Day: 1230
Days Left: 4250
Lives Saved: 6
The frustrated screeches of the fire demon princess resounded across the endless void. She heaved up the minotaur's labrys and swung at the ground, but the blade merely phased through. Then what was she standing on? Princess Alfreda was too angry to care about the physics of this dimension and continued to hack and slash at the darkness she had been consumed into.
Meanwhile, Calixte looked around and touched the ground, curious how his hands went straight through, yet his feet remained standing on something solid. He then saw amongst the debris of the princess' house that had also been sucked into the black hole was also the book she had been reading. The amphibian picked it up, brushing off the dust clean. If they were to be trapped in this void dimension for an unknown time, he had some entertainment at the very least.
With one last anger-filled swing, the fire demon collapsed onto the ground, cradling the minotaur labrys in her arms. Steam hissed at her eyes as tears evaporated immediately after forming. Blinded by the steam, the princess threw the labrys across the abyss, her monstrous strength sending it flying numerous meters. If the labrys was here, then what was Calanthe fighting with? She was unarmed. And Lili was yet to return to camp, and what about Oscar, was he...
"Oh," said a quiet voice.
Alfreda turned to see the amphibian sitting down and reading the book, gasping as he read something of intrigue.
"Really?" the fire demon growled. "You're reading in this situation?"
"What would you suggest we do instead?" asked Calixte calmly as he turned a page, gasping louder this time.
"We're stuck in this place!" Alfreda jolted to her feet. "We need to find a way out!"
"And what if there isn't one? Perhaps the best thing to do is to wait until we are released-"
"And what if we are never released!"
Calixte paused. "In my... three centuries of imprisonment in the Eternal Abyss, I have encountered a wide variety of monsters. Their powers will always have a limit." He motioned to the minotaur labrys. "Is that not proof? Surely if they wished to capture or detain all of us, we would all be here. But we are not. This... black hole managed to swallow Miss Calanthe's weapon but not Miss Calanthe herself. There appears to be a limit to how many it can absorb."
A small puff of hot air fumed out of the fire demon's nostrils.
"And, although this is but an educated guess, there might also be a time limit," continued Calixte. "They would not grant a prisoner the ability to contain another prisoner indefinitely. What if they were popular and were reliant on sales? If that person were gone forever-"
"Fine!" snapped Alfreda, folding her arms in surrender. "But we might be able to get out sooner!" And with that, she stormed off to wander to endless darkness in hopes of an exit.
In a matter of minutes, the princess returned to the beginning, finding the amphibian sitting on the ground reading. With a frustrated groan, Alfreda tried another direction, but she still ended up finding Calixte.
What is this?
Though she did not have a vantage point, she knew she was walking straight. So it must just be a small world that looped around itself. That revelation made Alfreda feel even more stuck, the darkness edging in and narrowing until it was just her left.
This feeling was somewhat resolved when she saw Calixte; perhaps it was because, knowing he was here, Alfreda knew that there was plenty of space and not just an engulfing darkness, and she was no longer claustrophobic.
Giving it one last try, Alfreda occasionally slashed at the darkness, looking around for any signs of an exit, but alas, none was found. Defeated, she finally returned to Calixte and sat down at a distance, close enough to comfort her claustrophobia but far enough not to incite conversation.
The fire demon princess did not know how long they were in that void as there was no way of measuring time, just the endless darkness. What if time worked differently here? What if it went slower, and minutes could be hours for them? But what about the reverse? What if, in the outside world, days had passed?
Could they starve in here? Did it have the same physics as the Eternal Abyss in here? Did it try to preserve them in their current states?
To get rid of these horrifying thoughts, Alfreda attempted to find some form of amusement, but there was nothing in this place besides herself, Calanthe's labrys and Calixte reading the book. She reached where she usually kept her paper fan but found it missing. Without anything to do with her hands, the princess fidgeted with her dress, tracing the embroidery with a finger.
Why was this so difficult? She had been doing this for a year now, staying in that tent doing nothing, waiting for days to pass, knowing that she would never escape this place. And yet, even a minute here was a struggle and somehow more frightening. But how? It was just the same; it was-
No, it wasn't, was it?
Even in her tent alone, Alfreda could hear everyone outside, laughing, playing, and talking.
But here, there was just this deathly silence. The only noise to take her out of that silence was Calixte occasionally turning a page.
"Would you like for me to read to you, Your Highness?" asked Calixte, not looking up from his book.
