Strangers

Part 26: Terrific Screams

Few weeks passed since Corinne admitted that she doesn't love Jayden. Since then many things changed, one of them is our relationship. I guess I can say we're friends. She told me what happened last five years while I wasn't here. Most of the time we're communicating by letters. Jayden doesn't know anything about it because we're acting as usual. If I am someone else I'd say that things finally came back to normal, but I'm not and it's far from normal. We are trying to find even the smallest Jayden's mistake, but he is clear as glass. Of course that's impossible, he's a very good liar and actor. But he's wrong if he thinks he can continue like that.

Today we finally found something. First weird thing was that Corinne sent me a letter. WE NEED TO TALK RIGHT NOW she never writes like that, it must be something serious. I left my house and hurried to a place where we usually talk. She was standing under the shadows of the trees, her face looked worried. "What happened?" she looked at me, her eyes were wandering around as if she's afraid something will come "Come.." suddenly she held my arm and started dragging me deep into the woods. "Wait, what is happening?" she didn't answer, just continued to walk deeper into the dark. I couldn't stand it anymore and I stood like my feet are buried into the ground. She turned to look at me with widen eyes "What are you doing!? We need to hurry?", "To hurry where? Tell me what's going on?" she bite her lip "I can't tell you. You need to see it by yourself" it made my even more confused and I followed her as she continued to drag me.

The woods was dark in this part, few sparks of sun were coming to the ground through the trees and it was very quiet. After some time I noticed Corinne's steps becoming slower. She turned at me and put a finger on her lips showing me to be silent. She made few more steps and pulled me next to her. I don't understand why is she acting like this. She pointed in front of us, to the glade and I could feel my breath got stuck into my throat.

It wasn't a big glade, but huge trees were around it. I saw armored men walking around in hurry. Big dark cages were everywhere. Some of them were empty and some weren't. I felt like my blood went to my ears and started to block horrible sounds. Everything seemed like a horror. A cold shivers were running down my spine. Then I saw him. Jayden was standing near the cages looking around. He was nodding to his men. Suddenly a loud scream came from one of the cages. I couldn't know if it belonged to a human or an animal. It sounded terrific. Jayden walked to the cage, anger written on his face. That's when I noticed he had some kind of stick in his hand. It wasn't a normal stick, it was made of silver.

The cage was also different from the ones we saw on that island. It has only one full wall and around are bars. Jayden started to walk around it. He pressed the stick on the bars and started making horrible noise. Suddenly my hands went on my ears, trying to block the sounds of silver hitting metal. A noise from the cage became louder. Then he stopped and just stood there looking inside the cage. "You still didn't learn? The more you try to escape the pain will be worse..." he looked at his men "Don't feed them too much, it's not good for them, they should learn until now to ear less!" then he turned towards the cage again "I will come back tomorrow. Don't make troubles until then" he turned away and walked into the woods on the other side of the glade.

Just then I noticed Corinne holding my hand tightly. "I couldn't describe it with words. I needed you to see..." she whispered still holding my hand. My eyes were locked onto that cage, I couldn't look away. He talked as if whatever is inside can understand him. Why? "We have to go back" Corinne was whispering but mentally I was too far away to move. "Hayden" all my senses were fixed towards that cage. Suddenly everything started to spin, like I'm going closer to the cage. A hand on my shoulder snapped me from it and I looked at Corinne. She didn't need to say anything more. I started to walk back, the same way we came.

Before we got out of the woods she put a hand on my shoulder "Hayden don't you dare to go there without me. Do you understand?" I just nodded, still looking down "I'm serious" then I looked at her "Do you know what is inside that cage?" her expression didn't change. "Hayden-", "I asked. Do you know what is inside that cage?" she sighed "I think we both know what is inside all of them...", "Since when do you know?", "Since today. I followed him" I felt like my mind is playing with me "We have to stop that" she looked at me seriously "And we will.. We just need time. Don't go there alone, if they catch you...", "I know..." she nodded "Jayden is probably home already, he will get suspicious if I stay out too long", "Yeah...that's the last thing we want and need right now" she nodded again then held my hand "If you need anything send a letter and try not to do anything stupid" I subconsciously held her hand back.  I felt like something took control over me while she was there holding my hand. It was sending electric shivers down my spine. I felt like we're together again, like nothing changed. But my mind knew the truth. I knew and couldn't accept. Suddenly I kissed her. She wasn't shocked and she didn't pull back. Instead she kissed me back. This time my mind didn't wander off as usual. I was there psychically and mentally. After some time we pulled back. "I waited five years, but it was worth it.." She said while looking at me. I didn't know what to say. I was shocked with what I did. "Corinne...", "See you tomorrow" that's the last thing she said before walking to Berk.