Untamed Slave: Caged

Chapter 3

We're almost there and by almost I mean we still have three agonizingly hours left. This has been the most embarrassing time of my life. The girls decided that today was the day they will go all road trip, so the music was blasting with the three of them screaming at the top of their lungs, I've never sang with them, it's not that I can't sing, I'm just bit shy, and today will not be the day for me to sing either, not with Alec in the car. The singing wasn't the worst part, no way- the stories they told was the worst. I've never blushed this much in my life- so much for they can't embarrass me.

"Skylar do you remember when we had crushes on the guards and sneaked to the roof to watch them?" Hannah asked me.

"Alec it was so bad, the door locked behind us and nobody knew where we were, the only way to get of the roof was to scream down at those same guards , which led to them knowing exactly what we were doing up there to begin with." I covered my face with both my hands.

"What's that?" before I could remove my hands to see the car stopped, even though Hannah still had her foot on the gas pedal then all the windows shattered inwards and the car started to lift into the air. Everyone was screaming, but even so I could hear the car cracking.

"We need to get out of the car! Right now!" I screamed. Everyone was removing their seatbelts and climbing out of the windows, we made it just in time, instead of crushing like it sounded it would it fell back to the ground. The sound of everyone's screams filling the air.

"What a show!" The witch that caused the accident came closer clapping her hands.

"Not as much blood as I wished there to be though, it's very disappointing. Your face doesn't even have one cut, Skylar."

"Who are you!?" Alec demanded.

"It doesn't concern you, human! I'm here for Skylar. We have a score to settle."

"I don't know you!" what was she going on about!

"Right, have you ever heard the story of Candice?"

"No."

"Then this will be interesting! Your mother, dear sweet innocent Kaitlin, belonged to a guy named Dillan, he was of course a controlling bastard, the things he did to your poor mother..." I ground my teeth together.

"And all because she looked like his dead mate Candice, who wasn't dead, but had made a deal with me to fake her death to get away from him. The poor girl didn't know what she was getting herself into, come here Candice." A girl that looked exactly like my mother stepped out of the tree line, her eyes pitch black, her walking strained like she was being controlled.

"She had to steal souls for me, her victims souls, but there was one victim I chose for her and her new boyfriend to kill. It actually played out well on its own. You see I wanted her to kill your father. Dillan had sold his beta- Candice’s secret boyfriend- as a slave and he ended up in Blayne's mansion. So Candice could save him and she could kill Blayne, or he could do it for her, but some how your mother ended up there and she wouldn't die. When Candice's boyfriend tried to kill her and your father killed him Candice’s last bit of soul shattered. Now she is of no use and no one of use has come along in 17 years, until now."

"So you did all that because 17 years ago you wanted my father dead?"

"Yes. He took something of mine and I want it back, you are going to help me get it back."

"I'd die before I help you!" I will not help anyone cause any form of harm to my father.

"Stop being so cliché. If it matters to you, you might just die any ways."She scolded at me. She mad me sick the way she plays with peoples lives like they are nothing.

"So the human, he is yours? Of course he is. Your family can break the rules, what's a bit of exposure between species."

"We weren't going to tell him anything." I defended my family, quickly before she said something stupid.

"Don't lie! You're on your way to the mansion, how stupid do you think I am?"

"It would only have been the family at the mansion, this weekend no parties or guests."

"I guess I let the cat out of the bag! Since I already started let me just fill in the gaps." I can’t believe she is doing this, she is insane. Telling the secret can lead to her execution. Stupid witch

"No don't!"

"Too late! Human, you know all those scary creatures featured like everywhere- books, movies.. you name it, well they aren't as fake as you're led to believe, I'm a witch no surprise there! And your little girlfriend is a half vampire, actually all 4 of them are half vampires." Alec looked at me frowning.

"That's not even the best part your girlfriend is basically a princess since her daddy is king of the vampires in a matter of speaking." she was talking with her hands flashing her long nails, smirking at what she is saying…she is signing her own death certificate.

"You asked me earlier how stupid I think you are and I think you're one of the dumbest people alive, messing with my father is a bad idea, one that will come back to bite you in the ass."

"Not for a very long time, you see he will be busy looking for you."

"What are..." My mind became hazy, my body seemed to tip to the ground and then everything went black.

