Nightmares and Fairytales

The Beginning

Prologue

If you have good instincts, you’ll get that little niggling feeling something isn’t quite right more than every once in a while. If you don’t, well then, we wouldn’t have a story now would we…

Once upon a time…. Just kidding. This is a nightmare, not a fairytale.

I came to slowly, my head pounding to the beating of my racing heart. Ouch, my entire body ached, like I had been beaten with multiple baseball bats or even run over by a truck. I tried to open my eyes a crack but the dim light across the room hurt the 1 eye that did manage to open a sliver, before slamming shut again while I groaned in pain. I heard a shuffling sound come from the other side of the space I was in. I heaved a sigh as I cracked my eye open again, figuring out my other eye was unable to open. Most likely swollen shut from an actual beating I took but couldn’t remember.

As I squinted at the shape in the dark, I could see bars everywhere. No, not bars, cages. I was in a cage. And whoever was across from me in the shadows looked to be in a cage too. I had to blink several times as my eye kept watering. The eye that was swollen, my right eye, just throbbed painfully. I tried to remember how I got here, but not only was it all a blank, but a sharp and stabbing pain streaked through my brain whenever I tried to recall what happened, so I stopped trying, for now.

I think I am supposed to be scared, but something deep within me said that I would be okay. That I would figure a way out and find a safe space, wherever that would be. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something in the air. Something or someone was coming. I didn’t understand how I knew; I just did. I also knew whatever or whoever came, was powerful and would either save me, or completely and utterly ruin me.

Chapter 1

The shadowed person shuffled closer to the bars and away from the dark corner they were in. It was a young woman. Filthy dark blonde hair chopped haphazard at the shoulders-like someone took shears to them without care- and matted in places, pale skin-I couldn’t see her facial features or eye color- but she was tall. Like really tall, she was probably 6ft tall or more.

“Are you finally waking up? It’s been days since they threw you in there. If it wasn’t for the slow rise and fall of your chest, I would have thought you were dead. Why are you covered in so much blood? Is it all yours? Who are you? What do they want with us?” By the end, her questions were being spoken at rapid fire and she was sobbing. While I was sympathetic to her in our situation, but it was in fact- OUR situation, not just hers. She didn’t even have any bruising that I could see. I understood she was scared, but I couldn’t remember anything. I tried opening my mouth to tell her that, but I physically couldn’t. That’s when I felt it, something was on my face. I didn’t know what it was, but it was preventing me from opening my mouth, much less speak. I guess she couldn’t see my face in the small light because she started screeching at me again.

“Why aren’t you answering me?! Oh, God, what did they do to you? What are they gonna do to me?!Oh, God, why is this happening to me?! WHHAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!” By the end of her rant she was doing the whole screaming and sobbing thing again, hysterically. I’m not trying to diminish what she’s probably already gone through, but that was too much for me, emotionally anyway.

Come to think of it, I don’t remember anything. Not just what happened to me, or how I got here. I couldn’t remember who I even was. I didn’t remember what I looked like, my name, how old I was, nothing. Just, blank. Emptiness. Drama, I didn’t care for and it annoyed me a lot apparently, this, on the other hand- the no memories- concerned me greatly. I lifted my hand to try and feel exactly what was on my face, but my hand was heavy, and not just in the sense that my entire body felt heavy. I looked down to find what I believed to be a manacle on my wrist. I shifted my foot, yup, on both ankles too- though I still didn’t understand how I knew random things but couldn’t remember who I was. f**k, what was going on where I was shackled on all 4 limbs had something preventing me from opening my mouth, and now that I was more aware of my body, a shackle on my neck too. A 5 point restraint system, that’s what whispered through my mind. Effective, but severely inconvenient in my plan-still being formed- to escape. What was I going to do?

Well, I didn’t have to wait long for the answer. A few moments later I could hear shouts, screams, thudding sounds, and some type of squelching sounds-gross- coming from outside somewhere. Then it all went quiet. The other girl was crying hysterically again, I was really wishing I could shut her up. I may not remember any horror movies I’ve watched, but I did however, remember the concept of most of them. Screaming and being hysterical will get you killed faster. If I died because she couldn’t keep her s**t together or even be quiet for more than a few moments, I was gonna haunt her ass until the end of time. Turns out I’m petty as f**k like that. And I also have no tolerance for people who can’t keep their s**t together in an emergency.

