It was quiet; no one was saying anything. With the rag over her face, she couldn’t tell when it would happen. The only thing that she could hear was breathing.

She could feel them now. They were looming over her, looking down at her as her head turned every witch way, hoping to stave off what was coming.

And then music.

A muffled ringtone broke the gravity, and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked toward the source of the noise.

She couldn’t see him, but Manuel put the bucket down, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone.

“ Shit, it’s Mariglod. What does that bitch want now? Ah! Put her down; let me answer this. If I ignore this, she’ll just bitch at me later.”

Luci fell backward, crashing to the ground with a thud. Those idiots forgot they were learning her back. Now she was lying on the ground, the rag still very much on her face, with her hands crushed behind her back.

The only good thing about this situation was that Manuel didn’t leave the room, so she could hear what was being said over the phone.

“ What is it, Mari? I’m in the middle of something.”

“ How long do I have to stay working on this goddam plane? I am sick and tired of this shit.”

“ Mari, I already told you.” He was getting frustrated. I need somebody to watch the planes. Everyone else is watching the town. I need you to do this little thing for me. Can you do that for me, for your Tio?”

“ WHAT does me working in this smelly plane have to do with looking for the Hunter? No one even knows what he LOOKS like. Do you know what I’ve had to do just by being here? I have to help these fuckers that can’t even wipe their asses. I AM SICK AND TIRED OF STAYING IN THIS FUCKING SHITHOLE PLACE!”

“ DON’T YOU GET IT, YOU FUCKING BITCH SOMEONE IS COMING TO KILL US, So if I tell you to act as a lookout, THEN YOU FUCKING BE THE LOOKOUT!”

They were screaming now, shouting back and forth over the phone. The other guys stood silently, waiting for their boss to finish with his niece. None of them even breathed in fear of him turning his attention to them.

Luci was extra quiet. She hoped that Manuel would forget that she was here and what he was about to do.

Something smashed against the wall above her. Luci flinched back in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to be so angry that he threw his phone.

“ AARGGH!! That fucking bitch, why doesn’t she understand that I need everyone searching? If I die, then everyone dies.”

He was pacing now. Back and forth, Mauel turned in circles, confined inside the small room. His shoes tapped against the floor as he couldn’t keep still. Luci could hear his breaths getting faster and faster and faster as he worked himself into a frenzy.

Hopefully, he hyperventilates, she thought. If he passes out, that is one less problem she has to deal with.

And then silence. There was no moving, no muttering curses, just the rapid breaths coming out of Manuel's mouth filling the air.

The Angels stayed silent. They feared Manuel would pop off at any moment and didn’t want to volunteer as his outlet.

Then he just left. Without any words, Manuel just turned and opened the door, and left. Not knowing what to do, the guards stood silently, waiting for Manuel to return.

After a few minutes of no sign of Manuel, they awkwardly left. They locked the door behind them and left Luci alone in that small room.

Confused and relieved, Luci lay on the floor, tension pouring out of her, hoping they never returned.

***

She didn't know how long she had been stuck down here. There was no window, so she couldn’t even count the days. The only source of light that she did have came from a dirty light bulb that cast sickly orange light across the room, making the stained walls look even messier than they were.

She couldn’t even count the number of times they fed her because they barely fed her as it was. And when they did feed her, the food was barely edible.

They did finally cut her restraints for her due to how difficult it was to feed her without her feeding off them. It only took one guy losing his ear before they decided she was more hassle than worth it.

Thankfully, after that, nobody wanted to be stuck in the same room as her. The smell certainly didn’t help, either.

Since they never took her out, she was forced to use the bucket for her ‘business,’ there were no windows, so there was no way to vent the air.

With the bucket, no fresh air, or a way for her to shower, Luci had understandably started to smell. At first, she had gotten used to it, but now it was getting to the point where she couldn’t even stand it.

After long being stuck here, Luci wondered if she would ever make it out.

So there she was, lying wistfully on the ground, staring at the ceiling, hoping for anything to change.

That's when she started to hear the shooting.

