Chapter 03

As we approached that huge stone wall so high that you could barely see the sky, my hopes of escape were being buried deeper and deeper, I wondered what was on the other side, as I looked around trying to get as much information as I could for a possible escape, and well, I was not liking what I saw as it just seemed impossible to escape from that stone fortress.

We arrived at a huge gate guarded by three men who looked much more intimidating than the men who had arrested us, the men stopped their horses and talked to our kidnappers, Carrie was frowning as she looked at me, I silently motioned for her to calm down while I myself tried to slow the pounding heartbeat of my own beating heart that was drumming in my ears, after a short conversation the men then nodded and went back to the gate to talk to the other men who hurriedly entered the gate. Our kidnappers untied us from the horses, keeping only our hands tied so that we could not reach for a weapon or something, I almost felt threatening now, almost.

We were guided, held by the arms, through the huge gate made of iron that stood frighteningly high along with weeds that snaked up almost to the top, I almost had to break my neck to see it. As we passed through the now open gate I couldn't help but notice that the men guarding it looked at us with disdain, one even grunted, they must have been looking that way at the men who kidnapped us, as I gazed at the disgusted looks of the gate guards I didn't realize that the kidnappers stopped and walked over and I ran into a wall of muscles and quickly they all looked at me. The wall of muscles then turned to me and with a smile on his lips came closer until his face was very close to mine.

- Easy, baby, it's not time to cry for mercy yet.

As I was about to answer and tell him to go get some coconuts, I heard someone clear his throat and everyone stopped paying attention to me and looked at the owner of that sound. The men then straightened their posture and stopped smiling, the two men who were grabbing Carrie's arm and mine pulled us into a corner so that only the red haired kidnapper could stand forward to talk to the man who until that moment I couldn't see who it was since there were huge human walls blocking my view, I looked at Carrie and she also looked very uncomfortable and curious about the situation.

- Look who is here, long time no see gentlemen, glad to see you again, Riven my old friend what are you and your gang doing here?

Oh so his name is Riven, all right useless information. I see Riven roll his eyes and close his face even more, he doesn't even look like the one who a few minutes ago was irritably teasing me.

- Cut the crap Erns, we are here because we found two strangers walking through the forest and we heard that they are hunting any stranger in the neighborhood for a reward.

Carrie and I looked at each other and held each other's hands, by this point my breath was short and my heart was pounding.

- Of course, reward, that's what you live for, isn't it?

For the first time since he started talking to the guy, Riven gives a little smile and makes a very debauched face, raising one of his eyebrows.

- Yes, we don't all have the privilege of being the late-night fuck of a real hottie.

Laughter was heard among the hijackers and Erns was silent for a moment, but then in an eerily calm voice said:

- Watch your mouth Riven, watch your mouth.

The giggles then subsided and Riven returned to his previous rigid posture, putting his hands behind his back.

- We are here for the reward, are you going to pay us or not?

Erns sighs as if he has had enough of all this talk, I hear the sound of approaching footsteps and tend to lean in to see, but the kidnappers pull me back and squeeze my arm tighter making me back off.

- All right let me see the prisoners.

Having said that Riven looks back and gives a positive nod, our kidnappers then start dragging us to where Riven was and with a pressure makes us get on our knees, I try to stand up only to be pushed down again, I was feeling so humiliated and angry that my breathing was racing and I could feel it pulsating in my ears. I raise my eyes and see a man with black hair and big pairs of blue eyes like the ocean looking curiously at the two of us lying on the ground as if we were two bags of garbage, he must be the same age as our kidnappers, I start to look at him with the same curiosity, he was wearing black pants and a belt with some weapons besides a long sword that I hope is not used on us, on top of it he had a blue long sleeve blouse that matched the color of his eyes, on top of the blouse there was a kind of vest with a symbol with several suns one inside the other circled by strong rays that looked strangely alive.

Arns tilts his head and looks from me to Carrie seriously and frowns as he looks at us.

- What kind of Darkness are you?

Carrie and I turn our attention away from Erns and look at each other, is this man crazy? Carrie turns her attention back to Erns and raises her eyebrows.

- Dark what?

Erns tilts his head back and comes back with a smile on his face, he draws his sword and in the blink of an eye we are on our knees with a sharp sword at our necks, I cry out in amazement and Carrie's eyes widen holding my hand.

- don't play dumb, two days ago the Darkness invaded the kingdom and ransacked the palace, taking victims wherever they went, we lost over a hundred innocent people and we have another hundred orphans scattered around the city, we were barely able to keep people alive because of the existing rationing and now we are going to have to ration even more, so you are going to tell me who are you and who is ordering you to do this or you are going to have the worst kind of death you could ever dream of having.