I heard the unmistakable sound of a thud against what is probably the door, and I went still. So did the other girl, surprisingly, she also went quiet. I didn’t even hear her ragged breaths that had been panting from her. We both stayed still, silent; as we waiting for whoever was out there, to come inside. My instincts were screaming at me, telling me my life was about to change. This was what was niggling at me earlier, this was the powerful thing-or rather person- that would either save me, or ruin me forever. I closed my eyes, unwilling to see what happened. If I died, I didn’t want to know how or when it happened.

I heard what sounded like a latch opening and then the door creaking open as someone shoved it. The screeching of the hinges had me almost flinching, the other girl whimpered. My insides were shaking like tree in an earthquake-how did I know what that was? It felt weird, the things I could remember, but frustrating all the same too.

With my eyes closed I only heard the heavy thuds of the people’s footfalls. They even sounded big. I forced myself to be still, be silent, and to not open my eyes. Then the girl screamed. She screamed loud and long, like what she was seeing was so terrifying she couldn’t keep it in. She was screaming and sobbing again, although she changed it up with begging or her life as she kept on with it all. The sounds of keys jingling and the clanking of the door unlocking piqued my curiosity to see what they would do, but I held firm in not moving, not even to peek. I could feel eyes on me anyway. Her screaming died down but not the sobbing and crying, still begging for her life. The noise of multiple people coming inside the room had my heart racing more than it was already.

“Stop crying, we aren’t here to hurt you, either of you. You can open your eyes, I know that you’re not asleep.” A deep, growly voice said. I didn’t open my eyes still, call me jaded; but I had a hard time trusting anything or anyone at the moment.

“They’ve been drugging her pretty regularly, plus they beat her really bad earlier. I think she passed out again.” The girl, whose name I still didn’t know, explained in between hiccups from her sobbing fest. Someone growled at her words and she squeaked like a freaking mouse.

“Sshh, she just stopped crying, don’t make her start again. It’s seriously annoying.” The first voice snapped. I heard the girl huff, most likely in indignation (despite him being correct on all fronts). I then heard the shifting of fabric before someone new spoke up.

“Get this one out of here, let’s get the injured one out of those manacles and, fuck.” He stopped talking as he got closer to the cage, “She has a…”

“A WHAT?? Spit it out man!” Yet another voice shouted, how many of them were there?

“It’s called a slave mask. It prevents the person wearing it from speaking, opening their mouths, ect. It’s only supposed to be used for the extreme hardcore bondage scene, but it looks like they adapted it to not only fit her, but they put a lock on it guys. I can see it from here. It’s not a key lock either, that’s a fingerprint scanner. s**t, this isn’t good. People have suffocated being in these things due to the limited amount of oxygen that they can take in. Go find that guy we think is in charge, cut his hand off and see if it matches. Let’s get the shackles off her while we wait.” His voice was deep too, like the first guy, but not as growly, more like a bass kind of deep. How did I know what that meant?

His voice gave me involuntary goosebumps, and I barely suppressed the full body shivers that threatened to give me away. I forced my breath to stay slow and even so they wouldn’t suspect anything. There was nothing to be done about my racing heartbeat so I just hoped they either didn’t notice or chalked it up to the drugs I have apparently been given. Might explain the memory loss depending on what they gave me. There’re also the beatings…probably both are to blame.

The shuffling of heavy booted feet moved closer to my cage and with them came the sound of keys rattling in a lock. I ached all over, I’m also afraid I have broken bones or even internal bleeding…or worse. I didn’t want to think about what they could have done while I was unconscious. Moving even a tiny bit felt like the biggest feat in the world, it felt like someone put boulders on top of me and nothing budged without excruciating pain. I was on fire everywhere, my blood burning in my veins.

As they got closer, I tried to relax my body more, make me dead weight and hopefully to appear insentient. Although staying conscious was beginning to take considerate effort. Keeping my eyes closed, my body still and trying to relax has me feeling groggy again. The brain fog is coming back full force and I didn’t know how much longer I could stay awake for. My thoughts were becoming sluggish. I passed out for real to the sound of someone unlocking the shackle on my right ankle.