At first, it didn’t seem like anything important, maybe fireworks or some drunk idiot. But when the noise didn't stop, Luci got worried, which turned to panic as the streets above her erupted in screams.

Surprised, Luci jumped to her feet. She didn’t know what was happening; she only knew someone was attacking the Angels.

There wasn’t any other explanation; the Hole was right in the heart of the Angel's territory, and nothing happened there without the Angel’s consent.

But…who would be stupid enough to attack a Cartell right at the very center of their operation?

That’s right, no one!

Except…Issac?

Was he finally coming to save her?

She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but if it was Issac, he sure did take his sweet time getting her. What, was he stopping to get lunch or something?

Whatever it was, he was here now; any minute, he was going to kick in that door and take her away from this hell hole.

So she waited and waited.

And waited.

After the first ten minutes, she got mad; after the next twenty, she got worried.

Did… did he not know where she was?

That must be it! He had no idea where she was. He was probably searching for her right now but couldn’t find her. There must be at least dozens of buildings on this street,… he didn’t know where to look.

Yeah, that's right, well, in that case, she needed to help him. As usual, she had to do all of the heavy lifting.

She started yelling, calling out to Issac, screaming his name as loud as she could. And when her voice could no longer scream, she started banging on the door, throwing the chair against the walls, and doing anything to make noise.

But nothing worked.

He wasn’t coming.

What was going on? He was magical, right? It shouldn’t be that hard to save a little girl, right?

If Issac had attacked the angels without knowing she was there, she could be stuck here forever.

A war was raging outside, and she was trapped here, with no way out and no one to save her.

And no way to save herself.

Then came the pain.

Pain so strong that Luci wondered why she wasn’t just knocked out, but no, she stayed awake long enough to feel the full force of the pain.

She was on the floor, convulsing in pain. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The only thing on her mind was pain.

And then, the pain stopped.

Like a bad dream, the pain went away. There were no aches or pains; nothing was wrong with her body. One second, it was there. The next, it was gone, leaving nothing but a memory.

And when the pain stopped, she cried.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

For the second time in that cell, she cried alone.

She was alone, and she didn’t know why. Why was she alone?

Why did she have to experience this pain?

That’s when she heard it.

A noise coming from the door!

Looking up, Luci saw that the door was open. In her pain-induced mind, Luci didn’t even question why it was open; she was just glad that it was.

She stumbled her way out the door, holding onto the wall to keep steading. She walked down the empty hall of the basement.

Climbing the stairs toward the bar above, Luci barely noticed the building was on fire. Not only that, but she was the only one here; walking through the enflamed bar, Luci was the only living thing.

But even though everything was on fire, Luci never felt a thing. As she slowly approached the door, the flames seemed to bend away from her. None of that mattered; in her fading eyesight, Luci only cared about the door.

She tried to grab the handle twice, but her hands could never grasp it. After the third time, she finally got her hands to stick and opened the door.

Outside, Firetrucks and Paramedics swarmed the streets, working in tandem. Any survivors were quickly carted away as soon as the fires were extinguished. Everyone was working to save the city.

Making her way towards them, Luci tried to call out, but all her screaming destroyed her voice.

Finally, they noticed her as she stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

“ We got another one over here!”

“Someone get a stretcher!”

“ Come here, sweetie, we got you!”

People swarmed around her, hands lifting her and lying down on a stretcher. She tried to fight off their hands out of habit, but thankfully, she was too tired to fight.

As they placed her in the back of the ambulance, she thought for just a second that she saw Issac. That was the last thing she saw before her brain shut down, sending her into blissful sleep.

***

Luci opened her eyes again and noticed that she was in a hospital. Dazed, Luci lay there, still trying to process what she went through. She started at the ceiling.

A contrast noise of beeps and clicks from machines huddling around her drowned out her thoughts. She couldn't believe it, she got out.

After days of being trapped in that room, Luci was finally out.

Turning her head towards the window, Luci started at the sun; for the first time in what felt like forever, she could finally see real light. Luci didn’t want to blink, afraid she could lose it forever if she missed even a second of light.

