Among Demons : A Siren's Voice

Ch. 13 : An Earthly Prison

“Hey.” Nick kneeled beside me, smiling softly as he placed a hand over mine.

Wordlessly, he helped me curl my fingers around the rope, using gentle pressure with his own hand over mine. Then, together, we pulled the heavy wooden door open, letting it flop back loudly and stepping back as a cloud of dirt and leaves rose with force. A few seconds later, once the debris settled, a long set of stairs appeared, all carved out of the earth.

The sight of the hard, packed soil made my body tremble some more and I had to fight against the memory of being dragged underground as I stared at it.

“Let’s go.” Devin’s calm, yet somehow sharp voice helped to bring me back.

I looked up at her and found her in her fiance's arms, both staring lovingly into each other before kissing passionately. I turned to Nick, confused, when they finally broke apart, with Marcus pulling out a gun hidden within his waistband, and started to descend into the hole in the ground. He silently shook his head at me, nodding towards his sister as he gently wrapped an arm around my shoulders, helping calm the trembling little more. Devin followed after her man, pulling a long, deadly-looking blade from her boot.

“They’re going to check it out first.” Nick whispered into my ear, making me freeze as I felt his warm breath tickle my cheek and jaw.

A rush of heat followed after his words and I tried to shake it off, no longer trembling or feeling as though I was drowning.

No… I was now fighting against the wave of another kind that had butterflies bursting in my stomach. I fought against the sudden images and not so innocent fantasies that were starting to take over my mind, cursing at myself for even having such thoughts in such a dark and painful place. But Nick wasn’t helping matters either. His gentle, yet firm hold was adding to the fire that was slowly spreading across my body. And after a few minutes of silence, I made the stupid mistake of turning to face him, wanting to somehow defuse the boiling lava that was inching towards more… sensitive areas.

My eyes locked with his instantly, my breath catching in my throat when I fully realized just how close our faces were. More heat bloomed on my face and my entire body locked up.

“You ok?” He whispered, the sounding coming out a bit strained as he continued to stare back at me.

I nodded weakly, unable to even blink as a sudden thought flashed in my mind. My eyes moved to stare at his lips and I felt his body, still pressed to my side, jolt a bit before I looked back at his eyes. But he wasn’t looking into my eyes anymore. His gaze had moved to my lips as well and I soon felt as if I was being pulled in by a magnet, my body moving on its own. He leaned in with me, his eyes bouncing from my eyes to my lips a few times.

Then, startling me, he released a heavy breath and jumped back. Releasing me carefully and pacing a bit around the edge of the hole.

I stayed where I was, feeling so very hurt and confused until I heard it.

The distinct sound of footsteps and voices growing louder.

“s**t timing…” He mumbled, and I nearly giggled at the mild frustration in his voice

Glancing up at Nick, I smiled as I blushed some more, catching him smiling at me with a mischievous and slightly annoyed face. ‘Assholes’ He mouthed to me, making me shake my head as I relaxed.

He reached out to help his sister who handed him a small stack of papers. Then, with a much more relaxed smile, Devin turned to me and nodded towards the hole.

I understood her silent statement and made my way around to enter the hole. Taking a short, shaky breath a second before, I planted my foot onto the next step down. Then the next. And the next. Slowly, I was once again swallowed by the darkness, making my stomach drop and my hands quickly shot out to glide across the earthen walls on either side of me.

My head became a little dizzy as I steadily reached the end of the stairs. I could feel my palms start to sweat a bit. Flashes of the first time I had been dragged down here, along with how I had escaped from this place cycled through my mind again. And my legs began shaking, ever so slightly.

But when I finally set foot onto the flat, concrete covered ground, everything seemed to stop.

The large space in front of me just looked so… Chaotic.

There were dozens of torn and badly crumpled papers on the ground. Puddles of water, mud and what I could only guess to be blood stained the dark gray concrete. The chairs and tables that the Hunters no doubt used were overturned and spread out. Directly across from the dirt packed stairs was a narrow corridor with a few evenly spaced out doors that were all wide open. The large open space was, I now realized, was a common area for the Hunters, with a long counter far across from me. I could also see, around the large wooden support beams, that there was also a large bar and a couple fridges too. The ground and the counter held a light spraying of unused bullets. There was also what I could only guess to be parts of a gun sitting on a chair next to the closest support beam.

It all pointed to one obvious fact: They had all evacuated as quickly as they could.

I stepped away from the only exit a bit more and turned to my left, finding the much wider hallway that my nephew and I had been dragged into.

My eyes burned a bit as I remembered my little nephew as he struggled, screamed and thrashed as hard as his little body could while he was being dragged far ahead of me. The ghost hands that had held me in place, forcing me to simply watch as the youngest member of my tiny family was being pulled away from me, returned as I walked deeper into the hallway. The echoes of his cries for me… my pleas, all bounced back to me, overlapping in my mind when I stopped at the sharp corner that had hidden him from me. I hesitated a moment, staring at the very corner where I had managed to dig my fingers in, fighting hard to find my nephew while the Hunters pulled me back and laughed at me. The thin nail marks I had left in the wooden beam were still here, making me swallow a sharp breath when I trailed my fingers over them.

