Stolens

In the depths of the unknown, who is to say that light can not seep from shadows. Raine's P.O.V Close your eyes, and drift to a new place, a place of darkness and misery. Welcome to The Place. It was silent before the screams, like the still winds before a storm, like everyone was holding their breaths waiting. A floorboard groaned outside our room. I bit my lip. I knew it was coming. I knew she was going to get caught. My eyes met the dark haired boy's who sat opposite me. Even Rev knew, both of our fingers were numb as we crossed them tightly. Oh God please. Don't let her get caught, let her get out. I felt the noise before I heard it. A clatter of something falling to the floorboards and rolling loudly along the wood. My gut dropped. The deathly silence returned for only milliseconds before it began. The thud of bare feet running down the passage way. The heavy slams of black boots crashing on wood. A girl's shriek and a smash. She must have tripped. A Man's laugh. I knew it was over then. Any hope for her getting out had been crunched when I heard that laugh. "No...no...no...please. I'll do anything. I promise I won't..." She stuttered loudly. Everyone in the rooms must have heard her. The screaming began then. I shoved my fingers in my ears trying to block out her deperate begs. I was shaking. I knew what The Man was doing. Bile raised in my throat but I swallowed it back down. The noises stopped as quick they had began. It was over. The body was being dragged away. I imagined the blood seeping through the cracks of old wood, staining the floor with a deep red hue, turning darker with each passing hour until it was the color of the night. Not many people realize blood turns black in the end. **** Welcome to The Place. A haunting shadow filled world full of bare rooms and hollow drafts biting your flesh. You can hear the screams of hundreds of kids being mauled apart as they dart inside shadows trying to escape, you can smell the stinging of urine which seeps into the old floorboard. Walk down the gloomy corridors but avoid The Guards and The Men. Their whips will slice apart your skin to shreds if you get caught. Don't stick around mind you, or The Men will rip you from your room and drag you down to the White Coats, where the sting of needles piercing into your skin will drive you mad. Best to avoid the experiments as well, they do weird things to your bodies. I suppose the best thing you can do is to run, run and don't look back before they get you. The Place is no world for a kid. The Place is no world for anyone. By the way, if you do get caught on the way out, you better accept that you can't escape here. Give up on any hope you hold. No one escapes here. No one runs away. There are no rescuers coming in to get you, no hero on their way. You will become like us. Lost. Untraceable. Hopeless. We are the Stolens. *** A running icy wind escaped from the boarded up window, her cold breath danced on my skin. I shivered and smoothed my hands over the raised hairs that were sat on pink goose bumps. The room was square, no light bulb on the off yellow ceiling, just shadows which clung to the walls like wallpaper. In the corner was a small bowl, it's brown gooey contents stinked the air with a smell we had long gotten use to. Along the walls was pictures engraved into the paint. A failed attempt to make the room more like a home. I sighed and gazed at the boy who sat with his head on his knees. His black shorts and T.Shirt identical to mine. I stared at his overgrown wavy black hair which spilled over his closed green eyes. I wanted to say something, anything to break into the silence but I didn't have too, "Do you think she's dead?" He muttered not opening his eyes, expecting an answer anyway. He was talking about the latest kid who had tried to escape, "Yea." I mumbled and dug my nails into my hand. I was not going to cry...I would not...I wouldn't let Them make me feel like this, "Maybe she lived though, maybe she had escaped." He continued. I squeezed my eyes closed shutting the tears inside. Rev waited for me to say something, "No, didn't you hear the screams? The dragging on the floor?" I stared at his black gleaming hair. It looked so clean for a place so dirty, "She was stupid." "Why? Because she wanted to escape? To get out and go back home? That's not stupid Raine." He frowned, "If she had stayed in her room then she would still be alive." I hissed, "I would rather be dead, then be here sometimes." He muttered and closed his eyes again. His words stang me. He doesn't mean here with you. He means here in this place. "It's like your starting to accept that this is your life Raine." Rev continued, "No ones gets out of here unless its in a body bag." I snapped. After two years of this, I had started to accept it. Who wouldn't? Rev had only been here a month he was still full of beans, still full of hope. Most of the older kids here had given up. You didn't hear them trying to escape at midnight anymore. You didn't hear them shouting abuse at The Men like we use to in the old days. We really had started to accept this. "We won't die to get out Raine." He took a breath "We'll escape and be back outside alive." I chuckled at his words, "You have a plan do you? Did you not just hear what happened outside? Someone who just tried to escape was murdered!" I snapped. I wanted to shout at him and shake out his thoughts of escape, but if I spoke to loud then The Men might come up... "I promise Raine I'm gonna get everyone out alive." He said and strained his face in pain, "You're an idiot." I muttered staring at the black and red bruises which sketched his face. On his cheek a burn still seeped with red blood, "They hurt you and beat you. We have no weapons, no plans. We don't know where we are or how to get out, yet you still believe that out of every kid who has tried to escape that you can do it." I shook my head and stared down at the floorboards. I will not cry. "I have to believe. If we don't believe, if we lose hope then The Men win." He said, They had already won, the day they snatched us away from our families. I stared into his green eyes which shone with hope. He wanted me to understand and agree, instead I turned away, "Forgot you're plans Rev." I muttered. Silence returned then as we sat in our own thoughts. I knew he wouldn't forget trying to escape. One day he's gonna cross the line, if they took him away... Rev seemed to notice me stiffen. "Raine?" He was sat forward watching me with intense green eyes. If they took him away... I would be alone again. I remembered night when Rev had been first came here. I remembered the noise. A bone shattering scream that all the other kids must have heard. I remember the flash of blood, the whoosh of the whip and the silence that always followed. I remembered Rev waking up and beating on the door, and then the whip had came again along with the quiet. If they took him away he would be killed. "Raine?" Rev repeated. I looked up at him, "You have to promise me, Rev please. Promise me you won't try and escape." He opened his mouth to interrupt me but I carried on quickly, "Promise me you won't try to leave, yet." The long thuds of heavy footsteps smashing down on the floorboards stopped what ever reply he was about to give. The jingles of a key in our lock as the handle turned down slowly. Rev still looked at me, I didn't say anything. I was scared stiffness, there was nothing to say. The Men were back.