Chloe shivered in the cold. She wasn’t wet, but wherever she was, it was ice cold. She could hear voices coming from above her…or were they coming from below her? Maybe from behind? She couldn’t tell. It was pitch black around her, am I dreaming? She thought. She was laying down on something hard and cold, her foot bent unnaturally beneath her. As she sat up and pulled her legs out from under her, shocking pain sliced through her leg like a million tiny needles. She gasped, nope. Definitely not dreaming.

“Chloe!”

“Chloe?”

“Are you okay?”

She could hear the different voices, but her head was spinning from pain and she couldn’t tell from where they were coming from.

“I can’t see her…”

“You can’t see anything, it’s so dark down there…”

“If she’s not answering—”

“—Could be a practical joke. Not funny, Chloe!”

She recognized the voices of Amber, Leo and Perryn yelling from somewhere.

“You ever seen that movie IT?” Leo suddenly asked.

“Leo!”

“What!? I’m serious. Something could be eating her as we speak.”

“I’m going down.” Perryn’s voice rang out among them.

“Oh yeah, you go be her Prince Charming and we’ll just watch.”

“Shut up. You’re all so afraid of a clown. She could be hurt.”

She is. Chloe thought grumpily. She couldn’t seem to speak, and was just gathering her thoughts when a loud crash resounded from beside her. She froze as she heard the quiet padding of feet approaching. Something came close to her shoulder and sniffed, much like a dog. It growled low and deep as it circled her in the darkness, sniffing her face, her legs and her hair. Something sharp ran down her arm, like someone running the blade of a knife gently along her skin. The sharpness slowly reached up her arm, pressing against her neck. It wasn’t a knife, but it was as sharp as one. Then, faster than she could cry out, something grabbed both her feet and began to drag her away. Quickly, quietly. Her back ran along the cold floor, and despite her shock, she managed to let out a little yelp as the creature kept dragging her, away from the voices.

“Did you hear that?”

“Like a dragging sound…”

“A yelp…”

“I told you! IT lives down there! And yet, you didn’t listen.”

As she kept moving, the world continued to spin, the voices faded completely, and she fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

When she woke up, she was spinning. Literally. Hanging upside down, Chloe could feel her body spinning before she opened her eyes. When she opened her eyes, a blur of light met her. As she began slowing down, the blur of light became a series of small light bulbs and candles. When she stopped completely, she surveyed her upside down surroundings. She was definitely still in the sewer, form the algae on the walls and the stench. Light bulbs hung from the roof on little chains, candles lay all around the floor, and the roof was decently empty other than the lights. One single, metal door was on the other side of the room, facing her. Her leg was in torture. She glanced up and saw that both her feet were tied by a crude rope, attached to a pipe that protruded from curved sewer ceiling. She grunted in anguish as the pain in her leg worsened as she stopped spinning and all her weight hung from the ropes. She couldn’t see her captor anywhere, in fact, she seemed utterly alone. That is, until she heard the voices. Silent, deadly voices that drifted from all around her, like the way she would imagine snakes talking; dragging out the s’s, gasping in breaths, even thought they didn’t say anything that seemed to make any sense. Chloe didn’t like the voices, they sent shivers down her spine. She heard one word, that kept coming out clear in between the voices: No.

She grunted as she began to swing from the rope, trying to break free in any way, but she stopped quickly, her foot felt like if any more pressure was attached, then it would completely snap away from her body. Chloe groaned in disgust as she imagined her foot snapping away from the rest of her body.

Then more voices joined the other voices, but these seemed more humanlike. Chloe instantly recognized Amber’s voice among them,

“Okay. This is the last door. If she’s not in here, then we’re done for.”

“How many times do I have to repeat myself. We won’t find her because she has been eaten.”

Chloe closed her eyes as a wave of nausea came over her, but then forced them open again, she didn’t want to look dead to her friends. Then she couldn’t help it, no, she had to close her eyes. It helped with her spinning world and the nausea.

She heard a slow creak and a thump as the door across the room slowly opened. Chloe opened her eyes to see the others standing in the doorway, looking straight at her.

“Oh. Hi guys… It’s about time you got here, I feel like throwing up.” Chloe muttered.

