Surprisingly, the ringer didn't really sound like a ringing sound at all. It sounded more like a buzzer. It scared me lifeless for a few seconds when it went off, sealing the deal of a near to impossible task. I could faintly recognize it, since I felt like I had heard it somewhere else before. It chimed in an unpleasant way, like if I had heard it when I was working in the Blood Testing room. I hadn't known what it was at the time, but now, I did.
Angeli elbowed my side and motioned towards the woods. "Let's get started. We don't have as much time as you would think." I nodded and followed behind her while Jack trailed behind us.
"For adults, you guys are slow." He complained, even if he was far behind us as we jogged to our hunting area.
"And for a kid, you're the meanest person alive." I shot back at him. It was starting to get annoying. His snide remarks, the unnecessary rudeness, and the completely childish behavior was getting to me.
"I'm not a kid, mind you. I'm thirteen. That's technically a teen."
"Make that an annoying fly. You are very much like one of those." I snarled beneath my breath.
"Yeah? You're no different." He retorted in a low and threatening voice.
"So what? At least I have a reason. At first, I thought I would treat you nicely. I had no reason to be mean or disrespectful to you. I thought people still had their humanity, even if we were still struggling to survive!" Anger rushed in my voice as I screamed out, staring bullets at the ground below me. He had finally caught up with us and walked alongside me. Angeli listened carefully to our little argument, but didn't step in to stand up for either of us.
"Then I guess you thought wrong." He muttered that, and went off on his own. I suddenly felt terrible about what I had said, but at the same time, I felt like he clearly deserved it.
"Don't worry about him," Angeli saw my expression of regret and assured me sweetly. "He's always a sourpuss, but you get used to him."
"I hope so." I tilted my head sideways a little and stared at the spot where he had last been.
"I'll catch ya later, alright? Oh, wait, how many animals do you need to kill?"
"Ten. You?"
"Wow... I only have to catch five. If I finish fast, I can help you out, if you want. You don't want to fail the quota, especially on your first day. The Beast won't take nicely to that."
"Thanks, but I don't think he'd be too happy with me if he found out I got some help. I'll try my hardest, and if I can't make it, then... Oh well."
"If you're sure." She had an uneasy look on her face as she sauntered away and into the dark forest.
"Hey," I called after her and she reappeared soon after.
"Yeah?" Her eyes shone brightly with a look of curiosity.
"See ya later." She smiled gingerly and nodded. As I watched her disappear again, It dawned on me that maybe, I really was interested in getting close to someone. Not in the strange kind of way, but in a way where there was enough trust between us, so I could depend on them. The kind of relationship where you could tell them anything and not feel scared to tell them. I was really and truly interested in having a best friend, like I once had in a different lifetime.
Smiling as I walked to a vacant place, I became instantly motivated for hunting. Not for the sake of avoiding punishment, but to not put anyone else in danger. I knew quite well that Angeli was almost just as stubborn as I was. She wouldn't be able to keep away the desire to help me with my quota. That could only lead to disaster.
Branches moved around near me and antlers poked out from underneath thick vegetation. I wielded my dagger and got ready to launch it at the large buck before me. Would it be easier to strike it in the back of the head, or straight for the heart? The animal wasn't facing me, so I had no clear shot of its chest. The head would have to do.
I aimed for the spot in between his antlers and near the top of the neck, where the cranium was most sensitive. Launching the dirk at it, it quickly began to lose large amounts of blood and suddenly plopped down to the ground, dying from the blood loss and harsh impact against his skull.
"I'm sorry." I silently whispered to it, reaching the body, and quickly gave my words of thanks. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to take back all the meat, but I chose to bring them two at a time. At this point, it was an hour or so away from being sundown. Angeli was right. I didn't have as much time as I thought.
For the past half hour, I searched around for any other animals of prey, but only managed to hunt down three more. I still needed six to complete the task, and I was starting to get worried. Food seemed a little more scarcer in the Moderate Country than I expected. There weren't many rabbit holes here or bird nests. The trees were habitable, so I found it very strange. Did Germany not have much wildlife? It seemed like it.
