Your Battle, My War.

Chapter 3 - Into Darkness

"Let me out!" After slamming my body into the walls of the truck over and over again, I started to scream.
"I said. Let. Me. Out! Now!"
I don't know where I'm going, who I'm with or who I'll meet at the end. All I know is that I must have gotten knocked out as I've been at cold for two or three hours. No one cared. That made me angry. Not the anger that bubbles up and makes you kick and swear, no, this is anger that wants to make you cry and scream. The anger that comes with loneliness. The anger that comes when you can't be upset. When you aren't allowed to be upset, but it builds up anyway and all you feel is its helplessness.
"Nah... Y'know what miss? I don' fink we will do such a fing!" He laughed! He had lack of decency to laugh my struggle. I can't see him, I can't see anything, but I know there must be cameras somewhere. I've discovered cameras have a tendency to be placed in upper corners, so I glare I to the top left. Trying to penetrate into their minds.
"Wha' ya gonna do abou' it miss uh? Wha' are you gonna do? No one's gonna help ya, no one's gonna care."
"Hey, hey mate listen here, we need her alive. Do you hear me? Alive."
Ash, there's more than one man here. More than one, two, maybe more. Be careful.
"Yeah. So wha'? I ain't gonna kill her!"
"I know that but by the looks of things she's going to kill herself."
That's when I realised, they needed me alive and I couldn't take them on by myself, so I couldn't win, but they could loose. They could loose it all, if they lost me. How can they loose me? I can't escape, no. Killing myself isn't an option.
The car hits a bump into the road and I'm forced onto my side and roll over with a loud noise. I've startled something, it's cold but it doesn't feel lifeless. She reacts to my touch and while my eyes try to adjust to the lack of light, I make out a girl she looks older than I am. She has tangled dark grey hair and wears a ragged dress that hangs from her. She looks colourless and dull, lost and lonely. Everything about her is cold but she seems to welcome me. Her surroundings are lifeless and her face is sad but her eyes long for adventure and mix into colours that are young and carefree.
I realise that I've been staring at her and she can see me, a reach for her hand, "Hi, I'm Ash, I'm sixteen and they've caught me too." Again I find myself watching the woman as her fingertips scratch mine and her rough palm incases my wrist.
"Mis."
"Miss what?
"My name, or at least what they call me. I'm as old as this earth and they always have ahold on me."
"What do you mean by that?" I tried not to question her too much in fear of coming across as rude and inquisitive or maybe scaring her off. However to say you're as old as the earth and they've always had a hold on me is incomprehensible and I don't know how else to reply.
"I mean dearest, that I've always been around and as far as I'm aware these people have always withheld me in someway or another. It's who I am no matter what you are, I am always here, you can't rid of me,"
"Ay who's she talkin' to?" The driver is speaking up again.
"For the last time my name is Ash!" I was beginning to get annoyed with the constant "she" and "her" I'm more human than anyone else and they seem incapable of using a name.
"They don't know I'm here. Shhh..." The woman brought a frail finger to her lips and shot me a wink.
"You said they always had ahold on you!" I spat in a frustrated whisper.
"Yes I suppose in someways they do, how clever you are! You are a clever girl!" The grin was too much.
"They were your words! You said them just now!" It was all too much for me, I gave up and turned my shoulders away from this mad woman. "Why is the first real person I meet a confused and forgetting lady? It's not fair! I want I real, normal... Sane person to stop me being so miserable!" Water filed my eyelids and a drop ran halfway to my cheek before the lady swiped a thumb across to smudge the damp, she had her fist under my chin and looked at me with her cold and painful eyes.
"Yes love, that's exactly what I am and you can't be without me either..." Her tone would be caring but her eyes were full of desperation and... And misery. Her eyes were miserable.

I batted her arm from my face and as I did so she turned to dust, leaving only her sad, grey eyes. It took my a momet before I realised identical events happened seven years ago with Avary. Except he left a chain along with his eyes. I glared at the dust pile and something caught my eye. The van hit a one dip in the road and a ring slid out the pile towards the corner, I reached for it and carefully picked it up. I flipped it over between my finger tips and inside it had the word misery engraved in the band.

The cloudy grey eyeballs swirl like the fog that covers the city every morning. Last time I smashed the eyes in fear of still being watched. However amongst the pieces I found no camera nor any other form of transmitting device, after scavenging as many bits together as I could, I glued them together again. From my coat pocket I pulled out the eye of Avarice and matched it with the new Misery eye. The colours moved like steam from kettle or clouds in the sky. What does it mean?
I called to the man in the front: "what did you do to her?"
More laughter. I'm glad they like to laugh. I'm happy for them, I'm so happy they have the ability to laugh at a time like this!
"There's no one with you." The threw me the comment halfheartedly as though my standards were below him and speaking with me was a chore.
"The grey woman. The one in he rags and cloak. She had a ring and spoke in a whisper with a harsh voice and crocked tones. She was really old and hunched over, she said she's been here for as long as time is measured and always will be because of you," more angry tears streamed down my face and my voice broke into sobs " she said you caught her and wouldn't let her out. She wasn't the full bar but I think she knew something..." I whimpered.
The car jolted and I was thrown against the metal cage at the front. The man in charge got out and his heavy footsteps travelled the length of the vehicle. The doors unlocked and his hand clenched the key to the cage I was trapped in. He grasped me by the collar and hauled me out and onto the ground. It was dry and dusty.
He pulled me close to his face and spat, "Now you listen here: no one else is with you and if you keep saying stuff like that then we shall be in trouble in the office. Understand?" I was shaking and was so scared I couldn't move, his fist had me off the ground and I looked ip him dead in the eye. I watched as his anger bubbled, turning his face red. It's a pity he is the type of person because he has such wonderful eyes. The disagree with the rest of his face and stand out in- no. Not his eyes, he's an officer in charge, a horrible and nasty person without any decancy. " Now get back in there and if I so much as hear you utter a breath" he paused and brought us so close his nose was touching mine and I felt the moisture from his breath on my chin "-if you make any sound, I will hang you from the nearest tree by you ankles and shoot you. Nobody will know, Because they'll be nobody alive to tell them. Mis doesn't exist and she even so she wasn't here, ok? Now get in and shut up!" he clenched his teeth a do I heard a crack from his jaw. I released his grip on my shirt and I fell to the ground once more. After pushing myself up and climbing into the van in silence, he shut the gate and slammed the door so the van shook. The man in the front had eyes as big as saucers and wore a menacing grin. He turned to the front and punched his foot to the pedals. The wheels span and we were moving once again.

I hugged my knees and buried my face. Suddenly I sat up straight, astounded at my brain wave: I never mentioned a name. I never told him anything close to a name for the woman yet he knew who I spoke of. He must know her or a least know of an existence. But doesn't he know what Mis is? Misery. An emotion strong enough to bring tears. A sad and empty feeling of loss and death. With it comes the cold, hard truth and the horrific facts of what I could be doing. Or what might happen next. That's what misery is.