"Where are we?" Hannah asked looking around. Non of us is able to see anything, since we are in pitch black mist, we are still moving- being transported. We all see the bright purple light at the end before we near it, it feels like our breath is knocked out of us, or ripped from us as we fall through the light and land on wet ground. We all groan as we get up. The air around us is misty and has an eerie feeling to it. The ground is muddy, almost black like tar.

“I repeat where the hell are we?" Hannah asked.

"What just happened?" Alec asked. He face extremely pale, his eyes big with fright. I look around to see if I can't see anything helpful, but all I can tell from here is that we are in some sort off alley. While everyone is getting up and asking question, I walk to the edge of the alley, I can hear someone following me and when we finally reach the end and look out we both let go of a audible gasp. We quickly return to the others.

"So where are we?" Hannah asks for the third time.

"We are in one of the dark underworlds."

"What do you mean an underworld, Jocelyn?" Avery asked in panic.

"There are secret underworlds for supernatural creatures. You get your normal ones where you are free to come and go when you want to escape the human world, they are called the unbound underworlds, right Jocelyn?" she nodded at me

"And then you get controlled or restricted dimensions, which people just calls dark underworlds, they are places where you get send to as a form of imprisonment for only the worst supernatural creatures."

"I don't want a history lesson, I just want to know where we are?" Hannah complained.

"We are in the Abyss underworld."

"That even sounds bad!"

"Maybe you'd like that history lesson now, won't you!" Jocelyn asked Hannah with a cruel edge to her voice. The one thing you do not dismiss with Jocelyn is history. Her father is a historian on the supernatural, especially vampires.

"Sorry, I'm listening."

"The Abyss underworld is where the worst criminals of the supernatural is send. To be honest you have to pretty treacherous to be send to a restricted dimension. There are three levels Onyx, Ebony and lastly Abyss. Abyss meaning void or seemingly bottomless- as in soulless, callous supernatural beings that have no chance of redemption."

"Crap!" Hannah swore.

"What are we going to do!?" Avery whined and Jocelyn only sighed. "Wait I get why you know about this, but how do you know about this place Skye?"

"Who do you think sends them here?"

"Your father! Crap!"

"What are we going to do?" Hannah asked.

"We need to go and tell them who we are, they'll have no choice, but to return us to our parents we are all part of the main families right, there must be some sort of reward for us." Avery suggested.

"They will most likely take us hostage and use us as their ticket out of here!" Jocelyn said what all of us were thinking.

"Or they'll just kill us. Think about it they hate our parents and you said they are soulless and callous. Why would they even think to offer us mercy?" Hannah questioned.

"Hannah is right they would rather kill us than put up with us." Jocelyn admitted.

"All we can do is survive."

"What are you talking about Skylar?"

"We can't make ourselves known that would be a suicide mission. We need to survive long enough for our parents to find us."I explained further.

"Survive in the Abyss, do you hear how ridiculous that sounds!" Avery yelled at me. "No she has a point! The witch send us here for a reason!" Hannah came to my defence.

"She most likely want someone busted out of here, why else send us here? If she wanted to kill us we would have been dead." Jocelyn agreed.

"She did say my father took something of hers, he probably send someone of hers here."

"Only more reason for turning ourselves in! How else will our parents be notified?!"

"They will find us Avery we just have to buy them time." I reassured her.

"Wait! What is happening? You are all crazy! Talking about witches, supernatural underworlds and killing! What's going on!" My first weekend to impress him and I let the whole supernatural secret slip, getting him trapped in another dimension and labeled to die. This is one example of a relationship that won't happen. For the next 10 minutes I gave him a quick speech on how vampires exist.

"I finally decide to date someone sweet and quiet and she turns out to be a vampire."

"Actually I'm a half-blood my mom was human and my dad was a vampire." He gave me a look that clearly reads, who cares!

"One of you mentioned that they hate your parents? Why is that?" he asked trying to put all the pieces together.

"My dad is a seeker, he uses his power to jump into the sub consciousness of victims in extreme cases to see who had attacked them, before they die." Hannah suggested.

"My mom is a hunter, Hannah's dad tells her who to find and she does." Avery added.