The sun was now low in the sky, just above the horizon and I still had two more animals to catch. There was no time to waste now. If I wasn't able to find those last two, I would most likely get a beating from the "keeper of madness."
A little thrush flew into the clearing, which I was now standing in. It was unaware of my presence, twittering loudly and flapping its wings happily. I even hesitated to kill the poor creature, but I would be the one to suffer in place of it instead, if I didn't kill it. With the switchblade at the ready, I immediately ended what had to be done as fast as I could and picked it up, ready to go find the last one.
The ringer sounded in the distance, signaling the end of the excursion. It rang just as it did about an hour ago, only now, it pounded against my ears in a mocking tone. Forgetting the place I was in, I only imagined the evil that was waiting for me. The buzzer faded away, still echoing and lingering somehow even after it had stopped.
My heart throbbed in my chest, fear taking over and leaving me in a deep shock. I couldn't register the fact that the hunt was over, so I stood still for a while. A mistress walked right by me and looked behind her when she saw I wasn't making a move to get back to the slave asylum.
"Uh.. It's over this way." She said matter-of-factly.
"H-huh..." I stuttered on a simple noise and looked down at the small bird in my hands.
"We can go turn that in over there. Come on," She came back towards me and grabbed my arm to guide me back in the right direction. Only, I wasn't really walking at my own accord. My feet were moving on their own, while my conscious wandered away and got lost in an unknown place, unattended.
"Hey!" A cheerful voice called out. "Mathias!" Angeli bounded up beside me, glancing curiously at the woman by my arm and looked at the thrush. "Uh... hi." She waited for me to answer, but my expression remained blank. Even my eyes grew dim. I had finally been able to get it into my head that I wasn't likely to make it out of this slavery alive, with the suffering of consequences.
"Gosh, calm down! I'm coming!" The mistress screeched beside me, knocking me back to my senses. She ran off towards another master who had been calling for her from just a bit ahead of us.
"N-no... I didn't make it. There was.... just one more left." I tightened my grip on the thrush and suddenly felt myself surge with rage. Only, I kept that all inside.
Our conversation came to a stop. So did our walking. Time seemed to freeze momentarily, struggling to go back to its normal pace. We were still far away from the asylum, where most people were likely already being let in by their masters.
The thrush in my hands was lifeless and limp, sort of like how I felt at the moment. No, I wasn't going to give myself up to a creature as cruel as The Beast. If he was going to punish me, I wouldn't let him enjoy my pain.
In the frozen world, weakened arms grabbed a hold of me and pulled me towards a body. A warm, and inviting body. Angeli buried her face into my chest and threw the thrush away from my grasp. Her arms wrapped around my lower torso, squeezing me protectively.
"Then don't go..." She said softly. "He'll hurt you, the way he hurt me, and I'm not going to let that happen."
Time went back to normal again, but now my heart was the thing that seemed to have frozen. "W-wha?" I was caught off guard, and all signs of the current rage that was developing inside of me seeped away. "I..." I finally returned the hug, holding her tightly against me. "I can't..."
"Of course you can!"
"He'll come looking for me. There's no point."
"It's worth a try."
"Won't he punish me further that way? Besides, it's about time I start feeling the pain you went through, when I wasn't there to stop it from happening." She slowly pulled her face away from my chest and looked up at me with darkened eyes.
"How about the pain you went through when I wasn't there to stop it from happening? You had to taste blood, suffer a panic attack, go through the trouble of getting Norman to let him be Derrick and I's master, see someone you obviously didn't want to during some sort of hallucination, get put under the dangers of being The Beast's slave, and now this!" The edge to her voice startled me, making my mind go wild. Was it true? Had I really gone through all of that?
I remained silent. There wasn't anything I could find to respond to her. She knew it as well as I did. Then, I thought of something.
"What if I told you that I want to get punished? Would you keep me from getting something I truly desire?" She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and turned away from me. She released her arms from around me, but I didn't let go of her. "It's just a 'what if,' but listen to me. I'll be fine. You turned out ok, right?"