Even after her eyes started hurting, she never looked away.

“-ank you, Alice, two nights ago, the infamous Cartell, The Southern Angels, rose in arms and brought war to our peaceful streets. We still do not know exactly who they were fighting against, but many speculate that a new gang may be stretching into Rio de Denaro.”

The TV that had been quietly sitting in the corner increased in volume. Shocked,, Luci realized that she wasn’t alone in the room. Sitting right beside her bed was Issac Remonte, hand in hand, not even looking at her, his full attention on the TV.

She couldn’t believe it; after a week of not seeing him, here he was.

Luci wanted to get angry. For days, she stayed locked up in that room. Where was Issac? Did he even try to save her?

No. She was the one; she saved herself. And now, what was he doing, watching TV? Not even waiting to check if she was okay, he just sat there looking at the TV.

This fucking guy, she thought.

“Hey,” Luci tried to get Issac’s attention. She wanted to know so many things and tell him so many more.

She wanted him to understand precisely what she went through trapped in that room. She wanted to make him feel guilty for leaving her, but she also wanted to know what he was doing while she was trapped.

But instead of looking at her, he put his finger to his lips and shushed her.

He shushed her!

She couldn’t believe it. Over a week of not seeing him, she was trapped and almost tortured because of him, and the first thing that he does is Shush Her!

Turning the TV up, Issac motioned for her to watch. Knowing she wouldn’t have her way, Luci decided to play along and see exactly what he wanted her to see.

“Authorities still refuse to comment on the nature of the arrests made that night, but we were able to get the names of the arrests from insider information. As you can see here, the names we got are all known associates of the Angels Cartell. With no word of Manuel de Silva, the known head of the Southern Angels, the state of Cartell is currently in shambles.

No one knows what the coming days will carry, but it looks like the end of one of the most notorious-.”

Turning off the TV, Issac finally turned to talk to Luci.

“ Well, that's the end of the Southern Angels. Without their mystic leaders, they are nothing more than a crumbling tower. The rest will have no choice but to resist or succumb to whoever fills the void.”

Luci just stared at him.

“Is that all you have to say to me?” Luci asked.

“ What else do you want me to say?” Isaac kept looking at the papers in his lap.

“Uh, how about where you’ve been? Or sorry.”

“Sorry?” Now Issac looked at Luci. “ What do I have to be sorry for ?”

“ You left Me!” She screamed at him. “ Do you know what I went through? I was all alone, and they took me.”

Luci started hyperventilating. In her mind, she was back in that small room. She couldn’t see, and she felt hands starting to encircle her again. There was nothing that she could do.

She could hear distantly as the hospital equipment went haywire. She was losing it; she was letting go of all of her bottled-up emotions. Since the time that she was captured, Luci had bottled and held back all her feelings of fear and despair. And now it was all coming back up.

She couldn’t see it, but inside of her hospital room was chaos. Nurses ran in when the machines went off, only to find a child in the midst of a panic attack. When they couldn’t help her, the doctors were called in.

Patients watched from outside the hallway, standing in silence as a team of doctors wrestled with a little girl, hoping to calm her down.

And Issac watched as everything happened. Then he laughed.

“HAHAHAHAHA!” He couldn’t help it. Even though someone was in pain before him, the chaos around him was just so funny. Everyone swirling around like a tornado, and nothing was being done.

The sound of Issac’s laughter finally calmed Luci down. It was such a nice sound. Like the rain after a storm, it washed away all the bad memories and gave her a feeling of peace.

The nurses and doctors finally left after ensuring Luci was all right; the passersby also left after seeing that the show had finished. As she laid back against her pillows, Luci stared at the ceiling, not saying anything.

Finally, Issac broke the silence.

“ I didn’t make you do anything,” he started. “You were the one who left her room, and you were the one stupid enough to get caught; nobody but you was responsible for your choices.”

Luci could feel tears beginning to gather in her eyes. Everything he said was true; he never told her to continue spying on the Angles. He just left. Luci was the one; she thought she could handle it, but she couldn’t.