"Are you mocking me again!" snapped Alfreda, turning away. "I am not a child! I do not require a bedtime story!"
Calixte paused and looked up from the book. "I apologise; I did not intend to offend. I merely made the offer because there is little to do here. We could take turns with the book, perhaps? Or we could have a conversation..."
Alfreda grimaced, looking at the ground, continuing to fidget.
"Many royals and nobles had their own personal readers," Calixte cleared his throat. "They did in my time; perhaps it is no longer necessary. I heard from Corinna that there are these devices that produce music with no players and books without readers."
The princess raised her head, regaining her regal posture. "Royalty had servants that would read to them?"
"Oh yes, not just books, but anything, letters, important documents..." Calixte shuffled to face Alfreda. "As you said, reading takes patience and time, time which few royals and nobility have the luxury of; they are ruling a country, after all."
Alfreda wondered if this was true. Would her sister have hired a servant to read to her now that she is the queen? But, on the other hand, Alfreda could not imagine Little Cori ever giving up literature, even if it was to rule the country. "Very well," said Alfreda flatly, pretending to be disinterested. "You may read aloud. It will assist in time passing quicker here."
"Excellent!" beamed the amphibian. "What page did you get up to?"
The princess hesitated, then said, "start at the beginning again. Who knows how long we'll be here for."
*
After all the houses were checked and found empty, Rita continued to pace around, fretting and fiddling with her side ponytail. "They're not all here, are they?" she hushed Junior, who was calm and collected despite everything going on. The others, however, were still jumpy after the fight, flinching whenever one of their captives made a sudden move or one of the imps snarled and hissed.
"If they were all here, then this fight would have been far more difficult," said Junior, shrugging. He adjusted his balance to his other foot, tired of standing for so long.
"But where are they!" Rita hissed, her eyes darting around to see if someone was hiding behind the trees. "We are missing... four people, and there's no sign of the blonde woman, who might be their leader."
"They are still likely recovering from the blood moon," Junior sighed, staring up at the sky, wondering if they were clouds or if the sky was just that pale.
Rita let out a huff through her nostrils, continuing to fidget and pace. "Jules was acting strange," she eventually said quietly. "He said these people were harmless, but Annika said they had discovered his identity and held him hostage." She stared at Junior, waiting for the man to reply, but he merely glanced away. "Junior," Rita pressed. "Did Annika lie? I mean, Talon was hurt by them, but it seems that Jules was actually okay all this time."
Junior looked to the gathered captives; the minotaur had given up and was softly sobbing whilst the man, previously the headless horseman, was attempting to calm down the seven imps, all of which were in a varying emotional state at being tied up and surrounded by numerous guarding monsters.
"Annika believes that they are dangerous," said Junior, returning to face Rita.
"But are they?" asked Rita.
There was an almost smile on Junior's lips. "It's unlike you to question anything Annika says."
"I'm not!" huffed Rita. "Maybe Jules just had Stockholm syndrome or something..."
"What about Kai?" asked Junior. "The man we have captive at our camp. Do you think he is a danger?"
"Not tied up-"
"I mean, when you spoke to him, did you think he was a danger to our group?"
Rita hesitated. "I never spoke to him-"
Junior smirked. "I saw you one evening. I know that the majority of people have talked to him even once. He has this unusual quality about him that makes you want to talk to him-"
"Yes, he kept asking me questions about myself," Rita scowled. "Obviously, he was trying to break our group within and failed! I don't know how he could have possibly thought it would work!"
"Or perhaps he was genuinely interested in conversing with everyone. He proved to be an attentive listener." Junior paused. "But yes, the man was likely also seeking freedom, and since he did not have the means physically, all he had to do was befriend one of us and persuade them to free him."
"So they are a danger!" Rita nodded, smiling that her doubts from before in Annika's leadership had returned to stable devotion.
"Regardless of Kai's prior intent towards us, anyone would try to deceive and manipulate if it meant freedom, surely?"
Rita groaned. "So what is it? Are they a danger or not?"
"I do not know myself," said Junior. "Most of what we know about this group is relayed from Annika, relayed by Talon, relayed by Jules." He paused. "Look at the evidence around us."
"Evidence?" Rita frowned, looking around at the wooden houses.
"The houses, the tools, the food, the manmade river, the community they have... is this a group you would say would attack us? What would they have to gain?"
Rita swallowed, staring at the houses, seeing how well they were constructed. One of them had paintings on the side as if made by children in their simple chaos; then, there was some chore chart scattered with smiley faces and motivational quotes.
