by Renea Taylor
Gesturing that I was to follow the stairs she murmured, “he’s expecting you” then abruptly turned, leaving me to stand, my feet planted and confused, as my mind grappled with the word he, as well as the fact that she truly believed I would do her bidding without question or protest, and go down those steps.
Turning, I glanced back to where the woman had disappeared through the doorway, debating what to do, what did she mean he was waiting for me? Who was waiting for me? And did she really think that I wouldn’t take this chance and try to escape? I was alone within the room, and no one would be the wiser until I was long gone!
However, something held me back…fear? No, I was too angry for that! In fact, it was more of a morbid curiosity to see just who he was than anything, for the woman couldn’t have said anything else that would have piqued my interest more, and forced upon me an almost obsessive compulsion to solve the puzzle.
Throwing the smart thing to do to the side, and with a full head of anger I began stomping my way down the stairs, really unconcerned of what I would find below, for precaution had long since fled.
However, by the time I reached the bottom, my mouth hung open and I stared wide-eyed in amazement at the space around me, “my God” I breathed, my voice faint, for the stairs had led to an area that was moderately expansive, a cavern of sort, split into several spaces and design patterns.
Every section contained greenery, and shrubbery dotted about the place, veining plants stretching long ropy tendrils up the walls, reaching for the domed ceiling, while other sections of the cavern contained more of the greenery, plant life that wrapped tender loving arms around several large aquariums built into the walls.
Unable to stop myself, I wondered further, noting the large crevices in the rocks, crevices that possibly led to wide tunnels, tunnels that a person could find him or herself lost within for eternity.
So focused within my musings about the mysteries of the tunnels, I jumped when behind me I heard someone whisper my name.
Swinging around, I stared at Dante yet...not, for though his likeness stood before me, that was all that was familiar now, for the man I had known so well was gone, and in his place was a duplicate that stared at me with eyes hard as steel, features harsh and cold.
However, even as that was sinking in, so was the fact that, not only had Dante himself changed personally, as well had the clothing he'd been wearing earlier, for though I was grubby and in disarray, he on the other hand was neither, in fact looked quite refreshed, as though having recently showered and donned fresh clothing, clothes that by all appearances, had been made for him.
All of this I took in, then in the thump of a heartbeat, it slammed into me, crushing me from the inside out and I cried, “lies and games Dante? Is that all we were to you, nothing more than something to be played with?”
I heard the hiss of his breath whistle through his teeth at his quick inhalation, then his muttered, “if that’s what it took…” as he stood motionless, his eyes hard and unyielding as he gazed toward me.
Suddenly I felt fuzzy, slightly off balance, not incapacitated, but not entirely right either. My mind wanted to shut down, unable to handle more than it had already endured. Nearly pushed over the edge, my sanity almost stolen, I dug deep inside and found the anger and anguish, bringing it forth, turning it into a strength, an asset to give my mind the kick start it needed as I snarled, “so, this whole time you’ve been here? Right under our noses. Were you laughing at us Dante? Us poor, stupid idiots?”
Dante’s eyes narrowed at my words, but not a sound passed his lips, however there was no need, for I read all the affirmation of what he’d done within his eyes. I felt my face wash of all color, and I couldn’t hold back the words as I cried, “how could you…how could you do that to us…” then turning I ran back up the stairs, anguish chasing my every footstep as tears flowed down my cheeks.
Fifteen minutes later however, the storm of tears had passed, and in its place were red eyes and a puffy, swollen face. As well, was a strong, lethal anger.
As I wondered the house, coming to the opening of another room, I carefully peeked inside, then quietly shut the door again, for within was not the way of escape I sought.
From there, it seemed one followed another, and after a while I began to feel like a mouse in a maze, certain as I peered into each room and found no way of escape, that I’d been there before. Yet I carried on, going in what I had come to realize was a circle. God help me I thought, for I could find no way to be free of this house of insanity.
I nearly jumped out of my skin however, giving a startled screech when from behind me I heard the smooth, deep voice of Dante murmur, “Kira look at me…” I refused his request, gritting my teeth instead as I hissed, “fuck you Dante!”
In the blink of an eye he was standing before me, and reaching out he grabbed my chin, jerking my face up to where he was peering down into it as he hissed, “believe me, the last thing I wanted was to leave you…”
However, his words drawled to a close as I remained mute just staring up at him, my eyes hard and bitter, then unable to stop myself, I snapped, “you make me sick!”
Jerking his hand from my chin, he turned and walked over to a window, then pushing the curtain back with a sharp shove, he peered out. Finally, turning back around to where he was facing me, he gazed in my direction, his eyes changing, as with an obvious attempt to reign in whatever emotion was overtaking him, he let fly a curse.
Half a year, I thought angrily as I stared at him. Six months I'd gone through the agony of not knowing where he was, or if he even lived. At first, the pain had been sharp and agonizing, a pain that I’d wondered if it would ever lessen, soften, and become bearable enough to allow me to breath with out the feeling of a sharp ache in the region that contained my heart.