“ But...” Issac continued. “ I was the one who got you started in this mess. I have always been confident in myself. I am so confident I believe that I can do anything, that if I wanted to, I could take the sun and the moon in my hands, weave the stars around my head.”

Issac drifted off. His eyes stared off into space as he imagined himself grabbing the constellations and cradling them in the center of his palm.

“...And to me, I can’t imagine someone not having that same confidence in themselves.”

Tears were falling out of her eyes now. Issac’s words sounded so beautiful in her mind, but at the same time, they felt like weights settling on her stomach.

She could never have that level of confidence. And it felt like she was letting him down.

Issac reached over and turned her face to look at him.

“ But I’m me, and you’re you. I should have known that, and I didn’t. I was so confident I was right that I put you in danger. I’m sorry.”

Lucci giggled as she looked at Issac. Even when he apologized, he still made it sound like it was her fault.

“ That was an awful apology, you jackass,” She said.

“ Yeah, well, it looks like we'll even then, you little brat,” Issac said. Both of them laughed as the tension left the room.

For the next few minutes, they sat together, enjoying the silence.

“ What are you reading?” Luci finally asked. He had been concentrating on that same paper since she woke up, and she was curious about what he had.

“ Letters,” he answered. Holding them up for her to see, Issac explained, “ These letters were in the desk of the man behind Manuel.”

“ The man behind Manuel? You mean that your crazy conspiracy theory was actually true?” Luci couldn’t believe it. When Issac first explained his theory on the strange happenings in the Southern Angels, she thought he was delusional.

“ Yeah, evidently, those guys were like me, and in fact, it turns out there is a whole town for people like me.” Now, Issac was starting to get excited. “ Can you believe it? A whole city of people, all of them Magical!”

Luci watched as Issac pranced around the room, talking excitedly about a mysterious city no one had seen before. She saw as his eyes lit up with the possibilities in front of him. And while she was happy for him, she was also sad.

She could see it in his eyes. Isaac was not planning on staying; this was his ticket, and he was taking it.

“ And-and…Hey, what's wrong?” Issac saw the depressed look on Luci’s face.

“ When are you leaving.” Luci didn’t want to ruin Issac’s mood, but she had to know how long he would stay.

“ Well.” He said. “ I planned on staying until you got better, but if you're up for it, we can go right now.”

Wait what? She thought she heard him wrong.

“We?”

Issac flashed her a smile. “ Yeah, I said I’ll teach you how to fly, and that’s what I’m gonna do. So come on.” Grabbing her hands, Issac hauled her out of bed; taking off the medical equipment, he rushed out of the room, dragging her along.

“ Wait! What about my clothes and my things.” Frantically, Luci tried to keep up with Issac.

Behind them, the nurses called after them, trying to get them to stop as they called for security.

“ Who cares? We’ll get more when we get there.” Yelling over his shoulder, Issac shoved people out of the way as he made a beeline for the door down the hallway.

“ How will we even get there? I don't even have a passport.” Luci tried to make Issac stop and think. Even though she was thrilled that he was bringing her along, he had to at least think about this first!

Reaching the door, Issac pushed her through, closing it behind him and locking it. Issac turned to Luci.

“ We dont need anything, as long as we got this.” From his pocket, Issac pulled a golden key. The key was old-looking and had weirdly shaped teeth. It was almost like those Victorian Skeleton keys.

Before she could ask, Issac placed the key on the doorknob. The door didn’t even have a lock. She wanted to say, what was he gonna do with that she thought. But before she could voice her thoughts, something strange happened. Luci, transfixed, stood there and watched as the knob stretched and modeled around the key as if it was clay.

Pushing open the door, Issac showed Luci the inside. “ This Luci is going to be our new home.”

Inside the door was no longer the hospital.

Instead, through the doorway was a vast grassland, like a sea of green. The grass stretched for miles and miles, filling her entire vision.

And in the distance, a lone tower stood against a backdrop of clear blue skies.

“ You ready?” Issac asked her.

And without even waiting for him, she stepped through the doorway.

“ Yes.”