"We need to find their leader," said Rita, adjusting her mask to the side of her face. She rallied a few others to scout with her, leaving Junior in charge of the prisoners.
*
Kai looked up as he heard the shrill shrieks and yells of a familiar voice in the distance, along with the caws and the flapping of numerous wings.
His captors all exited their tents or left their guarding posts and went over to see the return of their associate and the two new captives.
The flock of ravens swooped down before Annika, who stood with her arms folded, studying the newcomers with caution.
"Unhand me!" yelled Ivette. "Let me go!" When she was finally set on the ground, she thwacked the ravens with her dinosaur claw stick, knocking one to the ground; it screeched and flailed before merging into another nearby raven.
"Someone disarm her!" ordered Annika.
Reluctantly, someone managed to take away Ivette's dinosaur claw stick whilst receiving a few bruises and whacks to the forehead.
"Put them with the other one," Annika said, motioning to Kai, who was still tied to a tree after all this time. She then turned to the flock of ravens, addressing the one before her. "Where are the others?
With a squawk, the raven motioned behind.
"They are on their way?" asked Annika.
The raven nodded.
"Go back and assist."
With new orders, the flock of ravens swooped up and flew out of the camp and out of sight.
Despite no longer having her signature weapon nor working legs and being an elderly woman, Ivette proved challenging to restrain. Still, she was eventually tied to the same tree right next to Kai, with Oscar on the other side.
Kai attempted to say 'hello', but the gag in his mouth left him only to mumble out something incomprehensible. Whilst he was beyond happy to see his friends again, he wished it was perhaps in better circumstances. And then there was also the part of him that wondered why neither Ivette nor Oscar was surprised to see him here or happy. Was it true? After a month, did none of them realise that he had been replaced?
"What's going on?" whispered Oscar. "What are they going to do to us?"
"Will someone please just stop her making such a racket!" Annika groaned as Ivette continued to yell and scream.
But even when Ivette had a piece of cloth in her mouth, her muffled voice could still be heard.
Annika crouched down before the restrained old woman. "Now, gardener..." She subtly moved her coat to the side to reveal the gun holster at her hip. "Be on your best behaviour."
Scared into silence, Ivette obeyed, her aggression and confidence from before replaced with a shivering frailness, her eyes focused on the gun.
"You want to keep your memories," Annika hushed, rising to her feet. "Then do as you are told."
*
Much to his relief, the flock of ravens eventually reached the camp, and Jules was finally set back down on the ground on the outskirts. He looked up and watched the ravens carrying Ivette and Oscar fly over the tall fence.
After a minute, the ravens returned, curling around each other until they soon formed a humanoid shape, a mass of feathers that transformed back into Talon, their face covered in bruises and cuts, one of their eyes black.
"What's going on!" cried Jules, his voice sore from constantly yelling for the past few minutes as he was carried by a flock of ravens high up in the air. He calmed himself as he noticed Talon shrink away from his outburst. "Talon?" he whimpered. "Who did that to your face? Did you attack the others before you-"
Talon shook their head, clutching their arm and fiddling with their metal bracelet.
"Talon?"
"It was Annika," Talon choked. "She- She needed a reason for everyone to attack and-"
"She hit you!" Jules was about to storm the camp, about to confront Annika in anger, when Talon grabbed his arm, holding him back.
"Stop! Jules!" Talon clung to him.
"She hit you, Talon! Do you really think she should get away with that? Get away with any of this!" Jules broke away from Talon's grasp. "Annika has become so worried about losing power and control that she has sent you to kidnap people! People who meant her no harm! They-"
"She has a gun, Jules!"
Jules looked down at the ground, sighing.
"Just one shot to the head, and all our memories would be gone!" Talon's voice wavered, almost breaking. "It's not worth it!"
"She's only in charge because of that," said Jules. "Because we fear her, not because she is actually a good leader."
"Annika lets us do whatever we like," replied Talon, but spoke with little confidence than they would before. "All she asks is to protect the camp and-"
"And she has broken that by starting a war with another group, a peaceful one that just wanted to be left alone; they were fine alone. They did not need to steal anything from us."
"And I told her that, but she still wasn't convinced." Talon shook their head. "Please, Jules... don't do anything too rash, or you'll lose your memories."
"But we have to do something!" Jules gazed at the camp, wondering what was happening to Ivette and Oscar.