Year 1
Chapter 10: Trapped
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Where am I...?
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It's all dark...
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I can't see anything...
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I can't move my body...
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Am I tied up...?
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No, that's not it...
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I don't feel anything binding my body anywhere...
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I just plainly cannot move...
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What happened to me...?
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Am I... dreaming?
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Doesn't seem like it... but I can be wrong...
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Then what is going on here...?
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If this is actually a dream...
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Wake me up!
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After that final thought, I slowly regained my vision. I then began to realize that indeed I had been asleep. However, I noticed that something was not right. I was not on my bed, but on a hard surface. In fact, I had been asleep in sitting position. What I saw next was even more surprising. I saw iron bars right in front of me, to my sides, and I was leaning on them too. It did not take long for me to realize that I was trapped in a cage. The cage was not even large enough for me to stand inside. I was sitting in it with each of my legs going through between the bars and hanging outside. The cage was suspended to the ceiling of the room, and I could see that the floor was still close enough for me to jump down without getting hurt, if I could get out of the cage.
"Am I still dreaming...?" I said.
I then tried slapping my own cheeks lightly a few times. From there I could conclude that it was not a dream. I was stuck in a cage for real.
"What actually happened?" I thought. "Have I been... kidnapped?"
I then tried to observe my situation more. The room where I was trapped was very dim, being illuminated only by a single lantern on a table. The room looked like a witch's laboratory, looking that it had a cauldron and an array of strange bottles filled with dark liquid, and also a number of strange plants put next to the lantern. However, it was not the laboratory in Gladys' castle which I had visited back then. However, Gladys had more than one castle, so it was still a possibility that I had been kidnapped by Gladys. The room had an open window, and from there I could see that it was already night.
"How could this happen?" I thought. I tried to remember, but my memory was fuzzy. Probably because I was still not fully awake yet.
I need to remember.
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Let's start from this morning...
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I woke up like usual, woken up by Huck to be exact...
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Then we all had breakfast like usual...
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After that... we all went out to walk around Emerald City...
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We also visited the greenhouse to check the gem berries there...
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We even played with some berrykins afterwards...
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Oh yeah, then suddenly one berrykin...
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She noticed something above...
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And then...
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"I can't remember anything past that..." I said. "But wait..."
I then remembered, although blurry, that I heard something at that time. What I heard was a sinister laugh, and the voice sounded like...
"Gladys!" I said. "That's it! The laughing voice was definitely Gladys!"
I immediately came to the conclusion that I had been kidnapped by Gladys. I still had no idea for what purpose, but she was definitely up for no good. I had to get out of there before she returned. It was easier said than done, though. I was still locked in a hanging small iron cage. The door of the cage was right in front of me, complete with a padlock. From what I could observe, the padlock was not locked by magic. Unlike what had happened the first time I had met Gladys, this time the padlock was just a regular padlock with regular locking mechanism.
"I hope I still have that here," I said, reaching into my pocket. It was a relief that I still had it. The Key Master.
I then tried using Key Master on the padlock, and the device unlocked it successfully. I then pulled my legs inside the cage, opened the cage door, and jumped down. I landed on the floor successfully, and then took the lantern on the table with me. I went to the door of the room, which was fortunately not locked. Behind the door was a spiral staircase leading down. I walked down the stairs slowly and carefully. I was pretty scared by the darkness. I felt as if something could come out from the darkness below and attack me anytime. I was shivering, even though the air was not cold. The descend felt like it lasted forever.
Eventually, I arrived at the end of the staircase. There was another door there, and it was also not locked. I slowly opened the door, and behind it I saw that I was at the end of a long, dark corridor. The darkness was so great, I began to think that carrying a lit lantern was not a good idea. The lantern did not illuminate the way far enough for me to see anything, and the light would gave away my position to whatever was patrolling the place, if there was any. I then left the lantern at the bottom of the staircase and closed the door from the outside. Because of that, I was pretty much blind.
"Better use this," I thought, pressing a small button located at the frame of my glasses. With it activated, I could see in the dark as if it were noon. However, I only had about 30 minutes before I would start having headaches from the strain of using it.
I then started walking through the long corridor. While walking I kept wondering about what had happened to me.
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I had been kidnapped by Gladys in the morning...
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Judging from the darkness outside...
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at least twelve hours had passed already...
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Why didn't my friends rescue me already?
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I still cannot judge that yet...
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Perhaps they have tried, but failed...
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But if that was the case...
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Were they just got kicked out from this castle?
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Or worse...?
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Maybe Gladys captured them and confined them somewhere...?
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That seems more likely...
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But that means...
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I can't just escape from here...
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"I must make sure that they are fine," I thought. But then I wondered where I should go. If my friends had been captured and confined, they were probably at the dungeon of the castle. However, I had no idea where the dungeon was, or if the castle had any dungeon to begin with. While thinking about that, I noticed a large door nearby. The door did not give the impression that it was a dungeon door, but I had no lead anyway so I tried opening it.
Behind the door, there was another corridor. This corridor was smaller than the one I had walked through. It was also much less decorated, having only a few unlit torches on the walls instead of fancy wall lanterns and chandeliers in the previous corridor. At the other end of the small corridor, there was a wooden door secured with multiple padlocks.
