Cuffs were wrapped around my wrists and ankles when I woke up. Realizing that I was no longer in the Meal Room, my senses immediately sharpened. I wasn't in my usual room either. It was much darker and colder. Even the floors seemed harder to the touch. Above all, it felt like I was in a much smaller space. A soft moan made me twist my head to face the direction of the sound.
The figures before me were hardly recognizable. Yet, I could faintly make out who they were. It was none other, than Angeli and Derrick. Except, they were both in a terrible condition.
Derrick sat there, shirtless, and even on his chest, were streaks of red. It was terrifying to look at. He seemed to be having trouble breathing, wheezing every so often. His hair was messy, very unlike his usual way of keeping his hair.
Angeli's clothing was shredded into torn cloth where it hung loosely against her frame. Her fingers laced around the chains that bound her into one uncomfortable position. Her face was contorted in such an excruciatingly agonizing face that I hadn't known was possible.
"Guys?" I croaked out, not able to steady my voice correctly. They heard me, but were lost as to where I was. "Over here, by the door." A metal door was beside me, while they sat across from me.
"M-Math..." Derrick's voice was raspy as he tried to call out for my name. He coughed after the failed attempt, making it echo throughout the dark room.
"I'm gonna get us out of here..." I promised, knowing they could both hear me.
"D-don't... pro...mise anythin... you c-can't... keep." Angeli's eyes stared right at mine. Her deep expression lost all hope on getting out of here. Seeing her so lost and in pain seemed to have had the same affect on me. No. I corrected myself and wore a determined mask over my face.
"Then I won't make it a promise. Just a goal I plan to achieve." I looked down at my wrists and twisted them about. I could move them inside the chains, but couldn't thrust them out. So, I looked back at the hinges that stuck to the wall behind me. Rusted hinges to go onto chains. Nice move, Moderates.
I used every last bit of my strength and pulled in the opposite direction of the wall, making the hinges become loose. I almost had them. I was so close, but Norman suddenly appeared and I forced myself to stop. If he caught me trying to escape, there would be "serious consequences."
His eyes maneuvered, shifting his gaze in between the three of us. "Nineteen, these are your friends, correct?" I stared up at him with narrowed eyes. "If you want, I could put them under my slaves. They will not be mistreated as they have been with The Monster and The Beast."
"What?" I asked, recognizing the familiar title of The Monster.
"Auburn was with The Beast. A Frenchman with a strict personality who can not take no for an answer. Long Eyes was with The Monster, at first. Then, for a short time, went onto a mistress with the same temper to match Monster's." He explained.
Auburn and Long Eyes? That must have been the names they were given by their masters. "Then yeah. They should stay with you. After all, you guys can't really afford to lose slaves, right? Leaving them with The Monster and The Beast would lead to death."
He gave me a crooked smirk. "Of course. They will need to recover before being put to work. From my understanding, Auburn is one of our Hunters and Long Eyes is a Server. I will keep that in mind." He crouched down beside me and began to take off my chains, but I stopped him.
"Release them first, then me." I used a determined voice, but I had practically ordered my own master. He didn't seem to be bothered by it, since he went ahead and did it. They both tried to stand, but really couldn't.
After Norman released me, I went over to help them up. "Come on, lean on me. I've got to get you guys out of here." One of my arms hooked around Angeli's back while my other did the same to Derrick's. I hauled them up into a standing position and let them lean on me as I slowly started to walk with them on either side of me. Derrick was pulling through, but Angeli didn't seem too great. After a while of walking, her head rolled onto my shoulder, where she started to breathe unevenly.
"Wait..." Norman stopped walking and looked back at me. "Can you help Derrick for me? I think she needs my help more than he does." Norman looked at me gingerly for a few seconds.
"You are really something, you know that, Mathias?" He didn't wait for me to answer and held on to Derrick, helping him walk. I quickly looked down at Angeli, whose hair shielded her face. I reached out a trembling hand and brushed away her hair, tucking it behind her ear.
"Angeli? Can you hear me?" She groaned slightly, as if confirming that she could. "I'm gonna need you to get onto my back, ok? You can't walk, right?" She nodded curtly and looked up at me with pained eyes. It struck my heart as I looked back at her. "You'll be fine. And this time, I do promise." Her lips curved up into a faint smile, accepting another one of my promises.
