Chapter 5: Prisoners

"...Should we throw them off?"

"No. We cannot kill the boy, no matter what. The girl...take her along, as well. She's seen something she shouldn't have..."

I moaned, my eyes feeling as though they had been impaled by a million needles each. I wriggled my wrists and toes. The world around me was entirely black, but there were voices around. The voices of strangers.

"It's moving," one of the voices said. I stilled, gnawing my lip in terror. Where was I? Was Reya here? Was he dead? No, no, he couldn't be...they mentioned a boy. Maybe they meant him.

Light cut into my face, stabbing my eyes for a split second, just before shadows fell over me.

"The dosage didn't last as long as you said it would, Eight," this voice was awfully familiar.

"Hmm, that's strange," another shadow murmured. He grabbed my arm and impaled it with a needle.

"No, wait!" I squirmed as much as I could, gritting my teeth, "Let me go!"

The light was shut out again. I guessed that I was in a bag of some sort. That was the last thing I guessed for a while.

***

"Note?"

"Ahh!" I screamed and felt a hand press against my mouth. I looked up at Reya. His face was grimy and his hair was iced with dirt.

"Shh," he put a finger to his lips. I nodded slowly and looked around. I was lying on my back and the ground was wet underneath me. Shadows flickered against the stony, wet walls and I realized that I was no longer in that dreadful bag.

I sat up straight and looked at Reya. "Where are we?"

He shook his head, "I really don't know, sis, but you're in really bad shape..."

I groaned, trying to stretch. My legs throbbed and my arms felt as though somebody had stabbed them with millions of toothpicks, not to mention the monster of a headache that hung over me.

"Your head was bleeding," Reya made a face, "T-The people brought someone in who staunched the bleeding, but that was it. I guess maybe...maybe they're not..."

"Maybe they're not going to kill us," I whispered, struggling to stand up. I planted my palms against the wall behind me, digging my nails into the grimy stone.

"Ugh...help me up," I groaned. Reya nodded and stood up, putting my arm around his shoulder.

"We're in some sort of cave, Note," he whispered, "I went exploring a bit and..."

"What?" I hissed, "What if something ate you, or...or..."

"There's nothing here, Note!" Reya interrupted my interruption, "There's absolutely nobody in here!"

I moaned, my hair falling over my face as I lurched forward slightly. Reya held me back.

"You okay?" He whispered, "Listen, Note...what if they leave us here to starve and die?"

"If they wanted us to die, then they wouldn't have stopped my bleeding, right?" I frowned, "Besides...I heard them talking about something earlier. After we were attacked by those cat monsters, but before we ended up here."

Reya's eyes shone. "What?"

I exhaled, trying to figure out how to word my sentence. "They said that they're not going to kill you, no matter what."

"And you?"

"If they wanted to kill me, they could've done that earlier, don't you think?" I raised my voice and then sighed, "Sorry, Reya. I'm just..."

"...Me, too," he whispered, "I'm scared out of my mind..."

And then there was a loud, booming echo that shook me to the core. Reya's grip around my arm tightened as we watched white light drip across the floor of the cave. There were footsteps that followed, and shadows danced against the wall.

"It's going to be alright," I said under my breath, squeezing my brother's hand. He nodded quickly.

"What should we do?"

"The only thing we can," I replied, watching the tip of a shoe emerge from the turn of the cave, "We wait."