"Because of you, but what if no one is there to save you, like you were there to save me?" She pressed her cheek up against my shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut, giving me a moment of hesitation.
"I promise that I'll be alright. Just like I promised to protect you, right? I don't break my promises." Our eyes met, for a few seconds, before she gasped lightly and broke the locked gaze.
Breaking away from my arms, she looked around and then back at me. "We need to get back, fast! They're gonna be angry!" I finally realized how right she was. They could have thought we tried to escape, and maybe even succeeded. I reached down to pick up the bird I hunted and grabbed hold of Angeli's hand.
"Come on, we've got to get there quick." She nodded in response as we dashed in between trees, stepped over rocks, and jumped over bushes. There wasn't much time to waste now, and if I tried to explain myself, would anyone really listen? I doubted it, since there was absolutely no one who would even let me explain.
The trees started to separate from each other as we got closer to our destination. My chest was tightening in fear of what was to happen next, making it hard for me to breathe. Angeli must have noticed, since she squeezed my hand gently to try and comfort me. I wasn't sure why this wasn't bothering me. It didn't bother me when she hugged me, smiled at me, or held my hand. What was stranger was that she didn't seem bothered by it either.
We finally approached the side of the building, where Norman, The Beast, and Derrick were standing. Norman had brought Derrick out here, most likely because he picked him up first and then came to get Angeli.
They both had worried expressions, though I couldn't see Derrick's expression too clearly from the hair that hung over his face. The Beast, however, looked much more angrier than I had imagined. Our hands still remained linked together, but I wasn't going to let her hand go until we each had to go our separate ways.
"So you finally decided to show up, eh?" He snatched away the prey from my hand and scowled at my other hand, holding onto hers. "Is zat what took you so long? Norman, I zink it is time you tell zem zat zis is not allowed." Norman gave us a curious look, which I returned with a stern one.
"Friends." I said clearly. They were thinking that Angeli and I had gotten closer than just friends. Even though I could see it happening, I knew it wasn't going to. "I mean, seriously, what would she get from me anyway?" I thought.
"No matter. Zis is not ze subject of conversation. You have only collected nine, Fire." He looked at me straight in the eyes with a dangerous glare, but I continued to keep my calm and wouldn't dare to flinch.
"I know. The ringer sounded before I could catch the tenth."
"So, you realize zat zis is unacceptable? I told you zat since zis was your first time, I expected you to not fail."
"How in the world was I supposed to hunt ten animals within an hour? How?" I was starting to raise my voice at him, which caused him to do the same.
"It does not matter if it is impossible. You are expected to do ze impossible!" He narrowed his eyes into slits.
"Don't expect me to do it, if it's impossible, then!" I yelled defiantly. No way was I going to let him get away with this, but I made a mistake in thinking that. His palm struck against my cheek, leaving a red mark on my skin. I felt Angeli tense beside me and everything became suddenly silent.
"Do not tell me what to do. Do not step out of line. Do not zink that just because you are capable of standing up for yourself, it means you will be protected." He said in a low, menacing voice. Without waiting for a response, he yanked my hand away from Angeli's and started covering me in chains. Norman silently motioned for her to come over to join him and Derrick, so she did as she was told and waited for further instructions.
My cheek stung as I glared up at The Beast. He was clearly fuming and was going to soon let out all his anger. Though, I wasn't afraid. I wouldn't let myself be scared of something I knew I went through every day: pain. No, I wouldn't let him have the satisfaction of defeating me. Some things, however, were just not accomplishable.
He tugged me away, pulling me by the chains that connected my wrists together. I had no choice, but to follow him. Norman had left with Angeli and Derrick, so it was just the two of us, walking down the strangely long hallway. Every once in a while, I would hear distant voices talking behind doors, some speaking, and others screaming. Every bit of my senses was on high alert, vigilant and focusing on the things around me.
