On Fire (Power Rangers Samurai)

73 - Orb / Sorrow

"Finally... another bride." A playfully wicked voice expressed relief. "It's been hard to find a wedding recently. We've probably scared the humans too much."

Although the voice seemed lively and confident, there were strange hints of instability. Terry could hear the figure's staggered breaths from the distance he was held.

It was scary. He couldn't differentiate between the sound of his pounding heart and the booming steps against the creaky floorboards.

"Let me see her." The voice requested.

The moogers who were holding Terry brought him closer to the nighlok's voice, entering the darkness where the nighlok resided.

No matter how hard Terry looked, he couldn't see anything in the dark. But he could hear and practically feel the breaths of a nighlok circling around him.

The nighlok's joints seemed to make a cringey crackling sound with almost every movement. It made Terry shudder.

"A pretty one. Good job." The voice praised the moogers.

Terry immediately wondered, how could the nighlok see within the dark?

He saw nothingness until he caught a glimpse of 8 glowing orbs staring at him. Where those eyes?

"Hold her." The nighlok instructed the moogers.

Obediently, the moogers tightened their grips on Terry, their pointy fingers digging into his skin and drawing blood.

Instinctively, Terry flinched and surprisingly forced his way out of their harsh grip.

"Excellent." The nighlok praised Terry as her 8 glowing orbs gave him a piercing glare. "You'd make a strong nighlok."

"What?" Did Terry hear correctly?

"But you need more sorrow. We don't want you ending up a failure, like the previous brides."

Were the rangers on their way? Should he reach for Mia's samuraizer and try to escape?

"What are you going to do?" Terry didn't know where he got the courage to speak. Or maybe it wasn't courage, but fear that made him open his mouth.

In fact, Terry couldn't recall when his body began to shake, nor when his legs went numb.

If they were turning the brides into nighlok, was he next?

"I just want to look at your face." The nighlok ordered their moogers to hold Terry again.

Just like before, the moogers mindlessly grasped onto Terry tightly, hurting him. This time, Terry's mind was too shocked to process the pain.

"Let's introduce ourselves. You can call me Arachnion. And you? Give me your name."

"Terry." He uttered out, making sure his voice sounded feminine. He decided that he didn't have to lie about his name.

"Ah." Arachnion pretended to be interested in his human name, even though she asked for it.

"Well. This will be the last time I'll be meeting you as Terry." Arachnion finally came into a ray of low light, allowing Terry to see her creepy features.

Her appearance was like a real life horror movie.

"Throw her in with the rest." Arachnion stroked Terry's veil before returning to the darkness.

"Wait!" Terry cried as the moogers began to drag him away. But nobody listened to him.

The moogers followed their orders and tossed him into a massive, wedding cake shaped, heap of silk.

He went right through the walls of the cake, which trapped him inside once he was in.

Inside the cake, his new surroundings were bright white and fluffy like a cloud. There were floaty scrapes of silk and patterned webs everywhere.

Within the cake was bright and pretty. All except for the groups of brides huddled in the corners. They looked afraid, tired, and broken.

Among them, a brunette bride in a beige dress seemed to be in pain. A few of the elder brides were helping to take care of her.

One of the elder brides left the beige dressed bride to approach Terry.

"Look at you." The bride's voice was soothing and filled with concern. "You're shaking. Oh my, your shoulders are bleeding!"

Terry wouldn't have noticed that he was bleeding if nobody pointed it out. The massive wave of empathy he had for the disheveled brides made him lose track of his own mental and physical state.

And looking around, there certainly was not 27 brides. There was supposed to be 27, but Terry could only count somewhere between 18 to 22.

"Come here." The kind bride sat Terry down and began wrapped his shoulders with silk from the cake. "Those monsters don't know that humans are soft... to think they'd be so cruel to a child like you..."

"What's your name?" Her voice was sweet and soothing as she gave Terry a gentle hug.

"Um Terry." He decided once again that he didn't have to lie about his name.

"Terry, I'm Tiana. We will be saved soon. Those rangers don't lose a battle." She assured Terry.

Tiana was the heart of the hostages. She was the eldest and did her best to keep everyone hopeful and patient.

"What happened to her?" Terry pointed to the brunette bride in the beige dress that seemed to be in a great deal of pain.

"That's Zarah. She was pregnant in her first trimester. But now she's miscarrying the baby." Tiana explained. "She must be in so much sorrow."