“Thank you, Sasha,” Conner weakly whispered as I helped him into a cleaner cell. If I had my way I would take him out of the prison all together, but because of the stupid rules of the land once a person is convicted of a crime unless we have actual evidence to prove his innocence or unless the King himself pardons them they cannot leave until their sentence is over. Though since Aaron has all but convinced my dad of Conner’s guilt I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

“Sorry I can’t free you completely. Though I promise I will find the true culprit and prove your innocence.” Conner nodded obviously disappointed that I still believed Aaron to be innocent of the kidnapping attempts. Although Aaron can be a pain sometimes. I just couldn’t see him being so cruel as to try to harm me. After all the kidnapper said no one else could have me which means he didn’t already have me right? So, it couldn’t be Aaron since Aaron and I were already engaged when it happened.

“It’s ok Sasha. Just promise me you will be careful. I know how much you want to believe that Aaron isn’t behind all these kidnapping attempts, but things are not always as they seem.” He weakly whispered breaking into a fit of coughing.

“Here you go princess.” I glance up to see the guard holding a small bucket filled with water and a wash cloth in the doorway. The tray of food sat behind him on a wheeled cart. Seeing the tears in my eyes he quickly looked down at the ground setting the bucket beside me as he went back into the hallway to get the food and water. Bringing it inside he sets it down on the little nightstand by the bed.

“Thank you” Giving me a bow he quickly scurries out of the cell. Leaving the door open for me. Turning back to Conner I grab the wash cloth and soaking it in the water I begin to clean the dirt and dried blood off his face. I pause as Conner suddenly grabs my hand and holds it up to his lips. I could feel my breath catch within me when he did this. Snapping my hand out of his I quickly leap to my feet shaking like a leaf in the breeze.

“I… I have to go.” I stammered feeling my face begin to heat up. Scurrying out the door which I close and lock behind me, I race for the exit. Stopping in front of the guard I instruct him to make sure Conner eats even if he must feed Conner by hand. As soon as I was sure Conner would be ok I raced out of the prison and down the hallway. Stopping outside my bedroom door I lean against it placing my hand on my still rapidly beating heart. Closing my eyes, I desperately try to still the butterflies that had suddenly appeared.

“What is this? Why does my heart seem to beat to its own drum when I look into Conner’s smiling face? Why did it feel like electricity shooting up my arm when Conner kissed my hand. No this can’t be the beginning of a crush. I am in love with Aaron.” I silently thought starting to calm down. Suddenly my eyes snapped open as a new thought occurred to me.

“I broke up with Aaron. I called off the engagement.” I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I realized Aaron and I wouldn’t be getting married after all. Straightening up I turned around and opening and closing my bedroom door I slowly as if in a dream walked over to my bed and collapsed on to it.

“I broke up with my fiancé.” I repeated aloud bursting into tears as I buried my face in my pillow. I couldn’t believe I had done that. Than the image of Conner beaten and chained to the wall, as well as the other inmates bruised and bloody lips, and black eyes entered my mind. I sighed as I realized I would never have been happy marrying someone who treated another that way, no matter what the victim may have done. Laying on my stomach I rested my chin on my pillow as I gazed at my back board wondering when my sweet fiancé became so cruel and merciless. As I lay there thinking about the day Aaron and I first met I heard a weird jingling sound coming from my door. Nervously I sat up as I stared at my locked bedroom door. I could feel beads of sweat appearing on my forehead as the lock clicked and the doorknob began to turn. Reaching for my phone I dialed Aaron’s number.

