Caged

Iris was tied up in an empty room in the castle. For so long she hasn't eaten anything. She was so hungry. As she heard footsteps approaching the door, she quickly adjusted to her previous sitting posture in the chair that she was tied up in. She didn't want them to find out that she had been attempting to lose free from the ropes, and escape.

Blam!

The door flung open, as De voe stepped inside majestically wearing a smirk on his face.

"How's my girl doing?" he said to her.

"De voe... I'm hungry," complained Iris, still in her previous meek tone, anxious and hopeful that he'd listen to her this once.

"Well I am too, I'm indeed hungry girl, I need power". His husky reply was all she needed to explain to her that she may not be given food anytime soon. But she had starved for quite so long, she insisted that something be given to her to eat. For over seven days she had been brought there, she had only been given water four times, without any food. She had loosed so much weight and was now looking thin. She continued to complain to him about her hunger.

"Please," she pleaded, "I'm starving".

"Alright... Alright," he finally said, "Just for my brother; O'Neil, I'll let you have some food. Let me go get it for you,". He left the room.

Iris sat up straight, anxiously waiting for De voe to return with the food. After some time, the door opened, and De voe entered the room, carrying in his hands, a bowl of soup and meat. Iris had already started salivating, only perceiving the smell of the hot soup, as the vapor filled the air. Her hands were loosened, in order to permit her to eat with ease. Iris began to sip down the hot soup, like a hungry bulldog, not minding if it would burn her throat. Like a ferocious beast, Iris was devouring the food, gulping down every single bit of the hot soup, and gnawing at the tough meat.

"You like it?" asked De voe, grinning widely.

Iris nodded her head, focusing all her attention on the food.

"Shouldn't you have known by now, what you are eating?" asked De voe. He looked into her eyes, smiling wickedly.

Iris was at first, puzzled by the statement made by De voe. She paused eating and began to examine the almost finished bowl of soup. She couldn't believe what she saw inside the food. She saw a lump of meat that looked exactly like the great toe of a person. Indeed she couldn't believe that was inside her food. But when she brought out the meat in her mouth that she had been attempting to chew, and found out that it was a human ear, she screamed out loud. She realized that she had been eating human body parts as meat, De voe served them to her. Imaginations of how the meat might have been prepared, and what it might cause in her stomach, made her sick the more. She couldn't hold it any longer, she threw up on the floor, and some on her knees, emptying her guts off the soiled food.

"What are you, nuts?" she yelled angrily at De voe.

"Ho ho ho... What were you expecting?" asked De voe, laughing out loud.

"It doesn't make sense, giving that meant for the living to the dead. So since you're soon gonna die, I decided it's best not to waste my useful resources by serving them to you, instead I did you a little favor serving you the corpse of an offender," said De voe.

Iris was furiously boiling in intense anger where she sat.

"How could you, how dare you?!" she screamed, struggling to lose free and rush at him, but she was prevented by the ropes, tying her down.

"I'll kill you, you evil monster, I'll kill you!" she screamed, kicking hard.

Two of De voe's men rushed into the room and tied back her arms to her back. Iris was still screaming at top of her voice, shaking aggressively, causing her to fall sideways with the chair she was tied to, multiple times. She had injured herself in the process of all this, but she didn't seem to care or feel the pain at that moment. Blood from her wounded forehead covered her face entirely, partially obscuring her view. One of the men stepped towards her, and struck her hard by the side of the face, twice, causing her to pass out. She sat there unconscious, for over an hour, with her head bent low. After some time, she started waking up. Partially opening her eyes, she could see De voe's double blurry images, still there standing over her.

"She's waking up," came an unclear voice.

As she looked at De voe, his double image gradually merged to a focus. She slowly opened her eyelids, as her pupils gradually accommodated the light.

"My men informed me that you're up, so I came to check on you, and see how you're doing. How was the nap? Hope you dreamt about me," asked De voe.

Iris paid him deaf ears, as she fixed her gaze on the floor.

"You're not gonna answer me, are you still angry with me?" asked De voe, with a tone of concern.

"Please you don't have to be angry with me, you don't have to hate me for what I'm doing. You see, for some good to be accomplished, there must be sacrifices, that's just it. Sacrifices for the greater good. And you should be glad and honored that you are the chosen one, that is to be offered as the supreme sacrifice, for the survival of mankind".

Iris slowly raised her head and looked at him.

"All you say is nothing but lies and rubbish. Sooner or later, my father would be back for me, then we're going to find out between the both of us, who is in trouble," said Iris.

"Shut up little girl. Your father doesn't have the guts to return here asking for you, because I've threatened to kill your beloved mother if he does, and when I do, I'll serve her wretched remains to you," stated De voe.

"You're never going to succeed in your evil schemes, someone knows that you're with me, and knows you're planning to perform a stupid sacrifice. Soon the girl that escaped from your men at the temple, would tell everyone about the abominable things you want to do, and they'll be moved to finally rise up against you, and pull you down for good," said Iris.

"You shut up child! The girl at the temple is our only casualty. We would capture her, and add her to the sacrifice, or perhaps, slaughter her and make you eat her raw," said De voe.

Alec, Tobin, and Zain were on their way to the temple, to visit Zelta.

"I wonder how she would react, seeing me there?" said Tobin.

"Don't worry yourself, Tobin, I'm sure she will be missing you," said Alec.

As they approached the temple, they found it still noisy. Zain spotted some of De voe's men around, so she put on her hood, and walked close between Tobin and Alec, trying her best to hide from the men.

"Hay why are you acting like someone's hunting you?" asked Alec.

"Because I'm seriously being hunted," she answered.

"Hunted? How?" asked Tobin, looking around them.

"Those bloody murderers are looking for me, just because I found out their little secret," she said.

"You mean De voe's followers?" asked Tobin.

Zain nodded in affirmation.

"Wait a second, so you're the young maiden, they said, they've been searching for?" asked Alec.

"Yeah, something like that," she replied, cautiously monitoring the movements, of the men, trying not to be spotted by anyone of them.

"What secret is it that they're trying to safeguard like this?" asked Tobin.

"Not here," said Zain, "we'll talk about this later, somewhere else," she added.

They quickened their steps to the back of the temple building, where the block chamber door was situated.

"You both should wait here for me, so I can go in first, and tell her that you guys are here, then I can come out and tell you guys to come in," she said, "Fine by you?" she asked.

"As you say so," answered Tobin, with a shrug.

"Alright then, wait out here till I call you both," said Zain, as she went to open the main entrance to the chamber.

Zain opened the door and began to climb down the stairs. Normally Zelta would have inquired about the identity of her visitor, but now there was silence. This seemed strange to Zain. When she came close to the cage door, she couldn't see Zelta there.

"Zelta, Zelta it's me Zain," she called, but there was no response.

Zain looked by the dark part of the room and spotted Zelta squatted down on the floor, looking straight ahead, with a million miles gaze, and sobbing silently.

"Zelta what is the matter?" she asked.