gritted his teeth, “Let me go. I’ve done nothing to you.”
“Would you be able to understand me better if I used your name?” he asked, a smirk showing clearly despite the shadowy light of the room. “Dear Aur, I am not going to do anything you ask of me.” He leaned into them, so close Aur could hear his breath, calm and collected.
“You’re going to let me go and then I’m going to get the police. You have no right to keep me here,” they replied, trying to break the chains that were clearly not going to break. With a smile, Aur’s captor left the room, no explanation, no move to free them. Just a smile. Aur began screaming again, hoping, hoping desperately that someone else would hear and they could get out of here.

Aur had no idea how much time had passed, but they were alert when he walked into the room again. “You’re just so full of fire, aren’t you?” he murmured. A small smile flickered on the corner of his lips and a flare shone wickedly bright in his eyes. He caressed his fingers along the tightness of Aur’s jawline. “It’s going to be glorious watching you burn up.”
“Please,” they closed their eyes, their voice hoarse and their throat sore. “Please leave me alone. What do you want?”
“Come on dear, you can do better than that,” he said, shaking his head with the same pleased tone. “Let’s move you somewhere more comfortable. Will that be better for you?”
“Have you got my family?”
“Course not.” His strides were long and smooth as he walked around to the back of Aur. Taking the chains, he motioned for Aur to follow him. Where he was going, they didn’t know, but they didn’t have much of a choice, so off they went.

The next room was much brighter than the first, and much more comfortable, though Aur hated to admit it. This room had dark grey walls, lamps and glass cabinets, full of — well, he didn’t know, and he was hoping he wouldn’t have to. Looking around, he noticed the room had signs of people living there, unlike the other room. This room seemed almost normal. Well, as normal as you can get in a strange house with a strange man who had you chained up. Though at least these chains allowed for them to stand and sit and even had a little space for walking. This kidnapper, or whatever he was, certainly knew how to make a prison comfortable. Aur perched on the arm of the couch, mostly enjoying the fact that they could. However, they had been taught that leverage was important. They figured that they might as well give it a chance. He didn’t have too many other options. Unfortunately.

“Ah, sleeping, were you?” He had walked back into the room, and now he was standing in front of Aur, his arms relaxed against his chest. “You know, sleeping has its benefits, but it also has negatives. A positive is that now you have energy to do whatever you can, but the negative is that I’ve been standing here for five minutes—”
“Stop.” Aur closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. Opening his eyes, he stared directly at the man, “Just stop.”
“Well now, I could do that,” he nodded, looking to the ceiling, mock considering it. “However, that just wouldn’t be as much fun now, would it dear?”
“I think it would be rather fun,” Aur replied, copying the mock consideration.
“See!” He threw his hands up in joy. “I knew you could do better!”
They took a breath in, as if they were exasperated. “Everyone knows I can do better, whether I do or not. That’s my choice.”
“Well of course it is dear,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “You know, it’s all your choice.” He stepped closer to Aur, until they were only centimetres apart.
“Is it? Is it really though?” they leaned even closer. “If you’re right, then I choose to know your name. So, dear, what’s your name?”
“That’s what you choose! Well, I don’t often share my name, but since you asked so very… nicely. My name is Tridan,” he confessed, smiling slightly, dangerously.
“Tridan.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you bring me here?” they asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped and he pulled away, “because.”

The sun had set and risen again by the time he came back to talk to Aur. They hadn’t had to do anything awful, and nothing awful had been done to them either. However, there had been no sign that anyone remembered that they were there anymore. It was strange. They hadn’t been given food, but there was plenty of room, and it was surprisingly still comfortable. They still didn’t know why they were being held captive, but they could guess. One bit of information they had was that despite what he said, Tridan’s name wasn’t Tridan. Similar, but not quite. Valuable information had been revealed. Just by that question. The answer to the question had been false, but it had proven the theory Aur had been developing. It proved that their theory was true. Cows, cries, changes, clouds and candles. That’s all they needed to know. Luckily enough, that’s what they had been provided with. It probably wasn’t intentional. It never was with him. News escaped from him like smoke from a fire. He didn’t purposely try to spread everything, but he simply couldn’t help himself. He was discreet, he could be given that at least. Unless you were purposely looking for information, you probably wouldn’t be able to gain anything from the decorations, the lingering touches, the smirk and the name. None of it would even connect. Or at least that’s what he would have thought, Aur knew that’s how he thinks, luckily they think differently. Or perhaps, not luckily. Depending on your point of view. Though wasn’t that everything? In their opinion, everyone had a point of view. Some more or less harmful than others.

