1.16

Cameron awoke to a warm liquid pooling around his face as the scent of iron filled his nostrils. He winced in pain and confusion as he tried to sit up pressing down on the soft fabric floor underneath him. But wait… the floor hadn’t been made of fabric, nor was it supposed to depress as he applied pressure to it. Then his eyes opened further to realize it wasn’t the floor he was pressing on, but the body of Wervil Darwin. He shot up, wide awake as the sound of horror escaped from his throat. He threw himself back, trying to scramble away from the scene grizzly before him. That was when he heard the scream behind him.

“Cameron!?!”

Miranda’s shrill shriek of a voice cut through his cloudy thoughts like a knife. He turned to see his sister standing there, eyes wide, hands covering her mouth as tears began to form. Cameron looked between her and Darwin's body, realization slowly dawning on him.

“W-Wait, Miranda! I didn’t do this!” He reached out to her and felt a pang of despair as she flinched backward. A lump formed in his throat as he struggled to form coherent words. He sputtered and fumbled, trying to make sense of the situation. He couldn’t have done this. He wouldn’t have. It was Lendrick he had been fighting, not Darwin. Right? His eyes drifted down to his hands as he became aware he was holding onto something. A knife. It was all he could do to look at the bloodstained blade, trying to force his brain to make the connection.

“I… I didn’t do it.” He said softly, more to himself than to anyone else. Certainly not to the guards who had charged through the door and surrounded him. Each carried a rail revolver which they pointed in his direction, a high pitched priming sound rising in pitch that told Cameron, they wouldn’t hesitate to open fire if he so much as flinched.

“Drop the weapon!” A voice barked at him from behind. Cameron obeyed, dropping the blade as it clattered to the floor. There was a whispering back and forth from the guards behind him, before a rough hand grabbed him by the back of the neck and pushed his face hard to the floor, causing him to wince in pain.

“Don’t hurt him!” He could hear his sister call from the doorway. But it was no use, the guard seemed to either not hear her or not care as Cameron felt a knee jammed into his back. His arms were yanked behind his back and cuffed tightly, the metal digging into his wrists when he was yanked to his feet.

His eyes locked onto Miranda’s again. So many emotions raging just below the surface of her sapphire eyes. Anger, sadness, disbelief…. Fear. Mascara ran down her cheeks as she quietly cried, trying to console herself. It was only as he was forced to walk and got closer to the doorway, that Cameron heard her struggling to contain her heaving sobs. She held up a hand, stopping the guards for just a moment, long enough for her to look into Cameron’s eyes, her voice barely audible as she spoke.

“Tell me you didn’t do this.”

“I didn’t do this, Mirry. I swear.” Cameron whispered back, emotion welling up inside him, making it hard to keep his own tears from falling as he could see her heart breaking by the second.

“Step aside, Lady Miranda. I’ve strict orders from your father, who is still acting monarch as of this moment.” The guard barked in an authoritative tone.

Miranda could only nod and step to the side, her head sunk down as the Guard pushed Cameron out through the doorway and out into the hall. It was there that he saw Miranda wasn’t the only witness to this event. Marcus was just a few feet down the hallway, standing off to the side, with Sybil and Logan standing next to him. Cameron could see that Marcus was in a similar state as Miranda. A look of shock and disbelief plastered onto his face as he looked on, mouth agape at the sight of his ward being led off in handcuffs.

Logan and Sybil were harder to read. The pair's faces were stone-like, though they did meet Cameron’s eyes. It was as if they were also finding this turn of events difficult to process, but in a different way compared to Marcus and Miranda. Sybil’s fingers reached out, brushing across Cameron’s bloodstained hand leaving several streaks. Logan simply gave a near imperceptible nod. His jaw was tight and a vein by his temples was visually pulsing. He wasn’t shocked, he was angry. And he wasn’t the only one.

“There he is your majesty! There’s the murderer!”Lendrick’s voice stirred something within Cameron as white hot rage seeped out of his pores. He turned and saw the chubby bastard, walking side by side with Augustus, coming to a stop a short ways away. Cameron snarled and instinctively tried to move towards Lendrick, straining at his shackles, but a sharp punch in the liver from one of the guards was enough to calm him down. He doubled forward, feeling the air forced out of his body. Looking up he could see his father’s gaze turn to him. He was angry too, but all hostility was turned on his son.