"And my father supplies them with all the knowledge on the species and person they are hunting.” Jocelyn explained,

"And lastly my father prosecutes and sends them here." I admitted. They started this project when we were kids. They noticed how each of them could be valuable to the team. It was my father's next big project after the KC Penitentiary. Usually they would have just waited for someone like this to show up and then send them here, but it seemed that the deaths were starting to pile up to rapidly and they had to do something about it and fast.

"Skylar? How are we going to survive if we can't ask people for help?" Avery asked. "There is no if about it, if we are detected as outsiders we will be killed by the guards and if we rely on the people we will be hostages or killed." Jocelyn said.

"Wait there is guards, why won't they help us?"

"They aren't normal guards with reason; they are trained and programmed with only basic rules. You see when you are send here, you come through a gate. At the gate are main guards who scan you into the system. Once inside there is only two rules. Number one is the ultimate one - don't try and escape. You'll be killed instantaneously. And the second being -survival of the fittest." Jocelyn explained to Avery, Hannah and Alec

"So if we try to escape and if we don't appear on their system they will kills us, but any other crimes aren't punishable?" Hannah asked

"Something like that."

"What are we going to do?" Avery asked tears starting to run down her cheeks.

"Like I said- survive. The first thing we need to do is get some basics. I noticed that we are in the market area so I can go and buy whatever we need and the rest of you can look for things we can use around here."

"Why do you get to go?" Hannah asked.

"You loose your temper too easily, Avery is a mess and Jocelyn is too important to the survival of everyone."

"I knew being smart would come in handy." Jocelyn joked.

"What about me?" Alec asked.

"You're human!"

"Good point if I'm killed I'll stay dead"

"Our money will be useless down here, they use a different currency than us. So girls what do you have on you that's valuable?" Everyone started taking of their jewellery. I looked at our end result we have 3 pairs of diamond earrings and a pair of gold ones, a golden locket, a silver necklace, a diamond bracelet, a sapphire ring and an expensive looking watch.

"This is good, they value diamonds and gold very high here. They will definitely exchange it for money."Jocelyn expressed with enthusiasm.

"You should cover your face, they find it scary, They will ask you less questions about the jewellery if they are scared of you. Avery give me your scarf!" While Jocelyn covered my face the rest of them started looking for things we can use.

"How did you know the alley would be safe to keep hiding in?"

"Stealing is the only thing the people here can't tolerate so keeping guard where there are only trash cans would be a waist of time for them."

"Okay so act tough or indifferent, don't be kind to anyone and don't let them try and cheat you." I nodded and was about to leave when I heard a scream. Jocelyn and I moved deeper into the alley to where the others were by now.

"What!?" we asked as we reached them.

"The trash…it's full of dead vampires!" we looked inside and saw maybe 20 dead bodies.

"There aren't any humans to feed on so they just feed on each other, these vampires were probably drained to be sol..." Jocelyn explained like she was reading it from a book.

"Can you act like you have a heart and not just a brain?" Avery yelled at Jocelyn and I took that as my cue to get out of there. I've only heard stories about this place, but one look at it and I knew where we were and the implication of it was clear. It's easy to recognize this place. The air is stuffy and smell of death, the mist feels eary and the ground has black mud- which is said to be dried blood mixed in with the normal sands from all the years that people have died here. I waited until I was sure no one would see me and then I stepped out into the actual street. I didn't make eye contact with anyone and just kept walking until I came across a place that looked like a place where I could sell some of the jewels. I broke it down into four piles, it would be suspicious to sell all of it at one place. Everything went according to plan. They seemed to be rattled by the mystery of why my face was covered, why I was glaring at them with my big blue eyes, they took the jewellery and gave me my money. It worked at the first three places, but when I reached the last one I had a bit of difficulty.

"I'll give you a thousand for all of it!"

"You are crazy!"

"These are clearly not real diamonds!"

"Of course they are! I will not sell anything less than the real deal!" I got a 1000 for one pair of earring, now this guy wants to only give me 1000 for the diamond bracelet and the sapphire ring."

"1000."

"You dare and try me! you fool!" I can’t believe he is trying to cheat me.

"What's going on here?" I heard the deep voice from behind me and I felt like curling into a ball, that is how demanding it seemed, but I'm playing the tough role now, so shy and scared little Skye should just back away into some kind of deep corner in my mind.

"I can handle this thief!" I dismissed the guy behind me.

"I'm not a thief!"

"Are you sure, because it does feel like you are trying to steal from me!"

"Fine 2000."

