Sapphire Angel - Superheroine

Chapter 26 - The Pen

As her captor walked from the barn with Beth slung over his shoulder, she searched for some way to escape. Her job was made difficult by her position, draped over his shoulder and facing backwards. Worse, the young woman's wrists and ankles were bound, and his strong grip held her slender form tight. One of the man's arms wrapped around her thighs like a boa constrictor, while his opposite hand pushed down on her lower back. His hold made it difficult for her to even look up, let alone escape.

Beth yelped the first time his hand moved from her low back to her buttocks and gave a squeeze. When he did it again a few seconds later, though, she ignored his groping, and used the opportunity to arch her back and take in her surroundings.  She was at a farm, but couldn't deduce more. An old farmhouse stood thirty yards to her left, its paint peeling and its crooked porch in need of repair. They were moving perpendicular to the house.

Dominick exited the barn behind them, but did not follow. Instead he turned away, to her left, with her bag and costume in his hands. She felt her hopes walking away with him. Her captor pushed her back down over his shoulder, but with a turned head she saw Dominick heading toward the farmhouse.

A few seconds later her captor paused, and she heard a door creak open on rusty hinges. They entered another dimly lit room. Just before the man turned to flick on a light switch, she noticed a key hanging on a hook next to the switch.

As he turned to turn on the switch, and presumably to grab the key, she faced the interior of the room. She saw a long, narrow, low-roofed structure with five stalls running along the opposite wall. At some point in the past, the stalls probably held animals. Now, though, the enclosures clearly served a different purpose. Metal bars enclosed each stall, with a gate at the front of each one. A chain metal mesh acted as a ceiling on top of the stalls..

The pen. This had to be it.

She saw movement. People sat on the floor of the stalls, but she couldn't count how many. Perhaps two or three in each enclosure. Faces peered out at her. Young faces, about her age. One stall to her left was empty.

The man turned and marched toward the enclosures, again blinding her to his actions. As he paused, the sound of screeching metal filled the room, and moments later he hoisted her from his shoulder and dumped her inside a stall. As she tumbled to a stop, he slammed the gate shut. Beth watched helplessly as the man returned the key to the hook near the door, before exiting the building and shutting the door behind him.

Beth righted herself, and a female voice came from her left.

"Are you okay?"

The voice sounded monotone, devoid of emotion. Beth turned her head, making out two faces looking at her through the bars, from the adjoining stall to her left. A man and a woman, both about her age, stared at her. The man's face looked familiar.

It hit her then. The billboard she had seen on the way to the Fizzure building with John. The missing man. And the other missing people. All about her age. Here they were.

"Are you okay?" the female voice repeated.

Beth blinked, studying the man and woman closer. They wore jeans and t-shirts and looked like they hadn't bathed in days. The woman's short black hair was tousled and unkempt, and her face was dirty. The man's face was narrow, with wide, dark eyes staring at her as if she were a ghost. Unlike Beth, the man and woman weren't bound.

"I'm okay," Beth said. "What is this place?"

The woman shook her head before mumbling, "I wish I knew." Mixed in with the flat words, Beth detected a hint of emotion, waiting to break out. She waited for the woman to continue, but the stranger remained silent, staring right through Beth.