Chapter 16:
Iwoke up on a cold hard floor, in a dim lit room unable to remember how I got to where ever it was, I was. I sat up and stretched out, my muscles were sore from the way I had been laying and my head hurt. Without thinking, I lifted my fingers to my head to find a small gash with what felt like dried blood matted with my hair; as if I had been bashed over the head. The thought summoned images of Sol and me in the woods, of me reaching out to him.
In a flash my memory returned. I jumped up, now wide awake. His name was on the tip of my tongue but fear got the better of me. If, whoever had captured us didn't know I was awake, I wasn't about to tell them. Where was Sol? Was he ok? I looked around the room to see if there was any way I could escape but quickly realised that wasn't going to happen. The room I was in, was basically a cell, no bigger than 10ft wide and 10ft long. If I stood on my tip toes I could almost touch the ceiling. The room had one small window, an iron grate covered it with lots of small holes letting enough light in for me to know it was daytime but not even big enough to fit my fingers through, let alone escape. There was a metal door opposite the window, the heavy-duty type, something you would see in a prison; with a little rectangle shutter box that could only be opened from the other side. Still, I tried. With no luck, I slumped back down to the cold hard ground I'd woken up on. Was I in a prison? If so, how far had I travelled? The walls were made of brick and the floor was concrete. I had nothing else in the room with me. No toilet, no sink, no food or water I didn't even have my shoes on. I tried the sides of the window for any way to escape. I felt every bit of wall, floor, and ceiling for any loose bricks or secret escape doors.
When there was nothing left to do I screamed and banged on the door for someone to let me out, I screamed Sol's name until my throat was sore but nothing. I heard nothing, saw nothing. It was as if the world had vanished and I was left alone trapped in this fucking tiny cell. I sat there for hours wondering who had captured us? Was Sol ok? Where was I? And if I really was supposed to be some magical fucking superhero then where were these powers I supposedly had? Why couldn't I just tap into them and get out of here? How was I supposed to save the fucking world if I couldn't even save myself?
Even so, I tried to see if I could find them, use them. I tried closing my eyes and imagining, what? I sighed in despair I had no reference, had no idea what I was looking for. Was it a ball of light I tapped into? I once read in a fantasy novel about a woman who found out she had powers and had a lake inside her mind which she dived into to get her spells and runes to help her save the day. Do I have something like that inside me, or did I need a wand or book with special words needing to be said? Maybe, I just need to think it, that would be the easiest and why I knew it wouldn't be that. Still, I tried everything I could think of by the time the sun had gone down and nothing had worked.
I was so thirsty. My throat was dry from all the shouting I'd done and my anger had boiled down to just pure worry for Sol. The only good thing was my head was no longer hurting and the cut seemed to have healed completely leaving no trace apart from dried blood, matted in my hair.
I sat on the cold floor wondering if someone was ever going to come back or if I had just been left for dead. when I heard a clinging noise in the distance, I soon realised they were keys rattling and jangling when loud stomping footsteps accompanied the keys noise.
I was pretty sure they were here for me. I hadn’t heard a single sound apart from the noise coming from my cell since I’d woken. No one else was here with me.
When the noise stopped outside my room, I didn't know if I should be scared that they had come or relieved they hadn't forgotten about me? The shutter on the metal door slid open and before I could say a thing a metal container drop from it onto the floor and the shutter closed. Due to my need for water, I instantly thought that's what had been dropped through the door, a water container. Stupid, stupid girl. The container started spilling out smoke and I couldn’t help coughing as it filled the room. I had nowhere to go, no place to hide. Using my top, I covered my mouth, got as low as possible and crouched into a ball. It was too much, smoke had filled every corner of the room, my head started to spin the next thing I knew was a boot came crashing down on my head and the last thing I thought before it all went dark was great now my head’s going to be killing me again.