Aur was on the arm of the couch again, they smirked as they heard the definite footsteps of him coming back. He entered the room, his face the perfect personification of a storm. They looked up from their hands, their dark blue hair falling into their face as they tilted their head.
“Welcome back.”
“You missed m— ”
“Dritan.”
“Pardon?”
“So polite, as always. You heard what I said.”
“No. I didn’t,” he sounded a little as if he was choking on something, though there was only air. “So, you missed m—”
“Dritan. I missed Dritan. You’re a liar, and a bad one at that. You know who I am, and I know who you are.” Aur stood up and walked over to Dritan, wrapping their arms around him and burying their head in his neck. “I missed you.”
Dritan slowly wrapped his own arms around them. It was all his fault and he knew it. He hadn’t meant to do any of this, but look what had happened. He wasn’t any good at keeping secrets, he knew he shouldn’t have kidnapped Aur, but he hadn’t known what he was doing. Both of them stayed there, waiting, waiting fearfully for the other to pull away. But neither Aur or Dritan did, and so they stayed there, wrapped in each others arms.

Suddenly, it was too much for Dritan and he let go. He closed his eyes and shook his head. Aur watched him sadly. They didn’t know how any of this had happened, but it had, and they didn’t know what to do. Once, they had always known what to do. Lately, even before the kidnapping, they hadn’t known what to do about anything. Everyone else put it down to stressful course work, or grief, and maybe it was a combination of the two, but they thought it was something more. Maybe not though, they probably weren’t going to find out anytime soon. “Aur. Aur. I’m, I’m so sorry,” Dritan whispered, backing away, still shaking his head.
“Hey, hey. Don’t w—”
“Stop. Stop Aur. I need to go.” He opened his eyes and looked directly at them before turning and running out the door, forgetting to close it. Aur could his feet land, though he was light. They tried to follow, only to find the chains that held them didn’t let them go far enough, and so he sunk to the ground. They had finally found him. They had finally found him, the person that they had been looking for, for so long. But now he was gone, and they couldn’t even go after him. They had never been able to go after him. Something had always stopped them. And now they really couldn’t go anywhere.
They sunk to the floor, their head in their hands. It was their fault, or so they thought. If they had done things differently, maybe he wouldn’t have ended up like this. If they had studied more, perhaps they would have been able to get out of here. If they had been better, then possibly things could have gone differently. They didn’t know, but they knew they had to get out of there. But where was their strength, the strength that they were always applauded for. Where was their willpower? The willpower to get up off the floor. The floor seemed nice from down there. Dritan had obviously taken good care of the room, carpet was soft underneath them and surprisingly it was clean. The rest of the room seemed so far away, the grey walls, the red couch, the cabinets, even the lamps seemed as if they were lighting the room from a distance. They knew they had to get up, but was the effort really worth it? They were chained up. Dritan was gone. They had no way out.

Slowly they stood up, they had no plans and still no way to get out. But it had been Dritan who had captured them, and there was bound to be information, somewhere. Dri, Dritan had never been good at hiding information. He had always wanted to share it with everyone, he wanted to teach. But that was enough about Dritan, they knew that they couldn’t focus on him at the moment. They had to find out how to get out of here. And these were the times when they wished that they had trained in fighting instead of healing, as escaping was usually a skill learnt in the former. The second however, well that was another matter. Plants didn’t tend to chain you up. Unless you were really, really unlucky that it. And that was another matter as well. Shaking their head at themself, they looked around the room, hoping for some way to get out easily, before going on a complete search for information. Unfortunately, they found nothing. And so they began the search, taking a breath they began to walk as far as they could manage with the chains around their wrists and ankles.

One of the cabinets was in close enough reach that Aur could clearly see what was in it, but far enough away that he couldn’t actually touch it. Smart planning on Dritan’s part. Although they could see what was in the cabinet, not much of it made much sense. There were some boxes, presumably of candles, a couple of cows which did make sense, but then there were some plastic plates, a book and a pile of papers. The papers might have been helpful, if only Aur could have gotten to them, but no, Dritan had actually been intelligent enough to place them just slightly away from the cabinet. Moving around the room, they attempted to find something to either smash the cabinet or some other source of information. They looked under the couch, in every direction they could reach. They tried to lift up almost everything, including the carpet. They were slightly desperate. And slightly sleep deprived. But they kept going, to no avail. The carpet didn’t move and the only thing they could get close enough to was the bathroom, which also had nothing helpful in it, and the cabinet which they couldn’t get to. They had been trying to smash the glass with a box of tissues when Dritan came in again. He had come in so quietly that, in their determination, Aur hadn’t noticed he had entered at all.

