Chapter 58: Chapter Fifty-eight: Is she jinxed?
Cassian barged into the palace and began barking out orders. "Guards! Take her to the dungeon and lock her up in the worst cell. Don’t serve her any food and make sure she doesn’t escape. Understood?!"
"Yes your majesty." the man replied. Cassian flung down her lifeless body to the floor like she worth nothing more than a rag. The man immediately grabbed her arms and hurled her over his shoulders with ease before dashing to the underground passage that loomed far behind the palace.
Elena laid over the man’s shoulders, unconscious of her surroundings. Everywhere was pitch black and the air smelt of rusted metal. The entire place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for years. The man finally got to the last step and started walking in a straight line filled with cages on either sides. As the man descended deeper into the place, her vision cleared slowly. In each cells were terrifying, wild creatures that looked worse than starved. They had thin yet powerful limbs and figures sticking out of their pale flesh.
She shuddered at the sight, feeling goosebumps rise all over her body. In other cages were bones dirtied from age and disgust. Even full skeletal frames were kept in some as they passed by. She shook her head slowly as she felt a sharp pain pierce through it. Her mind drifted back to the forest where she had been captured and tears filled her eyes. Before she could stop it, a few drops fell from her eyes and landed on the man’s back.
"You’re finally awake." he said in a hoarse, burly voice. Elena didn’t say anything at his comment. She was alone with a man a million times her size who was in a position to do anything to her and no one would find out or even care.
She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her worn-out dress and allowed her head swing over his back.
After a few more minutes of walking, the man halted. In front of them was an opening in the wall, smaller than any of the cages she had seen. The man lifted her from his shoulders and set her down before moving to open the cage.
"Get in." he commanded, shoving her Inside with force. Elena stumbles and fell face first on the hard, dusty ground. She grabbed her head with both hands, feeling the sharp pain again.
The man grabbed the big lock on the door and drove the key inside it, sending a quick sound echoing through the walls. "Get comfortable princess. Once tha’ ol’ demon king dumps you in here, there’s no gettin’ out. Even the devil can’t save ya." he said with a big laugh as he swung the keys into his leather sack and walked off.
Now alone, Elena remained on the floor. She brought her knees before her and buried her head between it. Why? Why was all this happening? When did it all go wrong?
Fresh tears fell from her eyes and her sobs echoed in the silent dungeon. There was no bed or any other piece of furniture in her cell. Only the cold, hard ground and some dried out, termites-devoured wood. She sighed heavily. ’They should have given me a bigger cell at least.’ she said softly to herself. Even if they had, what was the point? She would still be trapped in there.
As she waddled in her sorrow, her stomach growled angrily at her. She hadn’t eaten anything since that morning and was feeling extremely weakened. ’Is this how I’ll die?’ she asked herself as fresh tears gathered in her lids for the umpteenth time that day. No. Not anymore.
Elena wiped away the tears threatening to fall from her eyes. No more crying. She had no tears left to cry anyways. Crying won’t solve anything. She had to find a way out.
She got up slowly, careful not to exhaust the little strength left in her body. Her cheek had gone down from the swelling and the pus had stopped. At least that pain was gone now.
Looking around her, she found majority of the other cells occupied. She strained her eyes closer, leaning against the metal to get a better view of what were inside. When they had passed by earlier, she had seen some thin creatures but hadn’t really inspected them. As she looked closer, her heart sank in realization. These...these were rogues! But...but how? When? Who? Was...was Cassian making them? How?
She soon found the answer to her questions when she looked on the right side and found some people locked up in the cells besides hers too. They were so thin and scrawny looking that she was sure their bones would snap at the slightest pressure. She sat down on the dusty ground, connecting two and two together. He was turning humans into rogues? That explained why he always sent the guards out to raid homes for children! He was starving them and turning them into mindless monsters!
Elena felt her stomach twist in hunger and disgust from the thought. How could someone do something so repulsive and inhumane? It was worse than carnage. This was nothing less than ravaging torture. How could someone be so evil to use human beings as lab experiments?!
"Does he plan on doing the same to me?" she muttered to herself silently as she contemplated the issue at hand. "Is that why he told them not to bring me any food or water?"
A low groan was heard from one of the cells and Elena whipped her head in the direction of the sound. A small boy of barely ten years leaned tiredly against the wall. Her heart bled at the sight. She wondered how many days he had gone without food or anything to take. "That sick bastard!" Elena cursed for the very first time. She had grown up in a house where even voicing your thoughts was considered a grave disrespect. Now, she didn’t give a single care in the world.
Her eyes travelled down the boy’s small body down to his legs and saw huge yet tight chains fastened to his tiny ankles. What was the point of chaining him when he was too weak to even move?
She watched as the boy groaned all alone to himself, rubbing his hands over his tummy as if to fill it up with air.
"Hey. Hey, little kid. Don’t—" Elena had barely gotten his attention when the boy began to change rapidly.
His small, weak body began to mutilate into thick, thin bones that stretched themselves out of his short body. She watched in complete horror as the boy in front of her grew bigger and taller and thinner and stronger all at once. Elena stumbled back, clapping her two hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming and drawing his attention. His back grew out a big hunch, his eyes twisted and twisted until they were literally bulging out of their sockets and his small, frail hands mutated into long, veiny braches.
The small, thin boy that laid weakly on the ground just minutes ago had now transformed to a completely different...thing! What sorcery was this?!
The eyes of the boy gleamed golden red and he began to grow restless. His hands grasped the chains on his ankles and pulled them apart in one swing. The chains clattered noisily to the ground, echoing sharply through the dead silent dungeon. All the time, Elena struggled miserably to shut her mouth. Tears refused to flow anymore and pity was long kicked out of her system. What replaced it was a gross feeling of abhorrence and disgust.
Suddenly, his hands lunged at the metal bars that caged him and began to shake it violently, letting out a terrifying shriek all at once. Elena grabbed her knees and crawled to the far corner of her small cell, shaking like a paper bag in a hurricane. The scream coupled with the noise and the change she had just saw, haunted her mind until she couldn’t take it anymore and screamed her lungs out.
As the sound fled her throat, everywhere turned silent again. Elena was still shaking when she noticed the silence that was restored. A brief moment of relief washed over her until she realized her hand wasn’t on her mouth anymore. She slowly turned her head around in fear to find the creature staring right at her with its bulging, lifeless eyes. Truly, she forgot to breathe again. The air flew out of her lungs and she remained there, frozen totally from fear. Its eyes bore deep into her soul but she couldn’t even move or avert her gaze. She had gone ice cold.
The creature staring at her slowly diverted his gaze and focused his attention back to the metal bars. Elena thanked profusely whatever god it was that had saved her from that mind-paralysing shock. She turned her face away from it slowly and faced the wall, using her hands to block out the noise.
By the time she removed it, a loud siren echoed throughout the dungeon. It was so loud and sharp that she felt it pierce through her eardrums. With what she had heard that day, it was a miracle how she hadn’t gone deaf.
The siren ended abrubtly and a team of people in white overalls walked calmly through the passage and stood right in front of the creature’s cell. The creature who stood in front of them increased its rage, shaking the bars and trying to pry them apart.
Calmly, one of the members in the team took out a piece of meat and threw it at the creature. It caught it within seconds and gobbled it down. Soon, it began to lose balance. The creature swayed and fell to the floor, shaking violently and screeching like the siren that had just rung.
After a while, it fell silent and stopped moving. One of the members opened the gate and walked in, squatting over the thing on the ground.
"Test subject 22890 was a success. Moving him now to the general area for physical tests."