“Explain yourself.” The king growled. “Now.”

Cameron was desperate. He didn’t know what had happened to Darwin, but he knew that he was innocent. He caught his breath and stood tall again, if a little shaky.

“Dad… I… I don’t know what happened but I promise you. I didn’t do this.”

Cameron could hear the strain of his own voice as the damn holding back his tears was threatening to burst. His eyes stung as tears welled up and he pleaded with all his might.

“Dad I swear! You know me! I'm your son, you know I wouldn't do this!”

"I don't know what you are, Cameron, but you're no son of mine."

The dam burst as tears fell down Cameron’s cheeks. He felt sick to his stomach, his throat ached as the lump grew bigger, making it hard for him to speak. It would have been no use anyway, as Augustus simply turned his head to look away from the son he had disowned, waving a hand to have the guards take him away.

The only sound now, was the sniffling cries of a boy who had lost everything.

The intake process for the royal jail was an arduous and exhausting affair. It had taken nearly all night for Cameron to be processed, booked, and thrown into a small concrete cell. Gone were the elegant alabaster stone that ran the length of the palace that sat above him. Here, underneath a mountain of imported rock and beautiful blue gems, Cameron could only see an ocean of gray. He sighed and sniffed as he sat on a thin, uncomfortable cot, his soul feeling as muted and depressed as the color that surrounded him.

“And here I thought this was a regular experience for you,” A gruff, deep voice, that teased a hint of levity spoke out to him from the darkness beyond the bars.

Cameron looked up, gazing out into the pitch black void, squinting as he tried to make the figure standing just beyond his vision. A moment later, Logan stepped forward, coming to a stop underneath the glow of a dim, dying light. His hands were stuff inside his pockets and he stood with an air of nonchalance that left him looking more like he was trying to order a drink instead of conversing with a prisoner.

“Wh-What?” Cameron asked, sounding and looking much more like the boy he was, instead of the confident man Logan had met only a few days before.

“Being behind bars I mean,” Logan said, gesturing to the predicament Cameron presently found himself in. “Murder though? I didn’t really peg you for a killer.”

“That’s because I’m not.” Cameron said, wiping his eyes as he stood, approaching the bars. As he got closer, his ears picked up the distinct hum of an electrical current being passed through them. Just another reminder of how trapped he truly was.

“Well… I gotta say,” Logan began, leaning to the side to look past him. “You really should think about redecorating. Don’t you know gray is out of fashion this time of year?”

“What do you want Logan?” Cameron snapped. He was in no mood to play games, feeling a pang of anger bubble over inside of him. “If this is some sick joke, or taunt, then I promise to get out of this cell, find you, and I’ll actually become what they’re accusing me of.”

“Calm down.” Logan retorted in a more even tone raising his hand in a motion of appeasement. “I Just wanted to come see how you’re holding up. Figured if anyone would be able to find some humor in a situation like this it’d be you.”

Cameron scoffed, finding it hard to keep from rolling his eyes. “And what gave you that impression?”

“Well… you were still being a smarmy little asshole while I was beating the hell out of you.”

Cameron gave a short, soft chuckle as he walked away from the bars, and sat at the edge of the cot. He was quiet for a while, eyes locked on the floor.

“This is different though.”

“How?”

It was a simple question, but it still took Cameron a while before he could come up with an answer.

“Because it was only me suffering then.”

Logan nodded, letting out a sigh as he leaned against a supporting pillar. “I get that,” He said softly. “Though to be fair… it’s only Darwin. I don’t really think he’s going to be missed.”

“It’s not Darwin,” Cameron said, shaking his head. “It’s everyone else. You saw the looks on their faces. The fear… the disgust.”

The memories came rushing back to him, the smell of rust, Miranda’s screams, his father’s parting words. He ground his teeth and shut his eyes tight, hands gripping the side of the cot so hard the rusted metal let out a squeal of protest. He was trying to regain control of his emotions before they threatened to spill over a second time, but he couldn’t deny the words that had been running through his mind since the guards had ushered him away.

“They think I’m a monster.”

He could hear his voice break on the last word of that statement, as his eyes stung, tears blinding his vision. He couldn’t remember a time that he had felt so helpless in this world. So lonely and scared, so… small.