The Beast was mumbling profanities in French, under his breath, while we continued to get closer to the location he was leading me to. I had no idea where we were going, but I was expecting to be led into a different cell, which would be the one where he kept his slaves. Only, I had my expectations set incorrectly. Rather naive of me to think he would be that kind, really.
He rounded a corner and as he disappeared from my sight, I went and tried to follow him. Stepping around that same corner, I didn't have time to process what was going on before it happened. I did, however, see the place he brought me to.
It was a hallway, but one like no other. The walls were covered in spluttered and recent blood, floors were drenched with dried sweat, and in a corner, a single bloody body lied. I held my breath as I recognized the person who was before me. I had seen them this way before. That hallucination I had - of the bloody body - was now coming true. My eyes welled in tears as I looked down at him, scarred and beaten. Max must have also been one of The Beast's slaves, one that had gotten on his nerves, like the rest of the slaves he already murdered.
Pain shivered my whole body as I was stabbed straight in the chest, just below my lungs. As quickly as I was stabbed, I fell to the ground with a yell of protest.
"Can you repeat zat again? How I should not expect you to do ze impossible?" His accent made him sound more threatening and his eyes flared with the same anger I remembered seeing in my own eyes, on a reflection I saw of myself the day Trevor killed my parents.
I tried opening my mouth to speak, but no words came out. There was now an open gap in my chest that wouldn't allow me to do that.
"Foul-mouzed, reckless, disrespectful, unzankful, fool!" Along with each insult, he kicked me over and over, causing the wound to open further. Each kick came sharper, knocking the air from my lungs while creating a burning ache no human would ever be able to resist from. My breathing became uneven and ragged, to the point where my eyes were struggling to stay open.
He brought out a second knife, a kitchen knife, and slashed the blade against the bare skin of my arm. It was quickly covered in red as he repeatedly cut the sensitive flesh.
"GAAAAAHH!!!" I finally managed to scream out. He chuckled at the thrill of my scream, receiving my reaction from inserting the knife into my stomach. I was losing too much blood, too fast for my body to keep up with.
"You see zis?" He asked me, though I was never going to be able to answer. My eyes struggled, but they focused on the object he was holding. The knife was dripping with red liquid, completely seethed in my own blood. Even the top of the handle and his hand were soaked. "Zis is what happens when you do somezing I do not like." To prove his point, he stuck it inside my leg. A shriek escaped my lips and echoed throughout what felt like the entire asylum. I couldn't take this much more. I wasn't going to be able to last.
My eyes wandered over to Max, where he lay lifeless. He was so young, too. Why did it have to end this way for him? He probably made an honest mistake. With the way he was sacred of almost everything, he might have just made a mistake with the Blood Testing. Either way, The Beast had no heart or soul to consider not killing him for a natural human thing: making mistakes.
"A-are... yah... g'nna... kill meh... like... hm?" I mumbled loud enough so he could hear me, blood spilling out through my mouth and dousing my lips.
He narrowed his eyes and glanced over at Max. "Sure. If I feel like it." He sneered and raised the knife again, but was stopped by a low threat.
"Don't touch him." I watched as the expression on The Beast's face darkened with even further anger.
"More people telling me what to do, I see?"
"Certainly, you must have known that this is called murder? Do you realize that you are going to Hell for this?" I recognized Derrick's voice, but he was too far away from me for my eyes to adjust on him. They were still straining to stay opened.
"Zen I will meet you zere, would I not, Derrick?" He said his name, didn't ask for it, didn't hear it from anyone, but still knew it.
"Perhaps. Not the point, though." I heard a gunshot sound and then the croaking of someone running out of breath from the sudden sharp impact.
"Zen why did you not get straight to ze point?" He laughed evilly and then held out the gun he was holding so it pointed towards me, in between my eyes. "Do you want me to do ze same to you?" I shook my head slowly and watched as he lowered the gun toward my head, where the last thing I heard was his cackles of satisfaction. One thing running through my mind before he butted me in the head with the barrel of the gun was if this would be the last thing I would see.
Fortunately, I woke up again in a strange cell, where the ground below me was as crimson as a freshly picked apple.
