*Unedited*

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It was dark and cold everywhere.

I was walking inside the woods, and my body hurt everywhere. I shivered, and called out for someone, a name that I couldn't comprehend. A low hum reverberated somewhere close, and other vague noises made their way to me.

There was someone nearby.

"Hello?" I shouted, but my voice came out muffled and distorted, as if someone had stuffed clothes inside my mouth.

Far ahead, I saw a small orb of light. I ran toward it. As I reached closer, the orb of light gradually expanded, and soon turned into a big tunnel.

I stopped abruptly. The light was starting to hurt my eyes. I squinted at it, tried to cover my eyes with my hands, but they were stuck somewhere...tied behind my back?...I just couldn't pull them free and draw them up to my eyes.

Wake up! I heard a girl scream inside my head. Was it my own voice? Wake up! It's a dream!

I jolted awake.

The first thing I saw was a candle lit close to where I lay.

The table was brought closer to my bed, and that is where the candle rested, aflame. There was a flat dish lying beside it, and I saw a piece of bread and something brown and mushy plopped right beside it.

Food, and light.

My tied wrists were right in front of my eyes, and my breath felt hot on my wrists. Considering the shiver, I concluded that the fever was back.

I looked around, and found a figure tucked into the darkness a couple of feet away from me, its back to me. I swallowed.

Was he here all this time?

I sat up rather audibly, and made sure the bed would creak in the process. Luckily it did, causing the guy to look at me.

It was Dylan. I could figure this much in the dim light. I clearly remembered the clothes he wore.

"Sleeping beauty finally wakes up!" he stood up and closed the distance between us. His voice was humorless, so I wondered how I should react to his words.

He spontaneously sat beside my reclined figure and started untying my ropes.

"Aren't you afraid that I might run away once again?" I asked rather boldly. I saw his fingers falter at my words, but he kept going on nonetheless.

"I may have done a mistake by bringing you here in the first place, but that does not mean I'll babysit you here forever," his fingers worked on the rope, harsher this time, "You need to eat."

Then his fingers brushed against my skin, and they halted. His eyes searched mine in the dim light of the candle, and something shifted in them.

"You...are burning," his eyes widened, and his hands shot up to my forehead. I cringed inside, but forced myself to stay still.

"Wait here, and don't move!" he stood up and pointed a finger at me, "If you try to run again, you might not be shown any mercy!"

I did not say yes or no.

He left, but he fumbled a lot with the door, which indicated that he had sealed it shut. I released the breath I was holding, and then looked at the dish of food in front of me. It didn't have any smell, so it must be stale. I twisted my tongue inside my mouth and licked my parched lips, but there wasn't an ounce of hunger inside me. All I felt was a sourness from the fever, and pain, lots of pain. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep the fever off.

Dylan returned after a while, but I heard two voices outside the door. This time, Dylan was accompanied by his crude brother.

Daniel swaggered inside, and looked at me like I was an animal displayed in a zoo.

"Fever?" Daniel asked his brother, as if he had just made this up.

"The strong type. Just hoping that she did not get any wild disease. I saw a lot of cuts on her feet. She could have easily contracted something."

Daniel looked at me again, and I shifted under his scrutinizing eyes. Then his eyes narrowed, and he hunched forward. I flushed as he put both his hands on my sides so I was literally caged by his arms, and his piercing eyes grazed over my left breast.

My face turned hot, and I started moving backwards.

"Did you give her anything for this cut?" he asked Dylan without taking his eyes off my chest, and then I realized he was just staring at the cut from last night and not being a pervert. Dylan answered in negative.

"You," it took me a while to understand that he had been talking to me, "Does it hurt? The cut?"

No asshole. It feels sweet and gives me butterflies in my stomach, to the point I can't help but crave it.

I only nodded.

To be honest, my entire body was a house of pains at that moment, and I couldn't really tell apart one from the other.

"A little," I added, and it took me every ounce of strength in my body to answer.

"Didn't you get it last night?" he asked again, his eyes fixated on the cut, scrutinizing it. His arms were still on both sides of my butt, making it really difficult me to focus on any words. He smelled of sandalwood, lemon and sweat. The combination was weirdly welcoming.

"Yeah," I mumbled, my voice getting weaker.

He narrowed his eyes again, as if trying to place a bunch of broken pieces of a puzzle into place.

"Seems like your cuts heal faster than usual..." his gaze elevated to my eyes again.

"Seems like yours don't," I looked at his cut, the prominent one that started from his right jaw and ended midway to his neck. If it had been from a knife, I wondered how he was still alive.

Then I realized that I shouldn't have said those words. They just slipped out of my mouth.

Daniel's eyes bored into mine, and I saw molten lava folding in them. The muscles of his arms locked, and I felt him clutch my bed-spread in fists.

Dylan was restless all of a sudden.

"Yeah, okay! We can arrange some medicine for her," he said impatiently to his brother, who wouldn't stop giving me dead stares. I swear I would have peed if I had any water left in my system.

"Daniel, let's go. It's late," Dylan tugged at his brother's shirt.

Finally, after a few more seconds of dangerous glare, Daniel slowly stood up and turned away from me. His whole stance reeked disdain, and I wondered if I had shot the wrong words at him.

Dylan looked at me and then the plate before he started for the door. Daniel silently followed him.

Dylan was already out of the door, but Daniel stopped right before stepping out, and he turned toward me. His gaze flicked a little between my eyes and the cut on my neck, "I thought I would let you go, but I don't think I will."

The words slowly sank in, and I opened my mouth to protest.

"You are everything but the innocent little weakling you appear to be, and you sure as hell are not getting out of here until I know what you have in your system," he shot at me, and then he disappeared, and the door banged.

I sat there, dumbfounded, and the tears finally made their way out of my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. What 'I had in my system'? I was a normal girl who they had abducted from just another group of abductors, and they were keeping me captive when it was clear that I wanted to go home.

And even if there was something in my system, how did they plan to find that out? Would they dissect me like a lab rat?

The face of the girl they had killed flooded my brain, and I couldn't hold my tears anymore.

I had no idea what his words meant. All I knew was that I was in deep trouble, and that I had to get out of this place at any cost.

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Hello all! I am finally back with a new chapter. Sorry that I didn't get to edit it but I hope you enjoyed it.

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I'll see you soon with the next chapter :)

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