The Underworld Crown (Series)

Chapter 15

My captor didn't even spare a glance for his injured gang members before shoving me forwards, telling me to stay quiet or he'd push the entire length of the blade through my torso. Even if I did kick and scream, I doubted anyone would bother coming to my rescue. Walking through Sloth City was like walking through a ghost town; no one spared you any attention if there was trouble. My panic rose to new heights.

Every now and then he would dig his knife into my back, just enough to draw blood and ensure I obeyed his orders. I didn't dare try to escape, following every single one of his instructions: turn left, go straight, take a right, walk down to the end of this alley...and on it went.

I didn't know what this man intended on doing with me, or what he wanted from me. Was it possible that Aergia had already sent word through the city about a missing girl? Or did I just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time?

That certainly would be my luck.

I thought I'd seen about every aspect of the city by the time we ended up at what appeared to be its outskirts. There was a single building a hundred metres away, lonely in the desolate landscape. It looked more like a shed than anything else, its once-white walls now dirtied beyond repair.

"Almost there," he growled, pushing me onwards.

I gulped in fear at the prospect of going into a standalone shed in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't see a single soul in sight. The heat was sticking to my skin now that we were away from the cover of the city, covering me in a sheen of sweat. I tried to tell myself that if he was going to kill me, he would have just done so already. This calmed me a little until I realised he could be wanting to torture me for information. Scenes from movies of characters being tortured flashed through my mind, and my hands shook in fear.

When we reached the shed, my captor knocked loudly on the door, making its bolts rattle. Loud footsteps sounded, and then the metal doorframe swung open. A woman looked us up and down, smiling menacingly. A thin scar stretched across her forehead.

"Come on in," she said, "boss will be happy with new work."

My feet instinctively dug into the ground. The room was too dark for me to see exactly what was in there, but my intuition told me that I did not want to be stuck in there.

Sadly, I didn't have a choice in the matter. The knife dug into my back even harder, piercing through more flesh and causing me to squeal.

The female yawned drearily as I hurried forward into the dark room. She slammed the door loudly behind us, locking out the only light from The Underworld.

The male, with his knife, had followed me in and stood with a glint in his eyes. His face was the only thing I could make out in the darkness.

"I'm gonna get a good reward for this one," he said, grinning. "She's pretty."

"Whatever," the girl snapped. "You've gotten your daily total. Let's just get you both down there so I can get on with my nap."

There was a loud metallic screech, but I still couldn't see where the noise was coming from. Slowly, a soft light filled the room. The female had lifted what appeared to be a round metal trap door. Tentatively, I peered downwards to an endless ladder, stretching on for as far as I could see. Flaming torches framed the walls, providing at least some light to guide the way down.

"What is this?" I asked, finally finding my voice.

"Your new home," he snickered.

I stayed still for a moment, wondering if they were going to push me down. In the quiet, I could hear the muted sound of tools hitting hard surfaces, and it hit me: this was the entrance to the gold mine. I wasn't abducted to be killed or tortured; they wanted to add me to their accumulation of slaves.

And if there was one thing Raven ingrained in my mind; it was that if you went down here, you never came back up. As my fear grew, so did my adrenaline.

Acting on instinct, I punched the man that stood close, my fist hitting his cheek and making him recoil in pain. The woman was still crouched on the floor, overlooking the trap door, so I sprinted back towards the exit. In the dark, I overestimated the distance and collided into the door with a bang, but within a second I was fumbling with the lock.

"Get her, you oaf!" the woman howled, followed by a chain of unruly swear words.

The lock was a simple sliding bolt, so I quickly pushed the bolt out of its barrel. Footsteps closed in behind me, and I swung the door open with force. It banged against the wall – or perhaps my captor, since the collision was followed by a loud, deep grunt.

"You bitch!"

I ran out into the open, my feet slapping loudly on the dry ground. The city on the horizon teased me, acting as a faraway beacon of protection. I cursed myself for my slow running – if only I'd joined the cross country team at Milton, then perhaps I would've been able to get out of this situation easier. All I had to do was make it to the city, which gave me the best chance of losing my pursuer.

Someone barrelled into me and used their body weight to throw me onto the ground. I pillowed their landing, and crashed into the rocky ground. Shock waves ran through my arms and legs. I cried out as I felt my left wrist endure most of the pressure, twisting at an odd angle.

My captor had their entire body weight on mine, trapping me. I squealed when they placed pressure on the injury in my back, making the wound bleed. They leaned in close to my ear, revelling in their breath that crawled across my skin and made me squirm.

"What do you want?" I growled, trying to wriggle out of my position with little success.

"I want my bonus," a deep voice growled. "And you're gonna help me get it."

The man waved his knife in front of my face and before I could react, he brought it down towards my left hand. He swiped the knife along my forearm, leaving a deep incision.

For a moment I stilled, waiting for the pain to hit me. Five seconds later, it did. I gritted my teeth against the sting, which sent a pulsating blaze through my arm, and tried to hold back a scream. My blood dripped from the incision, falling like teardrops towards the charred earth. As the droplets hit the ground, the ground seemed to swallow them up, absorbing them quickly. I blinked in confusion. The ground was as firm as concrete; there was no way my blood could disappear that quickly. Yet, it continued to fall, and the ground continued to absorb it.

The shock from the incision must've gotten to my mind. There was absolutely no way–

"Get up," he ordered between puffs of exhaustion. He shifted off me but maintained a steady grip on the knife at my back.

Robotically, I moved to stand up, trying to ignore the pain from my arm. I couldn't take my eyes off the ground where my blood had simply...vanished.

"I said, get up!"

He twisted the knife just enough to make me cry out, and without hesitating any further I stood up quickly. He shoved me back towards the shed, and with some desperation I tried to look over my shoulder at where I'd fallen over. I didn't get to see anything, though, since my captor shoved me even harder. I had no choice but to march on, towards the woman who was leaning against the door frame, welcoming me smugly back into the shed. They wasted no time in pushing me towards the trap door.

"Now climb down," he commanded, "or the next thing I cut off will be your hand."

I took a deep breath and crouched down, overlooking the tunnel. I still couldn't see where it led to, but I could hear the noise of others chipping away at the tunnels below. I gave my captors one last glare, before I lowered myself down onto the ladder and started to descend.