She sits across from me in her own little corner. She won't look up at me but why would she? It's not my fault though, she told me to do it. Ever since she had gotten herself caught and thrown in this cage with me, nobody has come for us. In a way it's a relief, but it's also not if we want to be rescued.

"Nice weather we're having, don't you think?" Alex asks, trying to start to conversation with me.

She's quite the character. I must admit that. If I were her, I would've been too scared to even move me head up to look at me.

"Don't talk."

She looks back at the ground as quick as her answer comes from her lips. "Okay," she hesitates before speaking again. "I won't tell him what you did. I'll keep it a secret from all three. I know each of them means something to you one way or another."

I lick my dry lips and lean my head against one of the cold iron bars surrounding us, blocking the ability to escape. I don't speak, I don't know what to say, and keep silent. Guilt begins to fill the pit of my stomach, and I become ashamed at the thought that I let my jealousy take over me enough to physically hurt someone. But soon the feeling stops, and I don't feel so bad anymore. She knew I liked him, and she did it to hurt me. Friends don't do that. Isn't there a thing called girl code?

I sing quietly to myself hoping to pass the time until somebody comes. They'll feed us, right? Kidnappers feed who they kidnap, right? They're going to keep me alive at least. . . right?

My song ends, and I can't think of the beginning to the one I wanted to sing next. It's then that I realize that she's stil next to me, and she can tell me things.

I ask her how the five of them, I included Katelyn from curiosity, and she looks at me like I killed someone. I ask her why, and she bites her lip.

"You told me to be quiet," she says. "But I'll tell you. There's nothing else to do, and we could die here for all I know."

I gasp, "Die?"

"No, I was joking. Anyway, when it comes to Katelyn, she's been working for Charlie the longest. I have feeling she's doing this to support her family. She must've worked out a deal with Charlie. When it came to Ryder, he was the last one to join. Ryder was introduced to us three, and I ran off having Vylad come after me. Laurance must've done something stupid because neither of them like each other. They're continuously budding heads, and they're both leaders. It's better off if Vylad were the leader."

I nod my head. It makes more sense as of why Ryder told me to stay away from the Zvahls, but it makes more sense of why it was directed more towards Laurance.

"Laurance, he never told me he joined. He may of thought it was cool. This wouldn't be the first time he's done this because of that reason. It made sense why he would disappear sometimes, or he would make an excuse to leave. One night, he tried to sneak out of the house, but I followed him by sneaking out of my window. He caught me when he was with Charlie, and boom, hello to joining. And Vylad, he followed me to a mission. I wanted to choke him. But if other people know of us, we could be in seriously trouble. That's why we keep it a secret."

Thinking back, it makes more sense to me as of why Ryder would mysteriously go missing for periods of time and then reappear like part of a magician's magical trick.

It goes silent once again, but I can't help but grasp onto the bars of the cage once again. The cold metal reminds me that I really am trapped. I'm surrounded by things that are trying to keep me trapped.

If only I could say that the actual cage is making me feel this way.

My life itself feels like an actual cage. You don't realize just how trapped you feel until you're forced to face it.

I feel like I'm trapped in a cage life has placed me in, and there's no escape. Except the cage has more cages inside of it. Each cage leads to another: emotions, responsibilities, expectations. Each cage makes me want to shrink down and curl up into a little ball to prevent anything happening. I want to yell, scream, cry, do anything that could make others know that I need help escaping.

But life doesn't work like that. Life is filled people who are different from one another. Nobody will know how I feel. They can experience something similar, but they'll never know what it's like for sure.

Life is filled with selfish people who only care about themselves. Sometimes people pretend to care about somebody else, but it turns out to be a facade. It's all an act to make themselves look better to others, or they do it to get something out of it for their benefit.

It's a shame really, because sometimes the slim amount of good people are missed or taken for granted.

My foot goes numb, and I place it from under me to hit it against the floor a few times to regain blood flow. When this fails though, I lay it out in front of me.

The door opens, and more light is shown into the room. I lean back onto the bars behind me, ingoring the entering silhouette.