“You look like you’re about to throw up.” Amber said, stepping towards her, “Exactly how long have you been hanging there? We’ve been looking for like two hours. That could be unhealthy.”

“So the faster you get me down, the better chance I have of not dying.” Chloe replied shortly.

Leo pulled out a dagger as he crossed the room to her, he looked disappointed.

“What?” Chloe asked, “Are you depressed that I wasn’t eaten by the IT clown?”

“Oh.” Leo coughed, “You heard that?”

He glanced up at her feet, tied to the ceiling, “Yeah, I can’t reach that. Sorry. Philip? You’re the tallest, come here.”

Instead of just Philip though, everyone scrambled towards them. William circled her quietly, and he was the first to ask, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Chloe replied simply.

“That means she’s not okay.” Kate said, “You know, all girls say ‘I’m fine’ when they’re not.”

“I think William was asking about physically Kate, not emotionally.” Rachel sighed.

Philip reached up with the dagger and began cutting at the ropes. Chloe winced as he grabbed her foot to hold her still. Amber saw this.

“Yeah. No. You’re not okay. But I guess falling down a sewer isn’t so great, huh?”

“I hate you.” Chloe sighed.

The ropes around her ankles suddenly loosened and Chloe yelped as she fell to the floor. At the last split second, she twisted and fell onto her back instead of her head.

“Whoops. Sorry.” Philip said sheepishly as Kate glared at him. As Chloe sat up, everyone instantly scrambled to pull her to her feet. As she stood wobbly on her legs, she leaned slightly more on the other, trying to get weight of the painful one. She pushed Kate away as Kate began to complain about how her hair was dirty again, her clothes were once again ruined and she was now injured,

“You can’t go anywhere without ruining a shirt, can you? And I’d expect, with white blonde hair, that you would die if you made it dirty. I can’t believe it!” Kate kept rambling on as they started to the door.

“Wait.” Robin said suddenly, stopping in his tracks. “How did you get here?”

Chloe shrugged, “I don’t know. I just remember falling, hitting the ground. Then I heard you all debating on whether I had been eaten by a clown yet, and then I think I passed out. And then woke up here. Hanging upside down.”

“Well, then let’s get out of here before whatever brought you here comes back.”

* * *

It took a while to get back. A few hours at least, but eventually they found the entrance to the sewer where Chloe had fallen through. They climbed to the top and were met with darkness once again. The town was the same as before, completely burned except for the general store. Now, Amber and Kate both helped Chloe to walk. She leaned on them as they began to limp to the general store.

“If we need to make a quick escape…” Chloe started.

“Don’t worry.” Kate replied, “We’re not leaving you.”

“No.” Chloe grunted, “You didn’t let me finish. If we need to make a quick escape, then I’m leaving you guys and locking myself in the general store bathroom, if Cedrick comes then he’ll get you, but he won’t be able to go through the lock. That door can be jammed so hard…”

“Shut up.” Amber said simply, “I think the pain from your leg is getting to your head so you’re just spouting out nonsense. For the good of us all, just stop talking.”

And then, to everyone’s great shock, Chloe clamped her mouth shut and didn’t speak again.

They entered the general store.

At the counter, stood the same girl, Drew. She watched quietly as they approached, popping gum in her mouth and drumming her fingers on the counter.

“Looks like the eloping didn’t work out. You fell in the sewer Chamberlain? Yeah I saw that. You didn’t run into Big Blue, did you?”

“For the last time, there was no eloping going on…” Perryn started, “And who’s Big Blue?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

But Leo suddenly burst into laughter, not allowing Drew to speak, “Wait, so she thought you…” He looked at Perryn, then pointed at Chloe, “Were eloping?” Ha! As if.”

“Okay, shut up, garbage boy. I was talking.” Drew snapped.

Leo stopped laughing, “Garbage Boy? What!?”

Chloe sighed quietly, “You know, I’m still dying over here.”

Drew pointed down one isle, “Medical stuff down there. Anyway, Big Blue is the animal that guards the sewers. He’s like the chupacabra except bigger.”

Chloe grunted as Amber brought back a first aid kit from the isle. Then she limped behind the counter, and sat down in the chair behind Drew.

“It’s a myth though. He’s not real.” Chloe said coldly.

