Daughter of Death

VII

When Cade came about, the first thought that came through his mind was: What is that smell?!

It smelled like smoke and rotten eggs and spoiled milk and a bunch of other bad-smelling things.

His second thought involved a lot of cursing because he had a splitting headache.

He opened his eyes, and nearly thought he didn't. It was so dark. When his eyes adjusted, he still couldn't see much. The only source of light was from beside him, but it was dim, like weak candlelight. He couldn't see two feet in front of him.

For a second, he was confused. Where was he? He remembered passing out in the desert, with fire-breathing horses...

Oh, right.

The horses.

Cade's panic transformed into adrenaline, and he jumped up, on the defense. He didn't know where he was, or how he got here, or what the heck those horses were, or where Hallez was, (oh, God, Hallez. Where was she? Was she alright? He had no way to know, and panicked even more) but what he was sure of was that he just got kidnapped. Who or why, well, how was he supposed to know?

He was ready to defend himself if necessary, but he couldn't sense anyone else in the...room? Cave?

Calm down, Cade chided himself. Act normal, study your surroundings, and keep your guard up.

Which was hard to do with a large bruise on your temple, making him wince with every movement, but he made do. He squinted in the dim light. The light source was the strange, eight-figured shield thing. It let off a soft warm glow, and if not for the total darkness, it would've been unnoticeable.

The shield was leaning against a stone wall, (he assumed it was stone, it's not like he's an expert at stone-ology) in a corner of the room/cave. As reluctant as he was to touch the thing, it was the only light source, and he didn't want to be blind. He gingerly picked it up. He strapped it to his left arm, and started to walk with his right hand on the wall, studying his new surroundings.

He mapped out a square shaped cave, with what felt like a door made of some kind of metal on one side. On the other, next to the corner Cade had woken up in, there was a mattress with brown stains that looked suspiciously like blood, and on one of the ends was slashed. White puffy fillings spilled out. On the other corner, there was a stainless, white toilet, for some reason. (Also, the smell came from the toilet. Yuck)

There were no windows, no obvious way out other than the metal door. The ceiling wasn't very high, Cade could tell, due to the lack of echoes from the sound of his sneakers contacting the stone floor.

This felt very much like a cell.

The realization made the panic return. Cade took a deep breath. He pressed his back against a wall, and tried to calm his quickening heartbeat.

He had claustrophobia. Very severe as well. The cell wasn't even that small; it was the size of a normal bedroom, and yet, he felt as if he was trapped in a closet. He felt like something was on his chest, preventing him from breathing.

Cade had always preferred the open field, like the desert, or at least somewhere with an easy escape route. Even his room back in his home, there were always at least three routes leading outside.

Hallez had always helped with his claustrophobia. For some reason, she just felt like one of the escape routes. She felt like an exit to the outside, or at least away from the walls slowly pressing in on him, crowding in.

He stayed like that for perhaps five minutes. He was good with counting the seconds, and minutes, especially when there was nothing else to do except panic and feel like something is splitting your skull open.

After that five minutes, he chided himself again.

Seriously, you call yourself top of your class? You've stood here for five minutes doing nothing. At least assess your situation.

He gritted his teeth, and did as he told himself. He studied the cave first. He walked around until he got the space memorized and could find everything in there blind. He noted that there was empty air on the other side of the wall with the door, which he got from knocking on the stone and hearing a slight echo.

Then he studied himself, what he had. The horses, or whatever had brought him here (he doubted horses could lock metal doors with hooves and a mouth) hadn't taken away his tool belt, thank goodness. He had his brush, which was more like a paintbrush, a toothbrush, a handkerchief, a mini wooden shovel that was more like a spoon, and a pack of gum. Hey, it's not like they could use actual shovels. That would damage most artifacts for sure.

Whatever or whoever had brought him here did take away his Swiss Army knife, full of tools, which were probably the sharpest things they could find.

They didn't take, however, his walkie-talkie and his satellite phone, which were still clipped to his belt. He could do all kinds of things with it, so he was surprised.

He could use that to his advantage, he knew, but how? He wasn't good with technology. He only knew a few things about the sat phone, like tinkering and changing the radio wavelengths and frequencies, because he had a lot of time on his hands and was curious, and had their technician, Lynx, teach him. The sat phone didn't work underground.

He decided he might as well tinker. His memory was fuzzy, (he was a little worried he had a concussion) but he remembered Hal saying something about the sat phone's signal being interrupted and leading the horses to them...

He had a small lightbulb moment, and decided to try something. It was stupid, risky, running off pure theory and guesswork, and possibly deadly, but it was an idea nonetheless.

The opposite end of the paintbrush was wooden and flat. It wasn't nearly sharp enough to be used as a weapon, but it was still a tool. He moved to the mattress. Gently, he unscrewed the screws on the sat phone, using the shield as a lamp of sorts, and revealed the inner workings. Then, he punched the SOS number in, and waited as it rang.

Even if the sat phone didn't work underground, Cade was running off the theory that, even if it didn't reach the satellites in space, it would be 'interrupted' again, and the horses would sense it, and pound on the metal door.

To his relief, surprise, and a hint of terror, he heard hooves clip-clopping on the stone on the other side of the wall with the door, and a moment later, neighing and the sound of hooves pounding on metal. The door shuddered slightly, but didn't give.

"This might work..." Cade muttered to himself.

But then, he heard screeching as well. Two female, high-pitched voices, like the stereotypical witch voice, came from outside the cell.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" one shrieked.

Cade let the sat phone keep ringing, but he went quiet, making his moves as silent as possible.

To his surprise, a gruff voice answered.

"Don't you hear that vexatious noise coming from behind this door?! It's driving us all mad!" The voice sounded male, but Cade couldn't be sure.

"What noise?!" Witch Voice, different from the first, screeched. "Stop pounding on the door, you no-good horses! Boss told us to not let the boy out under any circumstances!"

Cade guessed this 'Boss' was who had him kidnapped, but he had no clue who they were.

Cade looked at the sat phone. So these...'horses', they could sense the electromagnetic waves. He wondered if he could do something about that...

As the horses and the high-pitched voice bickered, he changed the frequency.

The bickering stopped, and both voices started shrieking and pounding on the metal door.

Hope started to creep into his mind, replacing his initial panic.

Oh, yeah. This might work just fine.

---

See? I told you, all hope is not lost. This chapter was only 1381 words long! How it should be!
*dies*
What am I doing with my life—
-Lunya

P.S. Vexatious, that is my big word of the week. Thank you very much.