Taken.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I stare up at the television screen and listen to its automatic voice.

"Would you like to guess the password for your freedom?"

"Yes." I reply, feeling stupid talking to a television screen on a glass wall.

I stare at the television feeling all eyes on me, I look around and say random words that pop into my mind into the television. I would say whatever I saw like popcorn, or sweets, once even Edinburgh but nothing worked, the doors would not open to let me pass.

I collapse in a heap in front of the glass, watching people walk by, none of them gave me a second glance. I was starving.... Eliza showed me around and told me who everyone was. The guy dressed in Victorian clothes was Hershel, he had been a night gaurd here when the place originally opened in the 1800s. There was tons of little kids, one still about 3 years old, just learning how to walk. They had been separated from their parents and trapped here in 1936, the kids didn't talk to anyone they just kept to themselves and I couldn't blame them.

The youngest one reminded me of my little cousin Nathan, only four years old. I smiled remembering his graduation from nursery video that my auntie had sent me. He's a bundle of joy and never stops talking, eating and playing. He's the cutest thing and yet so was this little boy, who Marcus and his colleagues could trap without blinking an eye.

"Do we get any communication with our family?" I asked Eliza, after lunch.

She gulped and replied with a no. I looked at the floor, no communication at all.

"There are no phones here and you cannot write. They can try to scream at you through the glass but you can't leave, I haven't breathed fresh air for years."

"How long exactly? If you don't mind me asking."

Eliza sighed out, "Nearly 25 years."

I stopped chewing, she just like the others looked no more older than I did.

"How long has Marcus been here?"

"He's free to come and go as he pleases, but when he's here he does not age, he's been here long before Hershel. You never see his colleagues, I'll be surprised if he has any to be honest."

I nod and continue eating. This doesn't make sense, why do we not age inside this place and don't die? Why are they trapping people inside here? What does Marcus gain from it?

Eliza and I walk around for abit longer, the place is massive and we head up the grand staircase where she says will be Madam Ariane.

"Madam Ariane is French, she was a showgirl in Paris and when this place opened in the 1800s she came as part of a contract for 20 shows over a month. Of course she never left but she has more privileges than us, Marcus has abit of a thing for her you see. "

We approach a door that is covered with black and white photographs and glitter.

"She is abit... Worse for wear but try to not stare at her face."

We walk inside an enormous room, I see a flat screen tv in the corner, a walk in wardrobe, filled with beautiful dresses and scarfs. Then I hear a voice saying she will just be a moment, Madam Ariane enters and its not a pretty sight.

Her face has slits across it, which have not healed then I realise, because she cannot age neither can her scars so they cannot heal. Blood drips from them and I want to throw up but Eliza nudges me and I try to hold my composure.

"Ariane, this is Alexandra. She's new, she got stuck here yesterday."

Madame Ariane looks at me properly for the first time, looking me up and down as if I might be competition for her. I would be no competition, if she didn't have the scars she would be drop dead gorgeous, she was probably a stripper showgirl and not a dancer.

She takes a cigarette from her mouth and breathes out, letting the smoke suffocate me.

" New.... Not bad, needed someone decent around here, was getting rather boring."

Then as if we don't exist she just walks away into her en-suite bathroom and slams the door. Eliza shrugs her shoulders and motions for me to follow her. The day passes by painfully slow. My family have not came nor Jamie. I was hoping someone would come. Maybe they have been informed not to by the police.

But at the thought of Jamie he's back inside my head. His black hair, blue eyes, his smooth skin....

I remember a time just lying next to him on the couch, when he had leaned close to me and kissed my cheek ever so gently. Instinctively my hand touched my cheek, as if to make the memory seem like the present but I'm gone and he's not here with me. Eliza looks at me, she gives me a sorry expression but tells me to come along and talk to more people.

I'm not good at socializing, in fact I'm crap at it. I don't like talking to strangers....

But the day passes and soon I follow Eliza back into cinema screen 5, I want to fall asleep instantly stopping any thoughts of my family, my sister, my friends and Jamie coming to my mind.

But I fail....Every time....