♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 4//: I need to ask you to do something♕✿~♕✿~

Madison's POV

"Okay, you can turn around now."

Damon peers over his shoulder, checking one last time that it's safe, before fully spinning his body to face me. I was now dressed in the clothes Lucas had brought me. I may be wary of Lucas, but I definitely wasn't going to be stupid and pass up the opportunity to get rid of my ruined dress that was falling apart.

I sit down in front of Damon, the bars being the only things separating us. "So, what's the plan?" I ask Damon, referring to our escape plan.

Damon pursed his lips before looking at me. "You might not like the sound of this..." he starts.

I groan. "Just get it over with," I urge him.

"We need someone inside the Rogue Dawn to help us."

I stare blankly at Damon for a couple of seconds before scoffing. "Yeah, that'll work out. 'Hey, we need some help escaping. Mind being a part of this plan and helping your own prisoners escape?'" I scoff again at the ridiculousness.

Damon glares at me, annoyed. "We aren't going to ask like that, obviously. But whether you like the idea or not, we have to get some inside help. Otherwise, we aren't getting out of here."

I cross my arms over my chest. "Is this how you tried to escape last time?" I ask him. Damon's eyes darken a bit before he shakes his head no. "That was one of the mistakes I made, and I'm not going to make the same mistake twice," he tells me.

One of the mistakes. I catch his wording, and I can't help but wonder what other mistakes he made when he tried to escape the first time. But by the tone of the voice in which he used to answer, I knew better than to ask.

"Alright, well who are we exactly going to ask?" I ask with skepticism. Did Damon really expect to find someone to help us escape? I still had my doubts.

Damon looks at me in slight incredulity. "Isn't it obvious?" I scowl a bit at this. "We can ask your friend who seems so eager to earn back your trust."

My face slackens. Lucas? Damon meant to ask Lucas to help us escape? I can't help but shake my head, scoffing. "You can't be serious. Lucas' alliance stands with the Rogue Dawn. He betrayed me and the royal family. He was the one who got the queen and king killed, and me kidnapped!" I exclaim, trying to show Damon that it's really a terrible idea to turn to Lucas for help.

Damon's gaze on me hardens. "You don't know that. Isn't your friend Silver?" I nod at this, a bit confused as to what his blood color had to do with any of this. "Do you really think any Silvers part of the Rogue Dawn are really loyal to this group? A rebel group that wants the death and torture of Silvers?"

Now that Damon said this out loud, I realize just how weird it is for Silvers to be loyal to a group with an intent like that. And now that I think back to it, would Lucas be the type of person to enjoy killing others, especially people of his own blood? The answer immediately came to me. No, no he wouldn't. So why was he here anyways, as a part of the Rogue Dawn?

"Why the hell are there Silvers part of the Rogue Dawn, then?" I ask Damon. It didn't make any sense.

Damon looks at me straight in the eye. "It's really easy to control people when you have something over them, Madison."

I stay silent as his words sink in. Blackmail. Damon was saying that Nathan had a lot of things over a lot of Silvers. And when he had those informations over the Silvers, he could control them like a puppet master would control its puppets.

What does Nathan have over Lucas that would force Lucas to betray everyone?

A small flicker of hope starts in me. I had pushed down the notion that maybe Lucas is actually good. But maybe, he really didn't mean any of this to happen to me. Maybe it was just Nathan forcing Lucas to do these things.

But I can't be so sure of Lucas being on our side. "That just makes your idea even worse. If the information Nathan had over Lucas was enough to force Lucas to betray the royal family, it would be easy for Nathan to get Lucas on his side with the same information. We still can't trust Lucas to help us," I tell Damon.

Damon narrows his eyes at me. "Well, if you have a better candidate to help us, then please nominate them."

I couldn't. Damon knew that there was no better chance than Lucas, and he knew I knew that. Damon smiled at me, triumphant. "Not so confident now, are we?" he taunts. I scoff and cross my arms across my chest, looking away from him.

"Alright, so he's our best chance. I get it. But how exactly are we going to ask him? When are we going to him?" I shoot back at Damon. He sits there, looking thoughtful, before he turns his focus back to me.

"Well, I do know the guards give us food three times each day. While you were unconscious, they handed out breakfast. While you were up with Nathan, they handed out lunch. So now, someone will pass out dinner. And if we're lucky, your friend will still be feeling so guilty that he'll volunteer to hand out your dinner to you." I nod at what Damon says. It was possible Lucas would do this.

"So, what are we going to do before we get our dinners?" I ask Damon.

He grins at me. "We'll sit here and wait, of course."

♡

The waiting feels like hours. At a few moments I almost fell asleep, but Damon made sure to bring me back to reality each time by flicking me on the forehead through the bars.

"Madison!" He hisses at me as I'm dangerously close to falling asleep again. I jerk, hitting my head on the bars in the process. As I hiss and groan in pain, rubbing my head, Damon chuckles and then points out of his cell.

"Look."

I look to where he's pointing and see multiple figures clad in the uniforms of the Rogue Dawn flippantly throwing food at the prisoners, who greedily catch the food and eat it with hunger. Other members of the Rogue Dawn kick cups of water at the prisoners, who rush to grab the cup before it spills over.

I hold my breath as I move away from Damon to the front of my cell. Lucas, you'd better be here, I think to myself as I scan the faces of the Rogue Dawn members. So far, I can't see him.

