The Broken Queen

Chapter 30; Found

No-Man's Land;

Hulu's POV:

I stalk forward about a kilometre behind Fionn. He suddenly picks up speed and makes a sharp left turn. I catch up to him in my wolf form. My wolf, Steph and I, zero in on Fionn who stops up ahead in his human form, and hops into a car with other wolves. We dash to the left after the vehicle. They go faster and I realize we are losing our gain. Steph asks if we should harness the power Alpha Brown had given us. 'It's probably as a good a time as any' I say as I tap into it. "Lathos" I whisper. I feel this power stir inside me and surge throughout my body, pushing me forward. Just like that, I'm upon them, off to the side so they can't see Steph. The trees and shrubs pass us by in a blur of green as we keep up with the car as it speeds down a dirt road. After about fifteen minutes or so, they gradually slow down and come to a stop. We follow suit and lie down behind a bush, tuning into the sounds around us and watching them through the damp leaves. Fionn gets out of the car and behind him, three more wolves jump out. They seem to follow him as if he is their leader.

Fionn had always followed Edgar far too easily, and it had bothered me, but I thought he would turn over a new leaf with having a new leader who is kind, protective, intelligent, and selfless...but I guess not. What is he up to?! There is simply no good possible explanation of what he is doing here. They gather around an abandoned-looking building and knock a rehearsed sequence on the door. I turn a little to the left and watch as the door is pulled open, and they head inside. My head jerks up in unease, something really isn't right. I nudge the Alpha's connection and I can feel her open her mind to it after a moment. 'Alpha, Fionn has just disappeared into this old derelict building...he's not alone. I'm covered, about twenty-three miles west of the fairy outlands. Where are you?' I ask. 'I'm about two miles east of the wolf border, not far from the cave we crashed at last night, I can still see it' she replies. 'Okay, good, please keep an eye out and stay alert. Something is very shady about his behaviour Alpha, and I'm going to find out what. I'm going in.'

She sighs. 'No, wait until they leave and attack them on open ground if needed. Otherwise, if you follow them inside you could be ambushed' she explains, urgency in her voice. 'And please call me Dani Lu.' I feel surprised at that last part, it was totally unexpected. I reluctantly agree, understanding her reasoning as I close the link, waiting within the line of bushes just behind the trees for over an hour until the sun starts to rise on the horizon and the door opens again. I watch them hop in the car and drive away. Once they are out of sight, I creep over to the door, scrutinizing my surroundings. My ears perk up at the sound of movement coming from inside the building. I crouch behind the dense tree line, watching the entrance. I'm standing around the corner of the building, hidden among the shadows.

As I start to look around to make a mental note of everything I can see, I get distracted by the sound of chains clinking. I turn around looking for the source of the sound and notice a small gap in the wall, only centimetres above the ground. It's like a tiny, narrow, glassless window. I tiptoe towards it and lie down on my stomach peering through the hole in the brick. It was about 20cm in length and 10cm in height. All I see is a glimpse of chains, which move, meaning someone is in this basement. "Hello?" I whisper. The chains sway, so I speak again, a tad louder. "Is someone in there? I'm not here to hurt you..." When I adjust my view by pressing my face into the dirt, I see a pair of dull, swollen eyes.

There is so much pain in them that it makes my own burn with tears. I recognize those eyes, but I can't place them. "Hello?" came a weak, raspy masculine voice. Then, recognition crashes into me like a tidal wave and my stomach drops. "Bree?!" I gasp in horror. "Yeah, it's me! Thank god, please help me" he croaks. If he's chained to the ceiling, and probably the floor too, has a hoarse voice and is struggling to catch a breath, it isn't much of a leap to say he had in fact been tortured and probably ever since he was taken two days ago.

"Bree, it's Hulu, Dani sent me..." I say, my voice low. Bree nods and I continue. "I followed Fionn out here under Dani's orders because he has been acting shady. Have you seen him? Do you know what he is up to? I am going to get our witch to do a blueprint spell or something and try to remember the way around for when we come back with a large group to save you. I hate it, but I can't rescue you on my own Bree..." He nods sadly in understanding and speaks in a whisper. "Fionn was here. He's one of the ones who tortured me, he only left about thirty minutes ago, maybe. To be honest I'm not too sure because I have no concept of time in here. I can't see anymore between my blood and sweat, and the wolfsbane they threw at my face."

"These fricking chains are coated in the stuff; my throat is raw and painful from my shouting and the wolfsbane that got into my mouth. I'll hold on, I'll be okay Hulu. Just, don't do anything stupid, any of you. Get me out of here, please, but only when you have the numbers to do it safely. As far as I know, there is at least six rogues here not including Fionn, but there could easily be more. You should also know that Fionn seems to be the leader here, they all report to him, and they do most of his dirty work with torturing me, but he steps in when I get 'brave'.

I have a sneaking suspicion that he is looking to get a witch on his side because apparently, he was intimidated by, 'Erin'?" he says unsurely, asking me with his eyes who the hell is Erin? but I don't answer his unvoiced question, there's no time for that right now, I have to warn Alpha. "You have missed a lot Bree, we miss you" is all I say instead. "Shit someone is coming, go!" he hisses at me. I scramble to my feet and press my back to the wall, listening. I hear a door slam open in the basement and I listen as a gruff voice speaks. "Breakfast time, eat up" they grumble. "I'm not eating anything you give me" Bree spits back hoarsely. "The hard way it is then," the man says before he instructs some guy called Ricky to 'bring them in'.

I crouch down as low as I can, craning my neck to watch what is going on from an angle to avoid being spotted, feeling sick the more I witness. They drag in a metal chair and unchain Bree enough to lower him into the seat before attaching the chains to the chair itself. Even though there is an opportunity to struggle against them, Bree doesn't seem to have the strength to fight back and his body slumps back against the assumedly cold steel. The first guy is handed a large funnel attached to the top of a thick clear tube by Ricky. Another rogue stands behind Bree, pulls his head back so he's looking at the ceiling, and holds it in place. The first rogue steps forward and tells Bree to 'open up'. When he refuses and clenches his teeth, Ricky electrocutes him in the side with a blazing hot cattle prod, making him howl in pain involuntarily.

The other guy takes this moment of distraction to force the long thick tube straight down Bree's throat making his eyes widen and stream. It's clear the tube will have inflamed and bruised his throat. The one calling the shots, clicks his fingers and a man that's standing in the doorway hands him the big steaming bowl of soup. Bree shakes his head frantically from side to side with wide eyes full of dread and fear. Then they begin to pour the burning liquid into the funnel, scalding Bree's oesophagus. He screams muffled screeches of agony. I can't see what was happening very clearly without risking being seen but I can hear everything.

I can hear the chair scraping off of the floor, the clicking of the chains, their words, the screams, and most heartbreakingly, Bree's muffled agonized screeches. He is being force-fed I realize. That's a horrific method of torture that is mainly only seen in severe situations in the human world and even in their world hasn't been common practice even in such cases for a few hundred years. I steel myself to my emotions and take off in the direction of the wolf border, or close to it. Fionn and the three others had sped off in their car eight minutes ago, leaving me only seven-ish minutes until Fionn reaches the cave. Warning Dani about Fionn was the number one priority, then when I get back, I'll fill her in on everything else. I can't prevent the bile rising in my throat as I run with the help of Dani's speed at the image of what they just did to Bree. I'm gonna be sick, and I don't know how I'm gonna stop Steph from tearing that bastard Fionn limb from limb.