"I know for fact that it's worth 7000."

"You're a crazy slut!"

"Call me a slut one more time and I'll shred your tongue into pieces with only my nails!"

"Can I see what she want to sell you?" The shop owner pushed my stuff in the direction of the man. He was now standing next to me. he is huge! He must be at least 6.5' in height alone.

"She is right you are a thief, that ring alone is worth 7000, the Bracelet is about 5000. You can give the girl at least 10 000." The guy only nodded handing me the dark red, purplish coins, each worth 100. I took it throwing it all into the bag I had gotten from the first store. I was about to leave when a hand grabbed me, I'm I already caught!

"You could say thank you!"

"You're right I could! I could also say that if you value your hand you would remove it now." He let go and I left the shop. I quickly used up most of the money we made. I got us some food, blankets and clothes. Then I hurried back to the others.

"Thank goodness you're safe, we were starting to worry!" Avery said attacking me, hugging me to death.

"Did you have any trouble?"

"Nothing I couldn't lie my way through." I quickly showed them everything I got and they were shocked by how little it actually was. "This isn't a cheap place a bread is a 3 nightshades, and each nightshade has a value of 100 ABD."

"You're saying for one of this loaf of bread you paid an amount of 300? How much did you get for the jewellery?"

"21 000."

"And how much do you have left?"

"5500. I'm going to divide it between us so that each of us have some money for emergencies." I handed each of them their 11 coins. After that we started dividing the things I bought among us. Each got their own bread and two bottles of water that they are responsible for. We need to get by with it for awhile. Each got a blanket as well for the nights which we will be spending in dark clammy alley's like this one.

"These are so ugly!" Said Hannah holding the dresses I bought.

"They were cheap and they fit in. No women here are wearing jeans all of them are wearing skirts and dresses.

"Fine! Why didn't you get them in better colours and shorter versions."

"Hannah I know you are all about being sexy, but I was being practical. From what I've heard the sun almost never shines here, the weather is always cloudy so it's better to be dressed a bit warmer."

"She is right!" Jocelyn agreed.

"and we are going to live on the streets, if... no, when we go into public those dresses won't look all that dirty." Hannah took the dark red wine maxi dress with the short sleeves. it's a bit tighter at the top and laces up, then near her hips it's a it looser falling to the ground. Jocelyn took the brown one with the long sleeves that has a slid on the front of her right leg up to mid thigh. Avery took the dark green one that has a square neckline and is loose. It singes at the waist with a string and is loose again. Which left me the black halter maxi dress, it just flows down to the ground. It's plain, but I was hoping to get it. For Alec I got some black sweats and a black t-shirt, apparently no one wears jeans, but the men seem to get of more casually, because even with our dresses being casual they almost seem a bit flashy.

"Where do we get dressed?" Hannah asked.

"Alec turn around."

"You're not serious?"Avery complained.

"Pull your dress on and then just take your clothes of afterwards." We all got dressed and I seriously regretted that I ended up with this one. Sure it's plain, but it fall over all my curves very softly and it's backless. It seems like all the dresses exhibit our feminine qualities, this whole dimension is full of perverts. It's the only explanation since there were a thousand dresses just like ours in all the shops; women are dressed to please here. With the dresses I got each of us a pair of silver sandals. It turned out while I was gone they actually did a good job. They found cardboard boxes, big ones which we can break apart and lay down on the ground, so that we don't have to sleep directly on the mud. We ended up pushing the two big trash bins closer together leaving just enough space for the 5 of us to lay down in between them. We placed the boxes on the ground and all sat there with our backs against the wall; we covered ourselves in the blankets.

"What are we going to do?" Avery said helplessly as all off us sat silently thinking the exact same thing. Sure we had a plan today to get us some things to survive with and a place to sleep, but what will happen to us tomorrow or a week from now? I looked at the sky as it started to darken into night, the darkness swallowing us up.

It's been a week. You can see this weighing us down. We decided that we would all go and try to find jobs, we don't see what else we can do at this point. We can't keep going on like we have- so far we have been moving around during the day, not much, just to be more familiar with the place, so that we are prepared if we have to run. At night we find a place to sleep nearest to where we are at that moment.We are now considered as Strepers which means we are homeless; Jocelyn's dad came up with the word when he was studying this place. Everyone goes through this stage at least once, most people uses the factory that is the official sleeping place for new comers, but the rumors has it that 20 goes in and only about 5 comes out. Some dying from the cold, but most are killed during their sleep or whilst fighting for beds.

