Devil's meadow

Chapter 8- Drowning

3 hours. That's how long I've been kept in here. He left in such a hurry, and to my dismay, the acid feeling still wouldn't dissipate. Outside, i could hear the voices of a small conversation taking place, but although I couldn't hear what they were saying, i knew that their chat involved my name. The tatty ropes around my arms had loosened but some strands remained connected. The ones around my torso and my legs were also slightly torn in two but I didn't want to risk being burnt again.
Ok. That hurt to the brink of my death. I don't want to move incase it triggers another burn.
I risked it anyway. I moved an inch and it didn't hurt that much, but it did sting more than I thought. The ropes on my hands broke off and I immediately felt relieved to know that I wasn't going to be detained by my arms any longer. Carefully moving my torso and legs, the ropes wrapped around them broke off too. As i stood up in relief and walked towards the rusty door, heavy, fast paced footsteps could be heard above me. At first i thought it was the king, but soon after i realised that his footsteps are silent. The noises of more steps followed soon after and it eventually stopped but as soon as i relaxed my nerves, large banging noises come from the door which lay in front of me. It was almost as if whoever it was, was trying to get in. Not wanting to be rude, i unlocked the door, and to my amazement, a beautiful young woman stumbled forward. Her pupils were fully dilated, to the size of jelly beans and her body was violently shaking. I remembered the door was still open, so i slammed it shut and re-bolted the door. She looked at me with fear and a loss of trust, but once she realised I wasn't a threat, she calmed down. I heard her mumble something but I didn't catch what she said. It looked like she was having a miniature panic attack because i could hear her raspy breathing. Her hair was a muddy brown and she was at least 3-4 inches taller than me.
She doesn't trust me yet, and I don't blame her.
Confidence was gaining between us but her facial expressions said otherwise. A moment of silence passed and i could tell she wanted to be left alone, so i backed up.
"T-thanks"
Huh. She has a nice voice.
"I uh- I'm sorry for scaring you. I'm actually looking for my son."
"Don't be sorry."
"How long have you been in here?"
"At least 5 hours, maybe 4 I don't know."
"Oh god. Well i hope you're ok."
"Not really. I've had acid thrown at me."
"Oh god!"
"Yeah. Anyway, what's your son's last name?"
"Ortiz"
What the f*ck?! My last name is Ortiz.
"Well, what's his fist name?"
"Hunter."
My eyes widened with shock.
"Mother?!"
"Hunter!? What are you doing here!? Shouldn't you be in heaven or hell?"
"Yeah. I should, but my soul wasn't converted, so they're keeping me here until they know what to do with me."
"So why did they put acid on you?"
" I didn't comply with commands."
"Jesus. I know i haven't been there for you for as long as i wanted to, i was trying to keep myself safe."
"That's ok. I'd rather you be safe than you being hurt or killed."
"That's too sweet of you. Besides i never thought i would see you again."
"Me too. I just....don't want to be hurt more than I already have by trying to find you. I want to stay in here until I'm let out for safety purposes."
"Well we can't stay in here forever."
"I know but we can't wander around out in the open. We'll get caught."
"I know. That's why we're sneaking out."
"What?! Mother, that's dangerous."
"Hunter, my role is to protect you, even if it's risky."
"I lost trust in society a long time ago. But if it's to get out of here alive, then i trust you."
She looked at me with determination in her eyes, and her pupils were full of hope, and the colour of the light blue pigment was there showing signs that she meant business. Her muddy brown hair drooped over part of her face and a smirk enlarged across her cheeks. I looked back at her, giving her indication that i was ready to face the outside world of the barren room and sneak pass the king of hell. I took a deep breath and unlocked the door and stepped out to be greeted with a set of stairs that my mother had ran down. She followed me up and out, but as we started to crouch down and start moving, satan called out.
"I sincerely hope that you kept the first and second door securely closed."
"I did."
"Good. I would hate it if you ended up like my assistant. D e a d."
"Oh. I triple checked it sir."
"Well then, i have no problem with You. You're dismissed."
"Thank you sir."
