Different

Chapter 11

Mutterings. Whispers. Noises.

My head hurt. It felt heavy. My arms hung on the shoulders of two men who had carried me. My feet dragged over the ground. I tried raising my head, wondering where I was and who I was with. But my vision was blurry. I couldn't make out anything, no recognizable face in the fuzziness. I passed in and out of consciousness, unable to determine what went on, let alone defend myself.

"Bring her in," a woman with a raspy voice spoke.

I wasn't sure but the room had a putrid stench. They laid me on a pile of hay.

"We'll let her sleep for the night." That raspy voice.

Footsteps that grew fainter poked my curiosity. I tried to open my eyes to see the cowards who were leaving me alone in my dank detention, but even opening my eyes was a difficult feat. I wanted to scream.

"Should we tie her up?" a voice that I recognized was Amarra's spoke.

"No," the woman with a raspy voice responded. I wished to see her face. "Your poison is working just fine."

"Who are you?" I tried earnestly to sound audible.

"My name is Barbara," she replied. "But my people call me, the seer."

"Seer?"

"You heard her right." Amarra pressed my cheeks hard enough, her fingers almost touched my teeth.

I wanted to shake me head to make her get her nasty hand off my face, but that was impossible. "I'm going to kill you, bitch," so I said in my slurred speech.

Amarra chuckled. "Let's see about that."

"Amarra," Barbara called. A few seconds of silence passed. "Let's go."

"Don't you leave me alone here..."

"You'll be fine."

In the midst of imagining myself crawling out of the den, I felt desperate. In the hopes of teleporting myself out of the impending doom, I remembered what Mrs. Stewart had said. She was right. Tears streamed down. But lethargy took care of me.

I woke up shivering. My body ached in different places. My headache seared. I sat on the haystack, massaging my forehead. I hadn't been more thirsty in my whole life.

A heap of wood ashes lay in front of me about a few feet away. There were a couple of unburnt chops of tinder and twigs.

Slivers of sunlight seeped through the gaps between the old wooden panels. My detention was a disappointment. I had expected something more claustrophobia-inducing. I had to get out of the prison hut, not to escape, but to find the morons who placed me there. The only reason I was there was because they didn't play fair, those cowards. I turned around, hoping doing so would not worsen my dizziness. I was exactly where I was. I tried teleporting again, but nothing. My heartbeat started to race.

Rusty chains wrapped around the lock on the door. "Resero." The chains remained motionless. "Resero!" Nothing. I tried remembering spells to open locks. They didn't work. Desperation engulfed me.

The chains clinked when I shook the door. There was nothing in the barn that I could use to escape. I wanted to shout, but I knew that was useless. I might just attract my abductors' attention. Besides, I didn't want to sound helpless. I peeked through the slits on the door. No one was outside.

"Let the curses cast be uncast!" I held my hands in the air.

"Your spells won't work." Someone moved the chains and opened the lock.