Changes

Chapter 14

Mathis's POV

We got to the alley and we saw signs that they had been sucked in through where the Tear had been. "It seems to have closed up once they were sucked in," Cherif noted. I ran a hand through my hair, "What the hell do we tell their mother?" "That my children were sucked through the Tear and it closed behind them," She said as she walked up to the alley. She observed the ground, "Violet tried being the anchor. Jay's strength, is even more than it is now. He should've been able to throw them out of the suction, but it must've been too strong." She was assessing everything easily. She looked over the ground, "Axel went first, probably to put up runes around the Tear to prevent him from being sucked in." "How do you know that," Cherif asked her. "He's the only one of you who wears military boots," she said. "Then it was Talos, trying to stop Axel from getting sucked in." She ran her hand over one of the shoe prints, "Then it was Allie, then Z, then Jaden, then Jay, then Silver, and then Violet. Once they were all through it sealed up behind them, as if it knew it was only them here." Now we know where Queen Alanna learned to be so observant.

"It was a trap," Drako said when he appeared. "What makes you say that," I asked him. "I have been monitoring the Tears, there has never been one here," Drako explained, shoving his hands into his trench coat. "The one that took them was made by a creature, and it wanted to suck them in, put them in it's hunting grounds."

"My money is on the thing that hurt my baby," Sharlene Zio, said. She stood up straight and looked at me, "I need you to take me to those tunnels." "With all due respect, your daughter would be furious if she finds out we took you down there," Cherif told her. "I'll take you down there," I told her. Drako nodded, "As will I." "And when our Queen finds out we took her mother down in that hell hole," Cherif asked us. "We will face punishment with our heads high. Right now though, we need to find out if we can go through one of them and find them," I explained to him.

She nodded, "Let's get going." I offered her my hand and she took it. I took her to the tunnels and she looked around. "So tell me, why is it you call my daughter a Queen, yet you call Z your leader," she asked as she began to look through the cells. Drako and I shared a look before looking back at her. "Because Z doesn't like the title of King," I answered. She nodded with a small smile, "I see."

"And how do you feel about their mating," Drako asked her. She sighed, "I was hoping I would one day get to help plan her wedding. Allie has always been a wild spirit and I knew if she ever settled with someone they would have to be pretty damn special." She smiled, "She had told me if she ever got married she wouldn't have a traditional ceremony. Instead she would have a big party on a beach with a bonfire. She wouldn't even wear a proper wedding dress. She doesn't even want a diamond ring. Instead she wants something more personal and designed by the man she was going to marry."

"And your sons," Drako asked curiously. "Jaden is a perfectionist, and would be in every part of the planning. He also loved the idea of having a big traditional wedding. Jay on the other hand, was getting ready to ask a woman to marry him. He wanted her to have the reigns and have the wedding of her dreams," she told us. She pulled a flashlight out of her pocket, "This thing was methodical." She then left that cell and we followed closely behind her. We found a room filled with books and papers.

We then began looking through it. Sharlene then found a book and opened it. She gasped and tears came to her eyes. I went over and looked, seeing it filled with photos of our Queen, naked and wounded. It was writing notes, using her for research. She flipped through it and it just got worse with each photo. At the end of the book was a memory chip, one from a video camera.

"We need to see what this will show us,"  she said while closing the book. "It was doing research to find more ways to torture her," Drako said softly holding up a folder. Sharlene went to the desk and began looking through it. "Medevil practices, ancient Chinese practices, and even some old viking practices," she said as she looked through the papers and books. "Are we sure it's a thing from the Tears," Drako asked us.

I nodded, "She drew plenty of pictures on it." "She did," Sharlene asked me. I nodded, "Gave me a book full of'em." "Can I see," she asked. "I don't think that is wise ma'am. The pictures are very graphic of it," I told her. "Fine, let me rephrase it, let me see them," she said firmly. I made the book appear in my hand and held it out to her. She took it and flipped through it.

"Its amazing at how human it appears to be," she stated. It was true, it could easily fool a human, but to those who have seen unspeakable things, it's easy to tell. It had sharp ridges on its spine, almost like acute triangles. It was even possible they were sharp like razers.

"If this is drawing is accurate, then it wears the skins of humans to try and blend in," Drako noted as he looked over them. "She's always accurate. She has a very photographic memory," Sharlene said. "She only needs to see something once and can so easily redraw it to the smallest of details. But this explains why she didn't do any art when she came home." She sighed and closed the book, "We need to see what we can get from all these papers and figure out if this is some sick experiment for this thing or if it's something else entirely."

We agreed and gathered it all up and took her back to the house. The rest of the Founders were gathered. "We need to see what is on that video chip," I said and Drako nodded.

We set it up to be watched in the media room. The video chip showed our Queen bound, and hanging from the ceiling. She spat blood on to the floor. "When I get out of these chains, I'm gonna kill you," she said weakly. It laughed, "You're such a fun specimen. The others have all broken, letting me do as I please. Yet you haven't broken. What makes you so strong?"

"The thought of getting out of here and kicking your scaley ass is one thing keeping me going," she said. It chuckled and came into view holding a heated up iron rod. "I wonder if this will make you scream," he said then ran the rod through her arm. She gritted her teeth, refusing to scream. "So stubborn aren't you," It said while squeezing her face. It then got close and she slammed her head into it's face, breaking it's nose. Black blood gushed from it's face. She had a smirk of satisfaction.

"You like that," It asked clearly furious with her. "Let's see if you like this."

He then began to do a whole list of things many of them weren't able to stomach. I barely was able to stomach it. There were hours upon hours of videos on her torture. For weeks she was tortured.

She had even gone insane from the healing and hurting, then rehealing. "I'm Alanna Mylssa Zio. I'm twenty one years old. Birthday October thirty first, nineteen ninety five," she said to herself, trying to remember who she is. 

Then something caught her attention as a little girl screamed. Her eyes then became pink as a pink glow over took her body and her chains snapped.

"And this is where she loses it," her mother whispered softly. The camera then cuts out and it was over. "I don't think I will ever be able to get that out of my memory," Cherif said as he ran a hand down his face. "I have tortured a many in my very long life, yet I don't have the stomach to do to someone what was done to her," Drako said to me.

"And now it is after my baby again," her mother said while standing. "We need to find them before it's too late." We were all in agreement with that. Now we just need to figure out how to find them.