Crouching down in front of her, she wrapped her arms around my neck from behind and I lifted myself up, along with her on my back, and held onto her legs. "There. Better, huh?" She nodded from behind me and I quickened my pace to catch up with Derrick and Norman. Once I was beside them, Norman gave me a questioning look.
"A piggy-back ride? Really? How cliché." I laughed at the way his accent sounded when he said cliché. Norman realized how weird it sounded too and started laughing along with me.
I felt Angeli's arms tighten around my neck and I looked back at her. "What's wrong?" She looked up at me, a bit sick and it caused me to want to walk faster. "Pick up the pace, Norman! I can't afford to lose her!" I hadn't realized the words that came out of my mouth at the time, but looking back on it, I seriously didn't care. I was panicking for her life!
I made it back to my chamber before Norman did. "Hurry!" I screamed, looking back at Angeli. She flinched at my loud voice. Maybe I should have realized that my back was suddenly soaked with blood, but I was too busy worrying about getting her to lie down. Then again, like I said, I was starting to panic.
It was only until I set Angeli down that I noticed that she was bleeding intensely. "Nineteen, use this." Surprisingly, Norman passed me the same backpack I had when we were first caught by the Moderate ambush.
"Thanks," I muttered and looked over at Derrick. "I'll tend to you after Angeli, ok?" He nodded, a deep understanding in his eyes. I knew that in order to tend to the open wound on what I guessed was her side, I would have to remove her shirt. Don't get me wrong. I don't take advantages of "opportunities" like other guys would. However, if it meant it would help her, I had to. Luckily, she was wearing another covering underneath the torn-up rag that used to be her shirt.
"Here, can you sit up?" She lifted herself onto her forearm and sat up against the wall of the chamber. She was losing a lot of blood, and was losing it fast.
There was no time to waste. I tore off the pieces from her shirt and threw it aside, where she was now only wearing a see-through tank top. My eyes wouldn't wander, so I was honest in saying that I saw absolutely nothing. Nothing, but I still had to lift her tank up in order to get to the wound.
"You can lie down now, on your other side." She did as told and exposed a deep gash on her left side. "How did this happen?" I asked, shocked.
Her voice was enveloped in a thick hatred. "The Beast seriously doesn't take no for an answer. He stuck a dagger in my side and never treated it."
I cursed under my breath at the thought of having to experience that. "Then I'll treat it for you." I slowly dabbed the wound with a bit of disinfectant. It wasn't a medicine Derrick had made or put together, but Norman apparently had some. She gasped at the sharp feeling of the clean rag against her harmed flesh. I could tell she was trying to hold back her screams of pain, which only made me feel worse.
"It will be over before you know it," Norman assured her, giving her a warm-hearted smile. He was so unlike the other masters. I really questioned him, not trusting his kind actions.
After disinfecting her wound, I stopped the bleeding as best as I could with Derrick's well-made herbs. Waiting for it to finally stop, Angeli started talking in a low voice.
"He was so mean... and I never even did anything wrong. He used his violence in a way that could kill. I'm lucky he didn't kill me, because he would have done so without hesitation. I hate that... that.. Beast! I hate him with every bone in my body. I haven't eaten for a while now because of him and-"
"I can get you both something to eat. Do not. worry about that." Norman had been listening and spoke softly. "You must be hungry, no?"
Angeli nodded, but didn't seem to care much about the food. "Alright. Sit up so I can wrap it in a bandage." I ordered, hoping she would be able to. She grunted as she sat back up, but her hand gripped onto my forearm so she wouldn't fall back.
"I'll hold her for you." Norman held onto her arms, while I carefully went around her stomach with thick gauze and pinned the end of it once I was done.
"There. Do you feel any better?"
"Yes. Thank you, Mathias." I was caught by surprise when she reached over and hugged me tightly.
"U-uh... You're w-welcome." My face became a velvet red color from my intense blushing, but I still hugged her back. I mean, how rude would that have been if I didn't?
"Ok, I've got to help Derrick now." She looked up at me with those same bright blue eyes and smiled gently.
"Ok then." I blinked once and looked over at Derrick. He was watching and smiling at us silently.
"I'm fine. They'll heal on their own and they're not that deep. It just hurts a lot." He shrugged and looked back over at Norman. "Thank you, sir. Your kindness, I won't soon forget." He smiled back at Derrick. Norman really was a great guy, but I was still wary of his intentions.