"You're still here," a sickeningly sweet laughter echos off the walls into my brain, permentaly locating itself into my memory. "It's really a shame nobody's coming to save you. Even that little bastard. What's his name. . . ? Oh right, Vylad!"

Bastard?

I watch Alex jump up and shake the cage's metal bars harshly. "You leave him the hell alone!" Alex yells. "He didn't ask for any of this to happen!"

She takes a few steps closer, her red lips curving into a wicked. Red lipstick. . .

For the amount of time that I have been here, and known Vylad, I didn't know that one of his parents wasn't his true parent. That explains why Vylad looks nothing like his father, but instead, more like his mother with his vibrant green eyes.

"Oh, your face! It looks like there was a fight, but Y/N looks reminded untouched," She squeals, picking Alex's chin up with her pointer and middle finger. She jumps back when Alex tries to swing at her. "Pains a good look on you, Alex," she says.

"Thanks, I'm a crazy bitch is a good look on you. You should wear it more often."

She glares, "Do you want to fight?"

"Sure, just let me out of this cage and I can beat you up. It's a win win for the both of us."

"I don't win."

"There's another person in this room." I'm glanced at, but I sink further into my corner.

"Awe, Y/N, you're no fun. Anyway, I'll be back later! But remember, I don't feed those I kidnap in the beginning!"

Her chirpy tone and swaying hips makes me want to find another way out of the cage to strangle her until I see the lights disappear from her eyes, falling limp to the floor silently.

Alex avoids my eye contact when she moves to her side of her corner, crying softly into her hand with her knees pulled up to her chest. I don't know what to do, I did beat her up only a little bit of time before, and I've never been in this situation before where I have to comfort someone.

I would pat her back awkwardly and say "there, there," but that'd be awkward for the both of us. In the end, I decide to let her be.

Quiet voices overlap the cries and ring through my ears, and I look around to see that nobody else is here except us two. I cover up my ears to block off the voices but begin to hope that they're aren't from my head when they continue to remain.

Little sounds of objects hitting metal erupts from above us, and it reminds me of the failed attemp if a resuce earlier. I look over at the already fallen air vent to see feet dangling from the ceiling.

Averting my vision over to Alex, she's looking over at the feet, her tears now gone.

The feet fall to the ground, bringing a young brown boy with them in a clumsy manner. Soon after, a lighter brunette Male falls from the ceiling onto the floor in a swifter landing.

My hopes rises as I quickly single for them to quiet make their way over. I rush over to the front of the cage grabbing onto the bars.

Laurance whips his head around, scanning the room for the keys. I tell him that she took them with her, and Vylad reaches in the cage towards my hair.

I jump back at the action but move forward again. He takes a bobby pin out of my hair and scans whatever object in his hand until he smiles and begins to mess with the cage's lock. The door creaks open, and I slip out of the horrid hell hole.

I watch as Vylad holds onto a nearly crying Alex, kissing her face repeatedly. Laurance pulls me into a hug, but I can't help but overhear Vylad ask why her face is so beat up. My heart stops, but she tries to convince him it was because she hurt herself a few times trying to save me. Guilt rises in my stomach. And when I try to speak up and admit what I did, Laurance rushes us away from the cage before she comes back.

It's now that I realize that Vylad was never meant for me and how petty I really was. It turns out who I was supposed to be with was closed to me than I thought, I just pushed him away.

"The door's unlocked," Alex says, glancing to the only door. "There's nothing here that can boost us up to the vent, and I never heard the door lock and unlock when she would leave and visit us."

Laurance grabs my arm and rushes towards the door. Vylad opens it, rushing us through it, him falling behind shortly after. Soon, it's a race to get iut before we get caught, but the hallwya that takes us into three different directions not only stumps, but exposes us.

The sound of slow clapping makes up freeze in place, averting our eyes to the direction of the terrifying actions.

"Well, well, well," she says, hands going to her sides. "What do we have here? More people to kidnap? Charlie's going to have a fun time with this."

Laurance's breath hitches. "Chole. . . ?"

I have never been any more terrified of the unknown and future until now.