“Now is the time to run away.” Julie states with a forced smile. She glances around, looking for a way out. “Or not, I guess.” She sighs as they are surrounded by the crew.

The man from before appears in front of them. “This must be fate, lost my goods to the damned church and new goods show up.” He has this creepy smile on his face, they can guess what he’s thinking about.

Julie steps in front of the others, opening her arms wide with the same forced smile. “This must be a misunderstanding, we’re just here to get a ride out of here. Can we make a deal?”

The man laughs, the crew quickly following him. “Haha, can you believe it. I just can’t stop laughing.” He looks at Julie with contempt in his eyes. “Little girl, I’m sure you have nothing I need, besides yourself that is. There’s no deal to be made here.” He looks at the crew with a smile and shouts. “Drag them into the cages!”

Some bulky men step forward and take them by their arms. Julie doesn’t take too kindly to that. “Let me go, you idiots!” She starts struggling, kicking her legs wherever she can.

The man holding her laughs at her struggles. “What a tough lass, aren’t ya.”

Another man comes and punches her in her stomach. “That should stop the moving.”

“Argh.” Julie screams out. Being the example for the rest, they don’t dare to move.

----------------------------------------

And thus, they end up locked in cages. The cages are small, only one person can fit in, and placed at a distance from each other.

“Are you alright, Julie?” April worriedly asks.

“The.. Wound.. Reopened..” Julie slowly speaks.

“Fuck. Maybe we should call out to someone!” April mutters to herself.

An unknown amount of time passes before someone comes in. A guy whistles to himself while throwing some meat in each cage. “Here’s your share of the food for today.” He quickly says before heading back.

“Wait!” April calls out desperately.

“Hmm? Did the goods just start talking? That’s the problem when they don’t train them beforehand.” The guy mutters to himself, annoyed. He keeps walking out without looking back.

“What now..” April sighs dejectedly.

Blue sighs and closes her eyes. Suddenly she’s outside. ‘Is this Thomas again?’ She’s in a place with trees around, it looks like a forest.

Her vision moves forward hurriedly. It glances back to see a town, a portion of it is on fire. ‘That’s.. That’s the Ruined Zone?’ Her vision turns back and it rushes on. There’s a figure ahead standing still, her vision heads towards it. A hand grabs the figures arm and drags it forward. “Come, don’t just stand there. They’re gonna come for us, we need to get away!” A stern voice says.

----------------------------------------

Everything fades to black. Blue opens her eyes and sees the familiar cages. There’s a few more cages filled now, apparently they caught some others. From the way everything is moving it’s clear that the ship is moving. ‘So they set off?’ Blue wonders.

[Good morning, how are you?] April’s voice appears in her head.

‘I’m fine I guess, how’s Julie?’ Blue mentally responds back.

[She’s asleep again, I hope her wound doesn’t get infected.] April explains.

‘So how come there’s more people now?’ Blue questions.

[They followed the river to some other town, they probably tried to get their losses back..] April states.

Blue looks around and finds Vince asleep, probably for the best. On her left there’s a new girl, currently staring into nothing. “Hey, nice to meet you.” Blue tries to get her attention.

The girl turns around to look at Blue. She has copper brown hair reaching her waist. Her clothes simple, a white shirt and brown shorts. Her deep brown eyes are full of anger. “Oh, hello.” When she sees that it’s just Blue talking to her she leans her head against the cage with a sigh.

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

“So how did you get here?” Blue questions, trying to find even a little distraction by talking to the girl.

The girl rolls her eyes. “Just playing hide and seek, and didn’t realize these idiots were the seekers.”

“Oh I see.” Blue says. It gets silent again and Blue doesn’t know what to say.

Time passes painfully slow. Like every minute is a hour.

----------------------------------------

The ship stops moving. Shortly thereafter people come to the cages to get them out. Someone gets a rope and ties everyone together at the wrists. Julie has trouble standing straight, there’s a blood stain on her clothes. There’s a force on the rope and it pulls them forward, leading them off the boat.

The sun shines brightly on them as they shuffle along. After a while they finally reach a building. “Get in, we don’t have all day.” Someone shouts to them, pushing them inside.

There is one big cage in the room, standing in the middle. All the sides have chairs and tables, as if the middle cage is a stage. A man standing near the cage opens it and shoves them in, removing the rope along the way. He closes the cage after and sits in a nearby chair, clearly bored by this job.

Julie sits down, she’s sweating a lot. April worriedly runs to her. “Hey, are you alright?”

“I’m.. Fine..” Julie stutters.

“You know you’re not supposed to die! You can’t die here!” April declares in a heavy voice.