"I will go fetch you two some food for you to eat." He excused himself and locked the door behind him, as always.
"Man, you got a good master. I'm so jealous. I thought you were suffering just as much as I was." I chuckled at Angeli's jealous tone.
"In a way, I really was suffering just as much as you. Can you guess what job I have?" I leaned back against the wall and looked at them both, waiting for an answer.
"Do you kill people?"
"No."
"Are you a guard of some sort?"
"Mmm-m."
"Hunter?"
"Nope."
"Then what are you?"
"It's called a Blood Tester. I'm forced to test the blood of the animals we eat. I have to observe it, touch it, and taste it." I mocked Norman's voice when he gave me directions on what a Blood Tester's job would be.
"You're right. That's suffering for sure." Derrick shook his head softly, unbelieving of the task I was given.
"That's disgusting..." Angeli looked up at me with a worried face. "Did you ever taste foul blood?" I shook my head, no. "Good. That stuff must taste horrible. The bad blood, I mean."
"I can only imagine..." My voice trailed away and I shivered slightly at the thought of it. I remembered that Anne had tasted the magpie's blood and it was most likely a sick animal. I really wondered how it tasted.
Norman walked in just then, holding two trays with a platter of food on each of them. "Here you two go. Leave the plates on the other side of the chamber when you are finished. I will not be back again until tomorrow morning, so good night."
He handed them their food and left right after, locking the door once more. I sat there silently as they talked to each other while they ate. I finally realized how hungry I was myself, but wouldn't dare complain. They both needed their food at this point. Besides, I would eat the next day. So, I listened to their conversation until I slowly slipped away into a deep and slightly peaceful sleep, not knowing that I really wouldn't eat at all tomorrow.
It so happened that when a master had three slaves, they couldn't have a fourth. It was just me and someone else who were slaves to Norman, but once Angeli and Derrick became his slaves too, one of us would have to go. And that one of us would be me. With my luck, I wouldn't end up with a kind master. Oh no, I would end up with someone cruel and impatient. I would get stuck with the master that used to be Angeli's: The Beast. A Frenchman who had the snarky look and attitude to match his appearance. Yes, my luck ran in the most oddest of ways.
I woke to find Norman and The Beast arguing over me. Though, I didn't know it was me they were arguing about.
"He is ze strongest of your slaves! I want him, and no one else. I need a slave worthy and capable of the task they are given. You can keep zat girl, but I want him." The heavy accent he owned was barely understandable, but he spoke loudly. A bit too loudly, even.
"I know that, but you can have Ezekiel. He is just as efficient and hard-working as him." Norman seemed to be slightly panicking. From the way his expression was wavering and his voice cracked a few times, anyone could tell he was nervous about whatever was going on. I just didn't realize what it was at the time.
"Ezekiel? Ze black boy you own? No zank you. I would razer work wiz a Lankie zan a Poor." He scoffed and leaned against the wide open steel door.
"You do not work with anyone! You force them to work!" A growl formed in Norman's throat as he retorted a challenge to The Beast.
"Ah, but what is ze difference?" His footsteps echoed in the room as he slowly stepped towards me. Standing over me, being looked down on, I finally started to catch on to what was happening.
"Norman has told me zat your name is unknown, but he calls you Nineteen, oui?" I nodded, my eyes refusing to show any signs of weakness. "But my ways of naming slaves is quite different. I name you by your appearance," He explained, as he studied me carefully. "And I think I have got ze right name for you."
If he was going to name me by appearance, I wouldn't answer to a name like "Auburn" or "Long Eyes." Nineteen was a name I could barely tolerate already.
"Fire Watcher, but I will just call you Fire." What? How did that have anything to do with the way I looked?
"How does that make sense?" I asked, not realizing the rudeness in my voice. In response, The Beast flicked my forehead, leaving a small red indentation on it.
"Do not question me, Fire." I couldn't complain. It sounded like a pretty cool name; I just wanted to know why he gave me it. No need to get angry, right?
"Fine." I muttered and looked up at him again. "Why are you re-naming me?"
"Nineteen does not suit you very much. If you are going to be my slave, I will name you by a name that goes well wiz you." With the way things were going so far, I wasn't really "happy" about the name I was being given. Or that I was apparently now his slave.
"I have not agreed to it! He is not your slave just yet." Norman came over to stand beside The Beast. It was always weird how Norman seemed to take a liking to me, but now it was getting to the point where it was just ridiculously unnerving.
