"No." Kathleen cried in a soft voice. She wasn't even sure if she said it at all. "No. No. No no no!" Each word was louder than the last.

Lucy was shouting in hysteria. "No! Edmund! Edmund!"

"Lucy!"

Everyone was struggling against their captor, except Eustace, who was too terrified to speak anymore.

"No. No no. No!" Kathleen kept pulling against the grip of the two men who were trying to hold her down.

"Kathleen!"

The captors were taking Lucy, Eustace, and Kathleen out the door they came in as they saw Edmund use his body as a means of force. The girls pulled themselves in his direction, trying to lose the grip of their enemies, but Edmund's fighting was a waste of energy. One of the men used the hilt of the sword he'd taken and hit on the side of Edmund's head, whose body stumbled for a moment then went limp in their arms.

"No! Edmund!" Lucy was sobbing now.

The men had dragged the three of them out to a different part of the city. This part was much closer to the docks and seemed to serve as a central hub. The plaza they were just in looked like it was left to rot. This side of the island looked like it had much more activity. There was a little amount of sand and footprints. There were men, much like the ones who ambushed the children in the church, going into stone buildings and coming out with someone who didn't want to be taken away. People struggling and fighting. Some beg to be spared while others were in tears, wailing.

"Be quiet!" said a man holding an older lady, "Or you will be sacrificed without trial." The women's voice turned to a whimper.

The sun had completely set now. Kathleen was still pushing against the ones from the church. Her arms were sore and her wrists had become red. She was getting tired and didn't know how much longer she could take. Sadly, she didn't have to. Ahead of them was the wall. The children could see other beings held against their will. Humans, dwarves, and fauns. Different species were lined on the ground, waiting anxiously for sometime horrible. The look on their faces told them that whatever it was, it couldn't be stopped. Kathleen and the others were being pushed toward the same wall. She fought harder.

So did Lucy. "I am a Queen Lucy the Valiant and demand that you let us go! Let everyone go!" Kathleen could hear the straining in her voice as she was pushed and shoved by the two men.

They were by the wall now. A new group of men were there with chains opened and ready. Some had chained others to the wall while others were sickly ready for the new arrivals. One of the men that were holding Lucy threw her against the wall, hard. She hit the side of her head and turned unresponsive. She dropped down to the floor.

The older woman that was being dragged out by another party saw this. Her eyes grew wide at the sight. From Kathleen's position, she could see something snap inside her eyes. She couldn't see what she did next, for they had taken the woman away into another part of the island.

Kathleen stopped struggling against the men. Instead, she pulled herself closer to the wall, closer to where Lucy was laying. The men pushed her down next to a faun with ginger hair. His face had no emotion. She allowed the man to chain her against the wall. She panicked when they put something around her neck. Another part of the chain. One for the neck, two for the wrist. Kathleen moved her knee, hoping it could wake up Lucy. She was out cold.

Kathleen gave a shaky sigh as the men cuffed Lucy, and herself with another set of iron cuffs. This time, it was attached to the wall they were laying against.

The man who held Kathleen sneered. "We know who you are, Your Majesty." He gave Kathleen a rougher than needed tug at her cuffs. She was less than six inches away from his face. It was closer than she was comfortable with. His breath ranked of alcohol. It felt like he was examining her as if he was trying to see if an antique was real, or if it had any value. Kathleen craned her neck back, trying to grow the distance as much as possible. Her heart pounded as the man laughed darkly, tossing her back.

"Why are you doing this?" Eustace croaked. The boy was growing anxious by the second.

The man didn't pay attention to Eustace. He stood up and rolled one of his wrists. "You know little girl," Kathleen didn't need to be told that he was walking to her, "if you just behave like the lady you look to be," he could feel his eyes trail on her, "you won't have to be thrown to the mist." With that, he and the other ambushers of the church left them without a glance.

"Mist?" Kathleen managed to say after the men had disappeared. She turned to the other captives, "Mist? What are they talking about?" It all came out in a rush. She searched for any hints anyone around would give, but no one would meet her eyes. When she turned to Eustace, she saw his chest rise quickly while trying to make sense of everything. Kathleen forced herself to calm her own breaths as he looked around. When he finally landed on Kathleen, he did the same.

No one said anything for a few minutes. Those minutes felt like hours. Sooner than later the city was in its wee hours, with the only sound being chains, crying, and crashing waves.

Kathleen was too anxious to sleep. There was no way she could allow herself in a situation like this. Especially with Lucy out. She could see Eustace fighting it, too. She had told him to sleep as she kept watch if anything were to happen. He argued but in the end, sleep won.

To keep herself from getting tired, Kathleen made sure to check Lucy's head every hour to make sure there wasn't any bruising or bleeding. What made it difficult was it had been getting too dark to see anything. Kathleen was sure that they had thrown Lucy on the side of her head. If there was any redness or any sign of injury, her hair would be covering it.

She hugged herself as she tried to look at her surroundings. There was an archway not too far away from them. Kathleen was positive that it was the archway that can lead them back to the church. She kept a vigilant eye to any small sound or movement. Other than birds and far away sobs, nothing could be seen in front of them. That was the only good thing about being chained to a wall, she thought. Nothing can creep up behind them.

Kathleen didn't realize she had fallen asleep until she felt the sun beginning to rise against her face. She adjusted herself and felt her body ache all over. It was in those quick quiet moments, everything came flooding back. The events of the night before, the fight, the ship, the painting. The strict movements of her arms spiked the nerves in her head, but then she remembered she wasn't alone.

Tring to ignore the soreness and her most horrid thoughts, Kathleen turned over and tried to get a better look at Lucy, who was still out. Kathleen ended up on her knees leaning away from the wall, trying to get a better look at the younger girl's head and her cousin sleeping right next to her. As she moved one of her knees, she accidentally hit one of Lucy's legs, making the Queen wake up with a jolt.

