Escape [Original Fiction]

Title: Escape
Fandom: Alternate (original fiction)
Character(s): Vaidryn Benitez Leal
Other: This seemed like an interesting part of Vaidryn's past, so I'm expanding on it...there probably will be more later.

He slammed the door behind him and ran. His footsteps rang loudly on the marble floor, but that was the last thing on Vaidryn's mind. He flung himself up the stairs, biting his lip hard and concentrating, so that those tears in his eyes would not fall. They could not fall. Not now, not ever.

He reached the fourth floor, panting, but didn't stop. He rushed past the doors, past the people wondering how he had just materialised from thin air. He reached the room.

Vaidryn didn't remember deciding to leave, so his things were still there, scattered. But the choice seems to have been decided for him.

He grabbed his savings for the last 3 years, a jacket, and a box full of his most treasured possessions, then turned heel and left the room.

Everything else--his clothes, his toys, his precious items of worth--was left there, never to be touched by him again.

Out the door, through the corridors, down the stairs and outside. The sun was partially obscured by cloud, and it was a humid day, but he didn't dare take his jacket off. Night would plunge temperatures down to freezing.

He set of running, hugging his box of possessions, and not looking back even as the first yells went up in the Headquarters. 'Vaidryn has escaped', they would say. 'He has ran away'. But that wasn't true.

Vaidryn Benitez was free. Finally.

Two kilometers from Headquarters, he stopped and looked around. He was in the middle of the market, and there was a stall buying gold. Ah, problem solved. Striding up confidently to the stall-owner, Vaidryn opened the box and tipped the contents out. There were music players, game consoles, antique rings, books and CDs spilled out onto the table.

"How much," asked Vaidryn, "for all of it?"

His eyes caught something--a glint of gold. It was a bracelet; his mother's, one of the last things she gave to him before she left. He quickly snatched it up. "Except that."

The owner looked greedily at the items. "50 dollars," he said.

"No. That DS is worth $100 at least. That mp3, $30. I want $200 for all of it."

The man hesitated--it was a good deal but he could usually get better. But the boy was desperate. Why not do one act of kindness? "Fine. Here's four 50s."

Vaidryn nodded. "Thank you."