We slowly shuffled forwards towards one of the alters, where the light shone through and nearly blinded us. Mother whispered to me and i got the impression that we were going the right way.
"I ran pass this alter and i saw the main hallway were they keep their weapons. I'm thinking, once we get in there, we're going to fire a warning shot."
"With a gun?"
"Yep. If we fire an arrow, we're dead."
"I figured."
As we kept moving forward more assistants and servants rushed here and there, almost as if they were looking for something they'd forgotten. My eyes met with a small vial of strange liquid sloshing around, to which i grabbed with my skin covered hands and examined it closely. On it read a small label with neat, cursive writing which was extremely understandable.
"Sample 1, trial 2."
It looked like blood, as it was a dark red, but the colour seemed too dark. As i held it up to the light, a servant stumbled passed my view. I wanted to observe it for longer but mother pulled me back, and sternly looked at me with disbelief.
"Be careful! Do you want to get killed again?!"
"No. I just didn't see him."
She rolled her eyes and i looked away from her face, proving that it was an accident. Not wanting to waste more time, i held the vial up to the light beaming through the alter in front of us and examined the colour carefully. It was a dark mauve red mixed with some brown, indicating that it was fresh, but it didn't look like human blood. Mother looked at the colour and whispered something to me as i focused my attention on the vial of liquid.
"I think I've seen that type of colour before. It's not human blood, i can tell, but whilst running away, i did see a few dead birds with that blood colour and it matches with what we're seeing exactly."
"But why would they use bird blood on someone? Unless it has some type of effects on other people."
She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders, telling me that she had no idea what their intentions were, but curiosity over powered our fears in this situation.
Whilst carefully placing the vial back in its original spot, the king stormed passed us, and i almost dropped what i was holding, revealing where we were.
Oh sh*t! I almost messed up.
He had no intentions with his servants or assistants racing back and forth, but he was frantically searching for something and we could feel his sense of aggression because he was growling with anger under his breath.
His "subjects" moved out his way, some even glanced back at him, but no one said a word. Not even us. I noticed he had a test tube rack in his hands, which was empty but as he stumbled past, he turned to his closest servant and asked him a question, to which i heard the whole thing.
"Do you have the concoction prepared?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Now, could someone, and I don't care who it is, go fetch me some needles and the last ingredient needed for this "experiment."
Within a few seconds servants and assistants ran in and out of the main entrance, with the sound of their shoes hitting the floor soon after. The king stopped right below us and before we could figure out what was happening, a ladder was placed directly where we were positioned. She grabbed me by my burnt clothes and pulled me to the side of the alter, where we remained silent until they left.
The servant who climbed up the ladder took the vial off the shelf and slowly de-escalated back down to the chiseled ground where it was then handed to the ruler of the underworld. The ladder was eventually taken away and everyone left the main terrace, leaving us alone in there. We looked at each other in relief and lowered ourselves back down to ground level, constantly looking over our shoulders, to make sure we weren't going to get caught.
"Well that was oddly..smooth."
"What now though? We got out of the room, alive might i add, but where do we go from here?"
"We go for the weapon room."
"Copy that."
We sped-walked over to the weapon room, where swords lay on top of shelves, bows and arrows remained untouched and shotguns lay slung over mannequin shoulders, begging to be loaded and used. After looking at each other for a solid 5 seconds, i placed my hands on a sword, dagger, pistol and a shotgun and put them into weapon slots on a belt i snatched before we left the barren, empty room i was being kept in. Gun bullets were also placed on top of crates and boxes, and i took at least 30 bullets for the pistol and shotgun i grabbed. Mother took a bow and 30 arrows, a dagger and a pistol, and yoinked a few bullets before loading her weapons, before doing mine shortly after. Whilst Slowly walking towards the door, she called my name in a desperate way, and i looked over my shoulder to see a serious look on her face.
"I know that you've been here for longer than me, but i need you to act more like your age. For a 17 year old, you have the mind of a toddler."
That reminded me of what satan said whilst i was being detained, except his tone of voice seemed more deliberate. Her voice, however, sounded like she was disappointed in my type of mindset.