Lucy took a quick look at her surroundings as Kathleen let herself fall in a sit.

"Kathleen? Are you alright?" Lucy said breathlessly.

Kathleen nodded and sighed in relief, "Yes. I am. But Eustace..." She winced as she raised her arms as high as she could and pointed to Eustace behind Lucy, who was still asleep. She sighed in relief that he looked the same as the night before. "I told him I'll wake him if anything happened, but I ended up falling asleep."

Lucy nodded and softly nudged her cousin. "Eustace." Just as Lucy did, the boy woke up with a start. Kathleen could see his breath quicken as he remembers where they were.

"What's happened? What's going on?" Eustace said as he looked in every direction.

Kathleen leaned against the wall, "Nothing, yet."

Lucy put her hand against her head, "That's what I was afraid of."

Kathleen pressed her lips together, "Does it hurt much?" The older girl's eyes took a quick dart to the Queen's head than back to her face.

"Throbbing only. Lucky, I think." The Queen gulped as she shut her eyes.

The older girl nodded, then bit her lip, "I know you're in pain, but I need to ask you something." She hesitated as Lucy opened her eyes and looked at her with a strain. "Do you know anything about a 'mist'? What it is, perhaps?"

Lucy thought in discomfit. After a moment of silence, she shook her head slightly, "No. I don't."

"The mist is the one that takes." A voice replied, making Kathleen turn sharply. It belonged to the ginger-haired faun that was chained to the other side of Kathleen.

"You know about the mist?" Lucy moved to face the faun, groaning in the process.

"Everyone in the Lone Islands knows about the mist." He didn't look up.

"What it is?" The Queen asked the faun.

"It takes." His voice was hollow.

"Takes them where?"

"No one knows."

Lucy pressed her lips together, "Do you know where it came from?"

"No one knows." He repeated.

"This is no time for riddles!" Eustace exclaimed. "I want to get out of here, now! There is no way the British Forces have not heard of this. My mother wil-."

His voice was cut off by a scream. It belonged to a woman. From where their children were sitting, they could hear chains being rattled, but not from their own.

"You've been warned, peasant. Now embrace the consequences." A different voice said.

"No!" The same woman screamed. A struggle could be heard.

"What's happening?" Eustace cried.

The faun didn't answer at first, but when he did, it brought chills to Kathleen's spine. "The sacrifice."

A wagon was coming in to view. It rode right in front of them with the same voice screaming the same word. "No!" It was the woman whom Kathleen had seen the night before. The one who was whimpering then pulled behind the wall.

"Helene!" cried a voice.

As the wagon was riding farther away, a man was seen running to catch up to it. "No! Please!" He yelled back. The man had caught up to the back of the wagon, which had men and women tied to a poll with irons such as the children. The man had a hold of the woman, but only for a second.

There was a guard who must have been placed there for that very reason. The guard pulled on the man's arm and punched him square in the jaw. The man fell to the floor and lost his balance.

"Mummy!"

Kathleen almost missed the young girl calling after her mother. She was running after the wagon as well, farther behind the man, who must have been her father.

The woman, Helene, called to her daughter, "Stay with Daddy!" She was getting further and further away from the rest of her family.

The father was trying to get up, but fell with each attempt, "Don't worry! I'll find you!"

The whole sight unveiled right before Kathleen's eyes. The whole thing made her eyes begin to water. She turned to the faun and asked the question that was burning inside her. "How can you stand for this?" The faun had yet to look at her. "How?!"

The faun did not meet her eyes. "It's a worthy sacrifice for the city." His empty words sounded like a dark mantra.

"There is no such thing as a 'worthy sacrifice' if someone else is losing their life." Kathleen had felt her body go cold.

"They are not losing their life," the faun said hotly, but the fire was out just as he said the words ended. "They are going somewhere worse." Sorrow filled his voice, and Kathleen could tell he was trying to hide it.

Eustace scoffed, "You just said you don't know where they go, but now you said they are going somewhere worse than death. Do you know or don't you?"

The faun dropped his head slightly, "Just watch."

So they did. They couldn't see much, but they could still listen. The three tried to watch and listen as men, much like the ones from the church, forced the ones from the wagon into a small boat. They could hear muffled screams and grunts of struggles. Kathleen grabbed onto the fabric of her trousers. It was quiet for a minute until they could see them entirely. The boat was going deeper into the ocean. They didn't try to swim overboard, which meant that just like before, they were chained.

As soon as she realized this, thunder rumbled in the sky, changing the unmerciful shining sun to an overcast shadow. It started in the ocean, then began to speed its way to the town. The screams were getting louder. In the ocean, a strange green fog began to appear. It started small, but it quickly grew. It was rising from the ocean level and was making its way to the boat of people, who were frantically trying to splash the boat in a different direction. The green substance then formed smoky tentacles and wrapped itself around the people. The screams were more panicked than ever until they just stopped, like a record playing and someone lifted the needle mid-song.

The fog retreated to the ocean. The sun shined over the city and the boat that was once filled with people was gone.

Kathleen's eyes were dried from shock. She could heard Eustace stuttering.

"A worthy sacrifice." Repeated the faun. Silence. Kathleen turned to the other prisoners. They didn't seem bothered by the events at all. "No one has ever come back."

"And you're okay with this?" Kathleen's voice strained. The fog, or mist, had taken all those people. The blank expression from the other prisoners was proof to her that it wasn't the first time it had to happen.

"Being taken by the mist is a worse fate than being sold to a stranger." The faun sounded like he was saying it more to himself than to the others.

"And who said that? You? Or the one who's doing the selling?" For the first time, Kathleen agreed with Eustace.