The Tribrid

Chapter Two

          Getting dragged against her will back to the prison cell, Devorah tried to jerk away from Dave multiple times, but unfortunately, she was stopped each time. She knew that he was growing highly impatient with her when he jerked her to a stop, his fangs quickly emerging. "If you do not stop trying to fight me, I will be happy to end your life a lot sooner than Lina will. She needs you, but I do not." His words slithered off his tongue mimicking a snake, his eyes barely squinting as if he was waiting on her to challenge his warning.

          Devorah mentally decided to heed his warning because she had no idea what he was capable of, and she knew he was right. She meant absolutely nothing to him, but was apparently very important to Lina, and that did not settle well in the pit of her stomach. The horrifying possibilities that could be in store for her invaded her mind as fear crept up her spine, sending chills down her arms. Lina had already mercilessly killed the only three people in her life that loved and cared for her. The imagery of what she did to them made bile crawl its way up inside her throat, leaving a sour taste in her mouth.

          After what seemed like forever, they arrived back to the cells in the dungeon. The familiar smell of decay filled her nostrils as they got closer to hers. Holding onto her restrained hands with his right hand, Dave extended his left arm out to open her cell door. Before she could even blink, he shoved her into the cage as she lost her balance and landed hard on the stone-cold floor with a loud thud. Devorah immediately winced in pain from colliding with the solid ground full force. Instead of helping her to her feet, Dave took the restraints off her while she still laid on the ground and shut the cell door behind him.

          Conjuring up the strength from feeling defeated, Devorah slowly picked herself up off the floor, and felt a few tears rolling down her cheeks. Using her hands to wipe them away, she noticed something on her that stole all her focus away from the pain coursing through her left arm, and heart. Studying her wrists, she noticed that she had burn marks wrapped around them from the restraints. She began rubbing them gently to relieve some of the stinging pain. Unfortunately, she was unable to heal at a quicker rate from wounds like she would in any other circumstance due to the spell that cursed these cell bars.

          An overwhelming amount of helplessness filled inside her body as she slid her back against the rock wall of her cell, coming to a sitting position as she brought her lower extremities up to her chest. Resting her arms and head on her knees, she began sobbing uncontrollably. She knew she had to come up with a way to escape this physical and mental prison before it was too late. Going through the short list of potential options of fleeing the kingdom, an abundance of chatter began filling the room. A vampire in a nearby cell began mouthing off to one of the werewolves that was also held captive. Devorah craned her neck up as she could see them from her cell, even though she never interacted with anyone as she always kept to herself.

          "It smells like a wet dog down here!" the vampire yelled and started laughing. He was one of the newer ones down here, so he was not completely deprived like some others.

          "I bet you wouldn't say that if we weren't in these cells!" the wolf in human formed growled back.

          Devorah wiped more tears away and rolled her eyes as she tried her best to ignore them. Vampires and werewolves were constantly at each other's throats, always competing. They both believed that they were better than the other but both species were extremely powerful in their own ways. However, it is said in the past that werewolves were vampire slayers, even though the vampires disagree with that. Devorah's parents explained to her that each of the different kingdoms' leaders set up rules that all the species needed to cooperate with one another to co-exist peacefully or there would be consequences. Devorah was unsure of why the others were down here with her, but it wouldn't surprise her if it was only due to them looking at Lina the wrong way. Most of the ones held captive were werewolves and vampires, which made sense because both had short fuses and would lose their tempers rather quickly. While glancing around, she decided to refocus on the vampire and werewolf arguing with one another. It was two men who were both too prideful to back down from one another. The other thirty or forty species that were in cells were quiet as they all listened to them.

          "Is that a threat? I'm not scared of a little puppy!" the young pale vampire teased, flailing his arms around.

          "Why don't you fight me in the sunlight then if you're so tough when we get out of here? Or do you need to put your jewelry on first to do that?" The wolf shot back, even though it was obvious that he was weak since he was using the bars as support to keep himself standing.

          Vampires were unable to go into the sun unless they wore a specific necklace with a charm that has a spell on it to protect them from burning alive due to the sun. Luckily, Devorah did not have to worry about that because the wolf and witch in her body protected her. While the two men continued to bicker with each other, Devorah decided to drown them out as she just wanted to focus on getting out of this torture dungeon, but the memories of her parents and Victoria were lurking in the back of her mind once again. Unfortunately, her mind was a dangerous place to be.

          Hours passed painfully slow until the sound of keys jingling filled Devorah's ears once more. Dave strolled up to the cell casually, but this time, the wolf from earlier did not accompany him. As muscle memory kicked in, her body brought her up to her feet involuntarily as she moved towards him, turning around to place her hands behind her back once more. Her face scrunched up as the restraints seemed to feel tighter on her wrists than they did previously. Without saying a word, he yanked on her arms as his rough hands gripped her, moving in the same direction as he had earlier.

          "What is this special room Lina is referring to?" she asked, adding emphasis to the location as she began looking up at him from behind her as they continued to walk.

          "Hush. Don't ask me any questions," he commanded, with a stern look on his face. Remembering that he made it clear to avoid provoking him, she decided not to defend herself to avoid any chance of confrontation in a defenseless situation.

          Coming to the top of the dungeon stairs, Dave maneuvered Devorah to take a sharp right, moving down a hall that she was completely unfamiliar with. The stone hallway walls contained old paintings of The Council each year that they have remained one. The men stood side by side with their hands clasped in front of them, each wearing black suits with red designs sprinkled throughout with emotionless expressions on their faces, although, one member looked unfamiliar to her. The women wore black ballgown dresses with a red flower design flowing down the long sleeves. Each of them was dressed to kill, which matched their motives. However, she also realized that the unfamiliar member was not included in the most recent paintings. Lina's sadistic smile seemed to remain the same from when these were painted versus now, her eyes seeming to follow Devorah as she was steadily being led to a large metal door at the end of the hall.

          A cool breeze fluttered against Devorah's face as Dave pulled the door open, revealing a lightless room. Attempting to adjust her eyes, she squinted as if there was light, trying to make out anything in the room, but it was no use with the deactivation restraints on. Something in her body, however, made her feet glue themselves to the floor, petrified to go any further without having the ability to see. With no hesitation, Dave shoved her in, keeping his left hand wrapped around her frail right arm. "Please stop," Devorah begged, trying to push back against him. He began hissing at her as she was completely aware that his fangs had emerged from her being non-compliant with his non-verbal orders.

          "Welcome Ms. Thorn," Lina's malicious voice sounded from a corner of the room. With the snap of her fingers, a dimly lit lamp revealed her smile as she stared daggers at Devorah who still stood on the lightless side of the room. "Let's have some fun, shall we?" Tearing her eyes away from Devorah for a moment, Lina motioned her head to the right, and Dave began guiding Devorah in that direction.

          Moving to a solid brown cushioned chair about ten feet away from Lina, Dave pushed Devorah down into it when she was directly in front of it. Pulling on her shoulder for her to lean forward, he began undoing the restraints to bring her arms in front of her. Lina strode over from her large red suede chair, clapped her hands together twice as the overhead lights flickered on, and began kneeling in front of Devorah. Hovering her right hand over Devorah's right arm, she used a restraining spell, keeping her arm locked in place on the arm rest. After Dave released her left hand from the restraint, Lina used the same spell on that side, and finished it off on her feet. Devorah was now completely bound to the chair, unable to move, and unable to defend herself yet again from the horrors to come.