As night fell, Sokan stormed up to Kyra's hold. He was full of pure rage and fury. This was the second time that Jade had gotten the upper hand over him, and he was set on never letting it happen again. He smiled as he heard Kyra screaming, glad that Lucas was doing his job well. He opened the door, smirking when he saw Lucas holding his knife, blood dripping off of the silver blade.
"Sokan! I didn't know that you were coming here today! Look, I accidentally made a peace sign on her arm. Pretty ironic, right?" Lucas laughed. "Since she isn't peaceful or being surrounded by peace at all. It's a great stroke of- Hey! That's my knife!" Lucas protested as Sokan grabbed the knife from his grip.
"Lucas, I don't have time for your pity party. I need to let off some steam, and this is the best way to do it. Just be quiet or leave." This was the first time that he had snapped at Lucas, and Lucas shrank away from him. He slowly walked out of the room, and Sokan glared at Kyra.
"You're about to be in a lot of pain. If your friend Jade had just decided to leave me alone, then maybe you wouldn't be in this situation. She doesn't know what's good for her, or for you. If there's anyone to blame for this, blame her." Sokan slashed the knife all down Kyra's chest, causing her to cry out in pain. Sokan slapped her face, forcing another cry of pain out of her.
"Shut up! You are the most insolent brat ever! Can't you ever learn to be quiet?" Sokan glared at Kyra, towering over her. His breathing was coming in short, angry huffs. Lucas walked back into the room, holding a different knife.
"Care if I join you, Sokan? I heard you yelling and thought you might need a hand." Lucas walked around and faced Sokan.
"You know, I think it's about time we silence her for good. Hold her mouth open." Sokan pulled out his knife as Lucas pried Kyra's mouth. She screamed as loudly as she could, in hopes that someone who had an inch of decency in them would come in.
"You should have figured out by now that your screams fall on deaf ears." Sokan raised his knife in the air as Laila walked into the room.
"What are you doing?" Laila ran to Sokan, ripping the knife out of his hand. "You can't do that!"
Laila backed slowly against the wall as Sokan turned to her, his face full of rage. He stalked towards her, eventually pinning her to the wall. He grabbed her hair, yanking it up and forcing her to face him painfully.
"Give me the knife, Laila. Right now. Or," Sokan grabbed her chin, crushing her jaw as he did so. "You can join Kyra."
Lucas took a step back, slowly trailing his knife along Kyra's back as he watched Sokan. Never in his life had he seen his friend snap to the extent he saw now. He looked at what appeared to be a stalemate between the two when Laila lashed out with the knife, slicing through Sokan's eye. He collapsed in pain, looking up briefly to see Laila dodge past Lucas and sprint out of the fortress. She got to the forest floor and ran to the mountains. She was sprinting up the path when she found the landslide. Looking around, Laila felt the sheer rock wall, trying to find some sort of hidden tunnel. As soon as she found the little path over the rockslide, she sprinted up it and to the Mora camp. When she ran through the entrance to camp, holding her knife, everyone started running to the caves except for Ryuu, Chaiia, and Jade.
"What are you doing here? You abandoned us a long time ago." Jade's words were cold and harsh.
"He's gonna kill me, Jade. I betrayed him, and I think he's going to kill me or Kyra as retaliation." Laila had erupted in sobs. "I'm so sorry. I tried to protect her this time, but I think I made things worse. I-"
Jade put her arm around Laila, ushering her into a cave. "What did you do this time? What do you mean you were protecting Kyra? What were they doing now that was so much worse than before?"
Laila sniffed, wiping her eyes before continuing. "I heard Kyra scream louder than she had before, so I ran into her room. I walked in right before Sokan cut her tongue out, so I ran to him and ripped the knife out of his hand. He then pinned me to the wall, hurting me as a method to get me to give him the knife. I knew if I did, Kyra wouldn't ever recover, well, I guess she still probably won't, but I-"
Laila stopped as she started crying, her hands shaking. "I attacked him, Jade. I slashed the knife across his eye, probably completely destroying it. Lucas was in too much shock to do anything. I think that Sokan will probably look for me here, though. I probably just created more problems for you. I'll leave." Laila stood up, heading out of the cave, when Jade grabbed her hand.
"Laila, what you did was brave. You can stay with us, even if it means that we'll be in more danger. But you have to promise us one thing. You have to help us rescue Kyra, and you can't go back to the Boka. You can't still be fawning over Sokan, doing anything you can to protect him." Jade looked her in the eyes. "Promise me, Lai."
"I should have listened to you guys. Sokan never loved me. He only wanted me for my brains, to try and use them against you guys, my true friends. I promise I'll never leave you again." Laila sat back down, thinking. "Now, what are we going to do to help rescue Kyra?"
