The Slaves' Abode

"Here." 

Hellaine looked down at the piece of rag which was handed to her by the woman. After she fainted, she had woken up in this dump.

Her confusion had only increased. She had thought that brief encounter she had with the silver-haired man was a dream but when she woke up, she realized it was real.

In fact, very, very real.

It was like she was in another world entirely and she found it very weird that she had no life-threatening injuries after the plane crash. 

The place she woke up in was worse than the courtroom where she had saved Jack from being executed. There was a group of people who were dressed in dirty clothes. No, that couldn't even be called a piece of cloth anymore. They were rags.

The place was smelly to the point she couldn't even breathe out in peace. But the woman had told her this was her new abode. 

"I-I want to head back home." Hellaine muttered silently, and glanced up at the woman for help.

She was halfway doubting if these people were human traffickers. Maybe they had found their bodies washed up by the sea and they took them for sale.

But it still didn't make sense. Human traffickers didn't have executors or crimes and they certainly didn't have a handsome man as their ruler. 

Besides, the clothes and the aura that man had...that wasn't something that could be faked. It was authentic, and a part of him already.

Something he was born with. Could it be she was in another world?

"For your sake, you better forget about wherever you came from because there is no escaping the ArchTri of Bermuda." the woman said eerily before walking away.

She closed the door behind her, and Hellaine was left standing in the room which inhabited the smelly people.

Most of them were asleep as though they had worked strenuously throughout the day, and those who were awake were staring at her soullessly. 

"What's your name, new girl?" a man slurred with a crazed smile on his lips.

"Looking sexy." Another one howled.

"Come here." a warm hand grabbed Hellaine's and she was taken to a corner in the large room with a single window.

The girl who sat her down looked to be around her age but she couldn't tell. Her blonde hair was dark and stained just like her clothes but her brown eyes were sparkling.

The girl was beautiful but she had a huge tattoo branded at the center of her head and Hellaine noticed all the slaves had that too.

"You should get changed as most of them are asleep now." the girl advised and Hellaine took a look at the men staring at her lewdly.

"H-Here?"

"You don't have much of a choice, you know? You will be beaten up when she comes for dinnertime and you're still not changed." the girl said as a matter of fact.

Dread filled Hellaine's spine, not by the girl's words but the certainty she had in them. The beatings were something that were normal to them.

"Where am I?" Hellaine asked, then lowered her voice. "A-Are they human traffickers?"

The girl frowned as though that was the strangest thing she had ever heard. "Traffickers? I have never heard of that. This is the slaves' compound. You were brought here because you either committed a crime or you are of low birth."

The girl's eyes narrowed as she stared at Hellaine. "You're not from here, right? You're from the Outside." the girl stated.

"Y-Yes!" Hellaine gripped her arm desperately. "I am not from here. I need to go back home." 

The girl smiled softly but her eyes were sad. "It's best you forget about wherever you came from. Here, in Bermuda ArchTri, you can never go back to the Outside. No one has ever made it past the Shroud."

"The Shroud? The Outside? What are you talking about?"

"The Shroud is the barrier between Bermuda and the Outside where the planes or ships are sunk in, Many people like you have tried to escape but they never made it back alive and those that did..." the girl shuddered, unable to complete her sentence.

"What happened to them?" Hellaine insisted on hearing it.

"They were executed." the girl whispered with a fearful voice.

"Oh, shut up already! We're trying to sleep here!" someone yelled from across the room.

"Your questions will be answered later. Go to sleep. You will need it." the girl told Hellaine as she scooted over to lie on the cold cement floor.

"W-What is your name? I am Hellaine." Hellaine introduced, wanting to know the name of the only person who had given her answers since she stepped inside here.

"Hanriette. You can call me Han." the girl smiled before shutting her eyes tight.

Hellaine's eyes travelled around the cold and smelly cell. Her lips quivered and tears threatened to burst out of her eyes. 

She held it back, knowing that her tears wouldn't fix anything. She had to find a way to escape from this place. There was no way she would survive here for a single day.

But Hanriette had told her that no one could go back to the Outside. How was she going to escape?

Wait, if she had landed here after crashing in Bermuda Triangle, did that mean that he was here as well? Would she be able to find him here?

Hellaine's heart felt lighter when a possibility to find the one person she has been looking for came to light. It seemed she might just have something to live for after all.