"You will not agree to me taking Long Eyes! So it will be Fire Watcher. Ezekiel will not be a good slave to me, and neither will Auburn. You will not give up anyone but Ezekiel and Fire, so I will take Fire. Unless, you want the Monster to take him?"
"N-no! Of course not!"
"Zen what will it be, Blake? What will it be?" Norman turned to look at me. For some reason, there was an apologetic look on his face. I guessed he was sorry for handing me over to a man who was so evil, they nicknamed him something to match his beast-like actions.
"Alright. It is settled." His voice sounded heavy as he agreed to let The Beast take me as his slave.
"Very well! I will be back for him later. Oh, and Norman?" He looked up to face The Beast. "Do not spoil the merchandise." With a fake smile, he trotted out the door and into the hallways.
"Well, that's just great." I mumbled. I was now officially owned by the second worst master in the Moderate Country.
"Tell me about it. Pain in the rear end, he is." Norman sighed as he sat down on an expensive-looking couch. Strange. I hadn't noticed that before.
"But you just can't say no to him?" I questioned, narrowing my eyes suspiciously.
"I had no choice. I can only keep three slaves at a time. He does not want my other slave, Ezekiel, but will take either you or Derrick. Derrick, however, is not an option in this case. With the injuries he already has, The Beast would just insure they never heal." What surprised me the most wasn't his excuse, but the fact that he was looking out for Derrick. There was no sadness in his voice, but he seemed troubled at the same time. Was there something I was missing?
"Speaking of which, where are they, Angeli and Derrick?" They weren't in here, so it was obvious they were somewhere else.
"The Meal Room. It is afternoon, after all." Had I really been asleep that long? I knew I was tired, but was I that tired?
I proceeded to look around at the familiar cell. It instantly clicked with what this place really felt like. An insane asylum. Instead of bars in the cell, there was a steel door and chains to hold the crazy person in place, making sure they didn't escape. Even the walls that surrounded me seemed to tell a story. Scratch marks showered the metal boundaries, faintly bathed in dark, velvet liquid. The only light in the room flickered every now and again, sometimes leaving me in complete darkness. If it wouldn't hold in a mentally challenged person, it would definitely be a room that was enough to make the average person become mentally challenged.
Madness returned to the keeper, as I had concluded. Many times, though, the keeper never received that madness. Instead, they passed it on to their most recent victim. The killer cornering its prey just before they made the final lunge. In my case, The Beast was the keeper, and I was the victim, lost in a dark void of wretched laughs and smirks - known as madness in its purest form.
The Beast possessed the madness, but sometimes gave it away to his slaves. The keeper and the victim.
Who was I kidding? I was only trying to wallow in my own despair now. Thinking strange, depressing thoughts I had never come across, and taking it all out on myself. The only thing to blame would be the room I was held in, and the fact that I was now owned by a cruel and unemotional master.
You see, when a room as creepy as this one was the room you were to be captivated in for the remainder of your life, there was no getting used to it. Sometimes, I almost swore that there was someone just watching me, staring at me with judgmental eyes and making strange hand gestures. It was all just flat out creepy, imagining things in my disoriented mind.
Norman still sat on the couch, thinking to himself silently while I was dying of fear. Not so much fear of the room, but fear of the reason behind blood stains on the walls. I mean, why would that even be there if this was a place meant to keep insane people from hurting themselves? Like I said before, it was just flat out creepy in the most terrifying way possible.
"One only thing I need now is proof of the insanity," I thought, but I thought too soon. Just as I was thinking it couldn't get any worse, it did. Before my eyes was a sight I couldn't quite get a hold of.
A blurred image of a bleeding body lay before me, its voice echoing in my ears. It moaned out unrecognizable words, but was talking to nothing. As if it were accompanied by someone, or something, it reached out to try and grasp it. In a matter of seconds, blood piled around the person, drenching it in red stains and sweat. Their voice became fainter and fainter as it continued to lose blood. Slowly, it bled to death. Screaming out in agony, they did the only thing they could: die.
The image faded away, still leaving their last shriek lodged in my mind. At this point, I was wide-eyed and panting like a mad man. The chains around my wrists clanked as I tried to get away from the spot where the body was. So much noise was occurring, with my heavy breaths and chains scraping, that Norman had actually ran over and started getting the chains off of me.