“Yes, he is! Why did you take so long to get out Chloe? He was the one who took you to that secret chamber and hung you upside down.”

Chloe peered up at Drew, “How did you know that I…”

“I know everything.” Drew said smugly. Chloe shook her head in disgust when a thought suddenly hit her. She had never told Drew her first name. She had always told her to call her Chamberlain or sometimes even Foster Girl, as a bunch of the neighborhood kids already called her. Amber glanced around, not seeming to be fazed by anything that Drew was saying,

“So. Why is everything burnt except the general store? And can I raid the fridges?”

Drew sighed, then glanced down at Chloe. She tapped her fingers against Chloe’s leg as Chloe was bandaging it up. Chloe winced in pain and Kate scowled at Drew.

“Yes, Amber, dear. You really did choose a poor party to hang out with, Chloe.”

“Stop.” Chloe snapped suddenly, glaring up at her, “I never told you my name, and neither did Amber. You also couldn’t see that I fell into the sewer because it’s pitch black outside. How do you…”

Drew slammed her fist down on the counter, silencing Chloe. Then she turned to Amber, “This isn’t just a general store. This is a portal.”

“To…what?” Amber asked quietly. She didn’t really like the way the girl was bossing everyone around, nor did she like the way Chloe flinched every time Drew made a movement.

Drew waved her hands in the air mindlessly, “Anywhere and everywhere. You just tell me where you want to go and I can take you there.”

Suddenly, behind Drew, Chloe straitened up sharply. She began to look panicked as she looked around the room.

“Um. Okay.” Was all Amber said, she was watching Chloe quietly, what was wrong?

Then it clicked. Drew’s place was a portal for anyone and everything. Anyone, meaning Cedrick. No wonder Chloe looked so afraid. If Cedrick came out of nowhere, anywhere out of a portal, there would be no place she could go. She couldn’t run away, she couldn’t hide. And here they all were, on the doorstep of his headquarters.

“So we can go anywhere, right?” William was asking, “So like, a walk-in-clinic so that we can get Chloe to at least walk a little?”

“Chloe, you can’t walk?” Drew asked, turning to look at her slowly.

Chloe didn’t answer, instead, she surged forward suddenly, grabbing Drew by the neck and pinning her down onto the counter.

“Whoa!” Leo yelped as they fell backwards, “Listen Chlo Chlo. I don’t like her either but I’m not looking to kill her.”

“First of all,” Chloe said, “Don’t call me that.”

“Don’t you see?” Amber asked, “She knows where Cedrick is. We’re wondering how he got away from the Gardeners so quickly, he went through here. Wonder how he got behind us when we were following Chloe? He came out of here.” Amber turned to Drew, scowling, “She works for him.”

Drew grinned up at them, “You’re smart. But you have one thing wrong, I don’t work for him. I work for everybody and—”

“—anybody. Yeah, we get it.” Chloe snapped, “So get us to Cedrick’s headquarters. Or his prison or whatever, why didn’t you tell me that he came by here?”

“In my defense, you didn’t ask. You just came in here, took all my supplies, made a run for it and then you suddenly come back with a mini army.” She motioned towards the others, “And please, your nails are digging into my neck. If you kill me then you’ll never find out where he is. But I will tell you if you let me go.”

Chloe hesitated, but only for a moment before she released Drew. Drew sighed as she rubbed her neck, “Gosh, you can really move when you fancy the day. I did not see that coming.”

She turned and pushed Chloe back into the seat, then she walked past her and towards the back door. Finally she stopped when she got there, “You want to go to Cedrick’s headquarters? Well then, here it is.”

“But the Gardeners…” Chloe muttered. Her words began to sound slurred, and her eyes glazed over. The pain in her leg was becoming unbearable.

“The Gardeners can wait.” Amber said, “We have to get to Cedrick. They’ll be happier if we brought their kids back to them too.”

They started towards the back door, no one bothered to help Chloe. She watched helplessly as they walked towards the door, seeming to forget about her.

Finally, Drew opened the door. There was nothing beyond it that they could see, only darkness, but Drew motioned towards it anyway. One by one, they stepped inside the doorway, vanishing into the black darkness behind it. When Robin, the last one in line, vanished into the doorway, Drew shut it and turned to Chloe.