"Could that be the dungeon door?" I thought. I then unlocked all the padlocks with Key Master and entered. Behind the door was a straight staircase leading down. I walked down the stairs, which was just long enough to go down one floor, and found another corridor with an array of prison cells. I then looked at all the prison cells one by one, but none of them had any prisoners.
I then went back to the long corridor and continued my walk through it. However, I suddenly felt dizzy and weak.
"This can't be..." I thought. "It's not even ten minutes yet."
I had no choice but to deactivate my glasses. As the result, I was in total darkness again. To make things worse for me, I didn't feel much better even after deactivating the glasses. I then decided to sit down on the floor, lean on the wall, and rest a bit. While resting, I felt the same thing I had felt while walking down the stairs from the tower back then...
Fear...
I had practically no sight at all in the darkness. If something approached me, I would not notice. I had no idea how many hours, minutes, or even seconds left until something like Gladys' winged monkey attacked me. I couldn't even convince myself that it would bring a light source to patrol the castle. Gladys could have enchanted its eyes to be able to see in the dark. I then felt that I heard noises, without any idea if the noises were real or just me hallucinating out of my own fear.
All those thoughts of fear and noises tired my mind out, causing me to feel really drowsy. I wanted to wake up immediately and escape from this dark place, but I felt so tired my body didn't even obey my mind anymore. In the end, I fell asleep in the darkness of the corridor.
Later, I woke up finding myself locked in the cage again. To make matters worse for me, my wrists and ankles were cuffed. My clothes somehow had been changed, probably to ensure I had nothing in my pocket to free myself again. I wore a white shirt, embarrassingly short red shorts, white socks, and no shoes. Suddenly the cage fell down to the floor and broke. I somehow didn't get injured at all, and then I stood up. I then easily broke the chains binding my wrists and ankles, but suddenly Gladys came into the room. She attacked me with a spell, but I dodged. Seeing that there was no way through her, I jumped out from the window. Right outside the window there was a large dragonfly which then carried me away from the tower. Gladys chased us by flying with her flight spell, and she attacked me with green lightnings. One of them hit the dragonfly, turning it into stone. I then fell down from great heights into the ground.
"Huh?" I said, finding myself on a bed. My own bed in Emerald Castle. "So it was a dream. No wonder everything were so crazy."
"Everyone! He's awake!" suddenly I heard Huck shouting. I didn't have my glasses so I couldn't see clearly, but soon I heard the sound of many people running closer.
"Blackberry!" I heard Strawberry shouting, and then suddenly she hugged me while I was still sitting on my bed. "I'm berry berry glad to see you again!"
"Uhh, Strawberry? What's wrong?" I asked.
"You really had us worried sick!" Angel said.
"What?" I asked.
"Seems he doesn't remember anything," Peppermint said.
"Can anybody tell me what I have missed?" I asked as I found my glasses and put them on.
"I'm going to be honest," Peppermint said. "You have missed two months worth of days."
"What?!" I said, being very surprised. "What had happened?"
"Terrible things," Apple said.
"Yeah, very terrible," Orange said.
"But it doesn't matter anymore. I'm just berry glad that now you're back with us again, Blackberry!" Strawberry said.
"Yep, she's right. She sure is!" Ginger said.
"Have I been kidnapped by Gladys or what?" I asked. "I remember waking up in a cage and..."
"No, you were not kidnapped," Angel said.
"Yeah, it must have been just a dream," Orange said.
"I guess everyone owes me an explanation," I said.
"But first thing first, how are you feeling right now, buddy?" Huck asked.
"Well..." I said, moving my body around. "Stiff. Also..."
"Also what?" Peppermint asked,
"Starving..." I said.
"Figures," Peppermint said.
"I will have Chef Dublee to prepare some meals for you," Huck said, and then he went off.
"I want to try standing up," I said. I then tried getting off the bed. It was more difficult than I had expected. Strawberry and Angel stood by me, ready to hold me in case I would fall. In the end, I managed to stand up although it felt really heavy for me.
"You did it, Blackberry!" Strawberry said.
"I really should move around and do workouts to get my body back like it was," I said.
"You're right, Blackberry," Angel said. "But don't push yourself too hard."
"Walking to the dining room should be a good start," I said.
We all then walked to the dining room, which normally was just about five minutes walk from the bedrooms. However, my body felt really heavy so it took much longer, at least I felt so. When we arrived there, Huck was already there with meals on the table next to him. Glinda and Henry were there too.
"I was just about to bring these to you, buddy," Huck said.
"I should start walking or I would never be able to leave that bed," I said, sitting down with the meals right in front of me.
"Chef Dublee was so happy to know that you're back," Glinda said.
"Not only him," Henry said. "Everyone in Emerald Castle... no, Emerald City, are happy to know that you are back."
"Well, I'm... touched," I said. "But I'm still in the dark. What has actually happened that I missed two months worth of days?"
"Have your meals first," Glinda said. "I will explain as you eat."
"Alright," I said, starting to eat the meals. As she had said, she explained the things that had happened...
-End of Chapter 10-