He watched Aur from the doorway for awhile. He had never forgotten Aur, though he had hoped that Aur had forgotten him. The two of them had been so close, so close that the majority of the things he considered important, had happened with the two of them. He didn’t know what Aur thought of him anymore, but he couldn’t imagine it was anything kind. Not that he wanted any kind thoughts, not anymore. His brain was telling him that he should just destroy everything now, but he knew that’s not what he wanted to do. He knew what he wanted to do, but the question was, was he going to do it? He didn’t know. He really wasn’t sure anymore. He hadn’t been in contact with Aur for years now. He had run away years ago, he had left when things were becoming too hard, but here he was again. Mildly successful. Well, successful enough that he could afford the house, that was about it. He was back with Aur, and he wanted nothing more than to release them and just talk. But he couldn’t, he wouldn’t. Another part of his brain was insisting that he kept them chained up. That part of his brain was the part that he tried to avoid, he tried desperately to avoid all the thoughts that he knew were unreasonable and insane, but sometimes he couldn’t avoid them. And in those cases, he tried his best not to act on them, but clearly he didn’t always succeed. Clearly, things didn’t always work out as planned. But he was going to try now. He was going to try make everything work out for once and all. He wanted to release Aur and talk, but could he, would he? He was still in the doorway, still just standing there, and still Aur hadn’t noticed him.

Aur had given up on trying to break the glass with the tissue box and stepped backwards, sitting on the back of the couch. They had always been told not to sit on the back of couches, but they figured that as they were chained up, the rules probably didn’t reply anymore. Not much applied anymore. They were concerned about Dritan, they know far more about him than they’d like to. There was no way to help him anymore though, he had gone and they were still chained up. The chains were getting irritating now, they were heavier than expected and honestly, they were just a nuisance. They didn’t know how they had gotten into this mess, this mess of couches, chains and friends. Or at least, previous friends. They didn’t know what had happened between the two of them, and they wanted to find out, but considering the way that he left, it wasn’t likely that he’d come back. Were they just going to have to wait here? Hoping that someone came to release them. They almost wished that was true. It wouldn’t be so bad dying from starvation and dehydration, would it? It would be better than being murdered by Dritan.

So consumed by their thoughts, Aur didn’t notice Dritan until he tapped them on the shoulder. They looked up at the taller boy, brushing their hair away from their face, so they could actually see. “You came back?” they asked, raising their eyebrows.
Shrugging, Dritan replied, “Apparently so.”
“What happened? How did you get this house? What’s going on?” their eyes fluttered downwards, away from Dritan’s face. They wanted to know what had happened, but they also didn’t, and so they shook their head, looking at the floor, not certain what to do.
“Uh —” he paused, closing and reopening his eyes. “I mean, you know I ran away, yeah?”
“Yes. Yes I know. I know you fu—” they were cut off, and usually they wouldn’t care, but he had run off and he actually asked them if they knew. Of course they knew, how could they not?
“Alright, alright. I am sorry for that. You do know that. Aur?” he bit his lip, he knew that he had probably hurt them, but he did have his reasons. “I am sorry. But anyway, that’s pretty much it. That’s why I left. I ran. Happy? Yeah, I know. I know, I really shouldn’t have. But I did. And I’m sorry, but I j—”
“Dritan. I know,” Aur cut him off, shaking his head at the boy who stood opposite him. When they first saw him, chained up in the first room, they thought he looked like a man, but now they knew he was only a boy. A boy who they used to be close to, but now the closest they were was controlled by being captured. “Would it be possible for you to unchain me?” they asked, looking up from the ground, their eyes finding Dritan’s.
“Yes. Yes. Of course. I — yes. Yes,” he said, his words coming out rushed and panicked. Swearing under his breath, he fumbled for a key in his pocket and reached for Aur’s wrist, to unlock the chains. “Fuck it,” he swore, as he dropped the key for the third time. Finally, he finished unlocking all the chains. Aur jumped up and down a little, making sure they hadn’t been hurt in the whole process of being captured.
“You alright?” Dritan asked, avoiding Aur’s eyes.
“Oh yes. You know, being chained up by my best friend and not knowing why is great. It’s an amazing feeling. Thank you for the privilege of letting me feel like this,” they snapped, swinging their legs over the back of the couch and sitting down properly on it, their head turned away from his.
“I don’t know why I chained you up, or even captured you in the first place. I’m sorry.”
“I know why you captured me, and so do you. So stop lying. I’ve told you so many times, you’re an awful liar.”
“Aur I—”
“I have to go Dri. I can’t stay here. Unlike you, I know that there are still things that I have to do. I have to finish studying. I have to pay rent. You know, I’m 20 now Dri. So are you. I have to go. Don’t follow me. Stay here in this house, probably full of kidnapped people.” Their shoulders were shaking slightly and they were blinking furiously, head still turned away from Dritan, they stood up. “Goodb—”
“Aur—” he began, his voice faltering as he watched Aur stand up. “Best of luck Aur. You’ll do great in your studies. I know you will. Down the hall, turn at the last door, it’s the kitchen, take what you want. Go through the kitchen and you’ll find the back door.”
“Thank you. Thank you.”
“Just go, please.”
“Goodbye Dri,” they whispered as they walked out the door, briefly looking back. Looking back at the boy who had turned away from the door and was staring into space. Looking back at the boy who had captured them and had released them again. Looking back at the boy who had done so much for them. “Goodbye Dri,” they whispered again, walking down the hall and into the kitchen. Taking a piece of fruit and leaving the house through the back door. “Goodbye Dri,” they whispered for the last time as they began to run.