At this point I couldn't take it anymore, they can't accuse us of something we did, I was patient until now because we were found in the forest and they didn't know us but to be accused of something we couldn't even imagine what it would be was too much, I was afraid they would hurt us but they clearly don't care if they hurt us or not, so I had to defend us, it was our only chance, with a courage that I didn't even know I had, I stood up slowly still with the sword around my neck, I feel Carrie pull my hand down but I continue to stand up feeling all the eyes turn to me, I see guards approaching but Erns gives a sign for them to move away, I try to keep my voice as firm as possible despite the fear I was feeling inside, I raise my head and look directly at Erns who looks at me with expectation and curiosity.

- I am sorry for what you are going through, but Carrie and I have nothing to do with it and we don't know what the Darkness is or anything like that, what we do know is that one night we were in our house on earth and we entered a circle made of some kind of black dust and the next day we woke up in a strange and beautiful forest that we didn't even know existed, until we were kidnapped by these guys and are here being interrogated for something that we have no idea what it is or how it happened, we just want to go back home to our dull and quiet life in the small town of Buford and forget this day ever happened.

I say everything without pausing and everyone looks at me in awe and I see that Riven has even taken a step back after hearing our whole story. We expected some reaction from him, maybe even an apology, but I didn't expect what he was going to do next. Erns started to laugh a lot, the kind of laughing and clapping, Riven still remained stiff beside us and no one else found the situation funny except Erns. Wiping the tears from his eyes he turns to the two of us and calms his breathing.

- How funny you two are, I haven't laughed like that in ages, seriously, you thought I would fall for that, gee, I expected more from you girls, well I have to admit that you," he says looking at me with a mocking tone, "really have a very fertile imagination to come up with such a story.

Carrie squeezes my hand and grits her teeth as she stands next to me and I am about to jump down this man's throat, I mean it.

- but to lie you have to know the facts first, this dust you spoke of has been gone for eighteen years and there is no way an earthling could survive this transition so you could tell the truth and stop talking nonsense before I lose my patience.

Carrie wrinkled her eyebrows and breathed even faster, if that was even possible.

- But we are telling the truth, we .

Carrie is cut off by Erns who, well, seems to have lost his patience.

- Enough! Lock them underground, don't feed them or give them water, let's see how long they can stand it while they watch each other die.

We were surrounded by guards who grabbed us by the arms and dragged us away, I saw Erns giving a small reward bag to Riven who was looking directly at me, he wrinkled his eyebrows and lowered his head as if to say sorry, then turned around and left the gate followed by the other men, at this moment I despaired I did not know what they were going to do with us or how long we would hold out, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, I looked to the side and saw Carrie struggling to free herself from the guards all to no avail, the guards dragged us to an iron gate in the ground beside what seemed to be the palace, I didn't have much time to admire it as I was being dragged up countless flights of spiral stairs into a huge corridor surrounded by cells on all sides with all sorts of people inside and beings I had never seen before, from small creatures with a mixture of cat and dwarf humanoid shape, to huge black creatures with thin wings and claws as thick as swords that were guiding us to our own cell.

At the end of a curve was a cave with two cells floating in the air above a huge lake of black water, the place smelled rotten and I thought I saw black shadows in the water looking directly at me. Arns found himself a lever and pulled it, the cells began to move and stop right before our feet, the guards opened them and we were thrown inside without any courtesy. I get up quickly and go back to the already locked cell door and start trying to open it, I was desperate and needed a solution, not that trying to open a cell all covered with iron bars was it. Erns smiles and pulls the lever back, and the cells start moving again now with Carrie and me inside them, into the middle of the river.

- Welcome to your new home, I hope you enjoy your stay, maybe I will come back later if I don't forget, and I have a bad habit of forgetting things, I will come to see if you have decided to say anything, until then you can think or try to make friends with your little friends who live in the river, but be careful they have a bad habit of forgetting who is a friend and who is a meal.

They start to move towards the exit, and as they advance my hopes fade and sink into darkness, I hear Carrie trying futilely to open the door as well. Already feeling tears burning in my eyes, and anger spreading through my body to beat you to the cell and I grip the bars tightly, I look at Erns when he is already at the door.

- Wait, you can't do this, we're innocent of whatever you're accusing us of.

He doesn't even look back, he laughs and continues forward.

- Oh my dear, we can do whatever we want.