"Nineteen! Nineteen, calm down!" His stern voice was commanding, but my brain wasn't registering the words that came to my ears. Instead, it responded to my hallucination and pulled away from him.
I groaned out for no reason, leaving my mouth hanging slightly open while I stared up at the flickering light of the dim room.
"Hey, can you hear me? Say something! Please!" His tone had changed from a stern one to a worried and unnerved sound. At least now, my brain was working properly.
"I... I can hear you..." Slurred words escaped my mouth, even though I could barely hear my own thoughts. He continued to shake me by the shoulders, making sure I stayed awake. Honestly, I wasn't going to have any problems staying awake. Every time I blinked, I could see the scene of terror all over again. Imagine that, while sleeping. Yeah, not very lovely.
"Good. Are you all right?" He waved a hand in front of my face, seeing if I would react to it. Flinching at his sudden movement, he seemed pretty satisfied and waited for an answer from me.
"I'm fine, thanks." I responded quietly, trying not to imagine my most recent living nightmare.
"If you are sure..." He got up and sauntered back over to the plush cushions and lay on it like nothing had happened. Aside from the couch, there were no other pieces of furniture in the cell-like room, so it only made things much more unsettling.
Like putting icing on a cake, the nearly impossible became possible. Trevor waltzed in through the metallic door and slammed it behind him, making sure to lock it firmly. I sat, frozen, on the hard and cold floor below me. Running away was out of the question, and I had near to no other options.
Watching him slowly get closer and closer to me, I panicked and immediately yelled out in a hollow voice, "Get away from me!" Norman's head quickly snapped up to look at my terrified expression.
"What has gotten into you? There is no one here!" I shook my head slowly, staring straight at Trevor. Why couldn't he see the murderer standing before me? Before I could try and answer my own question, Trevor sat down beside me with a curious glance.
"Why so jumpy, Mathias? There's no need to get all worked up about seeing me."
"Y-you don't see him?" I ignored Trevor and desperately looked to Norman for his reassurance.
"No... No, not at all..." His eyebrows were furrowed in curiosity, but I turned back to look beside me. An empty space was there, where he used to be, but I could have sworn I still felt his strange presence.
I sighed out loudly and looked around at the bloody walls. "I swear, I'm losing my mind being trapped in this place."
Minutes passed by at a slow pace, like if time was refusing to go by normally. With every passing second, I became more and more restless. Norman had gone out of the cell to go and retrieve Angeli and Derrick from the Meal Room. To keep my mind off the hallucinations, I wondered if they had met the Blood Testers. I imagined that Xero probably caught sight of them and instantly remembered the descriptions I had given him when I was searching for them. Perhaps he told them about my worry and the fact that I didn't eat at that time.
Food only reminded me that I hadn't eaten all day and my stomach was continuously growling in protest. It brought me to the fact that I wouldn't be eating for a long time, if I was going to be The Beast's slave. His strict rules and policies of three-second commands were going to be hard to follow. If what he wanted was for me to obey him in order to receive food, then I wasn't planning on doing it. If it was for his sake, then I wasn't going to do it.
Moments later, a soft creaking sounded in the room. I was lying, my back facing the door, and cringed a little at the multiple footsteps.
"What's wrong with him? What happened?" A soft voice asked, causing my head to ache and throb. My face scrunched up in pain as I continued to tremble slightly.
"I do not even know! It seems as though he has been having multiple hallucinations! He was yelling at someone to get away from him, and asking me if I could see them too." A German-toned person rushed to get the words out. More footsteps sounded and I suddenly felt something warm touch my shoulder.
"Hey? Mathias, you all right?" A masculine voice asked me. My body refused to respond to him, even if I could hear clearly. The state of shock I was in wouldn't allow me to function properly.
"I don't think he's okay..." The person I heard before was next to the British-sounding, masculine voice, but there was no way for me to know who they were with the haziness of my thoughts and memories.
"You think, or you know?"
"I know."
"Then what are we supposed to do? He's trembling, but he has no wounds, or anything."
"Maybe it's not something we can just heal with herbs. He must have seen something that scared him." A soft hand ran down my arm gently, trying to soothe me. "He just needs to know he's safe with us, right?"
