Caged In

Chapter 3

Alyce screamed at the top of her lungs, but before she knew it, her mouth was covered with a bandana and she was being carried by the man into his car, as creepy and mysterious as himself. He pushed her up against the car and tied her hands together with a piece of rope throwing her into the backseat. Once he reached the front seat, he slammed on the gas.

15 minutes later, Alyce was in the dark and frigid basement of the mysterious stranger, still in her pajamas. He hadn’t spoken one word to her until now. “You are here to keep me company,” the man said as he slipped off the bandana over her mouth. He directed Alyce towards a tall, silver cage. She started screaming and tried to run away, but that was when she had learned never to do that again. He squeezed her wrists and shoved her into the cage, bringing Alyce to speak up for the first time.

“Why do you need me to keep you company? Don’t you have someone else? Someone you don’t have to kidnap?” she yelled.

“No, actually,” he said in a calm tone. “What is your name?”

“Why do you need to know?” Alyce decided that if he was going to be rude, well, two could play at that game.

“Because you’re going to stay here for a long time. If you leave…,” He paused. Just then, Alyce realized that there were more cages in the dark basement.

“What kind of a place is this?” she asked, ignoring his previous words.

“A place where I keep kids. It’s kind of like babysitting, I guess.”

As the man was talking, Alyce’s eyes darted around the room. The cage next to her was the only one that had kids in it. It had one boy and one girl, but the boy was asleep on the hard floor of the cage. “Yeah, a very deranged babysitting business,” Alyce snapped.

The man walked closer towards her cage. “I’ve never had kids. Now I have kids.”

“Why couldn’t you just adopt them the normal way?” Alyce asked.

“Because that would be boring. Well, I’m off to bed. All I need is one more kid…a boy. And then I’ll be done.” The man walked up the stairs and slammed the door.

Alyce knew that something was wrong with this guy’s brain. She looked over at the cage next to hers. “Hey,” Alyce whispered to the pair next to her. “What is this place?”

The girl spoke up. “I don’t know. I was only kidnapped 3 days ago. All I know is that once you have been here a week, he moves you into another room. I don’t know where it is, but I think it’s behind that wall.” The girl pointed to a gray wall to her right. “I always hear noise coming from in there.”

Alyce thought that over. Why would they make you move rooms? Well, she would find out in a week. “Thanks,” she said to the girl. “I’m Alyce. What’s your name?”

“My name is Skye. And this,” said Skye as she pointed to the boy next to her, “is Slate. His real name is Ariel, but he prefers Slate,” Skye said.

“Oh okay. How long has he been here?”

“Five days.” Skye reached over and shook the boy. “Wake up, Slate! We have a new girl.”

Slate jerked his head up. “Is she annoying like you?” Slate asked in a sarcastic tone.

Skye shoved Slate and glared at him. “We’ve only known each other for 3 days, and we’re already like brother and sister,” Skye laughed. She looked back at Alyce. “So, not meaning to be rude or anything, but it’s kind of strange that you’re not crying. I mean, I cried for the first two days I was here and then realized it’s no use.”

Alyce thought for a moment and then said, “Well, I guess it’s just because I don’t really mind being here.”

“Uh, why?” Slate asked. Soon as a follow-up, Skye slapped him arm. “What?” Slate asked, irritated.

“You’re so rude! ‘Uh, why?’” she said, mimicking his voice.

Slate’s facial expression changed to a more serious one. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound that way.”

Alyce was tired of this already. They were really fighting? “Guys,” she said. “It’s fine. Anyways, my mom…” There was no way to fully express what her mother was like in a sentence or two. So instead, Alyce just finished it with a few simple words. “My mom is kind of a bad person.”

“How?” Skye asked. Alyce immediately noticed that she sounded as if she truly cared; a tone of voice she hadn’t heard in a long time.

Out of nowhere, a sick feeling began to develop in Alyce’s stomach. Just talking about her mother made her feel this way. In Alyce’s eyes, Betty Kade was most definitely not worth talking about. “Never mind. Just believe me.”

The next day, Alyce woke up to a fresh plate of steaming eggs and bacon. “There you go,” the man said. As Alyce reached for a piece of bacon, the man slapped her hand away. “You may only have the breakfast if you tell me your name,” the man said as he stood up and crossed his arms. For the first time she saw his face. He had gray hair, dark eyes as far as she could tell, and a mysterious scar. He looked like he was in a critical condition…like he was out of his mind.

She gulped. “My name is Alyce.”

“Alyce…pretty name,” the man said as he reached down and opened up a little door on the front of the cage, just big enough for a plate to fit through. He slid the plate through and closed the door back up. “Enjoy.” The man walked back upstairs after he gave Slate and Skye each a plate of the same meal.

Weird, Alyce thought. I get good food and I have friends. This might actually be better than home.