They had stopped running hours ago and now they were walking. They had passed a few farm houses, but mostly it was just field and fields of grass and occasionally crops. It was rare that they spotted another person, and even then it was mostly from a distance. Occasionally, they had the urge to run after someone and ask them where exactly they were. After the rush of being free had passed — a couple of hours ago they guessed — they realised that they didn’t actually know where Dritan lived, or if they were even anywhere close to Orivon. They had recognised some plants that were native to this side of the country, but there were three cities and countless towns that they could be close to, let alone the city that they needed to reach. They could be closer to Velite, or Marga, or some town that they had probably forgotten the name of. They honestly had no idea where they were, which was a little bit of an issue, considering the fact that in different areas of the country, people spoke different dialects. Most of which Aur could understand, but it would be much easier if they knew where they were. They were beginning to walk slower and slower, they supposed they were getting tired, but they didn’t feel it. They wanted to just keep going forever. They wanted to get as far away as possible from the house, from Dritan, from everything. They had been looking for him for so long now, and there he was. He was just there, with a big fancy house and clearly everything was under control for him, unlike it was for them. Except they knew that it wasn’t really under control in Dritan’s world either. Nothing was under control, especially not anymore. And they couldn’t help but think about him, and they couldn’t help but think that maybe they should have stayed and helped him. They couldn’t help thinking that maybe the two of them should have gone together. The two of them had always worked well together, and Aur knew that, but they hadn’t asked him to come, and they didn’t know why.

They didn’t know exactly what had happened or exactly how long they had been there. They had no idea how things were going to work, or if things even would work. They had been looking for Dritan for so long now. For so long. They spent hours researching how to track people. They had battled away their fear of talking to people, just so they could find him. That had been one of their main priority for years. Sometimes letting it take over their studies. There had been days when they didn’t turn in their coursework because they had been up all night, trying, trying desperately to work out where he could have gone. They tried to work out how much it would cost for him to travel to a different country, to the other side of the country. They had quickly become the person that everyone would go to for directions, they quickly became the person who knew the most about the country and how things worked in places other than Orivon. But they also became the person who came to class with bags under their eyes, tired smiles and either non-existent or perfect homework. Things had changed so much since Dritan had left, but now Aur had left him. Not that they could have done anything else, and so they kept walking. The sun had begun to set, leaving traces of pink and orange along the sky. Aur had always liked sunrise more than sunset. Sunset seemed almost threatening. It was beautiful, sure, but the beauty only masked the danger that came after dark. Sometimes, beautiful things were just disguises.