I slowly reached out my hand and held onto the hand running down my arm. "Mm?" My eyes remained closed, but I could feel and hear everything. The hand stopped moving and it rested on mine, where it had recently been on my arm. Two other pairs of hands grabbed my torso and turned me so I would be facing upwards, towards the ceiling.
"I think he's finally responding to your actions." The German accent spoke.
"I really wonder what happened..." The hand tightly held onto mine, gripping it ever so slightly.
"All I know is that he saw someone, and got freaked out. I am guessing that it has to do with the fact that he is more or less, trapped in here." I was faintly beginning to recognize the voices as the ones that belonged to Norman, Angeli, and Derrick. Strange how I didn't realize it sooner.
"Just let him rest for a bit. It might help him out." Derrick suggested. Angeli's hand let go of mine, and even though I wasn't agreeing with it, I couldn't complain. It actually helped to calm me down a little.
"Has he eaten?" Angeli asked Norman.
"No, but I do not think it would be a good idea for him to eat. He might throw it up." He made a disgusted sort of face. "It defeats the whole purpose of eating in the first place." At the mention of throwing up food, I immediately turned away and started to feel a lot more worse.
"The Beast should be here soon, too. He would not like seeing him eating, since he does not do it himself." He scoffed. I felt Angeli stiffen beside me. She was against the idea almost as much as I was.
"Why is he coming here? He has no business with us. He's not welcomed here!" With every sentence she spoke, her voice rose a bit higher. Clearly exposing her anger towards The Beast, I reached out my hand again to hold hers.
"It's... fine..." I opened my eyes minutely, where my gaze was clouded over. "I'll be... okay." My voice sounded too weak and unsure to convince her.
"Look at you now! If he comes here while you're vulnerable, he'll take advantage of it!"
"Angeli." Norman said her name boldly and clearly, avoiding the use of her slave name. "Nineteen is no longer my slave, but when The Beast gets here, he will be his."
Finally able to see without the annoying blurs covering up my vision, I looked up at her face to see it turn suddenly pale.
"The Beast's s-slave...?" Derrick remained silent, seemingly shocked with the exchange given between them.
"Yes. I am only allowed to have three slaves at a time. You three and one other slave I have is one too many. He will not take anyone, but Nineteen." His gaze shifted to the chains connected to the walls, where the rust-filled hinges hung loosely. "I had no choice."
"B-but you can't do anything? You can't, like, give your other slave to someone else?" Angeli was searching for solutions, even if they had already decided what was going to happen.
"It does not work that way, I am afraid. Besides, nobody would take him because of his race. He came from Africa, and it causes all other masters to avoid him. I felt bad and took him in, gave him a chance." He truly was a kind person, Norman was.
Derrick sighed inwardly and looked back at me. "He won't be nice to you like Norman is, Mathias. You don't have to-"
"I... have no... choice. There's... nothing... I can do." The four of us knew this. We knew this for a fact. It was bound to happen, and there wasn't anything I could do now to avoid it. No one said an other word because there was nothing left to say now. All we could do was sit and wait for the time to come, like I did with most things.
As anticipated, it wasn't long until he arrived. Looking quite different from the last time we saw him, it was hard to believe it was really him. He was wearing an old, loose-fitting, white dress shirt. A necktie hung around his neck lazily, but he made the clothing look as if it were the way you were meant to wear it, lazily. Wearing slightly formal attire, he looked much more different than usual. Instead of being some intimidating and wicked person, he looked like the ordinary Frenchman.
"Shall we go, zen?" His cold voice rang through the mostly empty room. Angeli narrowed her eyes at him, not very much impressed with what he was wearing. It seemed as though it was something normal for him to do.
"Give us a short moment," Norman told him. He looked over at me and gave me a questioning look, as if to ask, "Are you sure?"
Since I was feeling much more better than I was at first, I felt confident about this. I couldn't let him get the best of me, right?
Giving Norman a curt nod, he helped me up. Even if I was only feet away from him, the walk closing in those few feet felt like miles. My feet dragged behind me, willing me to keep going. My mind kept saying, "I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go!" There was no chance I was going to listen to it, though.
"Good. Let us be on our way." He announced, after chaining me up again, like slaves were meant to be. I gave one more glance towards the three of them, where they each shared the same sullen expression. My eyes averted with meeting theirs, and I felt a twinge of pain in my chest. Was this the last time I would see them?
