Chapter 14: all these years

THE ROOM IS DARK WITH A SMALL WINDOW ON HER RIGHT, illuminating her side with brightness. But even with her slow senses she can tell that it's electricity and not daylight, which makes her start to recall the last events she encountered before waking up here.

She hears a breathy sigh and then the sound of heels follows up, walking in her direction.

"Just know you brought this upon yourself." The voice is a lady's.

She still can't see the face of the voice because the light rays from the window is angled at her, preventing her eyes from picking images ahead.

"We only wanted for you to come with us but you mortals are just so bullheaded, stubborn."

Aubrey's wet brows furrow, The usage of the word, Mortals doesn't quite sit right with her.

"So, I had no choice but to impose force on you."

Her eyes widen the more when the voice starts to ring a bell; she recognizes it.

The heel-clicking sounds stop and the face comes into view. It's the tall lady with long, black hair she had seen earlier standing in front of her gate along with two other men. Aubrey gasps, seeing the lady give her a pity look, "Wow, the wet rat look is so good on you."

Sure. She is shocked and scared of what kind of people those three could be and of the terrible things they can do but she puts on a solid face and attempts escape once again. That is how she is trained after all— 'even if you're scared, still act strong to push away the fear.' She most definitely had the best and worst teachers while growing up.

"Let me go. Now." Aubrey commands with her tone dropped.

The lady with heels gives her a bored look, "You think I'm stupid? I'm not doing that." She walks away from Aubrey, entering into the dark again.

"Hey, come back! You better let me go." Aubrey calls out, angrily trying to untie herself but it only makes the pain worse.

She doesn't understand why the ropes hurt this much; she has never been tied up before but a normal rope shouldn't hurt this much. She tries to muffle her whimpers and cries of pain, trying to stay strong in a situation like this.

She looks around frantically, when she hears a male voice.

"Gemma, just stop?" It comes off as a question.

Aubrey begins shaking in fear as she realizes there may be other people in the dark room with her whom she cannot see. Slowly, the tears start to fall and she lowers her head down, her heart beating fast.

She begins to reflect on the past 19 years she has lived on this earth. She hasn't achieved anything or done what she has planned yet and she is already in this situation. It starts to occur to Aubrey that all of this can be as a result of the toaster. She always thought to herself that if she is ever going to die, she is going to do so in the biggest and mightiest way possible.

This isn't mighty at all. Tears stream down her face as she quavers in fear. Her life has been hard and uncomfortable, she always hoped for it to get better; however, there will be no chance for that.

"Please don't cry. We didn't want to do this."

The male's voice makes her head lift, realizing it's the other brown-haired man at the gate, one who looked less scary but presently, everything is scary to her.

"You…" She trails in a small voice, still shaking in fear.

Aubrey knows she has been forced to act strong even when she is terribly horrified, and she also knows that's the act she should put up in order to survive but she can't.

Being kidnapped isn't something she can act strong to survive. She is Nineteen. She's lonely and scared. She can't act strong anymore so she begins wailing like a baby in front of her kidnappers.

At this rate, she might not live till Twenty; which is just some months away.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." The male says in a pitiful voice. "Don't cry." Aubrey doesn't give him any acknowledgement and continues weeping. "I'm really sorry you have to go through this. But we had no choice, we had to talk to you."

Still in tears, she manages to say, "Well if you're sorry, untie me then." She gestures her head to the ropes and the brown-haired puts on a sympathetic look.

"I can't. We're scared you might run away."

"Of course, I'm going to run away!" She yells in frustration. "You people are evil."

The brown-haired male steps a little bit forward, "We aren't the evil ones, we're here to save your life."

Aubrey frowns, the tears slowly coming to a stop. She carefully analyzes the expression of his face to see if he's saying the truth and he looks sincere but actions speak louder than words.

"Get me out of this chair this instant or else—" She starts to threaten but she's cut off.

"Or else what?" The lady comes back into sight, giving Aubrey a scary, dark look. "Look here Overgrown baby,"

Aubrey's face scrunches, seeming offended by the nickname.

"We aren't here to hurt you. The real person that is going to hurt you is whom you're trying to run to. So, stop crying or else we'll be in trouble." The lady grits her teeth and the 19-year-old can see the pure irritation on her expression.

Aubrey frowns, hearing them speak. Their voices and accents sound so foreign to her ears and on top of that, the things they say don't sound normal. She looks from the lady to the brown-haired with a thought sitting crossed-legged on her mind; there is a high chance that she has been kidnapped by mentally unstable individuals, in other words, Psychos. "If you don't let me go, people would look for me and arrest you both." Aubrey tries to threaten in her state.

The lady gives her a dirty look, "Gosh, you are so dumb." She walks back into the darkness.

"Gemma." The brown-haired warns.

The lady snaps, stomping her heels against the wooden floors and the action seems to radiate a certain heat through out the room. "If you call my name again, I will throw her off the building. You know I'm not one bit interested in her life." She says through gritted teeth.

That makes Aubrey shake more as tears fill her eyes. She watches helplessly as the brown-haired sighs in distress. Then she remembers there were three personalities at her gate; the third one can still be seated in the dark observing their actions. With that thought in mind, she peers into the dark but she sees nothing but black.

"Where is he? I'm tired of staring at this pathetic squid." She hears the lady groan.