“Maybe they do. Maybe that opinion will never change” Logan’s words were as harsh as they were truthful, even though his tone was soft, and comforting. “But the question is, do you think that you’re a monster?”

Cameron shook his head, not quite ready to meet the man’s gaze yet. “No… But I know what one looks like.”

“You sure about that?”

He nodded, watching his vision clear as his tears dried, a feeling of certainty returning to him. His thoughts drifted to Lendrick, and he felt an involuntary growl echo in his throat. The man had taken everything from him. It should be him rotting in this cell, not Cameron. Better yet, he thought, Lendrick should be rotting in a ditch. A cell was too good for the likes of him.

“Cameron. Look at me.” Logan’s voice calling his name broke him from his angry reflection, putting him back into the present. He did as he was told, his eyes slowly raising to meet Logan’s gaze.

Logan said nothing for a long time. He simply looked at Cameron, his eyes assessing the man, trying to detect the hint of a lie or attempt at subversion. After a minute slowly dragged on in silence, he appeared to be satisfied with what he saw.

“You really are innocent.” Logan finally broke his silence, his tone a soft finality. Cameron could only nod, feeling a sense of hope permeate through his body.

“But why?” He asked, speaking more into the ether than directly at Cameron. “Why would Lendrick frame you? Why would he kill Darwin?”

Cameron knew the answer, his mind going back to that conversation he had overheard. “To cover his tracks. Lendrick and Darwin weren’t here on a mission of goodwill. They were ordered to be here. To make sure everything went smoothly.”

“Make sure what went smoothly?”

Cameron leaned back, resting his head against the bare concrete wall, allowing the cool stone to bring down the heat he felt rising in the back of his neck. “To kill Miranda, and invade the planet.”

“That makes sense.” Logan said flatly. It caught Cameron off guard the nonchalant tone in his voice. But when he looked over at the man, he could see it wasn’t out of callousness, but experience. He figured that when you spent so many years on the battlefield, you got a feel for just how far a lust for wealth and power could take a person. He nodded at Logan, before going into detail everything he had heard and witnessed. The prince’s who were leading the show, the desire to take over Ketris’s interstellar port, and the method of how they planned to do it.

Logan listened intently, only stopping every so often to ask a question. When Cameron was finally done, the weight of his words seem to hang there in the space between them.

“And then I got involved, and… well… here we are.”

“Here we are indeed.” Logan shot back in a grumbling whisper.

A thought occured to Cameron at that moment, which caused him to shoot up from the bed, turning to Logan with fear in his eyes. “You don’t think their still planning on -”

“No, I don’t” Logan said, finishing the thought for him. “Even with Lendrick’s efforts, he’ll still have to find a way to get that information back to his superiors. The last thing they saw was you rushing him down. Hell, they probably think he’s dead.”

This gave Cameron a small semblence of peace. Yet, still he pressed on, his worry for his family outweighing his desire to forget about the prospect of their deaths. “What happens if he does get that information back?”

Logan could only shrug. “My guess? I think they’ll probably start planning again. I think they’ll wait until Sybil leaves though. No matter how power hungry they are, they’re not stupid enough to piss off earth. But enough about that. We need to figure a way to get you out of here.”

Cameron slumped back on his cot, feeling a wave of relief wash over him, calming him just enough to feel the sharp sting of fear well up inside of him. He swallowed hard, shaking his head.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. If I know my father, and if Lendrick get’s his way, I think their gonna want to make an example of me.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

It was Cameron’s turn to shrug, sighing in exasperation. “Life in prison, or worse. But I think they’ll probably lean towards the latter.”

“I see.”

“Yeah…” Cameron said, lowering his head in his hands. He wasn’t crying anymore. The tears wouldn’t fall even if he wanted them to. Instead, he was trying to convince himself to come to peace with his future.

Logan had other plans.

The heavy footfalls of his boots brought Cameron’s gaze up just in time to see Logan walking down the sparesly lit hallway. He felt like calling after him, Logan beat him to the punch.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back.” He called, waving a hand dismissively

“Where are you going?” Cameron called back.

It took until Logan reached the door, his hand grasping the handle before he answered.

“Getting you another option.”