Well…this is the beginning of my story! My usual style is of horror/mystery stories…get used to it ;)

Each title of each chapter is the name of the song that inspired me to make the chapter.

This case the title is The bird and the worm song performed by the group The Used (I really recommend you to listen to them!). The title of the story is also based on a song, which inspired me to make the story, it's called One by Apocalyptica (listen to them!)

Enjoy reading!


One

Chapter 1: The Bird and the worm

How could she breathe? How was she still there… alive. Of all the things Courtney has ever wanted, this time she only desired to let go. All that suffering was making the feeling stronger.

Who would like to live like that?! She have tried to escape so many times… when was her savior gonna come? He promised he would take care of her! He promised! He couldn't leave her there!

3 weeks have passes since she was kidnapped. Courtney still remembered when it happened. It wasn't nice at all, nor that day:

The sky was colored with a sad grey. It fitted Courtney's mood perfectly. Her mom was at the verge of death. She couldn't believe it! "You have to resist mom!" she thought. The brunette looked back at the monotone hospital that she has just left.

The wind was blowing hard, causing her brown hair to fly with it. She had no intentions of going back home, even if she had to. Her onyx eyes didn't want to see anyone. Not even her sister…or her boyfriend…or friends. She wanted to disappear. The girl swore the suffering would go with her; she wanted the tears to vanish.

As she crossed the almost empty street, she felt someone was following her. "It's nothing" the A-type assured to herself. But just when she turned around the corner, she saw a man. He was probably at his late 20's; he had brown hair and dark eyes.

That man was extremely familiar to her. She has seen him somewhere else…

She began walking faster, noticing that the man still followed her.

Then she remembered. It was the same man she saw at her anniversary date with Duncan. The man sat at the table in front of them and stared at her all the time…she has also seen the stranger at the front of her apartment, looking at her window…she has seen him at her college…she has seen him everywhere.

Just when she realized the ugly truth…she was hit. She felt how the blood drew out of her nose. The man continued hitting her and took her to a dark alley. He continued hurting her, each time harder than the other, and every time she tried to fight back, she received a sharp kick at her stomach.

Finally, he roughly took her by the hair and injected something to her. Everything went black.

Getting angry with herself for remembering that horrid day, she growled.

There was no window on her room, only an old candle. Something stung at her back. Courtney softly touched the area; it was covered with injuries, caused by whips. Again, she didn't know how have she survived enough. It was the hope of seeing Duncan, her sister; Megan; but mainly, she had the hope she could see her mom again, healed.

The brunette began crying. She couldn't resist any longer! It has been enough! How much were this sick, dark, twisted games gonna last?! Courtney cried harder.

"Stop it if you don't want us to teach you your lesson again!" a man shouted while others laughed.

She quieted and cried in silence. Courtney was part of a game, solely. An evil game on which she has been chosen to be part of it.

She knew many have died. Some even killed themselves before getting to the final stage.

She knew it by all the bodies that were lying on the floor of her bedroom. Some of the bodies still had skin; most of those bodies were women. The male ones were five thirteen-year-old boys. The women were between 16 and 35 years old. All of them with their faces destroyed, clothes filled with blood… some of them were even naked. One of the boys had his face covered with several scars. Courtney hasn't noticed, until that day, that the scars were actually numbers.

She turned her face away and closed her eyes. What if that was her future? What then?

What about her family? Her friends? What about everyone? If they found her dead?

3 weeks have already passed! Someone was doing something for finding her! She was sure.

Courtney opened her eyes and looked at the bodies again. She felt sad for them, They suffered the same thing she was experiencing…or maybe worst.

She blinked. What have she and those people done? Her curious eyes saw how one woman (maybe of 17 years old) had her arms covered with scratches. The woman's nails were covered with blood, so Courtney assumed she hurt herself. One tear of blood was dry on the woman's face.

Once again, she turned her face away. This time she went to bed; even though she knew she would have no sweet dreams, she tried to close her eyes…and escape to another world.