Chapterone:Thecage
992 Words
Mia—
The cold was the first thing I felt as I awoke.
The chill of metal touched my skin before the pain even registered.
Not a sharp kind of cold -not wind, not rain.
No. This cold was quiet, and sterile, like something refrigerated.
My eyelids flickered open, my head felt heavy and I was disoriented.
My vision was a mess of shadows and dim light.
A long, desperate breath tore from my throat as i tried to piece together how i got here.
My mind waded through a fog..fragments of sound and scent, shoes scraping pavement; the sidewalk.
The low hum of tires. Footsteps behind me.. The sharp sting on my neck.
The world tipping sideways…a man’s breath too close.
i remembered screaming.
But no one had come.
The sudden silence and darkness..
The air around me now stank of oil, rust, and despair.
I sat up too fast and hit my head on something metal, hollow.
My limbs trembling from more than just cold and my mouth was parched, my throat raw like I’d swallowed gravel.
I wanted to scream again, but the sound was dead in my chest.
My hands were tied and it was throbbing from the pressure that had been applied to them.
The dim light and my watery eyes made my vision blurry.
With my hands shaking, my palms kept meeting bars.
A cage.
Steel. Square. Small.
Panic hit like a brick in my chest.
My chest tightened and my stomach dropped.
a brutal reminder that this wasn’t a dream. It was real. I was here.
Trapped.
My heartbeat was so loud I could hear it in my ears, too loud, too fast, like it was trying to escape the body that contained it.
Why me?
My thoughts screamed loudly..
Where am I? Who brought me here? How..
The space felt so small.. not fit to hold a human.
The cold ground rubbed against my knees as I attempted to stand.
“Hey—HEY!” My voice cracked, raw. “Let me out! What the f—”
The rush of emotions made my head hurt or maybe it was the drug wearing off. Or just maybe it was because my head hit the metal..
A surge of dizziness made me attempt to hold my head.
My hands tied hurt more now and the tying slowly cutting off blood supply.
I tried to lift them up to support my aching head and when that failed, I dropped forward resting my forehead between both hands tied and supported with my trembling knees.
Every breath I took was now mixed with blood, fear, panic and pain.
I kept my head down as I concluded my faith in my mind.
I already knew what was waiting for me.
I could be sold to traffickers and taken to the other end of the world
That’s if I wasn’t already there.
Or used as a tool for pleasure, a toy. A hundred fates raced through my mind- none of them good. Torture or even worse..
I felt helpless.
“Caged like an animal.”
Fear came again this time etching into my soul..
I bit on my tongue as I tried to hold back the tears burning at the back of my eyes but they came anyways..
Slow helpless tears poured like acid burning the bruises on my cheeks.. i couldn’t stop it as the sobbing and whimpering shook my body’s core.
The tears came from my soul flowing like a river.
They weren’t just tears, they were grief, rage, helplessness. Flooding me from inside out.
Who would do this..
My heart now throbbing more, sounded like the sound of drums.
Is.. is this the end?.
So I’ll be in one of those posters around town.. missing, contact the police..
My mind raced as i thought about Cleo and Sophie
How they would blame themselves for not walking with me as I requested.
I honestly didn’t want them to.. i just said it in hopes they would decline.
Sophie was too loud for my mood that night and Cleo was a little too Clumsy.
But how would they know..
I thought about the last moments before I was taken..
What I would have done differently… going through another route would have maybe prevented this..
I lay slowly curled up in a ball, i thought about my brother the way he looked at me as he left through the door.
how his eyes could speak without words, how they burned with something dark i could not understand.
"He is a troubled soul Mia let him go," my mom's voice soothing as always as the tears flowed.
I didn't understand what she meant that day. That was the last time i saw him.
My mom....oh my mother. My world shattered the day she died.
"let me go mia, i'm tired of the pain" she was almost out of breath, pale as a porcelain doll.
I remember how mommy cried bitterly when we lost daddy. was this how he felt? alone, hurt, bruised i thought about his last words what they could be. He was not supposed to die that way. kidn*pped, killed in cold blood and dumped in the river.... he just came from the wrong family.
Uncle Dean said he was killed by a rival syndicate and he was a coward.....
I was brought back to harsh reality by the sound..
"I jolted".
A click echoed through the chamber, followed by the sound of a heavy door being pushed open.
Footsteps, measured and confidently drew closer. My head snapped up in panic, my heart seized.
A shadow spilled into the corridor, long and jagged.
I pushed myself back until my spine hit the cage wall, but there was nowhere to run.
The flashlight found my face, and i winced. The beam was so bright it blinded my already blurred vision.
Mia!
The voice was sharp and blunt..
And almost familiar.
- Writer