However, with time I had healed, though slowly and only by burying myself in my painting. Then a month ago, my world unhinged again when Luke had died, and I’d found the pain and anguish I’d felt at Dante’s loss bombarding me all over again.
Yet this time the emotional ripping came accompanied with anger, a boiling rage that turned into resentment and bitterness at Dante for abandoning us as he had, for making Arreon and I mourn the loss of Luke alone. In truth, for making me mourn the loss of Luke without him.
Sucking in a breath, as I could no longer contain the hurt and disillusionment within me, I shouted with accusation, “you were here, and didn't have the decency to come to Luke’s funeral? To grieve with your family?”
Dante had been pacing back and forth, as though unable to stand still, but at my words he came to a complete standstill and muttered sarcastically, “what would you have me do about it now!”
Pain and anger, such as I'd never known, even worse than I’d felt a month earlier as I'd watched them lower Luke’s coffin into the ground assaulted my senses at his words.
The volcano of emotion that had been slowly boiling within me erupted as, with fire spitting from my mouth, I screamed, “you sorry son of a bitch…you’re despicable!”
Then turning, I headed for the door only to find myself grabbed from behind as Dante bodily picked me up and, as my arms were locked tight at my sides and I could do nothing else but kick, I began hurtling insults over my shoulder as I kicked with my feet, struggling to get loose.
However, the hold Dante had on me was impenetrable causing me to finally scream, “I hate you!”
Even as my screams echoed around us, he slowly turned and exited through a doorway that led into the hallway I recognized of earlier. Then, after making his way down its length, he came to a halt before the room I'd occupied earlier, and since his arms were busily keeping me contained, he kicked at the partially closed door before stalking across the space of the room.
Depositing me onto the bed, he turned and left me screaming insults at his departing figure, never aware of the pain, nor the moisture that swam within his eyes.
Chapter 9
After Dante was gone, I
stomped to the door, surprised at finding it unlocked, I jerked it open and stormed into the hallway, only to be met by a gruff looking woman that sent me slinking back into the room as if I were a naughty child.
Come the next morning, that same woman jerked me out of bed and hauled me into the kitchen, where she sat me down and tried to shovel a bowl of oatmeal down my throat when I’d refused to eat it.
With sticky globs decorating my face, the floor, as well as the clothing we both wore, I screamed in anger that they would all freeze in hell before I'd eat anything they shoved at me.
Slow to learn and stubborn as a mule, I spent nearly a week in solitude after the breakfast fiasco, locked within my room, only to see another living soul when the door was opened, and I was again force-fed time after time when I would bulk against voluntarily eating.
However, by the end of that week, I’d come to realize the truth of the words the woman spoke, that I’d remain in solitude and fed like an infant until I saw reason.
In the end, I paid the consequences for my stubbornness, and learned from the mistake.
Now, I found myself being little more than a puppet, for there was no other description that aptly described what was occurring to me!
The puppet master, as I’d named the woman, pulled the strings and I danced to her tugs, having spent the last two days, after being freed of my room, opening my mouth and plugging it with food laced with what I assumed was a narcotic.
It had to be a drug of some type, I thought angrily, for the dizzy stupor I suffered through hour after hour, stayed religiously with me.
Now, ten days into my unwanted and enforced visitation, I was a walking shadow of myself. My eyes supported dark rings around them, black smudges that caused me to appear as if I were kin to a raccoon, and it was as I was again making my way across the dining room in my enforced stupor, to indulge in yet another unwanted and what I was almost certain would be another drug laced meal that I allowed the effects of the drug to keep my eyes partially closed.
It was an effort to do otherwise, and as such, I wasn't paying the least attention to where I was going, and literally didn’t care that I wasn't, that I wound up plowing into a very large, very solid form.
Eyes popping wide at the unexpected contact, I jerked my head up and found myself staring into the startled eyes of Dante.
I watched as his features changed from that of surprise, to that of shock then dark concern, as his eyes raked several times over my face before he finally hissed, “what the fuck have you been doing to yourself!”
Grabbing me by the arm, he led me towards a table that held two filled plates and pushed me down into a chair, before making his way around to the other side, where he pulled out a chair for himself.
Taking a seat, he pushed one of the plates in my direction, and after only a few seconds of my not touching it, he muttered, “eat dammit before I shove it down your blasted throat! Jesus Kira, have you looked in a mirror lately?”
Gazing down at the plate, I ignored his question and instead whispered, “which ones laced this time, the food or the drink?”
With a snort Dante murmured, “I would hope to God neither” then eyes narrowing he asked, “why the hell would ask that anyway!”
Shaking my head, I snapped sarcastically, “where have you been!” then “for the last ten days either or both have been laced with some type of narcotic!”
As I'd spat the words, Dante had leaned forward and picked up a snifter off the table, then with fingers that the knuckles had turned nearly white from the pressure of the grip upon the glass, he'd carried the tumbler to his lips and took a nonchalant sip.
Suddenly everything in me went cold, then white hot, and glaring at him, I picked up my plate and, unable to control the rage that was running rampant through my system, I threw it in his direction snarling, “here, judge for yourself!”
