Page 35 of Chained

Evander grabbed my arm and heaved me up, away from Grey, flinging me on top of Taylor on the opposite bed. He jumped onto the end of the bed too as the voice rang out.

"Would you like some privacy?"

"Yes!" he snapped, before it could finish asking, and the walls slid into place, closing out the view of Grey charging towards us. I flinched but the wall had already closed in around us.

There was a crashing sound as he hit the wall but it held. Then a series of pounding noises followed as he tried to force his way in.

"Would you like to allow access to your bunk?"

"No!" I shouted at the same time as Evander.

The noises of Grey crashing about outside lost intensity after a few minutes and eventually stopped.

"Thank you. I don't know what he would have done to me," I said, taking a shuddering breath.

Annoyingly, I felt like crying but I bit my lip and kept it together. I was breathing heavily and I tried to focus on slowing each breath down. In through my nose and out though my mouth. Evander reached towards me as if he was thinking of touching my shoulder then thought better of it and dropped his hand.

"Don't mention it. Is he okay?" Evander pointed at Taylor. I leaned over him, laying two fingers on his neck to check his pulse. He was still unconscious but his breathing was steady.

"I think so." My hands wouldn't stop trembling so I curled them into fists by my sides. "Laurie warned me to keep away from him, but I didn't think he would come looking for me."

"How did he get out of solitary? Why weren't the Wardens watching him more closely?" Evander's cheeks flushed and turned the same colour as his hair as anger swelled within him. "I bet if we tried to go wandering the corridors at night we'd be stopped before we even left the dorm."

"Maybe he killed the Warden on watch?" I suggested.

"Maybe." He didn't seem convinced but my brain was too foggy to think about it anymore.

"Evander, right?" I asked, offering him my hand. He paused and the

n took it, his grip was stronger than I had expected.

"People call me Evan," he replied.

"I'm Maya-" I started but a smile pulled at his lips.

"I know," he said, still holding onto my hand. He dropped it suddenly as Taylor's eyelids started to flutter open.

Taylor groaned, lifting a hand to his head where a swelling had appeared on his temple.

"I'm here, it's over." I squeezed his other hand reassuringly.

"What happened?" he mumbled.

"Evan saved us," I said. Taylor turned to look at Evan who dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Thanks," Taylor said, sitting up and scooting along the bed to make room so that we could all sit down. He raised a hand to his face where Grey had punched him, wincing slightly as he touched the bruise that was starting to appear.

"No problem." Evan perched himself on the edge of the bed next to me.

We sat in silence for several minutes. I could feel the blood still trickling through my hair and I was fairly sure I had a black eye coming on.

As my heart stopped racing, a hundred little hurts presented themselves to me. I looked down at my fingernails. They were shredded and crusted with blood.

My knees were visible through tears in my sweat pants. They were red and burnt from being dragged across the hard floor as were my elbows and at some point I must have bitten my tongue. On top of all that, my head had been smacked so many times I had trouble distinguishing the lumps from the unharmed patches.

I really needed some kind of medical attention but I wasn't about to let those walls down any time soon.

"Warden entrance imminent," the smooth voice broke the tension.