Mix Matched

8

(Emma's pov)

Emma woke up slowly. She couldn't feel anything, just numbness. Her head buzzed with, what seemed like invisible bees. She looked around the room, or did her best to. It was really dark. She squinted, finally was able to make out a cage floating next to her. The figure inside of it looked familiar, but Emma's head was still moving too slowly to process who could be next to her.

Emma pushed herself up to a seated position. She was sitting on something soft, and the air was thick with darkness. She could barely make out a glass wall in front of her. Was she still in the same building that the portal was at?

The thing she noticed first was that wherever she was it had a short ceiling that was just tall enough to not hit her head if she stood up and heavy metal chains fastened on her wrists. She could feel some kind of bandage on her waist where the knife had cut her and even in the barely lit room she could see her jacket and shirt underneath was soaked and had been stained into a dark red color and Emma could feel the slight uncomfort of stitches under the bandage.

Trying to stand up she learned the chains to be even heavier than she originally thought, her arms were dragged down by the cold metal and her legs already felt like giving way. She tried her best to stay standing while she gathered up all the energy she could muster to gather into her voice.

She gulped in a big breath and started screaming for anyone to help her but as quick as she started her voice seemed to vanish into an invisible void. Emma screamed and screamed until her throat was sore but even then she couldn't hear herself.

A low groan sounded from the cage next to her. It sounded familiar somehow. Emma looked inside the cage and saw a figure laying there. There was barely enough room in the cage for them. Emma squinted, trying to distinguish who was in there, and finally recognized Mist, huddled in a ball, her wings and tail blocking her from view.

Emma tapped on one of the metal bars that kept Mist from escaping.

Another grown, and a tail twitch.

Emma stared at Mist, trying to distinguish if she was ok or not. She reached into the cage and gently tapped Mist's shoulder. Mist just shuddered, letting out a small gasp of pain as Emma quickly pulled back her hand.

Mist looked at Emma with eyes full of tears as Emma started to worry more than ever. 'Did I hurt her?' Emma's mind raced, 'Does she hate me?' Soon enough, Emma couldn't help but cry too.

Mist seemed to be trying to say something, but couldn't. Every time she tried, she'd tremble and stop. Something was hurting her badly. Emma signaled Mist to stop trying to speak and hold still as Emma would try to see what was wrong. She looked for a while through the barks of the cage, walking around it, trying to from all angles, but couldn't see what was wrong.

That is until she looked more closely at Mist herself; she had a huge bruise on her arm and a few small cuts on her face. She had an assortment of minor injuries here and there but the worst of it had to be her wing, it was obviously broken and must have been the main source of her pain.

Emma gave her a sad look, mouthing I'm sorry.

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"What should we do with them?"

"Not sure but it'll be harder for them to escape now."

"How so?"

"Took one of the girls' voices and broke the other one's wing, if they manage to escape they deserve it."

"Yeah well let's hope they don't, we have them here for a reason."

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Emma and Mist just sat there for an hour or so, Emma trying to think of ways to escape this place, and Mist just trying to sit as still as possible, trying to keep her wing elevated.

"Aw twig," Mist whispered quietly as if trying to keep the pain she was feeling out of her voice.

Emma looked at the cage where her friend was being held, eyes questioning.

"Some people were talking about us. They said that we're here for a reason and that you aren't going to get your voice back any time soon." Mist winced as she tried to shift positions, her voice getting quieter, "I don't know how we'll get out of this."

Emma stood up and gave Mist a don't-give-up-yet look.

"Do you have an idea to get us out of here?" Mist's voice seemed full of tired hope.

Emma thought for a second before shaking her head sadly.

"Could you break these bars or something?" Mist suggested.

Emma shook her head again, holding up her cuffed hands. Then pointed from Mist to the bars, as if asking if she could break the bars from inside the cage.

"Sorry, that won't work either," Mist said, "not enough room."

Emma's eyes seemed to brighten as she remembered something. She stood up and pretended to open a bottle and drink down the invisible contents. Mist watched, eyes widening as she understood what Emma was trying to tell her. She nodded and started searching her pockets. Emma did too, hoping that the people who'd captured them hadn't managed to take all the potions. Emma didn't find anything, so she moved up and started looking through her hair. She felt something smooth, and carefully pulled out a clear bottle full of a silver potion. Confused on how it was in her hair or how she knew to look there she looked up at Mist who had found a red potion in her hood. How it had not broken was a mystery to Emma.

"I got a strength potion!" Mist said, excitedly.

Emma showed Mist her silver potion that Mist identified as an invisibility potion. Emma quickly came up with a plan and did her best to communicate it to Mist, who, after a lot of puzzled looks and a face-palm or two from Emma, finally understood.

Mist nodded, and drank half of the strength potion, handing it through a bar to Emma, who drank the rest of it, and together they pushed and pulled at one of the bars, until it bent, and did the same with the other bar right next to it, until it bent in the opposite direction, leaving just enough room for Mist to crawl out. Emma helped her stand, and drank half of the invisibility potion. Emma quickly handed the potion to Mist, who finished it off.

"The invisibility potion will last for around 5 minutes so we should try to move quickly," Mist said, and then the glass wall next to them shattered. Emma had rammed it with her shoulder. Mist walked forward, though limping a little bit, and to Emma. They couldn't see each other, but they could touch each other, so they held hands in order not to get separated.

Sirens had started to blare when Emma broke through the glass window, red lights flashing. They walked as quickly as they could, trying to find a window or door, but were only discouraged as they found more and more hallways with endless amounts of glass-walled prisons. Men in black were running in all directions trying to find the escapists, almost running into them a few times.

Finally, Mist saw a window, and whispered, "Our way out." Emma squeezed Mist's hand to let her know that she'd heard her. They walked towards the window, which was open and looked out. They seemed to be on one of the higher stories. The walls were completely smooth, and the closest trees were at least 3 or 4 meters away.

There was a small flash of light, a small breath of pain, and in Mist's hand were two gleaming knives, probably magic because Mist had summoned them.

"We can slide down the wall with these, we just need to hurry," Mist said, letting go of Emma's hand.

Emma picked one up and watched as the other floating knife went over the window, inserted itself into the wall, and cut down the side with ease. Emma was glad that there were no windows below them. Emma mounted the window, lowering herself over the edge, stabbing her knife into the wall, which cut into it like butter and jumped.