"You are finally awake. It is about time." I noticed how clear my vision had gotten and how heavily bandaged I was around my right arm, torso, and left leg.
"Why...?" I motioned towards my wrapped up body parts and he lazily replied to my question, reading my mind.
"I had an acquaintance of mine mend you, so zat I could continue where we left off. Not today, however. Next time you step out of line, because let us face it - zis is not ze last time I will have to make you scream in pain to listen to me - I might not go so easy on you. You are stubborn and I do not like that. I will have to break zat personality trait of yours so zat you listen to my commands instead. Basic training, as I like to call it." He spoke for a long time, and grasping onto every word he said, I looked around at my surroundings.
Now, this cell was completely bare, still filled with scratch marks on the walls. The hinges on the chains weren't old, though. They seemed to have gotten replaced somehow with newer ones. There was still the same flickering lights that I remembered from Norman's cell.
"Furzer punishment: no food for ze rest of ze day. You will not eat until tomorrow morning. Zat is, if I'm in a good mood." The Beast started to walk towards the door, when I stopped him.
"Wait! What happened to Derrick?" He turned his head to face me, but kept his body where it was.
"Now, why would I tell you zat?" He giggled happily and strutted out the door, noticeably in a good mood after torturing me for missing one animal to complete my quota. My eyes stared after him, even if he had already closed the door. This "barrier" between us didn't exist to me. I acted as if I could still see him through the walls and I stared at it, not taking my eyes off the door.
I was starting to cramp up from staying in the same position, but it was a big mistake trying to shift around. My whole body ached tremendously at the slight movement and I yelped out quietly.
It felt as if the cuts he had given me were still raw underneath the bandages. All his acquaintance did was cover the wounds, without bothering to put medicine on it. That way, they wouldn't be healing any time soon. He probably knew this, and wanted me to continue feeling the bits of pain caused by him.
One question running through my mind was how did I survive that? I clearly lost more blood than I was able to, yet all I had now were deep wounds. If his acquaintance truly hadn't healed me, then being alive seemed almost impossible.
My mind drifted away from my survival and my thoughts raced as I started thinking of the different things I had seen. What was I supposed to tell the Blood Testers when Max wouldn't show up? They'd be devastated to hear that one of their friends was murdered by his own master. I knew they would react worse then I did, and I teared up.
Derrick on the other hand, I had no idea about. If he was dead, I couldn't have known for sure. If he was alive, I still couldn't have known for sure. Though, I was also wondering how The Beast already knew his name. He even sounded like he was positive he'd see him in Hell. But for what? Was there something I was missing here? I was sure there was. I would've been happy for him to be alive, but I would still question his unknown intentions.
A loud banging noise sounded outside my cell, after a long while of thinking. My curiosity got the best of me as I tried pulling away from the chains. It was a terrible error on my part, seeing as I was injured to the maximum, the way I was.
One of my muscles stretched to accompany my efforts against the metal bracelets. The muscle felt like it was tearing the flesh around it, eating it away. I recoiled immediately and shook in pain, yelling out the one thing that suddenly flashed into my mind.
"Angeli!" Tears streamed down either side of my face, dripping down onto the floor in front of me. I hunched my shoulders and leaned forward, letting my head fall in the same direction. I thought that I was in so much pain because of the wounds I received on not meeting a certain someone's expectations, but that truly wasn't it. What it really was, was the pain of thinking I would never get out of here and protect Angeli, the way I promised I would. It didn't cross my mind that maybe, It was because of her that I was fighting to stay alive in the first place.
I sniffed softly, closing my eyes tightly and blinking away the sadness. Now, it wasn't only my body that ached. So did my heart.
The reason I was here in the first place was entirely because I had to find Trevor. I needed to find him and confront him the way I was always so scared to do. Even then, I was still in great fear of what he was capable of doing to me, or anyone else, for that matter. I needed to desperately find a way out of there, and before things got out of hand, more than they already were.