Carrie stops hitting the bars and sits on the floor of the cell with her hands on her knees as the door to the cave is closed leaving us in complete darkness. I lose my strength and kneel on the floor, close my eyes and wish with all my heart that when it opens I would be back home and that this was all just a crazy nightmare, but when I open my eyes again all I see is darkness.

X

It had been a while since we had been there, we didn't know if it had been hours or minutes or even if it was day or night, all we could hear in that place was the sound of our stomachs hungering for food, and the sound of a totally pissed off Carrie trying miserably to open the cell lock with a hairpin and well, needless to say, she was nowhere near succeeding, we had to get out of there or we would starve to death, no one would come to rescue us so we had to fix it ourselves. I'm sitting with my head against the cell's railing trying to think of a plausible solution to open the cell and not fall into that strange lake, but nothing came to my mind. Sighing I stretch my legs and put my hand on my stomach which insists on reminding me that it needs food.

- Carrie, you have been at it for hours, give it up, there is no way to open this crap.

Carrie stops what she is doing and puts her head on the cell railing, closing her eyes she lets out a long exhausted sigh.

- There's just no way, it's the end of us, we're going to starve to death in here and not even a damn lock I can't open, in the movies it makes it look so easy, but what the hell!

Carrie throws the staple with all her might and ends up passing between the bars of the cell and falling into the lake, and there goes our last hope, as unlikely as it was that we could open the cell with her, I sigh again and put my hands on my head while Carrie stares at where she had thrown the staple as if she could bring it back with the power of thought.

- All right," I stand up with some difficulty and put my hands on my waist, "enough of your whining, we have to get out of here one way or another or we will die of hunger or thirst.

Carrie looks at me and raises her eyebrows, I ignore that look of hopelessness and start thinking about the possibilities, I stay at it for a few seconds until the hairpin Carrie threw into the lake is thrown back into her cell. I look amazed at Carrie who is also wide-eyed watching the hairpin, I approach the bar and looking into the lake I can see some shapes moving in it, they were humanoid shapes but by the dark thickness of the water I couldn't see more than slight outlines and shapes, I look to the side and see that Carrie is also watching the lake with curiosity and fear. I just had an idea, another stupid idea, but one that might actually result in something good like getting rid of the cells for example, I remember Erns' words when describing the creatures and their eating habits and just thinking about it I already felt a huge tremor in my body, but it was the only chance we had without thinking twice so I don't regret and leave this crazy idea, I get closer but to the bars and hold them tightly as if holding on to them might give me more courage.

- Hello?

Carrie looks at me as soon as I open the dregs and stares even wider, and stares at me as if a second nose has been born on my face.

- What are you doing, are you crazy, don't you remember what that psycho said about those things that live in the lake?

I look away from the lake and now facing Carrie I try to sound confident with my words trying to convey the idea that I was totally sure of what I was doing.

- I know it sounds crazy and well, you bet I remember very well what Erns said, but if this is our only chance to get out of here we should try, right? And one way or another we would end up dying of hunger and thirst anyway.

Carrie stops for a moment and continues to stare at me, she lowers her head and when she lifts it again she is nodding.

- This is crazy, all right, but be careful.

Taking a deep breath I try to make contact one more time, but get no sign of response. After the hundredth attempt I place my forehead against the railing and close my eyes giving up on the idea when I see a shadow in the water and when it realizes that I can see it it hides again. I didn't understand why they were acting that way if these creatures were really like Erns described I don't see any reason for them to hide, unless he just wanted us to be afraid and not escape, but why did he put us here in this cell separated from all the other prisoners if it wasn't safe? Damn it, all this thinking was messing with my head, I had to spend my neurons on thinking of an approach that would make the lake creatures not feel fear and come to help us, sending those questions away as I tried my thousandth attempt at contact.

- Hello? Can you hear me?

Carrie by now had given up hope and was lying on the floor of the cell with her eyes closed, I had to call out to her a few times to make sure she was alive.

- Lauren stop, okay, maybe Erns will come back and realize that we are telling the truth and get us out of here.

I look at Carrie and roll my eyes not believing that she actually still thought about the possibility that that idiot would come to free us and still listen to what we were saying, I look deeply into the lake again and feel my hopes fading along with my strength. I can't give up now, not when this is our last hope, but I didn't know how I could call the attention of the lake creatures that were quite frightened by our presence, already tired of trying so hard and with a hunger that was making me dizzy I feel tears stinging and burning my eyes, I will try one last time if they don't come I will have to accept the fact that this is our end. Grabbing the bars of the cell I stand up again and supporting my head and with my last strength I look at the lake.

