Ensnared

Chapter One

She sighed as she entered the small two bedroom cottage, her feet dragging themselves along the ground as her right hand tried to smooth away the exhaustion from her face. It would only take one glance at her to see that she was dead on her feet.. but working a twelve hour shift in the factory for a hardly livable wage would do that to a person.

It had been five years since those Monsters revealed themselves to the blissfully ignorant world of mankind, and four years since the overthrowing of the human government lead to the demotion of their position on the food chain.

Four long years of humiliation and degradation, suffered at the hands of those beasts.

Oh, she could remember that day almost as if it had just happened yesterday. She had been twenty at the time, and had just sat down for supper with her parents and twelve year old sister after her shift at the hospital had ended, when the front door to their home had been kicked in and rushed by a small four man squadron of those Monsters.

The mutts had ordered them to their hands and knees so they could be detained for 'processing', which at the time the family of four had no idea what they were talking about. To her parents, a group of brutes had forced entry into their home and threatened their children.

Her parents didn't start to fight back until her sister was forcefully yanked up by her hair and hauled out of the house with silent tears streaming from her petrified eyes. Something she had grown thankful for over the years, because what transpired next was something no child should have to witness.

There was suddenly blood everywhere.

Now, she had been no stranger to blood. After all, the visual and smell of the coppery substance came with the job of being a trauma nurse in the local emergency room.. but that hardly prepared her for this.

Her father had pulled his silver loaded gun on the beasts from which he had ripped from its hiding place under the dining room table, and they lunged as soon as his finger pulled the trigger. One of the Monsters went down, the bullet lodged in his collarbone with the wound visibly sizzling with a grotesque hissing sound, while the other two tore at her father's body until his remains redecorated the hardwood floor of the dining room.

Next had been her mother, who met her end for simply screaming her father's name in terror; the two men.. No.. beasts-their features horrifyingly morphed in the beginning stages of their shift-had turned on her, their eyes black as night as they silenced the shrieking female.

The last female did not make a sound, her eyes wide and her mouth tightly held shut as she remained on her hands and knees, her body shaking like a leaf in sheer terror. She dared not move as the two mongrels turned their sights on her, to which she curled into herself while trying to make it seem like she was smaller than she really was. This small action spoke volumes to the two shifters-whose inner beasts were in control-they viewed this action as the female's submission. In turn, they had determined her to not be a threat.

Things did not end there.. not by a long shot.

She had been hauled from her home by the two brutish animals and shoved in the back of what had appeared to be a prison transport vehicle and shackled to the seat next to her sobbing sister. For the most part, the older sibling had reached the point well beyond traumatized, having had witnessed the brutality shown towards her parents. 

The blood.. so much blood.

"S-sissy.. where a-are they taking u-us?" the tremor in her younger sibling's voice, combined with her tearful sniffles caught her attention, grounding her in some twisted sort of way and keeping her from burying herself within the deepest and darkest confines of her mind to escape reality.

"I don't know, Corrie.." her throat clenched at her vocalization, the use of her words painful as she desperately tried to swallow her saliva to moisten her tensed passage. 

"B-but.. where's Mom.. and D-dad? Rio..?" the twelve year old next to her nearly choked on her whispered question as her shaken mind tried to make sense of their situation by obtaining answers from her beloved big sister.

"They.." she trailed off, her mind seizing up while she tried to think of an explanation.

How did one tell a twelve year old that her parents were brutally murdered where they stood?

She inhaled sharply before she turned to her sister, "We were separated.. I.. I don't know.." at this explanation, fresh tears began to fall down Corrie's cherub cheeks, to which her big sister began to panic.

"Coraline." she stated almost sharply as she cupped the little girl's face between her hands, forcing her to lock eyes with her. "It will be fine. Sister will protect you. I won't let anything bad happen to you." and that was a promise she swore to stand by until her very last breath.

The rest of that night everything had happened so fast, her mind was having a difficult time keeping up with the events that occurred, but not once did she let her little sister out of her sight. The transport van that they had been riding in had pulled into what looked like a football stadium, though she highly doubted they had been abducted to attend a game.

They had been ushered out of the vehicle and herded into the open expanse of the field where various tents had been placed; lines of people waited outside each makeshift building, but for what, she had no idea.. but she had a feeling they would find out soon enough.

That night she and her sister had been 'processed'.

Within the tents they had various machines and medical equipment setup, and they had both gone through extensive blood testing, as well as a physical and mental exam. Both sisters had been assigned an identification number and had been given new living arrangements.. as well as a new occupation for the older sister.

Coraline had been allowed to remain in school, but her big sister had been given a new job working for a food packaging factory in some place called Sector Two.. where their new home was also located.

o.. io.. Rio..

"Riona!" she was snapped out of her remembrance as she finished removing her work boots by her sister shouting her name from the archway to the kitchen, a wooden ladle wielded in her left hand while her right hand took up position on her cocked hip. 

"Woman, would you pay attention when I talk to you? Sheesh!" Coraline continued with a grunt.

"Sorry, Corrie. It's been a long day. What were you saying?" Riona gave a sheepish smile as she continued to strip from her dirty work clothes in the walkway by the front door, so as not to track the filth further into their small home.

"As I was saying, some of the vegetables in the garden were ready for picking when I checked on them when I got home from school, so I've made soup." she huffed.

Riona smiled at her little sister, "Awww.. you're too good to me, darling!" she playfully fluttered her lashes and clasped her hands together over her heart. "I'm such a lucky girl to have you!" her playful banter continued, much to her sister's chagrin. 

"Whatever.. go take a shower before you eat. You stink like you've been rolling around in a pigsty." she wrinkled her nose as she pointed in the direction of their small bathroom in a silent plead for her big sister to go wash.

With a grin, she would shuffle down the hall.. but not before casting one last teasing remark to the sixteen year old standing in the kitchen. "Anything for you, sweetheart!" and with that, she closed the bathroom door with a cackle just before the ladle her sister had been holding hit the door.