Chap. 2- The Trip
Aubrey cried herself to sleep that night, not caring if her mother heard her. She always tried to keep a good face on, no matter what was going on, but the truth was that she was always soft and never liked to show it. She always hid it below her tough exterior.
Aubrey was in her room, trying to wreak it as much as she could. She could never output her emotions as much as she would like to, and did it the only way she could without hurting herself or breaking anything valuable. After her bed was a mess and all her stuffed animals were off the shelves she sat on her bed.
Tears rolled down the sides of her face, "This isn't fair," she said to herself throwing one of the extra pillows off the bed, "My father died of cancer when I was only two. . . and now my mother might as well . . ." She choked back her tears and buried her head in her legs. The dark blue comforters started to wrap around her foot by her constant movement and the sheets were already off the side of her bed from her earlier outburst. After sitting on her bed for a few minutes she turned her radio as loud as it could go without waking up the rest of the block or her mother, and hugged her knees to her chest.
"Why?" She stared at a little amulet that she held in her hand.
*~*Flashback*~*
"Aubrey, can you do me a favor?"
Aubrey nodded her head, "Anything mom." Her mother held out her hand and handed something over to Aubrey. Aubrey held out her hand and a beautiful blue amulet surrounded with gold binding on a gold chain fell into her hands. "Mom, it's your amulet. You've had this ever since . . ."
"Your father gave it to me when we were very young. I want you to take good care of it. It's been in our family for a very long time, and it's very special. Promise me that you will take very good care of it."
"I will. I promise with all my heart." She struggled to smile down at her mother, but she couldn't hide the tears that were going to overflow any second.
"Don't worry about me, Aubrey. I can take care of myself, but you have a long life ahead of you. That amulet always gave me luck, and I want to pass it on to you."
"Thank you, Mother." Aubrey hugged her and quickly left before she started to cry uncontrollably. She would save that for later.
*~*End flashback*~*
Aubrey laid on her side, still clutching the amulet. 'I will never let this out of my grasp. No matter what it takes, I will not let my mom down.' She slowly fell asleep shortly after her thought and vow.
***
Instead of her alarm screaming in her ear, Aubrey woke up to some racket from the neighbor's home. She looked at her clock on her bed stand, "Five-thirty. Almost time to get up anyway." She dragged herself out of bed and pulled on a black t-shirt with a white kitty with fairy wings on it. She found a comfortable pair of baggy jeans and pulled them on as well. She searched the floor in the dark for her favorite hiking boots and shoved them on her feet not really bothering to tie them. The sun was about to rise as the sky was starting to take on a lighter blue color. Aubrey tried to catch the last glimpse of the stars as they faded and the moon started to escape from view.
From out in the hallway she heard some more banging noises and decided to check it out, at first she thought it was from next door, but then again she could have now sworn that it was coming from inside. She put her hair up in a clip, put on her jacket that was hanging near by, and reached out for the door handle, "What is going on out there?" Before she even touched it, it began to turn by itself. Aubrey stood stunned, unable to think about getting a weapon; she backed up against her bed and felt her hand land on something. 'Mom's amulet!' She grabbed it and stuffed it in her back jeans pocket to keep it safe.
Suddenly the door burst open and three creatures began to run into the room. Aubrey couldn't see their features very clearly, but she did know for sure that they weren't human. She almost chocked on her own tongue and tried to swallow her breath. 'This isn't possible,' she backed up and sat on her bed, struggling to fit herself even deeper into the corner that held her bed.
One of the three creatures came up to Aubrey and pushed up her chin to look at her neck. "She doesn't have it, Captain," he said in a scruffy voice, while turning back to one of the other creatures. The creature was so close and Aubrey could smell its breath and body odor, it smelt awful, she could barely stand it. She closed her eyes and tried to turn her head away a little.
The tallest of the three stepped forward, apparently the captain, "Bring her with us, and search the room quickly! The sun is nearly up!" The creature slapped something on Aubrey's wrists and they slammed together.
"What the-"
"Shut your mouth!" The creature held a sharp knife near her heart and she shut up quickly. Even though Aubrey tried with all her might to push herself into her corner even further the creature pulled her out her bedroom door.
Aubrey could hear her mother crying out her name, but didn't know if they were in her room as well. She looked towards her mother's room, but it didn't look like they had even tried to get into the room. She was relieved, but wondered why they only come into her room. Aubrey kicked the creature holding her in the shins and tried to run toward her mother's room to warn her, until she was hit in the back with something and blacked out.