- I know you are as scared as we are, but we won't do you any harm, I don't know why you are here and I won't judge you - I notice a small movement in the water and decide to continue - Erns said you were dangerous creatures but I don't think so, I think you are just misunderstood like us, me and my friend need to get out of here or we will starve to death so please, I beg you, help us.

Carrie looks at the lake now with a look of hope, I am also with great anticipation waiting for any sign, anything, but nothing happens I look at Carrie and she nods her head negatively gathering her eyebrows as if to say at least I tried. Just as I'm about to finish crying I hear a water noise, Carrie and I quickly look back to the lake and that's when we saw large creatures slowly appear, they had a humanoid shape on their upper body while the other half was more fish-like, I know what it sounds like but they were not mermaids, well not the ones I'm used to seeing in cartoons and movies, they were much more majestic.

The creatures had a golden color that reminded me of pure, clean gold, the eyes were big black orbs, the nose were small, delicate little holes like fishes and the mouth were big, fleshy holes, they had long, delicate arms and the rest of the body was like fish, beautiful golden fish. Little by little the creatures, a bit clumsy and afraid, came out of the lake to the surface, I feel that any false movement could scare them and we would lose our opportunity, even in front of those beautiful and exuberant creatures I try to keep calm and pass some kind of security to them, even though I am afraid.

- H-Hello I am glad you heard me, my name is Lauren and this is my friend Carrie. ¬- Actually we are not from here, we are from earth and by mistake we ended up being arrested and came here. Please, we need your help to get out of here.

One of the creatures approached my cell, she was different from the others for having a coloring closer to pink, she wore a crown on her head so I assume she must be their leader or queen or something, the closer she came, I felt completely amazed and enchanted by her beauty, she then held one of the bars and approached me instinctively I approached the cell grid, she then put her forehead on mine and for some strange reason I couldn't feel fear just admired her. She pulls away suddenly and continues to stare at me, but seems to be amazed and confused, looking between Carrie and me.

- Two souls, four bonds, immense power, will they bring salvation to the world or its complete destruction? I don't know, I don't know, but when the circle of black blood covers the moon we will all be lost.

I try to understand those words thinking how they would help us get out of that mess, I look at Carrie and she has a confused face looking between me and the queen in front of me. The queen turns away leaving me totally confused by her words, what did this mean? She then gives a signal emitting some strange sound and then another creature goes to the lever and pulls it, the cells start to move and I have to hold on to the bars not to fall with the unexpected movement, we are taken to the river bank and our cells are opened. That's it we were free, I run to hug Carrie and feel an enormous tranquility when I feel her in my arms, releasing us I go back to the lake and see that the creatures are still there, without excitement I approach the lake with Carrie right behind me, the queen comes to meet us along with two other creatures one on each side. When they stop they stare at us, quickly I kneel down and bow pulling Carrie along with me and she does the same, I can't explain it, but it seems I knew exactly how to act.

- We really appreciate your help, um... Queen, what could we do to help?

The queen who was staring at us turns her back and walks away, I look at Carrie who is very confused next to me. Just as she is about to dive into the dark waters of the lake, the queen stops and stares at us again.

- Just stay as far away from us as possible.

With that she enters the lake followed by all the other creatures. I stare for a few seconds at where they were standing when Carrie pulls me by the arm and makes me stand up.

- All right, don't tell me you were actually understanding what that thing was saying.

I look at Carrie in amazement, what do you mean she didn't understand what the queen was saying? I raise my eyebrow and tilt my face, now looking totally dumbfounded at Carrie.

- Of course I was understanding what she was saying, weren't you?

Carrie looks at me and denies it with her head, then sighs, looking at the door.

- Okay, we'll talk about that later, now we need to get out of here," my stomach lets out a long painful protest, not letting us forget the main thing. - And well... as your belly reminded us, get some food.

Assenting, we go towards the door that was unlocked, I feel an uncontrollable urge to laugh, it seems that Erns underestimated us and never imagined that we could escape by leaving even the door open. With care and haste we passed through the corridors full of cells and received many curious glances and many requests for help that we had to ignore because we couldn't help them. Up the long and exhausting flights of stairs we came to a door, I looked at Carrie who had her hand on the doorknob and very carefully opened the door, okay... now where do we go? This door was not the same door that took us to the prison, as we were in a long corridor that we didn't know where it would lead. We walked a few steps when someone came out of the door and called our attention.

- Hey, where are you going?

When we turn around we are faced with a huge man who looks very angry and frustrated, I close my eyes and sigh, but is it possible, how wonderful!