CHAPTER 53 - CAPTIVE

My eyes slowly open, one eye hard to see out of due to the bruising. I'm almost positive I have a black eye. I remember one of the guards landing a lucky punch. In addition to this, my whole body aches, and my head is pounding. It's like a drum, a constant throbbing in my head with every beat. Everything is a little blurry, but my vision slowly comes back into focus. Across from me is a concrete wall, and the numbness I feel tells me so is the floor. My arms are numb too, and for a moment, I can't figure out why, then I realize.

I'm shackled to the wall.

I can't help the groan from deep inside of me as I give the chains a shake. If I was still a vampire, I could probably break them loose after a few attempts, but unless these chains are flimsy, I'm not getting out of them anytime soon.

I take another look at my surroundings, and suddenly, the events come rushing back to me. I had been tranquilized. When I had come to, I was too weak to fight back. I remember someone beating me. Cronus. It had been Cronus. He took advantage of my weakened state to avenge his anger toward me. I had been hit on the head, which explains the pounding I feel now. I must have blacked out, because I don't remember anything else that happened after that. And now, I am here. It looks like a dungeon. Well, of course, because that's definitely what it is.

I wonder if Roman is okay. I keep picturing in my mind Roman going down. And what about the others? Did they make it out alright? It would appear, however, that I'm the only one down here. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. Hopefully they got away, but if not…

I don't have much time to worry about them, because shortly after I awake, I hear the door being unlocked. A sliver of yellow light makes me squint as the door opens. A guard walks in with a tray of food and sets it down on the floor beside me.

"Where's that bastard Cronus? I want to see him!"

The guard ignores me and instead, unlocks one of my hands free so that I can eat.

"Answer my question!"

The guard places the key back into his pocket and silently walks out of the dungeon, locking the door on his way out.

I glance down at the tray of food, which consists of a meager portion of bread, water, and berries of a questionable nature. I wouldn't put it past Cronus to poison me, so I leave the food untouched.

Then, with a hand free, I work at trying to loosen the chain around my other hand. It's not going to budge without a key, but I don't give up just yet. Looking to the wall, I notice that the chain is bolted in with a screw. I try to loosen the bolt with my hand, but without the aid of a screwdriver, it doesn't seem to want to budge. And of course, my pocket knife is gone. They made sure to take away my weapons. I miss my trusty axe the most.

Damn.


I drift in and out of sleep, tired from hunger and thirsty because the water I had hours ago is long gone. The tray of food brought down this morning is now covered in ants. They're having a feast on the bread. I could brush them off and eat it, but I'm not that desperate. Besides, I still don't know if it's been poisoned or not.

No one has been down here in hours, or at least I think it's been hours. It's hard to get a sense of time down here, though the sunlight creeping through the small window on the upper wall is now slanted at a different angle, so I presume it's late morning or afternoon.

I start to fall back asleep, but the sound of keys jangling jolts me awake. Alert now, I sit up and watch as the door opens and Cronus and a couple of his goons step inside.

"Hello, Angel. So nice to have you here…again. Hope you don't mind the accommodations. Then again, you're used to living underground, aren't you?"

I glare at Cronus. Now that I'm finally face to face with him, my mind has gone blank with what I wanted to say.

"What, no hello? No nice to see you? You're certainly getting better treatment than your little friends."

This gets my attention. "What have you done to Roman and the others?"

"Roman, Roman…" Cronus gives his chin a scratch. "Remind me again of who that is. All of those blue-haired freaks seem to look alike to me."

"Stop playing games with me!"

"Your friend is dead."

"No."

"Oh, yes. He was always like a pesky mosquito. Feels so good when you finally swat them."

I'm quiet for a moment, not wanting to believe that Roman is gone. I think of Althea and the children back at home, probably worried and anxious for our safe return.

Cronus kicks the food tray on the floor, sending the berries in the bowl flying. "What? You didn't want your breakfast?"

"I'm not in the mood to be poisoned."

Cronus lets out a hearty laugh. "If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you myself. You can eat the food. I assure you I've done nothing to it."

"You don't want me dead? Could have fooled me."

"On the contrary, I changed my mind about you. In fact, I want you very much alive."

"To torture me?"

"Well, yes, there's that, but there's something else."

Cronus kneels down to my level, his face so close to mine that I can smell his breath, and leans forward to whisper in my ear.

"You're going to fight for us."


Back alone in my underground prison, my thoughts drift to Roman. I can't believe I've let them down. I've let the whole of Astoria down for that matter. It was my idea to come here, and now I've not only gotten Roman killed, but I'm completely useless by myself.

Hey, don't give up. You've got to fight so you can come back to me.

Buffy's voice is so clear in my head that I almost think she's in the room with me. I reach into my pocket and pull out her picture. It's wrinkled, despite the fact that I've been very careful with it. Buffy smiles at me, and I close my eyes, picturing her in my mind.

I may have lost the battle, but the war is still on. I'll kill Cronus with my bare hands if I have to. Nothing will stop me from finding a way back home to her.


I must have dozed off, because when I awake, Cronus is coming back inside.

"Well, have you had ample time to consider our plans?"

"I'm not fighting for you."

"You don't have a choice."

"What are you going to do? Make me?"

Cronus reaches for a chain around his neck, fumbling with what looks like a blue crystal hanging from the end of it. "We will make you fight for us. If it becomes necessary."

He holds the blue crystal in front of me, and for a moment, it throws me into a trance. I try to look away, but a force I don't understand keeps me staring at it. For a brief moment, I think I want to help him, which is crazy.

Cronus laughs, then moves the crystal away from me. Once out of my eyesight, I'm finally able to look away from it. Rational thought returns. What the hell was that all about?

"Well, what do we have here?"

Before I can react, Cronus snatches Buffy's picture off the floor.

"Don't you dare touch that!" As soon as the words leave my mouth, I know I've made a mistake.

I've let him see my weakness.

Cronus stares at the picture, a slow smile spreading across his face. I hate his filthy hands on her picture, smudging his fingerprints on her beautiful face.

"This must be someone important to you."

I keep my mouth shut this time and simply glare at him.

Cronus looks at me and sneers. "Let me guess…an old flame?"

I continue to glare at him, willing for him to lose interest in the photograph. But I know it's not going to happen.

"Well, she is beautiful, for a human perhaps. Too bad. It almost makes what I have to do almost …difficult."

Cronus reaches into his pocket and pulls out a match book. My eyes widen as he strikes up a match, then slowly touches the flame to the picture.

I keep my emotions to myself, wanting to scream at him for ruining the only thing of Buffy I have left, but I refuse to let him see my pain.

The picture, now blackened, falls from his hand and onto the floor. Cronus snuffs out the flame with his boot, then laughs as he walks out of the room. His guards follow him.

The door slams shut again, and I immediately grab what's left of the photograph, turning it around and hoping against hope that it can be salvaged. But when I turn the paper over, its charred remains crumble in my hand, and Buffy's face is gone.

Alone now, I let myself cry.