“I.. Ain’t.. Dying..” Julie confidently says. “Blue… Come.. Over.. ..Here..”

Blue hurries over to Julie. “What is it?” She sits down next to Julie.

“Let’s.. ..Make.. A.. ..Contract.” Julie suggests.

“... A contract?” Blue asks with a raised eyebrow.

“.. A… Soul.. Contract..” Julie smiles at Blue as she takes Blue’s hands into hers.

Blue sighs. She leans her face into Julie’s direction and Julie does the same. Their foreheads touch and the world around them disappears.

Julie looks around with a smile. “You gotta fill this place, you know?”

Blue reacts surprised. “You’re alright?”

Julie shrugs. “I didn’t get any soul damage, so yeah.”

The world around them changes into a grassfield. This time Blue looks around, she finds Thomas standing near a lake. “What is he doing there?” She asks.

“It’s not actually him, just a piece of his soul he left behind here. It’s nice decoration you know.” Julie explains.

“What?” Blue sits there speechless and confused.

Julie laughs. “Worry about it later.”

The world changes back into the cage.

“Thanks..” Julie says, she still has trouble speaking, but it clearly is better now than before.

April stares confused at the two. “What..?”

“You wanna.. Get a.. Contract too?” Julie teases.

“Should I be worried?” April questions.

Julie laughs. “Nah..” She lets go of Blue’s hands and takes April’s hands instead. “Come on..”

They both lean in to let their foreheads touch. This time nothing happens for Blue. April and Julie are just sitting there, foreheads touching and eyes closed. A few moments pass by and they open their eyes again.

“Wow.” April mutters. She lets go of Julie and just sits there.

“Like that, I’ll get better. What a cheat right?” Julie laughs.

“How does that even work?” April stares at Julie, waiting for an explanation.

“Easy, your endurance and regeneration is added to mine. Vice versa as well. Just one person won’t be a lot, but it means the same injury isn’t enough to kill me anymore. It still hurts like hell though..” Julie explains happily.

“But that means we can get stronger easily!” April exclaims.

“Well, you don’t want to form a contract with just anyone. A contract is forever, it can’t get removed. And with forever I mean until your soul is destroyed, so dying isn’t enough. And a contract means leaving a piece of your soul behind and receiving one. Gives you an easy way to mentally attack someone, you know. Also a way to easily get secrets, everything is open to you. Including memories.” Julie seriously warns.

“How do you know all that?” Blue wonders.

“I have my reasons, and I’d appreciate it if you don’t just go and check all my memories to find the reason.” Julie declares.

“So it’s all about trust..” April mutters.

“Don’t worry, I trust you enough for the both of us.” Julie teases.

April ignores Julie’s teasing and looks at Blue. “Let’s get a contract then!”

Julie interrupts. “A soul contract is heavy for the soul, make sure you feel alright enough for it.”

“I’m fine.” Blue states.

“In that case let’s do it!” April declares.

Blue takes April’s hands and repeats the process.

Again the world disappears. It’s still empty around, since neither April or Blue made any changes. The only difference is that Julie’s piece of her soul is standing there.

“I guess we’re going to be together forever now.” April mutters to herself. “Not the forever in your heart kind but apparently in my soul.”

Blue giggles as a response.

April looks up surprised. “Oh, you heard that.” She looks away embarrassed.

The world around them changes back. April let’s go of Blue’s hands and moves back quickly, hiding in embarrassment.

Julie looks at April, then at Blue, and keeps switching. “Did she do something stupid?”

Blue just shakes her head as a response.

“See, you’re fine, you didn’t ruin anything just yet.” Julie teases.

“Leave me alone.” April mutters.

“Alright, alright. Have fun hiding there!” Julie continues teasing regardless.

Blue searches for Vince, since she hasn’t seen him in a while. She easily spots him playing around with the new people. ‘He made new friends quickly.’ Blue thinks.

Blue leaves Julie and April to their teasing as she heads to Vince. “Hey there, you alright?”

“Yeah, sis! This here is Eve.” The girl from before waves. “And that guy over there is Ray.” A guy with strawberry blonde hair waves. “The girl over there is Natasha!.” A girl with strawberry blonde hair nods. Vince looks at Blue and continues. “And this here is sis!” Vince excitedly explains while hugging Blue.

“I’m Blue, nice to meet you.” Blue nods to all of them.

Natasha rolls her eyes. “Blue? Really? That’s not a name you know..”

Blue didn’t expect someone to throw hate at her. “Well, sorry for having that as my name, I guess?”

Before Natasha can respond again the doors are thrown open. The man from the ship strides in. “Time to check the goods.”