When I woke for the second time not knowing where I was, it was bound and gagged. I was laid on a floor in what looked to be covered with dirty straw. I sat up to be hit with the most rancid smell I’d ever smelt, it stung my throat and even with the thick leathery ball stuck in my mouth, stopping me from talking, I could taste the smell on my tongue. Bile rose from my stomach and I threatened to be sick but with the gag in place, it had nowhere to go but back down. I had no other option than to breathe through my nose so, for the first few minutes all I could do was close my eyes and try to get used to it.
It was taking longer than I thought and I was trying with every bit of might to keep from not being sick when, something freezing touched my arm. It startled me, I opened my eyes to find a girl, possibly in her early twenties with long blond hair and friendly green eyes staring back at me. I saw she was gagged and bound as I was, but when I looked back to her eyes, I could see the defiance in them.
I liked her immediately which was usually the way with me. I think there’s a saying somewhere that you make your mind up about liking a person in the first seven seconds of meeting them, and in my case, that was probably true. My problem had never been whether I liked someone or not, it was more to do with conversations and ok probably trust plus all other kinds of shit I didn’t want to think about.
Having no way of asking her name or what the hell was going on, I tried to show the same defiance I had seen in her eyes shine through in mine. She looked freezing cold dressed in what once could have been a pretty little pink cocktail dress but now it looked like both the dress and the girl wearing it had seen better days. Both were filthy dirty and looked like they had been dragged through a mud pit. I noticed her hands shaking from the cold and realised that’s what must have touched me. They had a blue tinge to them, as did her bare feet, both were probably not far off hyperthermia.
I didn’t know what to do? My hands and feet were tied, I was gagged, had only what I’d put on when I’d left for the grove with Sol; a pair of jeans and a short sleeve rolling stones t-shirt. I had no idea where my jacket or shoes were. I had nothing to give her and having no other way to communicate all I could do was nod my head, indicating at her to sit beside me so we could at least share some warmth. She nodded back understanding and sat on the floor next to me.
Now that I had sort of got used to the smell and by that, I mean not throwing up in my mouth every two seconds and having to swallow it. I was able to take a look at my surroundings. I was in a barn at least It looked to be, made of wood about 300ft long and 100ft wide with big oak beams above us, there was a massive door that had a big metal bar slid across keeping everybody inside. The floor was indeed covered in straw, not the fluffy yellow stuff, this looked wet and dirty but that wasn't where the smell was coming from as I'd first thought when waking. In the corner of the barn at the opposite end to the massive doors looked to be where you went to the toilet. A great pile of hay bales had been piled up in the corner, it had flies swarming around it and the smell was nothing like anything I'd smelt before. I sat in horror and watch as an elderly lady walk over to the edge of the pile, crouched down and pissed, right in front of everyone, nothing was hiding her from view.
What the fuck!! I could feel myself hyperventilating. Where the hell was I? No one had batted an eyelid at what had just transpired. What the hell could have happened to make an old lady lose all decency as if it had evaporated into thin air and operate as if she were no more than an animal.
That's what smelt. That's where these people had to go to the toilet. I looked around and there looked to be about 100 women, maybe less. Ranging in age from 16 to about 60. I saw a few young kids th
at looked no older than 9 or 10 scattered among the women but only a handful and all terribly skinny as if they hadn't eaten in days or maybe weeks. I suspected they were children of the women and my heart ached for them their only grace was they weren't gagged only bound at the feet. I wondered why they hadn't run away but quickly understood why when I looked around the room and saw their scared faced. They were petrified and probably had nowhere to go even if they could get away.
Everyone was huddled together in little groups as far away from the smell as they could get. Each of them were bound and gagged as I was, only unlike me they didn't have their feet tied only their hands. All were dressed in clothes that were dirty and I expected smelled as bad as the shit pile in the corner.
