House Of Madness

Chapter 4 Believe Me

With the question game long forgotten before Ari left he had told her everything he knew.
He had decided that he would be honest and if Ivy ever asked if him if he was fae he would tell her the truth.
Lucky for him Ivy never asked.

That day he had told her about the wards that forbid magic and the iron that traps fae.
He had expected Ivy to ask how he knew these things especially about the iron but she didn't ask.
Which both relieved and disappointed Ari.
He also told had her that the other 'prisoners could not be trusted' and that her 'thoughts weren't safe.'
But mostly he had talked of Felix the guard.
Ivy had asked why the prison needed a guard with the iron and wards and he had said Felix was a special kind of guard.
A guard that was once a chemist and was assigned to punish the prisoners as he saw fit.
Ivy was confused because she hadn't seen or heard anyone being punished more than the obvious.
She had briefly thought maybe their punishment was in their food, like it was drugged but she hadn't felt any different.
'Whatever happens, no matter what don't do anything to draw his eye to you.'
It had been Ari's final piece of information, and his final warning.
Ivy hadn't said anything and Ari had said, "just promise me... you have to promise me. Please."
Ivy hadn't liked the way Ari had said, 'please.' He had said it so desperately but that wasn't why.
She didn't like they way he said it because he dragged the s, 'pleasessss.' He dragged it because he was holding something back.
He wasn't being fully forthcoming.
"Sure", even has Ivy had said it she had known it was a lie.
She had every intention of escaping this prison and if Ari wasn't going to help her she would find a way on her own.

Ivy did not sleep for long because the sharp sound of a mental tray scraping against the cold rocky floor into her cell woke her up.
She quickly opened her eyes but no one was there.
She ate the mush and decided that today was the day she would escape.
After breakfast she had taken her compass out of her pants and set had it behind her tray.
She waited than, started counting.
After every one hundred she got louder, by the time she had reached one thousand she was practically yelling.
"Quiet!" A man's voice loomed.
That gave Ivy the courage to count louder, "I said QUIET!" Ivy had stopped counting because there was demon of a man at front of her cell.
He had light grey skin, gills on either side of his neck, a fin peeking out at the base of his neck , eyes that were just a little too dark and far apart.
And when he smiled his teeth where sharp, so sharp they were predator like; shark teeth.
He was looking at Ivy with his dark far apart eyes, like she was going to be his next meal.
Ivy knew, fae. He was most definitely fae.
She backed away as he took a key out.
This was Ivy's chance!
She was supposed to charge at him not cower to the back of her cell!
"I'm sorry I'll count quieter", Ivy didn't even recognize the sound of her voice in that moment.
"Too late", the shark like man said, right before he pounced for her.
He grabbed her with his slimy grey hands and pulled one of her wrist. Ivy tried to break free, she called for help immensely wishing one of the other prisoners would help her.
She had known it was a waste of breath in her three weeks of being in jail she hadn't even tried to befriend any of them.
She had just written them off as crazy, a decision she more than regretted now.
The shark like man dragged her out of her cell deeper into the dungeon.
Until he opened a door and pulled her inside.
When the door shut on its own he had immediately let go of her. "Let's get the casualties out of the way shall we, my name is Finn I'm the guard of this hellhole."
Ivy was anxious and confused, Felix was supposed to be the guard but started to speak anyways, "I'm-"
"I know who you are human", Finn the shark man said.
"Your name is Ivanna Mcquinn other wise known as Ivy. Eleven years old.
Birthday, February 6th, 3007.
You're in her because an officer brought you in a month ago for trying to steal a compass right off a fae man unprovoked."
Ivy was scared, he knew way too much.
"You were deemed crazy.
Because why else would a human child try to steal something so mundane, something they had no use for from an innocent kind old man.
An automatic death sentence.
Too bad Nivens has gone soft with old age.
Otherwise he would have killed you on the spot."
Ivy didn't know what to say besides that the man didn't look old so she said nothing.
"What to do with you... I can say how long it's been since a humans been given treatment.
It must have be at least two hundred years.
Hopefully you don't accidentally die, well... there are worst things that could happen than me getting a late lunch."
That's how little human life meant to Finn, to most fae.
Getting a late lunch is more of an inconvenience or problem than a human dying.
"What about the law?"Ivy asked cautiously.
It was law that she would be given a trial at eighteen and she was not supposed to be harmed until than.
"What's one less little mousy human?
Just one less problem.
The queen would probably thank me herself."
'That's it. He's going to kill me', Ivy thought.
"Luckily for you I don't feel like cleaning blood off the floor. Today", Finn said.
"But I can't let your little counting outburst go unpunished now can I?"
Ivy swallowed, "no."
"Than it's decided, come", Ivy followed him farther into the room.
"Get on the table", Finn said in an almost normal voice.
"I can't see, it's too dark", Ivy whispered.
Finn turned on a light.
A table it was. A table with mental buckles and leather belts.
One belt at the end of the table, one at the middle and one near the top.
That's all it took for Ivy to dash off into the opposite end of the room, desperately looking for the door.
"Not so fast", Ivy clawed at Finn as he scooped her up like she was weightless.
"Put me down! Please! Please put me down!"
Ivy wailed.
Finn did not say anything as he brought Ivy back to the table and buckled her onto it.
She was helpless, she couldn't move.
"Be patient, he'll be with you shortly, he almost done with one of his other patients."