“Good job, Chamberlain. We didn’t think you could do it.”

Chloe slowly lowered herself back into her seat, scowling at Drew, “I told you I would do it. You have those demigods now, so give me back the mortals.”

Drew nodded, then she closed her eyes momentarily, concentrating and opened the door again. This time, instead of darkness, it opened to a simple closet. Out of the closet stepped Josh, Peter and Julia, looking slightly dazed and confused.

“Might want to get them home before they remember anything.” Drew said, “And get that foot fixed.”

Chloe grabbed Julia’s hand and pulled her along behind her as she limped out of the general store. Peter and Josh followed mindlessly.

They walked down the street until they came to the Gardener’s neighborhood. When they came to the driveway, Chloe stopped. She turned to Peter and Josh solemnly, “You guys gonna be okay?” She asked.

“I mean…how did we get out here?” Peter asked lazily, glancing around him.

“Just…tell your parents that I really liked living with y’all.” Chloe said sadly as she pulled them towards the now fixed doorway and rang the doorbell. She put Julia down on the porch, turned and vanished into the night.

* * *

Perryn looked around. They all seemed to be in a cell, in a large room. The room was lined with cells all around it and glancing into these cells, Perryn could very clearly see other people and creatures.

“Good job.” One man said, in a cell directly across from them, “You fell for the trap.”

“What…trap?” Amber asked nervously, slowly stepping closer to Philip and clutching his arm as she glanced around the cell.

“Cedrick’s trap.” The man continued, “He has demigods in his clutches who work for him. They pretend to be afraid of him, running away and hiding from him. But slowly, they bring in his prisoners. Emotionally connecting to you until you trust them enough to go anywhere with them blindly.”

Perryn stared at him, “You mean…Chloe? No. She wouldn’t do that. She was actually in…” His voice faded in disbelief when a door on the right of the cells flew open and Cedrick walked in. Behind him, walking in single file, were four teenagers. In the front of them, scowling darkly, was Chloe Chamberlain. Behind her walked a girl, slightly shorter and with black hair and bright blue eyes. Behind her walked two boys. One was tall and a little hunky. He had blonde hair and brown eyes. Behind him, the other boy was slightly skinnier and shorter but had blonde hair and green eyes.

“I knew you couldn’t be trusted.” Amber growled as Chloe walked past them.

She stopped and turned to Amber, her eyes flashing wickedly, “I never said you could trust me. You just assumed you could.”

She smirked, “I also tried to warn you before walking through that door.” She lowered her voice, not allowing Cedrick to hear her, “But you didn’t listen. Maybe start listening to people a little better, huh?”

She turned sharply as Cedrick walked towards them and stepped sideways, away from him. Cedrick peered in at them, then grinned, “I gotta say Chamberlain…You ran into some trouble along the way. Almost starved, was attacked by a large drunk and was tied up by Big Blue.”

Chloe rolled her eyes at this, but Cedrick continued, “Your town was also burned down. I’m sorry about that by the way, it was an accident. But anyway, I’m impressed. You managed to bring them in all the same. Good job too,” He turned to her, “You waited to have all of them together and didn’t just bring me this one.” He reached in and poked Perryn’s chest. Cedrick sighed as he walked towards the door, “I might keep you a little longer.”

Then he went out and closed the door behind him.

“Traitor.” William said simply. Chloe shrugged, “Eh. I went through a lot of trouble to find you. I’m happy with the outcome.”

The black haired girl, who had been studying them, now spoke up, “Who are they? They don’t seem that special.”

“Demigods.” Chloe said simply.

The girl cocked her head, “Oh. Fun.” She bounced towards them, “Anyway. Introductions should be in order, because y’all will be staying a while. I’ll start. I’m Elizabeth, I’m a demigod too, daughter of Jupiter and so on and so forth. This is Henry,” She nodded at the hunky teenager, “Son of Ares. But he’s a real kitten. Then there’s Tanner,” She pointed at the last kid, “Son of Athena.” She grinned at them good naturally.

“I thought…Cedrick killed demigods.” Rachel said quietly.

“Oh, he does.” Elizabeth said, “Except for us who cooperate and do what he wants, then we stay alive.”