Who had done this to them? And why? They looked so dejected, hopeless and dam right ready to give up on life all together. The more I looked, the more I noticed little things, oil lamps where strung up in places, giving light to this dirty, smelly prison. Holes and missing bits of wood were scattered throughout the building due to age. There were 2 silver bowls on the same edge as I sat with brown filthy water inside. Surely this wasn't our water? If so how were you supposed to do anything with this fucking thing stuck in your mouth?
I wanted to scream and shout, ask what the hell these people were doing and why they hadn’t fought against the people doing this. This was bad these people in front of me were being treated worse than fucking animals and now, I was one of these people. I wondered for the millionth time what was going on? Where was I? where was Sol? I had looked for him while scanning the room and had seen no sign of him. I tried not to think the worse but it was getting harder and harder.
How was I ever going to get out of here?
The room had been silent since I'd woken up, the only thing I had heard was the constant buzzing of all the flies. Everyone had stay grouped together in their little huddles, probably to keep warm as I was starting to feel how bloody cold it was in here. There were no windows in this place and the little gaps and holes showed little so, I had no idea if it was night or day but by the temperature I would have said night but this was England after all and it could be sunny and warm in the morning when you woke and by the time you had your dinner it could be freezing cold and snowing. All I could do was sit watching the room trying to figure out what I was going to do? But as the hours or minutes ticked by and the only thing I'd seen was two more women pee by the shit pile I was in the full-blown panic mode. All sorts of thoughts crossed my mind from I just had to stay calm and figure a way out to all hope was completely gone and the only reason we had been brought here was for a slow and painful death.
Lost in thoughts of my imminent death, it took a moment to notice that the people were starting to move closer to the pile of shit in the corner, at the back of the barn. It started slowly at first but soon all of them were trying to hide behind one another. I looked at the girl next to me as she hadn't moved an inch, she just shrugged her shoulders, looked at the shit and swiped her head. There was no mistaking her intent or lack thereof to get any closer to that smell than she had to. I couldn't help but chuckle even though I knew something horrible was about to happen, it was the only reason I could think of why anybody would get closer to that smell than they needed to be. Seconds later my thoughts were confirmed by a loud scraping noise from the massive barn door indicating someone was unlocking it and coming in.
Three monsters strode into the room glaring at the terrified people huddled in the corner. I couldn’t help but stare back, dumbstruck at the hideous beings that stood in the doorway. They were at least 8-foot-tall with dark hair covering their bodies. I had no idea what to call the things that had strode into the building but the word hellhound flashed through my brain, and the name fitted perfectly.
It was some type of man-animal hybrid. As if a dog, bat and human body builder all had a threesome and this was the product of that night. They looked terrifying with their glowing red eyes, snout-like noses, and teeth that looked like they could bite you in two with a single chomp. I shuddered at the thought.
They had the body of a man (a hairy bodybuilding man with two arms and two legs) but with not an inch of clothing on. Only hair covered everything on display gesturing they had to be at least part human. But it was the wings on their backs and the claws on their hands that I couldn't help staring at. The wings were huge, even bigger than the monsters. I glared at their bat-like structure, they were as black as night and even though in parts they looked thin and leathery, a total contradiction to their bodies, I didn't fail to notice the barbs sticking out at the edges and bottom of each wing, matching the claws on their hands and their razor-sharp teeth. It didn't take a brain surgeon to work out their wings were both deadly weapons, as well as giving them the ability to fly.
I mean I had seen some pretty fucked up things over the last few weeks but this was nuts. How was I supposed to escape these bloody things? I now knew why these people looked as sad and hopeless as they did, why they hadn’t fought their captors and all escaped. All thoughts of demons and darkness being a load of nonsense vanished completely into thin air along with any hope of escaping.
The girl next to me elbowed me in the ribs and when I turned to see what she wanted, she was motioning with her eyes to stop looking and put my head down in the same way as all the others were. I had been so shocked at what stood in front of me I hadn't noticed what the other people trapped here were doing. I quickly followed suit not wanting to stand out and be noticed, but it was too late. In the corner of my eye, I saw the thing in the middle point straight at me. I looked at the girl next to me and even though she couldn't speak I heard her loud and clear… I was fucked.