No wonder i never truly loved you. You were always so negative. You never approved with anything that i did with my life.
I walked quickly out of the room and into the main terrace with my mother trailing after me. She didn't sound too pleased with my actions or the way i walked out the way i did.
"Hunter Lora Ortiz get your a*s back here!"
"WHY SHOULD I?! YOU NEVER CARED FOR ME! THE WHOLE REASON WHY YOU CAME LOOKING FOR ME WAS TO GIVE ME A LECTURE!"
"Not just that. This is a life lesson."
"LIFE LESSON!? YOU'VE GOT TO BE F*UCKING JOKING! I SPENT THE MAJORITY OF MY LIFE SITTING IN A CORNER ALONE WITH A BAD EXCUSE FOR A FATHER AND 2 "PERFECT" SIBLINGS FOR 6 YEARS. YOU THINK THAT IS SOMETHING TO BE OK WITH?! NO WONDER CONOR LEFT US, HE WAS F*CKING ANNOYED!"
"Do you want to be caught?!"
"....I'd rather be caught again than listen to what an old hag has to say about life lessons that I don't want or need."
"Fine. You get killed again. But once you realise what mistake you've just made, don't come crying to me.."
As she starts running away, i think about what she said. Maybe all this is just one big life lesson to learn from and that i was the victim of something else. I didn't have time to think as servants and assistants came rushing in with small daggers drawn. They had stone cold expressions on their faces and as i ran back into the weapon room, my last name was called out.
ORTIZ!!"
Sh*t.
The king pushed passed the sea of poshly dressed servants and assistants and locks eye contact with me. Within seconds, he grabs hold of his red pitchfork and steps forward towards me, with a huge smirk planted across his face.
"Did you really think you could get away with escaping? I have to say, I'm impressed you made it this far, without being found, but this is the end for you."
"Yeah well, i had help. And not to be rude or anything, but SHE isn't here at the moment. To be honest I don't think she wanted to se a sorry excuse for a king, so she left."
"Let me guess. It was your mother?"
"How?"
"Ortiz, I'm the king of hell. I'm meant to know these things, even if prisoners escape. Plus your shouting and screaming gave your location away. Boom."
He looked back at his servants, clicked his fingers and 6 of them surrounded me within 5 seconds. My eyes circled looking at everyone, and their eyes glowed with a blood red colour. It didn't scare me, since i witnessed more scary things but it made me uncomfortable. He stepped forward and gave me two options.
"Now this either goes one of two ways."
He clicked his fingers again and two assistants closest two me grabbed my hands and tightened their grip, cutting of my blood circulation. I tried to break free but their grip was too strong.
"Let me hear them."
"1: you let us take you back to the room to experiment on you or
2: you get killed within 2 seconds.
So what's it going to be?"
"NEITHER."
I managed to kick one off the servants hard enough to the point that they let go, and did the same to the other. I started to run but he called out with anger.
"DON'T JUST STAND THERE, GET HIM!!"
They came hurdling towards me with speed, and my heart started racing. They weren't faster than me, but they were catching up to me quite quickly. I ran into one of the rooms which was filled with deep water and knew that I didn't have a choice, so i jumped. My body hit the water, and as the sounds filled my ears, i realised that I wasn't being chased. As i swam deeper i knew something about the servants i never knew.
They're afraid of water.
Spears started to fall by my side, and I discovered that i was being hunted underwater. Bullets nearly hit my chest multiple times, and i suddenly remembered the weapons were still attached to me. As i tried to free myself a bullet hit the side of my rib cage and before i knew it, the water around me was turning red. I was shot a second time, this time in the shoulder and the pain was hurting badly. My breath subsided and my eyelids started going heavy as i started to fall deeper. The last thing i remembered before blacking out was a shadow of a figure coming to my side.

Editor's note: upon me changing the description of the story, I realised that some of hunter's mother's speech is slanted and bold, which is the way that i put Blaze's speech so... whoops. I can't be asked to change it so please ignore my mistake.