After a few more seconds, I rounded the corner and looked down into the place that held so many more doors than the other hallway. These were much closer together and had also been left open. Passing all of these barren cells, I reached the end of this hallway and found the second set of stairs that I was dragged to, recalling how I had been shoved down them after begging to go with my nephew once more.

Down here, in a much smaller space set up almost like a maze that circles back to the stairs, dozens more cells could be found. I followed the winding path to the right of me and stopped a few seconds later. Here, on a piece of large, flat wall a few feet before the hallway curved, sat three cells. The one in the middle, where I had been held, was missing the door completely, with the dented heavy piece of metal sitting behind me.

I take in a shaky breath and move towards the open cell, my hands bracing themselves on the metal frame as I looked in.

In the corner, next to the small cot that held a limp pillow and thin blanket, was a dry, crusty looking pile of puke. I had emptied my stomach that night, hoping to purge all of the potion I had been given when that filthy Hunter prick entered my cell. His intent had been clear and I was already desperate to escape and begin looking for my nephew. So, after completely emptying my stomach, I tested my Siren call on him. I used every single shred of strength that I could muster, forcing it all into my vocal cords as he crossed the room. Then, in one loud and headache inducing scream, I not only launched him away from me. I also shook the earthly foundation of my cell, making it rain soil on me. The metal door had even caved under my power, bending outwards when the Human man collided with it. The force of it all ripped the door off its frame and knocked the Hunter unconscious, allowing me to run out.

It wasn’t until I had reached the floor above me that the fight of my life broke out and I managed to escape.

“Is this it?”

I turned and found Nick looking at me, so many emotions playing in his eyes as he stopped beside me, looking into the cell.

“Is this where your nephew was kept?”

I shook my head, smiling weakly as I fought the sting of tears. Raising my hand, I pointed to my chest and watched as his eyes widened and a look of pain and anger took over his handsome face. He then pulled me into his chest and I went willingly, needing his support as I kept fighting the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes.

We stayed like this for a few more seconds, my cheek pressed against his chest and his arms tightly holding me to him.

When we pulled away, I moved to the cells on the left and right of the one I had been held in, trying to find some clue as to which had held my little nephew. And it was while I was searching the cell to the left of mine that I found it. Because there, hidden in the corner where the cot was situated, was a tiny little carving.

‘Alder Nex - 8’

I traced my fingers over it as I felt the warm stream of tears finally escaping my eyes.

Somehow, my little nephew had carved his name and age into the wooden beam that sat in the corver. And just beneath his name, he had also carved out my name, along with a tiny sentence.

‘Aunty Loralyn Nex - Don’t believe Humans.’

A strangled gasp/sob left me as I tried to understand why he did this. What had he gone through to make him carve this into the beam in his cell? And where the f**k had these Hunter bastards taken him?

“We’ll find him.” Nick’s reassuring words helped calm me as he held out his hand to help me stand.

I took it and nodded, sniffled away the last of my tears and wiping their traces off my face.

I believed in his words with my whole heart and Soul. I trusted that he and the others would do anything they could to help me find my little nephew. And even if they weren’t willing to help me, I was more than ready to set this whole damn city on fire to find him.

A few moments later, we found ourselves in a much larger room on the main floor of this underground hideout.

Devin and Marcus had managed to revive one of the computers that sat inside this room and were currently digging through it to find anything usable to find Alder. Meanwhile, Nick and I went through the file cabinets that took up space in the room right next door to them, stacking all useful documents in one neat pile on an empty desk.

It was while we were going through the last cabinet that I heard a sharp ‘f**k’ coming from the room Devin and Marcus were in.

I stepped out with Nick behind me and peaked inside.

Devin was soothingly rubbing her fiances back, muttering something under her breath to him with a pained and worried look on her face. Marcus, on the other hand, was standing in front of the computer he had been looking through. His arms caged the device while his fisted hands resting on the desk it sat on. His frightfully large back was tight and coiled up as if he was getting ready for a fight. And his breathing was labored and almost sounded a little… strained. Like he was struggling to regain control over his emotions.

I stepped in slowly, wondering what it was that had made him react this way. But when I took another step in, looking towards the computer screen, I froze.

On the glowing face of the computer sat a paused CCTV clip that faced the only exit and entrance to this place. It looked to have been zoomed in a bit, with the rest of the surrounding image becoming unfocused while the main subject in the middle was clear and very detailed. And the Human man that was shown on the screen was none other than the older Human man that had walked into my cell only once in all the time I had been held captive.

“Shit.” Nick hissed behind me, looking just as worried when he caught sight of the same image I did.

I looked between him and his sister, confused when I realized that they both were staring at Marcus. So I reached out and tugged on Nick’s shirt, scrunching up a brow and asking my very obvious question in silence.

Nick sighed, looking twice as worried now, before he looked to his sister. They stared at each other for a long moment before she nodded and stepped closer to her fiance, gently tugging him away from the computer.

“That man,” Nick started, nodding towards the screen while Devin turned Marcus awaya nd began leading him out of the room. “His name is Nathan Ciaran…” He paused and looked at me, his hands holding mine as my stomach flip-flopped uncomfortably. “We’ve already had a few dealings with him and his band of Hunters…” His voice softened and I could instantly tell that he didn’t want to say anymore. “He’s… Marcus’ dad.”