Death has become a part of our daily routine as well, we have seen 10 people murdered right in front of us, and not for any real wrong doing, but incompetence. People that don't know some of the basic things that Jocelyn has informed us about, like don't look anyone directly in the eye or don't make comments about someone you have passed. We actually saw a guy killed for sighing when he passed this girl. After that instant we all created our false persona's. We made sure not to include theft as our main crime as it's the worst thing you can do here. I'm a crazy b***h that had a major breakdown when my boyfriend cheated so I killed every girl he ever knew with only my hands.

Except for the fear of dying everyday, we've also started running out of food and money. Each of us had 20 slices of bread that first day, we've been eating a slice each morning afternoon and night. It gave us food for 6 days, yesterday we bought two more loafs of bread again which was 600 nightshades and we had to buy water as well. Our water didn't last that long, about four days which was 1 200 nightshades for the 12, 500 ml bottles of water and yesterday we bought another 6 so another 600 nightshades gone. We only have 3900 nightshades left with no idea how long we'll be here. I can't speak for the others, but I've never felt like this before, I'm so hungry at times that it feels like I will pass out, my stomach growls at me and I look around to see if the other could also hear it, but the worst is the thirst, my mouth feels so dry. The first time we limited ourselves to 1 litre of water for four days, but the second time around we drank up our liters within two days and so far my new 500 ml isn't doing good almost empty and we only got it yesterday.

My lips are also dry, not cracked yet at least. The rest of my body is sore from sleeping on the ground, curled up against the others and I feel dirty, I know my hair is a mess, we found a barrel of water on our third night and washed up with it. It left our hair dry and grass like not that you can notice it now since it's oily again. Hannah braids our hair each morning in an attempt to make it look cleaner, but with each day it works less.

With the physical out of the way I turn to my emotional state it's like a crazy roller coaster, I sometimes just feel like breaking down and crying, but decide not to waist my own water in such an useless way. On the other hand I try and put up a brave face for everyone. I'm the oldest here, even if it's only by a few months I feel responsible for them. Avery was the first to cry she went into a panic attack afterwards going on about what her mother would say if she knew how she cried like a baby.

That's when I figured out just how much we want to live up to our parent's standards. Avery wants to be as tough as her mom, the stories my parents have told about crazy aunt Raven hasn't ever proven to be even an ounce of an over saturation. Jocelyn has been racking her mind trying to get more information for us while also trying to be kind and gentle like aunt Bridget. Hannah has proven to be as straightforward as ever just like her mom Casey, but she admitted that she doesn't know how her father can face down other peoples fear and experience what happen to them, while she can't even handle the horror we have been handed. As for me, I've been trying to take on the leader persona, keeping everyone calm, while I can't even keep myself calm. I'm just not a leader like my father. The truth being that I'm not like my parents at all. My biggest obstacle I have faced in my life is going to regular school. My mother was a slave for 8 years overcoming everything that ever came her way. Not to even mention the fact that I'm the shy, quiet girl that only voices her opinions when I think it's needed. Nothing like my father that runs everything and makes sure the streets are safe. I officially suck.

"Hey how are you doing?" Great I just remembered how guilty I feel for landing Alec in this mess as well.

"I should be asking you that?"

"I'm fine, now how are you?"

"A wreck." I took a deep breath, I could have just lied, but I hate lying to him, since I lied about everything else in my life, bringing him into this hell hole with me.

"Doesn't seem that way. In fact you seem to have calmed the other down enough that I saw Avery smiling again."

"That's good."

"Come on talk to me, Ms reserve."

"I'm not made to be a leader. I'm a disgrace to my parents."

"You can't be more wrong, without you we would have starved already. No one else thought about selling the jewellery. Avery would have gone and announced who she was by now and probably be dead, Jocelyn would have been pushed into the leader position since she knows everything, she wouldn't have coped, she is very fragile and Hannah would have said something wrong by now and would have been killed."

"You forgot to mention yourself in this scenario of yours."

"If you weren't here, I wouldn't be too. Give yourself a pat on the shoulder, you are doing great." I pat myself on the shoulder and smiled at him.

"Now let's get jobs."