“Hi this is Aaron. Sorry I can’t come to the phone, right now I am probably with my beautiful fiancé. Oh, wait she broke up with me, because she is a witch. If this is Sasha I hope you burn.” I frowned as I heard Aaron’s new voice mail. I only just broke up with him a few hours ago. Where did he find the time to change his voice mail already? Shaking my head, I quickly switched instead to my dad’s number. I was about to press dial when the door swung open revealing a man dressed in all black and a ski mask. I screamed as in my panic I pressed call. The man racing toward me grabbed my arms and dragged me from my bed forcing me to drop my phone as my dad’s husky voice appeared on the other end. I screamed again hoping my dad would hear me and send help. The attacker pulling me to him held a dirty rag to my mouth as my dad started shouting my name on the other end of the phone. Struggling I tried to push him away but found my strength quickly leaving me as the chloroform took effect. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the shadow of another person in the doorway. Than nothing. The world around me turned dark.

☆☆☆

“Sasha.” I was swimming in a sea of dark black water beneath a gray sky when I heard someone in the distance calling my name. I stopped swimming as I tiredly gazed around me searching for the source of the sound. I had been swimming for what felt like an eternity by myself, so the thought of another human being was a welcome change. Yet as I gazed around me at the silent black water, and the bird less sky’s I found only silence. I was still alone. I sighed as I continued swimming. It felt like my arms and legs were made of lead as I forced myself to keep moving. There had to be land somewhere. I couldn’t just keep swimming forever. I couldn’t even remember how I got here. I don’t even remember a time when I wasn’t stranded in the middle of this black ocean. I was just here that’s all I knew.

“Sasha.” Confused I paused as once again I heard my name, yet once again there was only me.

“Hello, is anyone out there?” I cautiously called into the stillness of the night. As if in reply angry dark clouds appeared in the sky above me blocking out any light that may have been available. I shivered as the wind around me shipped up and angrily started slapping the black ocean forcing it from its peaceful stillness into giant angry waves. I squeaked in fear as the waves began dragging me down to the dark merciless depths below. I sputtered and attempted to keep swimming only to have the ocean turn to black murky sludge preventing any movement on my part. I screamed for help as waves of sludge buried me beneath the surface as I was dragged farther and farther from the safety of the sky.

“Sasha.” I gasped as I jerked awake. I could feel beads of sweat lining my forehead as I attempted to slow my breathing. It was only a dream. Lifting my hand to wipe away the sweat I feel something hard and cold around my arms. Looking down I gasp as I see metal chains around my arms and legs attaching me to a scruffy looking wall. The chains were just long enough to allow me to bring my hands up to my face, but my legs were chained so tightly I couldn’t even move them. Gazing around me at the plain white little room with a stained dirty carpet I can see the only other thing in here besides me is a simple rusty metal chair by the door. Before I could think of what to do I heard the sound of a lock turning as the door swung open. I am surprised to see the ringmaster from the circus standing in the doorway smirking at me.

“You are the one who kidnapped me?” I sputtered flabbergasted. He laughed a deep throaty laugh as he slowly entered the room.

“Not exactly.” He stopped right in front of me his arms crossed over his chest.

“You see princess I wasn’t the one behind this whole kidnapping thing. I was hired by someone to scare you into believing that Conner was out to get to. In an attempt to turn you against him.”

“Who? Who would do this?” I quietly asked dreading who it may be. I was terrified that Conner would be right and it would indeed turn out to be Aaron.

“That would be me.” A familiar voice said from the doorway. Glancing over I am heartbroken to see that Conner was correct and it was indeed Aaron standing there glaring at me.

“But why Aaron? Why would you do this. I was already engaged to you. You didn’t need to kidnap me. I was already yours.”

“HA that’s a laugh. I saw how close you and Conner were to each other. I know you were cheating on me.” I stared at him shocked.

“I wasn’t cheating on you. Conner and I are just childhood friends. Nothing more. We grew up together. So, we are really close, but as friends not lovers.” I replied hurt that the man I loved so dearly would allow his jealousy to get so out of control as to betray me so badly. If he was truly worried about it why didn’t he just talk to me instead of trying to convince me Conner was a criminal. I would have understood and explained to him. Does he really distrust me so much that he couldn’t even talk to me anymore?

“Don’t lie to me. I saw you two hugging at the circus. I know you are more than just friends.”

“You followed us?

