Dark Land (Incomplete)

Chapter 6 - Home Sweet Home

Days have passed since I saw Samael in his true form. He brings food in the morning before I wake and leaves food by my door in the evenings. I pace back and forth, filled with impatience. I can't take it anymore, being stuck in this room will drive me crazy.

As I'm walking out my door I run into Samael. It's awkward for me now. I don't know what to say or do.

"Elizabeth, I've come to take you home."

"What?"

"It's time for you to go home," he said while grabbing my hand and pulling me.

"I don't want to go home!"

"Quit being a child, let's go."

"Why," I whisper.

"Because I'll kill you if you stay."

I follow him into a new room with a grand door and colorful furniture. Chairs and couches of every size and every color.

"I'll have to carry you, we must be quick." He picks me up like a child. I lay my head on his shoulder, not understanding why I feel so sad to be leaving. I fall asleep in his arms and wake up laying at the city gates surrounded by people, the bell rings over and over. The bell ringer must be unsure how many times to ring for someone returning.

And everything is red again.

"Lizzy!" Doug tells, he snatches my arm and pulls me up. "Where the hell have you been?"

He drags me towards the mayor's house while everyone stares and whispers. They whisper about me being one of the creatures, a traitor, or the Dark Man's whore. No one seems to be concerned if I'm even ok.

We enter the mayor's office and he throws me in a chair.

"Is that Lizzy?" Pope asks.

"Don't ask stupid questions boy."

"Lizzy, where have you been? Were you with the Dark Man?"

"I...yes."

He smacks my face. The sting causes my eyes to water.

"Doug..." Pope hesitates, debating whether to help or not. He chooses not to.

"You betrayed us by leaving. Why did you come back?"

"How have I betrayed you?" I shake my head and try to go towards the door. He grabs my arm and throws me on the floor.

"You've been gone for months and you come back unharmed. Which means you must have been sleeping with the enemy one way or another. Now we must decide if you need to be cleansed or executed." The pleasure in his eyes scare me. Doug really does belong with the monsters of this world.

"We can't kill her," Pope unsteadily says.

"Then we cleanse her. Guards, take her to the jail."

I watch him walk away as I'm dragged. I scream for help. I haven't done anything. But everyone just stares as I'm dragged down the road. Everyone already knows what Doug plans to do.

"Cleanse her," they whisper.

I've never been to the jail before. It's hardly ever used, or so I thought. There's only a handful of cells and each one has someone in it. I'm thrown at the end of the hall and chained like a dog in between two cells.

"Stay'" the guard laughs. "Good dog."

I begin to cry, as he left me here. And I thought the creatures outside were monsters. I stop and hold my breath when I hear a low growl.

"You smell like King Samael," someone hisses. I try to see who is in the cell when Doug comes in.

"Get back demon," he says as he bangs on the bars. Dim lights are turned on. In every cell there is a monster. Most are weak, dying.

"Why are they in here? This will break the truce!" I yell.

"So concerned for the demons?" He smirks. I'm unchained and led through a hidden door. The room is lit by candles, everywhere. There's a huge barrel filled with water.

The begin taking my clothes off and I start fighting. Someone hits me on the back of the head and the world starts spinning. I'm stripped and dragged up stairs.

Then I'm thrown in the water. It's too tall for me to stand and we're not taught to swim because well there's no water for us to swim in. I try to grab the edge of the barrel but each time I do feet stomp on my fingers causing me to scream in pain. I've sucked in too much water now and my chest is aching.

I'm snatched up by my hair. I stare into Doug's cold eyes.

"Would you like to make a confession now?" I spit in his face.

I'm thrown back in. We repeat the process two more times before a robe is put on me and I'm brought back to my chain. It's so cold in the cell room.

"How is my King?" The monster hisses again. My throat hurts too much to answer, so I close my eyes and sleep.

I dream of him. The Dark Man. Samael. King Samael. I can't make any sense of the dream, but it hurts. He abandoned me.

I wake frozen. Shivering I try to make myself move. All around me the monsters are stirring. As I look around to them, they are all staring at me.

"They won't hurt you. You belong to the King."

"Why are you here?" I croak, my voice barely working.

"Your people keep us here, torture us and experiment on us. And you call us the monsters." He sneers.

He's right. The monsters may devour the wanderers, which is wrong, but they keep to the truce. Doug, however, is the real monster.

The next two days I'm dropped in the barrel. Each time gets harder. I feel heavy and just want to sink. I talk with the monster, his name is Oliver. I laughed when he told me. Oliver just didn't sound scary enough to be a demon name. The others were Victoria, Damon, Frieda, and Ivan.

"We have to get you all out of here. You dont deserve this."

"What about you?"

"Samael doesn't want me. But he'll protect you."

So we began planning. Everyday, as much as we could.

There was a new truce now.