Bite Me
Chapter One
Father was a cultural fanatic. Due to his enthusiasm, our family spent many a time in all sorts of countries. Such was the case for being in Volterra, Italy.
I had spent the morning wandering around the Piazza dei Priori, pushing my way through the crowds and gaining some very nasty looks and what sounded like some Italian swearing. My parents had given me two hours to explore what I wanted to of the city, but to be back by the big fountain in the square before noon. I had wasted nearly an hour and half manuevering through the milling people, and I was now beginning to get impatient. I decided to cut through a hole in the crowd, sliding into a small alleyway.
It was dark and damp; quite a contrast from the bright sunlight square I had just been in. I stood still for a moment to let my eyes adjust to the cool darkness. The first thing I saw, were another pair of eyes staring out at me. These weren't human eyes though, they were a brilliant shade of red, and I was tempted to run; but stupidly, I asked, "Who are you?"
The owner of the eyes gave a dark and raspy laugh, and I felt an icy hand grab my forearm; another closed itself over my mouth. The muffled scream was unheard by anyone but myself and my potential captor. Before I knew what was happening, I was being dragged backwards deeper into the shadows. My feeble protests were ignored, and the iron grip on my arm never faltered.
The next thing I knew, I was turned abruptly around and told roughly to walk forwards. A cold stone wall grazed my elbow, and I felt a warm drop of blood squeeze through the small cut. My kidnapper grunted and pushed me farther out in front of him. As I stumbled down the rough cobblestones beneath my feet, a forboeding feeling crept into my stomach. What was going to happen to me?
It had seemed as though we had been tramping through the tunnel(or so I thought it was) for hours until we entered through a door into a bright room. The transition from dark to light brought tears to my eyes and I hastened to shut them. When I felt it was safe to open them again, I noticed that I was in some sort of reception room. I hadn't any time to look around before I was shoved through another door into a long hallway. The white walls were giving my adjusting eyes a hard time, and so I shut them while I was steered down the hall.
At some point, I was turned to my right and forced through yet another door, where the hands holding my arm and mouth were released. I opened my eyes to find myself in a new room with blank walls and about fifty other eyes staring back at me.
Rough and haggard looking people were slumped on the floor. I guessed most of them to be around middle age, but some were only children. Nearly all of them had terrified looks on their faces, but some just looked blank. I backed up, feeling for the solididty of a concret wall behind me. I wanted nothing to do with these people.
For quite awhile, I glanced around at the approxamately twenty-five others in the room. A few were crying, some were drifting off into sleep. I wondered what kind of place this was, and what was going on.
An explanation wasn't long in coming. Looking back afterwards, I supposed that I had been a last minute pick-up for the nightmare that was to come in due time.