A member of the Rogue Dawn stops in front of my cell. The woman barely gives me a glance before she throws food at me. I barely catch the piece of bread before it falls to the ground. As I stare at the food, my stomach growls loudly. How long has it been since I've eaten? I rip off a piece of the bread and devour it quickly. It doesn't take long for me to eat the whole piece of bread, but my stomach is still feeling painfully empty.

I look over to Damon to see he has eaten his bread already as well. His eyes are focused outside his cell, though, looking for Lucas. I turn away from him and do the same, scanning the faces of the Rogue Dawn members who are still passing out the water.

The weak light illuminates one member's head. I recognize the wavy brown hair of Lucas. He's passing out the water and unlike the other members, he's giving the water to the prisoners so that no water is spilled.

I turn to Damon and call his name as quietly as I can so that I don't catch the attention of the other Rogue Dawn members. He turns to me, and I motion to Lucas' form. Damon faces me again, and mouths "get his attention".

I turn back to Lucas. He was two cells over, still passing the water out. One more cell over. I take my chance to whisper-shout "Lucas!" I expect him to turn to me, or move to my cell, but instead of coming over to my cell, he crosses over to the other side of cells. I stare after him, my mouth open. Didn't he hear me call him?

"Great job, Madison. You're phenomenal at getting people's attention," Damon snaps at me. I turn to glare at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe you could've tried as well!" I tell him.

"You're the one who knows him," Damon shoots back.

I turn away from him for a moment to see where Lucas is. He's gone down the row of cells, going farther away from me. Another man comes to my cell, jeers at me, and kicks the water cup at me. The cup hits a hole in the ground and tips over, spilling water. Well, there goes my water.

"Why didn't he come over? I know he heard me call his name," I muse out loud. In the corner of my eye, I can see Damon cross his arms.

"Maybe because you mouthed him off earlier and told him you never wanted to see him again?" Damon tells me with disdain in his voice. I mentally groan at his words. Great. The first time I'm regretting what I've said to another person, and it has to happen during a time this important.

"Okay, so maybe it's my fault that he's not coming over here..." I start. Damon scoffs.

"You mean it is your fault that he's not coming over here," Damon corrects me.

"Alright fine! It is," I admit, guilt clawing up my throat. My words might have ruined the chance for Damon and I to escape. "It was just what I said during the heat of the moment," I try to explain myself.

The Rogue Dawn members were now done with handing out the food and water to the prisoners. They were all starting to all disappear up the stairs. Lucas was walking away. Our chance to escape was walking away.

In an act of desperation, I call out his name. "Lucas!" He had to have heard me call for him that time. I see his steps slow down a bit, and I take another try at trying to get him to come over here.

"Lucas, I didn't get any water. Can I have some?"

I see him stop, before sighing and turning around to walk to my cell.

Relief overcomes me as Lucas walks up to my cell and scoops water into the small metal cup. He hands it to me, and I grab the cup. I put it down quickly and grab onto his wrist as he starts to leave. Lucas still doesn't make eye contact with me.

I look towards Damon, not sure what to say to Lucas. Damon motions for me to talk first. I mouth "Say what?" to him. He looks at me like I should already know the answer. He mouths back to me, "Apologize."

I look at Damon with incredulity. He wanted me to apologize? I know my words must've hurt, but I had good reason to say those words to Lucas. He betrayed me and the royal family, for goodness sake.

I feel Lucas pull out of my grasp. "If you don't need anything else, I'll leave you alone," Lucas tells me.

"Wait!" I exclaim as I grab at his wrist again. Finally, Lucas looks at me.

"I..." I look at Damon, who nods at me in encouragement. "I wanted to apologize about earlier." Lucas' eyebrows go up in surprise.

"I snapped at you without letting you explain yourself. I know there might've been a chance that all of this wasn't your choice. But I'm still not forgiving you for betraying me and the royal family," I add quickly.

Lucas nods at me. "I don't expect to be forgiven for that, Madi- Madison," he corrects himself. "And it's alright. I deserved getting spoken to like that. It's about time I got told like that."

We stay silent for a bit, staring at each other. For once since I've been down here, I didn't feel absolute disgust and hurt when looking at Lucas.

I only felt slight disgust and hurt when looking at him.

Damon coughs, getting our attention. Looking at him, I remember the whole reason I apologized to Lucas and let go of Lucas' wrist, which I've been holding onto tightly.

"So, were you guys good friends or something?" Damon asks us.

Lucas shifts his gaze to the ground. "Before, yeah we were. Now..." he looks at me before saying, "I'm not entirely sure."

Damon's eyes glint in the darkness. "Would you like to be good friends with Madison again?" He asks Lucas. I furrow my eyebrows. How exactly was this going to lead to asking Lucas to help us?

Lucas, looking confused as well as to where this conversation was going, nodded his head. "Yes, yes I would."

"Would you be willing to do anything to gain Madison's trust again?" Damon asks Lucas, his eyes focused intently on him.

Lucas turns to look at me as he answers Damon's question. "Of course I would." I can't help but break eye contact, looking away from Lucas.

Damon nods, content with the answer Lucas gave him. Damon beckoned Lucas to come closer to the cells, which Lucas did. Then, Damon starts to speak in a low voice to Lucas.

"I need to ask you to do something for Madison and I."

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

I wrote this extra long chapter for you guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

So, how do you guys feel towards Lucas now that there has been a *slight* explanation for what he has done? Do you feel that Madison and Damon can trust him to get them out of there? Or are you on Madi's side, and do you still think there is a possibility that Lucas won't be able to help them because of the information that Nathan has over Lucas?

The next chapter should be up sooner than this one was! So keep a look out for the next update!

I hope you guys have a great rest of your week!

Glass_Sword