The last of my tears splattered in the same pile as the previous ones and I slowly looked up to face the door. I had a new motivation now. If I didn't do something, then nothing would happen. If I didn't try to fix things, then how could I even hope that things would get better? It was like hoping your parents wouldn't divorce while just standing there, listening to them argue when you could at least try to make them stop and forgive each other. It was pointless thinking things would turn out all right, especially when all you did was stand there and watch it happen.
Forgetting that I was in no condition to be trying my strength, I pulled a heavy force against the newly-replaced hinges and the shackles hung tightly around the bones of my wrists. I always found it weird how the couplings were connected to hinges, but now it didn't matter. What mattered was breaking said junctures so that I could be loose and able to move around the cell.
Straining against the bolts and screws that held the piece of metal against the wall made it so much more challenging for me, mostly because they were drilled into a large structure that was also made of metal. However, I didn't find that to be the problem, even if it truly was. The problem in my case, was that I wasn't strong enough to do it. Or I wasn't trying hard enough. Stubborn as I was, I did just that. I tried harder than I normally would have, my veins turning a dangerous shade of lavender.
"Ah!" I suddenly fell face down on the floor, where I heard a crack come from the bone in my nose. "You've gotta be kidding me..." I muttered. I apparently now had a broken nose. To confirm my suspicions, blood dripped down to my lip and made me slightly shiver in remembrance to how I would taste the blood of animals. Surprisingly, though, I wasn't as disgusted as I thought I would be.
Metal clanked as I got up into a sitting position and glared back at the broken pieces of metal that used to hold me back. I snickered silently and turned my attention back to the metal door, the one thing constricting me from getting out of this place now.
"Am I exceeding your expectations now, Beast?" I asked no one, but I already knew the answer. Totally.
There was only a short time to celebrate. Not only did I have a painful wound in my chest, but I also had one in my stomach. Now, normally, I would have probably vomited up my intestines, but I only resided to coughing up blood. It was my preference out of the two. After using so much force on sheer iron, it wouldn't have turned out too good for me in any case. As blood spilled out from my mouth and smothered the floor, I madly grasped at my chest, trying to get my coughing to calm down. No use.
Not seconds later, I heard footsteps running madly past my door. Then, they stopped and ran back towards the room. They passed it again. I thought they were just trying to find the source of the noise. An idea suddenly popped into my head.
"Brilliant." I mumbled between coughs. This idea was so simple, but would be a bit difficult to get through. I would need to be cautious.
To execute my plan, I started to cough even louder than before. That way, whoever was outside would be sure to hear me. No blood was coming out from my coughs anymore, but I kept going nonetheless. It was all for the idea, after all. The only way to attract that person over here was to keep making the noise.
"Tu ojees eso también, verdad?"
"Si! ¿De dónde esta saliendo ese tosiendo? Párese como sí van a morirse, tosiendo así!" It looked as though there were now two people, but they were talking in a completely different language I didn't understand. Their voices grew louder as they neared the door.
"Creo que viene de este cuarto. ¿Es un hombre aquí adentro? Tenemos qué tener cuidado."
"Claro que sí! Solo dios sabe si es peligroso o no..."
"Abrí la puerta, pues!"
"No, tu! Es el cuarto de La Bestia, no? Nos puede matar!"
"Pero tenemos que ayudar lo!"
"Sin saber sí es peligroso?"
"Si!" From the sound of things, I guessed they were starting to argue. Yet again, there was no way I could tell. Then suddenly, the door slowly creaked open.
"¿Ay arguyen aquí?" A soft, timid voice spoke. The light above me flickered off, leaving me in the dark. I stopped coughing and leaned up against the wall, the broken hinges digging into my back.
"No creo que-"
"Shh! Lo oigo respirando. Se está escondiendo..." They both sounded like feminine voices and I wondered who they were, if they weren't speaking any language I could recognize.
All of a sudden, I felt a hand touch the top of my head and the girl gasped in surprise. I remained still, not making a single sound.
"Aquí! Lo encontré!" She seemed to have called over the other one, because she scampered over to her and now, they were both standing in front of me. The good thing about this was that they couldn't see me, but I couldn't see them either.