***
"'Ey, you al'ight?" Aubrey opened her green eyes to a blurred picture of a pair of dark brown ones.
"Who are you?" The girl backed up and Aubrey saw her in full picture starting to get more in focus with every second. She was a girl around sixteen years old maybe seventeen, and had black hair, and had a southern accent. (I'm not good at typing accents, so please don't hurt me!)
"My name's Mandy," she extended her hand out to Aubrey, "The orcs just brought you in. Apparently you tried to run." Aubrey took her hand and pulled herself up.
"Yeah, I did actually- wait a minute . . . orcs?" Aubrey asked rubbing the side of her head.
"Yep, those things over there," she pointed out through bars to one of the creatures standing by the other doors.
"You mean, like Middle Earth orcs?"
"That's where we are. 'Ey, it took me at least a couple of days to figure out where I was, how d'you know so fast?"
"My friend and I saw the movie a couple of days ago for the millionth time," Aubrey looked out of the window in the cell and felt a rush of heat brushing against her face. She got down from the window, took off her jacket, and tied it around her waist. "You could probably call my friend a Middle Earth geek. She tells me everything she can without me starting to yell at her."
"Oh, what's your name?"
"It's Aubrey. Are you from here, I mean Middle Earth?"
"I'm from Louisiana. You?"
"Good 'ol California," she wiped off some sweat from her forehead, "You would think that I would be used to this kind of temperatures, but I guess not. I'm sorry; I should have figured that you were from the South, no offense or anything."
"It al'ight, none taken. But you haven't seen the whole picture yet. The overall picture is much worse once you actually see the outside. Compared to the outside, that heat you were getting from the winda, feels like cool summer breeze." Aubrey and Mandy sat against the other wall and started to talk to each other, giving general information on each other. Like when's their birthday, how many siblings if any, and anything else they could think of.
"What are they looking for anyway?"
"Don't really know. All I know is that it is very important and very valuable to 'em. I heard 'em saying to one another one night that it's some kind of jewel with magic properties."
"Why look at my home? We have no jewels, especially the magical kind."
"Neither did my home. But they came anyway, and took me with 'em." They skipped to another subject so not to attract any attention, since the guard was starting to look at them suspiciously already.
At first the cell only held Aubrey and Mandy, but that soon changed. One by one, more and more people came into the cell, until it was almost full. Day by day Aubrey and Mandy got closer and closer as friends, although Aubrey could never tell where one day ended and another began. All the time, it seemed only darkness, red and orange light from flames, and maybe the occasional moonlight entered the cell.
"Mandy, have you noticed something?"
"About what?"
"All the people that they are bringing in are all girls around our age."
"So?"
"So, there must be a connection, it can't just be a coincidence."
"Try not to think so much in here, Aubrey."
"Why?"
"They don't like thinkers; they see 'em as a threat. A day before you arrived a girl had some of the same ideas and was automatically killed. Just act dumb, and show no emotion. They take pride in causing pain; don't give 'em the pleasure of showing yours no matta' how painful." Aubrey nodded her head and asked Mandy the same question; she just shrugged her shoulders and sat back down in their usual corner.
***
After a few more days the orcs began to round up Aubrey and Mandy's group and led them out on to one of the many platforms outside. Aubrey finally saw what Mandy meant by 'wait until you see the outside.'
It was just a huge fire pit, with nothing stopping you from falling in except for the wooden platforms and rope bridges. The platforms seemed like they too could fall into the great pit, that didn't give much confidence to Aubrey. The sky looked like it was eternal night just as she thought, covered by the dark smoke and dust coming from the great pits.
Their group was led into a circle, facing into one another. Aubrey looked to her left and saw Mandy staring straight ahead, following her own advice of showing no emotion. Aubrey felt the unbearable heat coming up from the pit beneath them and thanked god that she tied her jacket around her waist, and that she wasn't still wearing it. Although, she had a lot of difficulty walking when her boots kept melting on the wood beneath her. She thought it so strange that her boot's soles were melting, but the wood did not even show one sign of burning.
Aubrey could hear some screaming from the other platforms and took her eyes off of the wood to look around. She saw countless lines of girls and women of all age either being tortured or being put through awful labor. Most were either being hit by one or more of the orcs or had heavy loads on their backs or in their hands. Aubrey watched as some girls fell from exhaustion, and then thrown over the side into the pit by one of the passing orcs. Some of the other girls cried out for one girl that fell, but was stopped by a shorter, possibly older woman who patted them on the back and kept them going. The woman looked down at the pit, to check that none of the others girls saw and looked at Aubrey. The woman gave her a sympathetic look, a small smile and looked away. Aubrey watched her as she put some of her dirty blond colored hair back behind her ear and kept working.