Night had fallen and Aur was still walking. Their pace had increased again and they were shaking slightly. The lights of a town could be seen from a distance, but it was far enough away that they knew they couldn’t make it there by the end of the night. They didn’t particularly want to stop by the side of a road to sleep, or even rest. Especially when they weren’t sure where they were. Different places had different customs, some were less kind to outsiders, especially ones who had no idea what they were doing. It wasn’t like they had enough money, or a way of getting enough money to get to Orivon by air or train, it just wasn’t possible. They had considered knocking on someone’s door, or trying to get the attention of someone who drove past. However, not knowing where they were, they didn’t want to disturb anyone, and plus, how were they going to explain things anyway? Oh yeah, I just need some help. Uh, I got kidnapped by my old friend and I’m not sure where I am. Could you tell me? So they kept walking, admittedly, slightly, or rather very worried about how things were going to go.

“You idiot!”
Aur kept walking, they weren’t certain who was shouting, but they usually didn’t answer people who yelled at them from cars at night. Or ever really, they had had their fair share of people doing it, and it had never ended well.
“Idiot!” The man parked his car and jumped out, clearly laughing. “Aur, what were you thinking? There were so many maps on that bench. Did you not see them?”
“Dri?”
“Yes, it’s me, who else? Did you not see the maps? Or the money?” he asked, laughing as he walked over.
“Well honestly, I was trying to get out as quickly as possible. You had me chained up!” they exclaimed indignantly, shaking their head.
“And I let you go,” Dritan pointed out, tilting his head to the side.
They tilted their head to the sky in exasperation, “You ran away. Without letting me know.”
“I had to.”
“You could have told me.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes!”
“No, I couldn’t have.”
“You could have.”
“Uh-huh”
“Dri—”
“I couldn’t have Aur. You know I couldn’t have. I had to get out of there. I regret it, I honestly do. I regret everything. I regret leaving you. I don’t know why I did any of this. Aur, you know all of this. I know that you know all of this. Why, why don’t you just kill me?” he swallowed, his shoulders shaking as he asked the question.
“Dritan.” They stepped over to him, placing their arms on his shoulders. “Come home with me.”
“I can’t though. Not anymore. This is all my fault.”
“I know, I know, but I’ve got my own place now. Come stay with me. Sell your place, you’ll get enough money. Start over. Don’t leave. Please don’t leave,” they pleaded shakily.
“I can’t. I literally kidnapped you and chained you up,” Dritan reminded them, wrapping his arms around them.
Aur shook their head, tilting their head up to look Dritan in the eyes, “you can do whatever you want. Do you want to come home with me?”
“I… Aur. Honest—”
“Dritan, do you want to come back with me?” they asked, leaning backwards slightly. Silence overcame the two and it was quiet. No cars drove by for a minute, nothing made a noise. They stood there, looking at each other. Neither quite sure what to do next. And so they stood, Aur’s arms still around Dritan’s neck and Dritan’s arms still around Aur’s waist.
“Fine then Dritan.” Aur pushed away from the boy. “Stay here. I’ve got to get back to the city, I imagine you’ll be able to find me if you need to. You did kidnap me after all.”
“Aur, that’s not what I meant. Aur, you can’t walk all the way home. Yes, we’re in the closest town, but you can’t walk.” He stepped forwards to follow Aur, when they turned around to face him.
“Don’t you dare follow me if you don’t have a good reason for not coming with me.” Their eyes were flashing as they glared at Dritan. This was the boy that they had stayed up, they had stayed up all night for this idiotic boy, their best friend. And he had been only a town away from them. Aur was furious, he was barely ever angry, but this boy meant so much to them and now they appeared to mean nothing to him. “I wasted my time for you Dritan. You were my best friend,” they continued, stepping closer to Dritan. “Emphasis on were.”
“If I come I’ll just mess things up, you know that. You know that I messed most things up,” Dritan laughed darkly, memories of years ago flashing before his eyes. “You’ve got your own life, you don’t need me. Not anymore.”
“Do you think I’d still be here if I didn’t need you?” Aur replied, his voice gradually getting louder and louder. “I need you Dritan. I fucking need you. Do you even care about me?”
“Of… of course I care about you Aur. Do you not understand? I want to come back with you, but I don’t want to ruin your life,” Dri retorted half-heartedly, he brought his hands up to his face and cupped his nose and mouth as he looked up to the sky. “Of course I care about you. I want to. I desperately want to come with you.”
“Then come. Come with me. You’re an idiot. You’re my idiotic best friend. Come back with me.”
“Fine. If it doesn’t work though, I’m going back, okay?”
“Alright, it’s better than nothing.”