* * *
Sokan woke up in the infirmary. He reached up to touch his eye, only to find a bandage covering it. Rage flashed through his mind as he remembered the anger in Laila's eyes as she slashed through his. He slowly got up, ripping the covering off of his eye. His left eye was milky white, and a deep, bloody cut ran along the top and bottom of his eye. He slowly walked out of the room, leaning against the wall for support. He had just reached the Meeting Hall when Lucas came up behind him.
"Sokan! What are you doing up? You still should be-" Lucas was cut off as Sokan turned and glared at him with his one good eye.
"I'm heading up to Kyra. That brat needs to learn a lesson." Sokan continued to push his way past Lucas and towards the stairs.
"Well, right now might not be the best time. After I took you to Lemon to get fixed up, I went back and did a bit of work with Oscura, my second favorite knife. I don't think she's going to be conscious for a while. I would let her be for a few days. I mean, it isn't like we usually do, but I kinda got this feeling that we need to chillax on her a bit, or else we might really break her." Lucas sighed, sitting on the floor. "You do you, though. I remember back in Oregon, I wanted to ask her out so bad junior year. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I guess in the back of my mind, she's always been some unattainable prize. I kinda like being able to torture her, because it's been the only way I'm able to be close to her. Does make her hate me though, which sucks. But, it's what you want, so I'll listen."
"Lucas, you're kinda a hopeless romantic. Just leave me be." Sokan made it to the top of the stairs, pausing for a half a second before opening the door. He walked into the room to see Kyra hanging limp from the ropes. He sat on the other side of the room, and started to quietly talk.
"What have I become? I never used to be like this. When did I become this monster, this demon," Sokan touched his eye gingerly. "I could try to go back now, but it'll never happen. I've crossed the point of no return. If we ever make it off this island, please forgive me. Even if I end up in a jail cell, I will have deserved it. But, like I said, I've crossed the point of no return. I'm not going to change my ways."
Sokan stood up, walking over to Kyra. Her eyes slightly opened as he pulled her chin up. He looked at her intently before continuing.
"I'm not going to change my ways anytime soon. I'm sorry." He dropped her head and walked out of the room, not noticing when he passed Tiffany on the way down the stairs. When he finally reached the bottom, Lucas was sitting there waiting for him. He got up, following Sokan back to the infirmary. When he saw that Sokan was rebandaging his eye, he sat on a bed.
"Sokan, I think we need to take a new approach to Kyra. Maybe not have her tied up in a room all the time, but have her on a rope being led around by one of us. We can still use the room for her sessions with Luna or Oscura, but this way she'll be less likely to escape or be rescued, since she'll always have supervision. What do you think?"
Sokan turned around, the fresh bandages covering most of his face. "I mean, you're right that we should move her. We can't really do your plan right now, since she has a broken leg, Did you forget that minor detail, Lucas? Or are you just stupid? Sometimes I really can't tell the difference."
Lucas looked away. "Sorry. I just thought it might be a good idea. Obviously, because you think it's a trash one for now, I'll just move her to my quarters or something."
Lucas started getting up, shaking his head, when Sokan leapt out of his chair and blocked the doorway. Glaring, he shook his head.
"Are you dumb? We can't move her right now! She needs to just stay up there! We've done this before. It's not like we won't know their strategy. Just send in one of their members without a real plan."
"Sokan, you're forgetting one major detail: Laila's probably with them now. She was the one that was keeping them from getting Kyra. Now they have her, and Rune or Jade, or any of the survivors will probably have her plan a rescue mission. Wait!" Lucas grabbed Sokan's arm, turning him so that they were eye to eye. "What if we splinted her leg? I mean, it would still hurt a lot, but at least she'd be mobile and we could have better protection with her. What do you think?"
"What do I think? Lucas, I-" Sokan stopped talking as a scream pierced the air. "Lucas, did you send Coron in?"
"Dude, why would you think that? I have no idea who on earth would even go near her except for you and I. I mean, I doubt Tiffany would." As Lucas said that, he locked eyes with Sokan.
"Dang it, Tiff. You had one job!" Sokan sprinted out of the room, only to hear another scream, this one differing from the first.
"Lucas, get up there now!" Sokan was halfway up the stairs when he heard a thud and a cry for help.
"Sokan, get up here fast. It's-" Tiffany's voice was cut off as the sound of running reached Sokan's ears. He finally reached the door to the room to see Jade hopping out of the window and into the trees, giving him a mock salute as she left. He sprinted to the other side of the room, tripping over Kyra's severed ropes. Jayson was on the forest floor, sprinting away with Tiffany, and Kyra was nowhere to be seen. Lucas got into the room as Sokan started climbing out the window.
"Sokan, don't do it. For one, you only have one good eye. They also probably are trying to bait you or I. We should just wait for a few days before we counterattack. Hold up," Lucas looked all around the room. "They took Oscura too! My knife!"
Sokan rolled his eyes.