"¿Hola? ¿Estas bien?" Girl Two struggled to find my wrists, but when she did, she sounded sad. "Esta marrado..."
"No lo creo. Mira." Girl One pointed at the hinges and nodded. "Lo quebró." I had absolutely no idea what they were saying, but I hoped this wouldn't go on much longer. I started to lose a bit of patience, so I finally spoke.
"Can you help me?" This wasn't my original plan, but they didn't seem dangerous, like I thought they might be.
"O! ¿Help? Necesita ayuda! ¿Cómo lo podemos ayudar?" Girl One's voice became enthusiastic.
"No entiende español, idiota!"
"Párese que no. Pero... podemos verlo en la luz," She smiled suggestively. "Quizás no es viejo, y es joven." Girl One sounded annoyed, but excited at the same time. Both of them took hold of one of my hands and urged me forward. I couldn't stand, with the wound The Beast gave me on my leg. Thankfully, they were strong enough to hold me around my waist to help me walk. They were going towards the door, when they suddenly both stopped.
"Es tan... guapo!" Girl One smiled as she looked at me. I raised an eyebrow in question, but she only kept smiling.
"Pero es un gringo!"
"Si, yo se..." She continued to smile, even though I was clearly not understanding what she was saying. I looked over at Girl Two, and she gave me an apologetic smile. I guessed these two girls were speaking Spanish, because of some of the words they said, like "hola" and "si." I just wished I had learned Spanish when I was younger. It was annoying not being able to understand them, but now I had a free escape.
They started leading me outside the cell and once we reached the hallway, I gave them each soft smiles of gratitude. It seemed they understood what I was trying to say, and they both gave each other a quick high-five before running off and waving at me from behind them, saying, "Adiós!"
I shook my head silently, still wearing the same smile. I was finally free, with the help of some hispanic escape artists. I turned to go in the opposite direction, but came face-to-face with something I clearly wasn't anticipating.
Before me, were eyes I thought I would never see. They were eyes that were always hidden and never showed themselves. Only, they weren't alone. Derrick stood, facing The Beast with his hair brushed away from his eyes. It was true, what he said. They weren't just blue eyes, but clear blue ones.
They hadn't noticed me yet, even with all the noise those two girls were making. So, I hid behind a pillar in the hallway and decided to wait until they walked away. Neither of them would be easy to kill and then make a run before the other caught me. Plus, I had no reason to kill Derrick.
"You have to let him go! He's not meant to be tortured or beaten up, neither is Angeli!" He was standing up for us? I never thought I'd see the day.
"And what if I do not?"
"Don't try my patience, Beast. You know what will happen." The Beast narrowed his eyes at Derrick, whereas he only crossed his arms. I had never seen Derrick this way before. I expected him to fear The Beast almost as much as Angeli and I feared him. Apparently, I was wrong. He had no intimidation at all towards The Beast.
"Zreatening, are we? It will not get you anywhere, I assure you. Zat wound of yours seems to be doing pretty bad already. Shall I make it worse for you?" I could imagine him snickering at his little remark, as if it were the smartest one there was.
"Quit with the back talk! I have no time to listen to your smart mouth. Norman only let me come here for a certain amount of time. I only came here to warn you. If you so much as cause him to go into a life-or-death situation, you won't end up in Heaven, when I kill you." The tension between them seemed to flow out in waves, so I could feel it as their voices grew stronger and more aggravated.
"We will see about zat, sooner or later." He chuckled, and then I heard footsteps as he walked away from Derrick. I chose this time to finally come out and see if Derrick truly was in a bad condition, with the wound.
I found that he now had his back to me, so I silently walked up to him and tapped his shoulder. Taken by surprise, he grabbed my wrist and quickly spun around to see who it was. I chuckled slightly and looked up at him, a fake annoyed look on my face.
"Mathias? What are you doing here? I thought you were in The Beast's cell!"
"I escaped. Wasn't all too hard, really. Not like you'd expect. Enough about that, though. What was that all about?" I tilted my head in the direction The Beast had walked off to.
