Chapter 1

I was taken from my home.

I don't remember much about how it happened. It was dark and I was on the brink of sleep when someone grabbed me and started choking me to the point of syncope.

There must have been several of them because I kicked and flailed but many hands grabbed my legs, arms, and held my neck down. I couldn't see their faces but I remember their hands.

I knew I was drugged when I woke up because I felt sick just like every other time I took a potent medicine. I felt the nausea overtaking me from the stench of rot and something foul in the air. The ground was dirty and damp, though you could hardly see it through all the bodies.

I wasn't the only one there. White noise of moans and aches echoed in the cold dark room. I'm sure I was making the exact same sounds.

There were men talking above the white noise. I recognized it because it sounded so different from the rest of us. They sounded alive. They talked about something but I couldn't concentrate. It was hard to focus when you didn't know which way the floor went. They jabbered on and yelled at one point before loud noises that pierced my brain were heard. It sounded like bursts of thunder.

I remember the shape of a face falling next to me though it kept moving around. Or maybe that was me. He had some damp dark sweat trickling down his forehead and covering his eyes. Actually I think it was blood. Yes it must be. It was so thick and sticky as it covered the floor.

A sickening stench covered my nostrils and I believe it was vomit. Was it mine? Probably.

My head pounded as the sound of screams grew like a chorus in unison. I think I joined them. It was hard to tell when my vision kept swaying left to right.

I believe time passed because when I was aware of myself again, my fingers were thick with dirt and something dark rubbed on them. My painted fingernails were showing signs of regular nail growth underneath. It was then that I started to notice my surroundings.

I was in a dark room made almost entirely out of concrete with the exception of one glass wall that looked out to a dimly lit hallway. There were so many of us in the room that most laid against each other or on one another. We were squeezed into this tight space with no leg room.

"Where-" my raspy voice came out before a coughing fit came on. Several girls next to me glanced my way before their eyes lazily glazed back to what they were doing previously. They must have been here longer than me because their faces were caved in and their arms were boney.

I could hear more girls crying and moaning than just the ones by me and located the sound coming from a grate in the wall. There must have been more girls than just the ones in our room and the ones in the room we could see across the hallway. There was a grate on both sides of our cement walls, both having sounds come from them.

At one point some girls who were closer to the wall stiffened before trying to crawl over the girls next to them to get away from it.

I could hear the crisp step of shoes coming down the hallway and two strong men in all black walked down before stopping at the room across from ours. They entered and took a screaming girl from the room. The boney girl tried to claw their faces before a needle was injected into her squirming side. They continued to hold her for several minutes as she slowly lost her fight. Her head fell forward just before they dragged her away, her feet trailing behind her with her matted hair covering her sunken face.

I quickly learned that the girls here did not like the men in the black.

Time passed and I realized why the floors were so damp and smelly. I too had to contribute to its smell, though I had little choice in the matter.

I think days passed but I couldn't tell as there was no light of day shining through and the girls in our room slept against each other whenever they felt like it. I counted the times the guards would bring a jug of water for the girls in the room and by the eighth jug of water, I noticed I was starting to look like the girls I saw from my first day here. My skin was boney and my hair, matted and greasy. I wonder if my face looked like theirs too? Gaunt, dark circles, sunken cheeks.

One time, the men put a bucket down that had food scraps in it. All the girls fought over it and one girl was trampled from the fight. She didn't move for the rest of the day.

I didn't try to go for the food.

The men in black came to our room five times for other purposes than the water jug. Two of those times was to bring in a drugged girl, dragging her by the arms and throwing her onto the pile of women. The other three, they were taking a girl with them. Two girls fought the men while the third just went willingly with them. They didn't use the needle on her which I thought was a good thing.

Two of the girls who were taken away came back, including the one who didn't fight. One didn't come back. I don't know where she went, but at least there was more space for the rest of us now.

Then one time the men brought in a girl who seemed to be different. Was it her bright red hair she had on her head? The fact that she was conscious when they brought her in? Maybe it was the muzzle strapped to her face to prevent her from opening her mouth to bite the men. I don't think she understood that though because she tried it anyway. I noticed needle marks on her arms but she didn't stop fighting against her restraints like the others did.

Something about her made me feel like smiling but I didn't know why. Only one word came to my mind when I saw her.

Hope.

I decided to call her that for the fire she brought with her that warmed my insides.

I squirmed over to Hope, accidentally crawling on top of someone's leg to which she glared at me and shoved me but I think she must have had the needle injection in her because she could hardly move me and her eyes were glazed over. It was interesting though, she didn't smell of the drugs they used.

When I reached Hope, the rest of the girls had squirmed away from her as much as they could which gave her a good foot of space all to herself.

I smiled as much as I could but with how much energy it took to smile these last couple times I've been awake, it came out more of a grimace. Hope glared at me and tried to bite me but the muzzle got in the way. I think she wanted to scratch me too but her arms were bound behind her by a plastic zip tie.

I shakily put my hands up and looked at her binds asking for silent permission. She eyed me suspiciously. "H-help?" I croaked out timidly. Hope analyzed me once more before turning slightly to give me access to it. She kept her eyes on me distrustfully as I tried to pull at the plastic tie to no use. I had used up all my strength to reach her and now there wasn't much left in my arms and legs.

With a sigh I gave her an apologetic look before she flashed her teeth at me as if trying to threaten to bite me again.

That warm feeling inside me flickered again and I found myself with enough energy to smile fully. Hope looked at me confused before a slight smile of her own hesitantly creeped up, showcasing her sharp canine tooth.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

I leaned down to her plastic ties again and started to gnaw at it with my teeth. I found it easier if I used my canine tooth to dig into it and even when it hurt, I still continued.

After a long time passed to which my gums were cracked and bleeding on both sides, I finally felt the plastic give way and snap.

With a grunt, Hope rubbed her wrists and muttered something incoherent. She pulled at the muzzle on her to no avail and looked to me with eyes asking permission. I spit blood out of my mouth and looked at her muzzle, trying to unbuckle it from her head. It came much easier with the two of us snapping the restraints.

"Where are we?" Hope snarled out with venom. The sound of actual words spoken to me physically hurt my ears. For so long I had heard nothing but the sounds of screaming and moaning.

"D-don't know." My raspy voice came out. Some girls glared at us, while another shushed us. The warm feeling spread inside me once again at the discord we were causing. It created a smile that spread to my lips. "H-haven't-t talk to anyone." The more the words pushed from my lips, the easier they became.

"We need to get out of here." Hope glared at the glass wall. Another tried shushing her again but she snapped her teeth at them and they cowered away. I found myself giggling breathlessly but she merely raised her brow at me curiously before peering back to the wall. "I noticed there was an emergency exit through a flight of stairs out this hallway and to the left. I think it might be our way out."

I stared at her blinking, not processing what she said. It must have been because I hadn't gotten any water last time I woke. The other girls who were bonier drank it all. They looked like they needed it more than me anyways.

"Do you understand English? Hello?" Hope grumbled at me before snapping her fingers in front of my face. I nodded, trying to let her know I was listening- it was just hard. Hope sighed and ran her hand through her blazing red hair.

"Don't you know when to shut up?"