Disappointingly, my aim was off and the plate flew harmlessly past Dante’s head as he ducked sideways, however, not before some of the food managed to dislodge from the plate and splatter in his hair and across his face, covering the bridge of his nose and cheek in a glob of gooey matter.
As he'd just taken another sip of his drink when I tossed the plate, Dante choked, spewing brandy onto the table before him.
Gasping, he coughed and wheezed, pounding at his chest as he tried to return air to his deflating lungs. Finally, air moving again, he wiped at his eyes and face, then flicking the concoction from his hand onto the floor, he scraped back his chair and standing, glowered down in my direction before, once again picking up his snifter he then, and without another word crossing his lips, he turned and angrily exited the room, leaving me to stare wide-eyed at his departing figure, and everyone else in the room, staring at me.
Settling back in my seat, I'd just taken a cleansing breath, a small grin beginning to curve up the corners of my lips when, in what seemed barely a matter of seconds, I found myself gazing up at an imposing, hulking figure of a man as he came to a stop next to my table.
Taking in his shallow, slightly pockmarked features, as his eyes met mine, I had the impression that he could be a very unpleasant man if he so chose.
Then, in a voice that was just as rough as his appearance, he growled, “we can either do this the easy way or the hard way…it’s up to you how you choose to come with me.”
Gaping at him I snapped, “I guess its gonna be the hard way then, because it'll be over my dead body that I willingly go anywhere with you!”
I might as well have saved my breath though, for the man merely heaved a sigh at my words, then shaking his head, he leaned down, and before I could guess his intentions, as he moved quickly for such a large man, I found myself on my feet and turned until my back was against his chest, and with one swift move he locked my arms to my sides as he wrapped his own gorilla-proportioned appendages around my waist, as he subdued any movement on my part.
Then, bodily picking me up he carried me out of the room as laughter followed our clumsy exit, for though I couldn’t use my arms, I wasn’t going easily, as I kicked and screamed the whole way.
Little good it did me however, as he proceeded down the now familiar hallway, and letting out a breath I resigned myself to acknowledging that this was going to be my temporary lodging until such as a time that I was able to figure out a way to escape.
I found myself unceremoniously dumped onto the bed for the second time in as many weeks, and glowering at the door as it shut behind the figure of the incredible hulk, I hesitated, then darted in its direction, certain I’d find the door either locked or the hulk waiting for me just on the other side.
However, shock rocketed through me when I pulled it slightly ajar, and found none of the above. With a shrug, I resumed opening the door and stepped out a little further into the hall, peering both directions down its length, then finally feeling comfortable enough in my certainty that it was empty, I hurried down the halls murky dimness.
Hastening my steps, I practically flew down its length as I headed towards the same door I’d been carried through earlier, then reaching it, I paused as with my heart thumping in my throat, I silently pulled the door open and poked my head through, feeling my hopes plummet around my toes at finding the incredible hulk staring back.
With shoulders slumping at the unpleasant discovery, as well as the realization that no matter how badly I might want to escape, it wasn't going to happen this time around. I eased the door back shut again before I finally turned, and with dejection filling every step, I slowly made my way back down the hall, then after re-entering my room, I made my way over and sat down on the bed.
Reaching out, I grabbed a pillow and punched it with a shriek of anger. However, though the exertion of releasing some of my frustration made me physically feel better, it did little to relieve the pent up emotions that continued to boil within me.
At last and not knowing what else to do, I lay down closing my eyes, and as tears trickled out beneath my tightly clenched lids, I fo
und my mind wondering as to just where Dante had brought me to anyway.
Some type of cult? God, where was Arreon, and why had he not come to save me yet?
* * *
Deep in the night I awakened, an awareness of having been startled from sleep drifting within me. I lay listening, anxiously trying to pinpoint the source for the abrupt stirring, but when no obvious reason presented itself I shrugged and rolled over, snuggling back into the warmth of my blanket, a yawn stretching my mouth wide as my eyes drifted back closed.
The exhalation of air was abruptly cut short though as I jerked into a sitting position, staring about the room, a chill stretching feathery fingers down my back for I was being watched, I could feel it, could sense unseen eyes peering in my direction, but the gloom within the room revealed nothing yet even deeper, darker, purple shadows.
Shuffling in the bed, I pushed my way backwards on my butt until I sat on the top corner of the mattress. My shoulders snuggled within the V of the walls, and with my knees drawn to my upper body, I sat, quivering and trying to restrain the small whimpers that pushed their way through chattering teeth and trembling lips.
However, I gained no comfort in the position, for in a matter of seconds my breath was shuddering out from between frozen lips as my heart stopped with a sharp jolt, before restarting to pound madly within the confines of my chest as the sound of loud breathing and shuffling began to resonate about the room.
Its volume continued to increase until I finally tossed back the covers and leaped from the bed, my only thought to escape the room, to be somewhere, anywhere that whatever was creating the terrifying noises wasn’t.
I feared that the thing I'd encountered twice now in the swamps had followed me to finish what, so far, had been denied it, and flying to the door, I passed through the entrance into the hallway, not knowing nor caring where I was going, just as long as it took me away form the horrific thing in my room.