The monster in the middle grunted, whether it was something unintelligible as in another language or I was too far away to hear I was not sure but whatever had been said made the monster stomped past the other two and headed in my direction. Looking around for someplace to hide was useless so, instead, I clumsily got to my feet and await whatever fate had in store for me.
Within seconds, I was pulling myself off the floor, halfway across the room from where I'd just been. Blood poured from my left nostril onto the floor and I could already feel my left eye starting to swell shut. It took me a moment to figure out the monster had walked up to me and backhanded me right across the face, sending me flying. I hastily tried to get back to my feet but being slapped in the face by a massive hellhound-monster thing was going to take a second. I was on my knees when the thing was in front of me again, my eye was swelling fast and it was becoming harder to see out that eye.
I knew I needed to pinch my nose to stop the bleeding but with the gag in place, it would mean I couldn't breathe. Panic threatened to overtake me but before it could the hellhound grabbed my hair and was dragging me across the floor to the two others. I wanted to fight and struggle but with the things claws so close to me I knew I would get pretty cut up, if it didn't kill me. And for what? Nothing! I doubt I would be able to get out of its grip and even if I did, where was I going to go with no escape and two other hellhounds or whatever they were guarding the door. I was fucked. So, instead of fighting, I tried my hardest to go along with the thing pulling me.
The hellhound that was dragging me along the floor like a rag doll, tossed me at the feet of one of the other monsters and went and stood at his side. All three stared down at me like I was nothing more than a bug that needed to be exterminated. I could feel tears sliding down my cheeks or maybe it was blood but either way, I was convinced that this would be how I died. It would only take a moment for one of them to slide a claw under my neck and slit my throat. Part of me begged for it to happen, to take me out of this world and into the next, where my loving husband and my sweet little boy were hopefully waiting for me. All the pain and heartache would be gone.
Without even realising it, I had lifted my head and was staring up out my good eye, at the great monster in front of me leaving my neck in full view. In that moment I wasn't sure if, I was g
iving in to the thoughts of potentially seeing my husband and son again and so egging them on or in defiance to the bastards that they could just fuck themselves.
The hellhound-monster thing must have thought the gesture to be of the latter and surprised the hell out of me by saying in a deep gruff voice
“I see the defiance in you, you ingrate. Before your time is up and our true master awakens you will wish for death until then, all you will know is unbearable pain and suffering.”
The hellhound that had hit me and then dragged me across the floor turned and punched his companion (the one talking to me) in the face, splitting his eye. It was a heck of a hit and the thing didn't move, it wasn't even bleeding if they even bled at all. Still, at least it was taking the focus off me, or so I thought. The one in the middle who had hit me and the other monster re-grabbed my hair and yanked me to my feet "MOVE" was all that was said as he released my hair, turned around and strode out the building expecting me to follow.
Not wanting my other eye to be smashed to pieces I followed as quickly as I could, with the other two hellhound-monsters on my tail.
I followed the hellhound that seemed to be in charge of the other two out the doors and as I'd thought it was indeed night. It was another clear evening with only a few clouds obscuring the light from the moon, making it difficult to see.
The thing turned left and led me down a gravel path and with each step I took, sharp little stones dug into my feet. I hoped I didn’t have to walk too far on this or my feet were going to be cut to pieces, not that anybody cared.
I tried to focus on my surrounding for two reasons one; to help take the pain away from my head that was throbbing, my eye that was stinging like fuck and my poor feet being cut to pieces. I could only take small little shuffle steps due to the fact I was tied up and it soon felt like I was walking on glass. Two: because if I ever wanted to escape this place I had to know where I bloody was. The only problem was it was too fucking dark. I was having a hard time focusing on the thing in front of me as it was. I could make out that we were on a pathway with bushes and trees on either side of us, but what lay beyond was a mystery?
The Fifth Page 22
