Trigger Warning: Violence and graphic scenes; blood and gore

I take a step forward, plunging into the darkness.

"Ahhhh!" I scream as I free-fall, my voice echoing on the way down, then land on cold hard ground, twisting my foot under me.

"Victoria?" I hear Sam only a few feet away from me. "There was a ladder, you know."

"Wow, thank you so much for that observation," I say.

Crrhrrrrsshhhhunk!

I look up, and the square door grinds shut over my head.

"Where are we?" I say, my eyes adjusting to the darkness. It's a small room made out of stone, with nothing inside but dust and a rectangular rock jutting out from the wall. The rock looks extremely out of place. Maybe it's another door. I think.

Suddenly the wall starts shaking and dust falls from the corners. The rock turns, and the wall shudders with a loud, rumbling sound until it slides slowly to the left, revealing a dirty boy with dark hair and wide eyes around my height just standing there. We stare at each other for a full minute.

"Who are you?" Sam demands.

" . . . My name is Abir," The boy says in an accent I can't figure out. "Have you come to rescue me?" He says hopefully.

"No, sorry," I say, and his shoulders droop. Who is he? Why is he here? I have so many questions. "How long have you been down here?"

Sam throws me an 'I don't trust this guy' look, but I ignore her.

"I do not know how long. Many many weeks, I think. Maybe a month, maybe a year—"

Sam nudges me with her arm. "Victoria," She says under her breath so only I can hear. "In the corner."

I look behind him at another stone room, slightly smaller than our cabin. It's been made into a makeshift hideout, with a small, wooden circular table with only two legs leaning against the stone walls, what seems to be a bed made of old sheets and blankets, and a fireplace made from a carving in the wall and small logs. On the opposite side, sheets are tied to the ceiling like curtains. My eyes travel down the sheets and my heart stops. There's someone tied up behind the sheets. I think when I notice hands tied up with string peeking out from behind the sheets. Who is this guy and why does he have someone hostage?

"Can we come in?" Sam asks him.

"Yes you may, and I know it is not much, but . . . "

I walk straight over to the sheets and pull them aside. My hand flies to my mouth, muffling a gasp.

It's Chlo, with her hands tied together with wire, and a rag tied around her mouth. She's unconscious, but breathing. I whirl around, glancing at Sam and she looks back at me with disbelief. What the heck?!

I look at the guy (Abir) and he has a large piece of wood in his hands. He draws up behind Sam ready to swing, his eyes filled with rage.

"Sam!" I scream, but it's too late. He brings the wooden club down on Sam and she turns around right when the log makes contact with her head, making a horrible, hollow thunk sound and knocking her out instantly.

What. The. F*ck.

"What the hell?!" I say, backing away from him. "What's wrong with you?"

"You took my sister." He says darkly, coming closer. "You took her and you k*lled her."

"No, I didn't!"

"Why would you come here if it was not to take me too? You look just like the ones that took her!" He says in short, sputtering breaths.

Okay whoa, that's not . . .

"Look buddy, I don't know who you are or what happened to your sister, but you can't just take it out on my friends!" I yell.

He advances towards me holding the log above his head, and I move behind the table, grab it by its two legs, and shove him away, the wooden club landing on his own head. He slumps down and doesn't move, so I go over to Sam and my heart sinks when I see her lying unconscious on the floor and blood streaming out of a large gash on her forehead.

"Nnnnaarugh!" He's gotten up, still wielding the huge log and staggering towards me. He looks crazy, with blood trickling down the sides of his face mixed with sweat dripping off his chin. He lets out a growl that echoes through the stone and raises the log above his head, but then collapses suddenly unveiling Chlo standing behind him with an axe in her still-tied-together arms.

"Chlo you're awake!" I say. I get up to hug her. "Thank you."

"Yeah . . . Oh no, what happened to Sam?" She says as I untie her wrists.

"Abir got her when I found you." I crouch down next to Sam. "We'd better do something about that cut."

"Do we have a first-aid kit?" Chlo asks, rubbing her wrist.

"We do, but it's back at the cabin."

"Okay, we can work with what we have." She says, looking through a pile of rags in a corner.

"We should get her on the bed first," I say.

"Good idea."

We kneel on either side of her and put our arms underneath her shoulders. We lift her upwards and make our way over to the bed, laying her down.

"Wait, I have some makeup wipes in my pocket," Chlo says. "They're pretty sanitary."

"Okay good, you can wipe the blood off and clean her cuts."

"Uhh . . . you can do it." She says, handing the wipe to me. "I'm not good with blood."

I push her hand away. "I'm sure you'll be fine, Chlo."

"No really. I'm already nauseous."

I bend over the side of the bed, rest my arm next to her chest, and push her hair away from her face. Her eyes are closed and her eyebrows are tightly scrunched together. A warm feeling rises in my stomach. I gasp when I see the nasty gash on the left side of her forehead. Gosh. I wipe the blood away and put on disinfectant, then make a temporary band-aid with tape and gauze. I hope she wakes up. I think as I run my thumb along the bruise on her cheek. Her jaw tightens and she reaches her arm up to her face and winces.

"She's waking up." I breathe a sigh of relief.

"That's good."

⚢

" . . . So Chlo, how did you find this place?"

She pauses for a second. "Let's just say I trusted this 'Abir' kid too quickly. I'm going to work on that."

I nod. "Yeah, all of us do," I say, then I stop. "Wait, did he hit you too?"

"No, he . . . " She looks up, trying to remember. "He just drugged me."

"The heck?! With what?"

"I . . . don't know. Maybe sleeping pills?"

"Oh my gosh. I guess it could be worse."

"So what's going on between you and Sam?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, my face getting hot.

"I thought you two didn't get along,"

"Well—"

"I saw the way you looked at her, like you actually cared."

"Okay but—"

"She doesn't hate you, Victoria."

⚢ 

"What are we going to do with him?" Chlo says, jutting her thumb towards Abir lying unconscious on the ground. Right, I'd forgotten about him.

"Let's just leave him outside this moving wall thing," I say. "I think we should wait till morning to deal with him."

"Good idea."

We drag bro to the wall that had opened to let us in a few hours before. "Do you remember how he opened it?" I ask her.

"No, I wasn't paying attention," She says and moves forward to inspect the wall. When she takes a step, a clicking noise comes from where she presses her foot down, and the wall trembles and shifts to the right with a dull, rock-grinding noise.

"Well, there you go."

Abir is still on the ground, and we drag bro back into the empty stone room that Sam and I came through hours earlier.

We return to the room and the wall grinds shut behind us.

Sam's still on the bed when we get back but she's sitting up, and we walk over to her.

"Hey Sam," Chlo says when she sees her.

"Hey," Sam says.

"How are you feeling?" I ask her. She looks at me.

"Great."

"You were out for like an hour," Chlo explains.

"Dang." She stands up.

"Woah woah woah," I say, putting my hands on her arms. "You can't just stand up that fast after losing that much blood, you could get Anemia."

She isn't paying attention at all. Her eyes dash down my face for a moment, so quickly that you would miss it if you blinked. "Hello? Are you even listening?" She blinks and glances at my hands. I lift them off of her.

"Yes ma'am." She finally says and sits back down.

" . . . I'm gonna go deal with Abir." Chlo says, looking back and forth between us. "I'll be back in about an hour. Victoria, you'll stay with her?"

"Sure," I say.

⚢