She also noticed something about these other girls, they had some sort of material over their right hand, and almost every one of them was different. Then she realized it, some were humans, but others were what looked like elves and dwarves and others like . . . hobbits.
She knew the elves from their fair complexion, even though their faces were covered with burns and dust. The hobbit lasses were much shorter and didn't have any shoes, so their feet had to suffer even more. She looked around her circle, and was pretty sure that they were all humans.
"Come on now!" Aubrey could see other orcs pushing the girls and women even further, "We must rebuild to our master's greatness."
'Master's greatness? But Jane told me the end to the third book . . . Sauron is gone . . . isn't he?'
Orcs now started to circle each person in Aubrey's group, each one setting down a flat piece of metal. "Place your right hands on the plates," one of the closer ones said. Aubrey felt more heat radiating from the plate. "Now!"
Others placed their hands on the plates, all screamed out except Mandy. Aubrey was the only one with her hand still above the plate. "Put your hand on it now!" An orc came up to her and slapped her in the face. Aubrey looked at Mandy, and Mandy gave her a pleading look in her eyes; 'Please just do what he says,' Aubrey seemed to hear her say the words in her head. Aubrey nodded her head, got back up, and placed her hand on the plate.
She closed her eyes to hold herself from screaming out in pain. The orc standing next to her stepped on her hand making the burning even more intense. She didn't even flinch. She wouldn't, and refused, to give him the pleasure of her pain. The burning flowed through her whole body and it felt like she was changing from the inside out, but that was impossible. Her shoes seemed to start to grow a little tight, her clothes a little bigger, except her shirt, which was always small on her to begin with, and it felt like the plate was rising or something.
"Alright, hands off the plates."
The orc took his foot off of her hand and she opened her eyes, showing no fear or pain, just utter disgust. Aubrey looked at her hand and could see a great burn mark, some portions of her hand almost black with her still steaming skin. The orcs gave a cloth to every girl in the circle to put around their hand except Aubrey and Mandy.
"You," an orc pointed at Mandy, "and you," the same orc pointed at Aubrey. "Come with me."
The two girls followed the orc to the highest platform as the other girls were put straight to work. "Congratulations," he said with a sneer turning to the two, "You two are very strong. You two are of a few that have the privilege of a fast, nearly painless death."
"Some privilege," muttered Aubrey holding her wrist of the hand that was burnt.
"Now who's first?" the orc pointed to the end of the platform. Mandy stepped forward, "Ah, so the elf steps forward."
'Elf?' Aubrey looked at Mandy closely. She had changed somehow . . . her ears were now pointed, her hair was as straight as can be and she had gotten . . . taller.
"Go then, elf." Mandy stepped to the end of the platform.
"Mandy no!"
An orc hit Aubrey in the stomach and she fell to the wooden planks beneath her feet, "No, let her speak. I want to hear her plead."
"Mandy, we can fight them! Don't do this!" Aubrey said clutching her stomach where the orc hit her.
"What's the use, Aubrey? We'll die anyway," Mandy said looking down at her burnt hand.
"Then let's do something worth dying for. Don't just give up! You're stronger then that! You taught me better then that!" Aubrey could feel tears in her eyes.
"No matta' what they'll win Aubrey . . . At least they won't have the satisfaction of killing me with their own hands," Mandy stepped off the platform backwards looking at Aubrey.
"Mandy!" Aubrey watched with horror as she saw her only friend in this world fell to her death by her own free will, and had to turn away was she hit the flames. She closed her eyes hard and felt a tear fall down her cheek, then almost evaporates in the heat.
The orc turned to her, "Your turn." Aubrey kicked him in the groin and then tried to run the opposite way, but was stopped by more orcs. She tried to fight them in everyway, but couldn't get past the huge mob coming toward her.
"Let go of me!" They eventually tired her out and one pushed her toward the edge.
"Mandy may have given up, but I won't. I will come back, and you will pay dearly for all the pain you have caused." The orc smiled and pushed her lightly over the edge failing to see the threat in her statement.
Aubrey saw the flames rushing toward her. She took her mother's amulet out from her back pocket and held it tight in her grasp. She could hear the orcs start to scream something from the platforms above, but didn't want to know what. Some even started to point at her and scream at one another to do something. 'Please be by my side,' she thought out to her mother's spirit, as she closed her eyes and held the amulet to her chest. She felt herself hit the warmth of what had to be the flames . . . and all she saw and thought of was darkness.