“Of course, I did. I couldn’t stand the thought of you spending time with anyone but me. So, I followed only to see you two hugging!” He practically shouted, in hysterics now.

“Aaron it was just a hug. People hug their friends all the time.” I reasoned.

“SHUT UP! YOUR NOTHING BUT A LIAR, AND A CHEATER!” He screamed covering his ears with his hands. He had completely lost it by this point and I was seriously beginning to fear for my life.

“Even before I saw you two together I knew there was more between you than you would admit. You were always together. Him always being the one to rescue you when in danger. No, it was obvious you liked each other.” He stated beginning to calm down.

“Aaron Conner was the captain of the guard. He was told to protect me. So of course, we were always together that was his job.” I reasoned hoping to help him realize he was wrong and let me go, but to no avail. He just kept talking as if I hadn’t even spoken. He was now talking more to himself than to me. I don’t even think he realized I was still in the room anymore.

“I knew if I didn’t do something soon he would take you from me. That’s when I met this ring master. Together we hatched a plan to get rid of Conner once and for all. He would dress up like a masked murderer and try to kidnap you. Making it seem like you had a crazy stalker while making sure to leave evidence pointing back to Conner. Him not being there when you were first attacked. I ordered Conner before hand to do something that would send him away when you called so he wouldn’t hear about it until after the fact. I even instructed the ringmaster to follow Conner and to attack you when ever Conner was near by to make it seem even more like he was the culprit. The day an arrow was shot at us during the picnic and I found the arrows in the bushes, the ringmaster was hiding there and merely handed me the evidence to make it seem like Conner hid them there to hide his crime. I had hoped to plant even more evidence against Conner before arresting him but than he caught us. He saw me talking to the ringmaster who was in a cloak and mask right before the arrow was shot. Luckily, he didn’t realize it was the ring master beneath the cloak, but he was smart enough to realize I knew more than I was saying. So, Conner followed him all the way to the garden. While following the ringmaster it was than he saw him shoot that arrow at us making him realize I was behind all the attack. I didn’t realize he had seen us talking until he confronted me about it later, but since he didn’t have proof he couldn’t arrest me. The ring master knew Conner was following him after we spoke, but even he didn’t realize Conner had seen us together. When I heard Conner had invited you out to the circus I was worried he would tell you, or worse you too would get closer which you did. He was about to tell you too but than he saw me watching from the shadows and kept quiet.” I felt sick. I couldn’t believe my ex fiancé would be so crazy.

“He probably planned on telling you later, but I wasn’t about to give him a chance, so I had him arrested.” Aaron laughed wickedly glaring at me. By this point the ringmaster who had remained silent in the corner through all of this stepped forward looking at Aaron.

“Ok I did what you asked so where is my money. You promised me a million dollars if I did this so pay up.” Aaron nodding pulling out a little golden key from his pocket and handed it to him.

“This is the key to the bank vault where the money is stored. I had it put in your name already so its 100% yours. You will find the one million dollars as well as a plane ticket to another country there. This will insure the royal family can’t arrest you. Take it and go, don’t ever let me see your face around here again or there will be consequences.” Nodding the ringmaster took the key and disappeared from the room. Looking back at me Aaron smirked before walking to the door. Once at the door he paused and looked back at me.

“I will give you one chance Sasha. Marry me and I will let you go.” I looked away from him as the building pain in my heart became too unbearable to stand.

“I will never marry you Aaron.” I whispered a tear slipping down my face.

“Then you can stay here and rot.”

“Conner will come for me. You can’t keep me locked here forever.” I shouted before he could close the metal door.

“Not possible. You see you are in a long since forgotten part of the castle. The only way to get in this tower is through a secret passage behind one of the library bookcases. There are 1000 bookcases in the library. It was originally used as a jail cell until the late 1800’s. I only found this place a week ago by accident. No one but me even knows of its existence any more. You will never be found.” He softly replied closing and locking the metal door behind him. I closed my eyes as sobs wracked my body. How could he be so cruel.

“Conner please find me.”