Chapter one

Cruelty 

Alana held her breath as a faintly familiar woman's voice crept around the corner. “You can't hide from me,” she heard them say before loud bangs and glass shattering. Alana could taste sweat as it dripped from her forehead to her lips. She winced as she grabbed her shoulder, doing her best to avoid touching the raging furnace she hid next to. Her heart rattled with every footstep she heard echoing closer and closer to her. She continued holding her breath until she heard the voice again.

“You do not have to die, dear.” Alana took a deep breath through her nose, smelling the smoke from the furnace. “I heard that.” The voice rang out and Alana heard loud and rapid footsteps until she could see a pair of women's shoes through the shelving that blocked the view of her attacker, but Alana couldn't see who it was. She only heard a familiar voice that she couldn't place. Whose voice does this belong to? Who did she know who was trying to kill her? 

Alana looked around for a better hiding spot as the shoes crept closer. The furnace was blocking her right side, and the shelves were blocking her left side close enough to the furnace to be a fire hazard and close enough to block her from running. The footsteps stopped right when Alana saw a tiny opening just behind the furnace, just large enough for her to fit through. Alana slowly lowered herself, feeling the heat of the old wood-burning furnace; it was as if Satan himself was breathing on her. Laying on her side now, she slowly reached her hand through the wall opening and felt cement just like she was lying on.

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“If you make him mad, he will kill you,” she heard that voice come from behind while she struggled to drag herself through the tiny opening, being careful not to burn herself on the furnace.

The room on the other side was too dark to see anything as she finally pulled everything but her legs in. She pulls one leg in bit by bit, careful not to make a sound while someone searches for her on the other side until she burns her hip on the side of the furnace and lets out a groan of pain.

“There you are,” the voice exclaimed, and Alana began to pull herself briskly, not caring that she was burning her leg on the side of the furnace. The person on the other side grabbed her foot. “You aren't getting away from me now, you dead bitch.” The voice screeched out as she pulled Alana's leg, but Alana used her other foot and kicked herself through the hole in thewall,  pulling the woman into the side of the furnace, causing her to scream in pain and let go of Alana's leg. 

Standing up, Alana winced in pain as her upper right leg, burned from the furnace, throbbed. Alana limped aimlessly in the dark, looking for light as the woman in the other room yelled and cursed. Alana looks into the abyss in front of her, trying to make out any objects in the room, waving her arms out ahead of her; she found a string that she pulled for light and gasps at what she saw. Sitting right in front of her were two bodies lying lifeless. Alana fell to her knees with her mouth open wide in disbelief. She was too stunned to cry as the door to her left slammed open. Alana quickly got back up, limping back towards the large cage that stood in the back of the dark room; she finally got a good look at her attacker.

“Y-YOU,” she yelled in disbelief.