The dark corridors kept going, but I wasn't really paying much attention to the ground in front of me. I didn't notice where we were headed, or how long it took to get there. A blast of air hit my face, finally causing me to look up and investigate where that had come from. It turned out that I was being led outside, where I was finally able to see the distant sun and dark, gray sky.
"Outside?" I asked him, not exactly sure why I was here.
"You are now a Hunter, Fire. It will be your job to kill as many animals as I request you to. Since zis is your first time, I expect you not to fail ze quota. Ten animals. Get zem by sundown, or suffer ze consequences." He didn't wait for me to respond and handed me a hunting rifle, bow and arrows, three daggers, and a holster to put one of the given weapons inside. "Your hunting area will be shared wiz two others. Make sure you get acquainted wiz zem beforehand. When you hear ze ringer, it signals zat it is time to begin ze hunt. When you hear it once again, it means it is ze end of the excursion. Zat is all. Keep in mind that ze masters will remain here, making sure you do not try anything to escape." He gave me the last of his detailed instructions and was off, walking away into the shallow woods of Germany.
"Well then..." I muttered, looking over my given weapons. These arrows weren't crafted very well. They were a bit crooked from the point, and the feathers on the back weren't put on correctly, meaning they'd be hard to use. The hunting rifle didn't have a silencer, so it would scare away the rest of the animals before I got the chance to use it again. My only option was to use the small knives, but that meant I would have to go in close and catch them quickly. I wasn't very fast, and wasn't all too good with stamina, so chasing after them wasn't an option. Throwing knives at them had to be the trick.
I decided to practice a bit before the ringer went off and chose a location to throw the knives at. One certain tree in particular caught my attention. It had a target-looking figure carved into the bark of the tree. It was extremely convenient, for obvious reasons, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity just like that. Taking a dagger in hand, I aimed the tip of the blade towards the center of the carving. Swiftly jerking my hand and arm towards the tree, the dagger flew from my grip just as planned. I kept my eyes locked on the center and watched as the dagger landed a bit off from the middle.
"Close enough." I mumbled and went to retrieve the weapon again.
"Nice shot." A voice from behind me complimented as I pulled the knife out of the wood. I turned my head over my shoulder to peer at the person who was speaking to me. A fairly young boy, about thirteen years old, looked up at me with no emotion. He had cold gray eyes and disheveled black hair with a pale complexion to match.
"Thanks, I guess. I don't use daggers often, so..." I shrugged and placed it back in my given holster, where I had two more daggers. Turning around to face him, I explained, "I thought I'd practice."
"Never asked you." He responded icily and stared at my golden-colored eyes. "Is that why he calls you Fire? Because of your eyes?"
I thought I would go along and play his little game of, "Act as Grumpy as You Can." Hopefully, he wouldn't get angry about it.
"How am I supposed to know? I don't go around asking stupid questions like you are right now." I thought about what he said, though. Maybe Fire Watcher meant that I watched and observed things with fire. Meaning, I was watching things with eyes that looked like fire.
He narrowed his eyes and scoffed. "I see what you're doing, but it won't help you. We're sharing the same hunting area with some girl, so get rid of the attitude."
"No, thanks. I'm not interested in being 'friendly' to girls right now. If you haven't noticed, the Earth isn't what it used to be, so... not interested." I continued to annoy him, using the same tone of voice he was using. I admit, it was pretty mean to treat the kid like that, but he did ask for it.
"Oh, here she comes now." He chuckled lightly and nodded behind me, where she stood, leaning against the bulls-eyed tree.
"I didn't think The Beast would have made you a Hunter, Mathias." Angeli grinned softly and peered over at the boy. "I see you've met Jack. Not a sight for sore eyes, but... meh..." She laughed a little at the look he gave her.
"That's right. I forgot you were a Hunter too. Funny how things work out, huh?" Jack looked at each of us with a surprised look.
"Wait. You two already know each other? Well, that's no fun." He pouted and crossed his arms, like he had gotten upset. I was sure he really had.
"Yep." Angeli simply answered and made sure to pop the "p" in the word. Jack messed up his own hair and sighed lazily.
"Every day it feels like they take longer and longer to sound the ringer!" He cried exasperatedly. I could already tell from this simple gesture that he was someone who couldn't be kept waiting. Impatient, rude, and cold. Great, so now I had him to worry about too. I looked over at Angeli with a troubled look and she only shook her head silently. Seemed that this would take a while to get used to.