“Ah. So, just do whatever he says which means befriend some demigods, your own kind, and then get them stuck in prison?” Kate asked, glaring at Chloe.

Chloe blinked at her, “I liked you for a while Kate, but you’re too innocent and trusting. This should be good for you.”

“Unless I die! Then it won’t be good for me.” Kate protested.

Chloe shrugged, “If you do what he says then you won’t die.”

“So…cooperate?” Philip asked, “Yeah…uh…we don’t do that.”

“Then you will die.”

* * *

A few hours passed as they sat quietly in their cell. Chloe, Elizabeth, Tanner and Henry sat in the middle of the room, drinking, eating and playing cards. They talked in low voices and occasionally glanced over at the others.

“We should never have helped her.” Amber muttered quietly, “Nothing makes sense.”

“Everything makes sense, though.” Leo said, “Drew and Chloe worked for Cedrick. They trapped us, brought us here. The General store is somehow protected by a spell so when Cedrick ‘accidentally’ burned the rest of the town, it didn’t burn. Big Blue is Cedrick’s monster or something working for him and got mistaken and kidnapped Chloe instead of one of us…”

“Something along those lines!” Elizabeth called from the middle of the room, “Might want to lower your voice when you’re having a private conversation. One of the cons of being a daughter of Jupiter is having great hearing…Not sure why, but I do…You know what? I’ll just shut up now.”

Amber scowled in their direction, then stood up to walk to the edge of the cell, “You guys don’t regret anything? You don’t regret putting your friends in cells?”

“Nope.” Elizabeth said simply, glancing over at Amber mindlessly, “I mean, Chloe’s the only one who ever brings in demigods. The rest of us just bring in random people or creatures that Cedrick hates.”

Amber frowned, “Why?”

“Why he wants to kill animals or why Chloe is the only one who brings in demigods?”

“Well, both I suppose.”

“Hmm. Well, I don’t know about the animals, he’s just heartless I guess. But Chloe’s the best out there. She brings in the most people plus she does it quietly, so it’s not as if people will immediately think you’ve been kidnapped, it’s so subtly done… Yeah I idolize Chloe.” She giggled as Chloe raised an eyebrow in her direction.

“Why do you work for Cedrick?” Kate suddenly asked, “I mean, he kills people. He kills demigods, innocent demigods. So why do you work for him?”

Elizabeth’s laughter faded. She cleared her throat, but turned her eyes back to her cards and didn’t speak again.

“We all owe him something.” Henry said simply, “And with that comes the fear of him killing us.”

William now stomped to the front of the cell, glaring at Henry, “You’ve got to be kidding me. You could overthrow him in a heartbeat if you wanted to! I mean…look at you! You’re this big fellow, you could easily kill him.”

“You don’t think we’ve tried?” Tanner asked bitterly, “Liz was the first to try to kill Cedrick. Somehow he found out though, and Liz was caught. Then Chloe tried, and yet somehow he figured out again and was prepared with an entire army, literally an army, of soldiers. If Chamberlain can’t kill him then no one else can.” Tanner scowled around the room, “Someone keeps telling him our plans and I plan on finding out who.”

“Then why don’t you just let us go?” Amber asked, “We can all fight against him.”

Slowly Chloe, who hadn’t spoken a word since the conversation had started, stood up and walked over to them. She stopped in front of Amber, and their eyes met, “If I were to let you go right now, you had a knife, and Henry stood on one side of you and I stood on the other, which one would you kill?”

Amber didn’t answer, she just stared back at Chloe blankly. Chloe nodded, “Exactly. Of course you’d go to the person who ‘betrayed’ you because you want revenge and that’s how people go about things nowadays.” She flicked one of her cards in at Amber, who picked it up; it was the Queen of Spades, “Death is something common now. You ever killed someone before Amber?”

Amber shook her head simply.

“Yeah well. Most people think that to kill someone, you just have to be heartless. I mean, you don’t know that person so it doesn’t affect you. But there are other people out there who do care for that person.”

“What’s your point?” Amber demanded finally.

“My point is, killing Cedrick isn’t so easy. And not just because of the army that protects him. If you’ve never killed a person before, how do you know you can kill Cedrick?”