Chapter Three: Dark Hallways

(Sage)

"Oh man, this is NOT what I need," I said. My adversary stepped out of the shadows, an evil grin on his face. "Cale, what is Sheila doing working for the Dynasty!?"
"Easy. Talpa saw her as en exceptional replacement for Sehkment. She already has it in for Torrent. She won't kill him, but, maybe she'll repeat what she did all those years ago."

"No!" I said. Cye would be destroyed.

"Maybe yes, maybe no, I don't know much on that mater," said Cale.

"Do what?" asked Ariel. "What did she do to him?"

"You're too young to know," I said. "Get behind me." The girls had no trouble obeying. Cale grinned evilly.

"Time to die, Ronin," he said.

"Not on my dead body."

CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANG!

"Pops!" said Ariel. Cale screamed and was gone from the intense light of the Staff. Ariel ran over to Anubis and hugged him while he was in the robes of the Ancient. "Pops, a woman named Sheila took off with Daddy."

Anubis silenced and his temper started to go off. "Anubis, don't do it," I said. "Sheila's gotten us all mad at one point or another."

"But I heard that threat. She'd better stay away from my son," said Anubis.

Skye and Starr exchanged looks of confusion and both shrugged. Anubis looked at the girls. "I'll explain about those two later," I said quickly.

"All right," said Anubis. "This had better be good."

(Cye)

I hid in the corner of the large room. I felt a small trickle of blood drip down my chin. I subconsciously wiped it away. I could have cared less about that. It was the big picture I was frightened off again. No, no, not again. Dear God, why did you let it happen again?!

Sheila towered over me. "Pathetic, aren't you? Aren't you gonna fight me? My new knowledge makes this activity even more enjoyable, don't you agree, Cye?" she said. I didn't even look at her. "Answer me!"

CRACK!

I winced. Talpa had given her a whip to make her "playtime" even more "fun". It stung badly on my bare skin. I wanted to cry. I hid my face in my arms. "Please, let me go," I begged.

"Humph," said Sheila. "You deserve this, you know. You were the one that got me pregnant. You have no idea what that was like, do you?"

I wanted to answer. Raising Ariel was probably a lot harder than carrying her for nine months and giving birth. She didn't have to frantically search for a job or live in a teen shelter. She's never had to struggle through high school while balancing a job, a baby, and homework. She has no heart.

"Fascinating," said the voice of Kioko. "I'd ask to play with him, but he's your toy."

"Kioko, what are you doing in here?" asked Sheila.

"Just seeing how badly you've broken him," said Kioko. "Pretty badly, I see. I'd love to see Icefire like that."

"Wouldn't you, now," said Sheila. "And I'm sure Kayura would like to see Strata like that."

"She would, too," said Kioko. "Still, it's fascinating to see men cowering like this. It's pathetic, but it's amusing."

I curled into a tighter ball. Every bone in my body ached, it seemed. After Sheila had brought me into the Dynasty, you can guess that I was raped again. It was twice as brutal this time. Twice as degrading. I just wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground and never come out.

Never, never again. . .

(Sage)

As we wandered down the hallways, Ariel clinging to Anubis and strangely enough Starr clinging to me, I tried not to think about what Sheila was doing to poor Cye. I could almost guess that she was tormenting him again. That hurt.

"Shh," whispered Anubis. "I heard something."

"What?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," said Anubis. "I think it's a guard."

A head peeked around the corner. "Anubis? Sage?"

"It's just Kojiro," I said.

"What do you mean, JUST Kojiro?!" said Kojiro, looking rather offended. He was in subarmor, obviously just out of a fight.

I smiled. "I'm just teasing you, get a grip."

Kojiro snorted. Then, he looked at Starr and Skye. "I have one. Ariel, who are your friends?"

"Sheila came back, but this time with Sehkment's armor. She took off with Cye," I said.

"Why I –" started Kojiro.

"Kojiro, why is my mother so mean?" asked Ariel.

"She knows?" said Kojiro, lowering his fighting stance.

"Yeah, she does," I said. "The kids here, Starr and Skye, saw everything as well as Ariel. We're trying to figure out what's going on."

"Talpa's alive, too," said Ariel.

I sighed heavily. "Here we go AGAIN," I said. "Let's try to get outside, it's not safe in here."

"I agree, it wouldn't be good to get any of these girls in and serious trouble," said Anubis.

"Well no Dynasty moron will mess with Ariel because then they'll have to answer to her daddy or her grandfather and get their butts kicked," said Kojiro.

"Your grandpa's a butt kicker?" said Starr.

"Oh, yeah," said Ariel, pointing at Anubis. "He was one of those immortal people that live a really, really long time and don't age or anything."

"Cool," said Skye. "My grandfather goes to Bingo games."

"Is this a grandfather activity?" asked Anubis.

"I'll explain it to you later," I said. Though the thought of Anubis in a Bingo hall with a bunch of funny smelling old ladies WAS amusing.

"Our best bet is to find the other Ronin Warriors, Mia, and White Blaze," said Kojiro. "So let's get going, report what happened to Ariel's dad, and then send five really ticked Ronin Warriors after Sheila."

I narrowed me eyes and sighed heavily. "How do you plan on doing that?"

I had to ask. "Easy! All we need is a bunch of super glue, about a gross of dead hamsters and. . ."