"I just wanted to make sure he knew that hurting you or Angeli wouldn't be one of his options." He seemed a bit embarrassed, as he brought his hair back to cover his eyes.
"Thanks, Derrick. I appreciate it." I patted his shoulder in a brotherly way, while he smiled that rare smile.
"What now? If you've escaped, then this is our only chance to get out of this slavery."
"You're right. We should go and get Angeli, too. Then we'll make a plan to get out of here completely." He nodded, and beckoned for me to follow him.
"I know my way around here, a little. I kept memorizing the different places we were going to, as a future reference. Norman's cell should be on the... east side of the asylum."
I nodded and came across another question for him. "Did Norman really let you come talk to him?"
He was silent for a moment before speaking. "He hesitated at first, knowing how dangerous The Beast was. Seeing as he had already shot me, he didn't want the same thing to happen again. I convinced him otherwise."
"That's right... the wound... is it okay now?"
"Could be worse." He shrugged. "It was to the arm. You on the other hand, are limping and breathing like crazy."
"A hole in your chest, leg, and stomach does that." He noticed this, and hung his arm around my torso, avoiding the stabbed area. His pace slowed down to accommodate my limping, but he didn't seem bothered by it. It felt like Derrick was being more of a brother than Trevor ever was. When I was little and I would get hurt, he'd always completely ignore me and say that it wasn't a big deal. Not only that, but he wouldn't at least help me up.
"I think it's just around here." Derrick's voice interrupted my thoughts and I nodded, suddenly interested on the ground near my feet. Then, he stopped walking. "Right here." He signaled towards the door we were standing in front of.
"How do we get in? Aren't these doors locked?"
"From the inside, yeah. Anyone can open a door from the outside. I'll hold it open so we don't get stuck in here. You get Angeli, and then we'll make a run for it."
"What about Norman? Where's he?"
"If he's in there, act casual. Then we'll really need to make a run for it." He smirked coolly before letting me go and opening the door, holding it open for me.
Stepping in, I was still limping from my now sore leg. It was darker in here than in the hallway, so it took a while for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. In the corner of the cell, Angeli sat with her arms chained together behind her back. Her head rolled onto her shoulder, facing in the opposite direction.
"Hey...?" I timidly approached her and shoved her gently. I got a quick response back. She turned to face me with wide eyes.
"Mathias! Why are you here?" She looked surprised, but relieved at the same time.
"I came to get you. We're busting out of here." I moved to get the chains off her, but she hid them away behind her back. "Angeli?"
"I'm not leaving, not without the Blood Testers. They've been helping us out, haven't they? They don't deserve to stay here."
"No one does. Not a single person deserves to be put under the control of someone else, but how will we be able to get everyone out of here?"
"One step at a time." She laughed a little and turned her arms towards me. "We'll find a way. Come on, let's get going." I reached out and yanked them off, disregarding the lock that bound them together.
"Strange..." I whispered, looking down at my own hands. How could I do this now and not before? "Any bruises?" I asked Angeli, trying to wipe away my slight daze.
"Nope. I'm good. You don't look too great, though." Her cheerful voice turned to a somber one. She knew what had happened and she wasn't going to ask.
"It's ok. I'm alive. That's all that matters." She picked herself up and inspected my arm. The clothes I was wearing now were stained with a whole lot of blood. It was almost as if they were my personal blood rags.
"I guess you're right. Let's just hope they're not infected and the chest wound isn't too big." She stared at the large patch of dried blood above my stomach. I didn't want to worry her, but they really already were. Untreated like that, they had to have gotten damaged.
"Are you guys almost done? Norman could come back any minute!" Derrick called to us, so we went back over to the entrance. "Alright. Step one: find our backpacks. Step-"
"Step two: figure out a way to get all these slaves out of here. Step three: find the exit of this asylum. Step four: freedom." Angeli finished off for him.
"Ok then. Sound like a plan?" He asked the two of us.
We looked at each other and replied in unison, "Definitely."