After stepping out of the dark and grimy room and into the intersection of two split hallways, Darien was at a loss, he didn't know where to go. His temporary happiness was lost from defeating one enemy and then entering a maze of hallways.
Already frustrated and tired, Darien chose the right hand side of the two stale smelling hallways and as he wandered down the right hallway he passed countless closed doors. Darien cautiously opened a few doors that he passed by and he found that they all looked ransacked and abandoned.
The building seemed to have absolutely no sign of life anywhere, it was like the whole entire building was unoccupied. Thinking about the building, it looked like it was built underground because there was not one window around and as far as Darien could see there was only dirt walls and dirt floors. And as he walked down the dark halls, his shoes had gotten thoroughly damp since there was a small layer of water covering the ground everywhere he went.
Along with the miserable look of the building that he was in, there was also an unbearable smell that was a mix between damp earth and the sickly sweet smell of dirty, decaying bodies.
After walking for another few minutes, the back of his neck tingled with the feeling of being watched. As he looked around the narrow hallway that he was in, the feeling of being watched never went away and as far as he knew there was no cameras around. It didn't help that he could only see empty darkness a few feet behind him and in front of him. Continuing down the hallway, Darien brushed off the idea that someone was watching him.
Noticing and passing the same door for about the third time, Darien was positive that he was going in circles. It seemed like he would have to walk into one of the countless doors that littered the hallways and search for a way out since he kept meeting up at the same door after going both left and right. Darien thought that this was turning out to be just like a very bad horror movie.
Turning towards the nearest door, Darien walked in and just like the other rooms that he had looked inside of, it was pitch-black. Deciding to test his luck he stepped farther inside of the room and let his hand drag along the wall for a light switch. As he was walking he heard his shoes slap against the ground which meant that there was more water and judging from the wetness of his shoes and jeans, the water was deeper than before, he didn't want to think about how dirty the water was.
When his hand fell on something that felt solid, he grasped it and hoped for the best. But when the room didn't light up like he wanted it to, he pulled slightly harder on what he was holding, he accomplished nothing except for pulling whatever was on the wall off and then it fell into the water with a splash and a thud. Trying not to think about what he had been holding, he continued to let his other hand roam across the wall. When his hand fell on another object, he carefully applied pressure to it and the light on the ceiling unwillingly flickered on, bathing the room in a surprisingly bright light.
The first thing Darien did when the light turned on was look around the room, there wasn't anything too interesting to look at though. This room, unlike the others, actually had walls that were covered, but they still weren't in great condition. Looking down, Darien watched the water that was almost up to his calves and saw that it was scattered with dirt and debris. The most noticeable objects that were floating around in the water were some sort of bones, Darien wanted to think that they were animal bones or something else, just not human.
While watching the ground that held the floating trash and other garbage, he saw everything being pulled across the room by the water and then trying to go down some sort of drain. Curious to find out where everything was being drained into, he approached the side of the room where the water was swirling and being sucked down at a languid speed. Darien, realizing that there had to be a place for the water to drain into, got ready to plunge his hand in the water.
Looking distastefully at the spiraling murky water, Darien pulled up his shirt sleeve and placed his hand into the water where it was moving the most. Running his hand around in the water, he pulled on anything that he could, sometimes the object gave away and he didn't want to think about what it was. Finally, when he grabbed a rather heavy object, it came loose with a load cracking noise, it sounded like it hadn't been opened in a long time. As soon as Darien pulled the heavy piece of metal out of the water, he figured out that it was a grate for water so it could slowly drain.
Stepping back from the now frantic pace of the swirling water, he watched more and more of the rooms dirt and debris get pulled down into the hole he had uncovered. After most of the water was gone, the ground looked worse than it had, if that was possible. Stepping over to the hole in the floor where the grate used to be, Darien looked down and instead of seeing a sewer or a drainage system where he could possibly escape from, he saw what he thought was more rooms.
Tossing the grate across the room without any thought, Darien quickly went down the small wet steps that were slick with water. The steps led down into another part of the building that he was in. Once further in the ground, everything looked better, the floor was stone and there was more light and different decorations littering the walls, the room had a sort of rustic or lodge feel to it.
This must be where they stay, or spend most of their time. And the upstairs must have just been a safety precaution or a façade, who knows.
As Darien started walking he realized that he didn't know what to do again, he wasn't sure whether he should fight the people in the building or to find a way out and come back with backup, he was really lost. Before he made his mind up on what to do, Darien was suddenly saved from making a decision because he heard deep male voices and heavy shoe steps ricocheting off of the stone floors. Glancing down at his own shoes he noticed that the water that came down from the other room was draining in yet another drain.
This time Darien didn't follow the waters path as he quietly made his way down a stretch of hall that the men weren't walking towards. Darien wanted to at least look the place over before he approached anyone and he also hoped that know one noticed that the drain grate was missing.
As Darien went further into the building, the stone floor stopped and there was no more decorations anywhere, the lights also got more sparse. Not paying attention as he was walking, Darien was surprised when there was yet another change of scenery. The rooms before had a creepy and unsettling feel, but now they had a dark and evil feel.
There were heavy looking cages or bars that had dark black paint on them. The walls had ominous looking tools, which were probably for torture. The only thing that comforted Darien was that the tools on the wall looked like they haven't been used in a while, either that or the people who owned them kept them clean or for decorations, but he doubted it. The room looked like it would function as a room for torture and a room to keep prisoners.
Before he turned around to leave, Darien saw a man, he wasn't as strong or impressive looking as the other men he had seen, in fact he looked haggard and dead. Darien watched the man to see what he was doing, but he didn't seem to notice Darien when he had walked in and he seemed to be transfixed with something that was on the floor.
Approaching the man, Darien got ready to grab him and most likely kill him. When he was a few feet away from the hunched over figure, Darien could hear the man talking to himself or to the rather large bloodstain on the floor that Darien just noticed. The mans cracked voice rang throughout the room as he repeated the same sentences over and over again.
" I have to clean, clean for them, they can't even clean up their messes. More prisoners should arrive soon, which means more bloodstains to clean up" With those phrases repeating in his head, Darien decided that the man was delusional and the he was probably put into that state by the men occupying the building. Then Darien quickly wrapped his fingers around the dirty neck of the man in front of him.
Instead of fighting against Darien's grip, the man went limp like he was waiting to die. The only thing that he said was, " They will be angry when they find me dead, someone else will have to clean up after them now."
" Stop!" Startled yet again by something, Darien whipped around quickly to find the source of the voice, which sounded feminine. Holding the limp, but still alive body of the sick looking man, Darien was faced with a pretty fierce looking woman. She had long black hair which was matted with what he thought was either blood or dirt, maybe both. She was also standing up in one of the black cells that he had first seen, she was probably on the floor when he came in and her tattered dark outfit blended in with the surroundings.
" Stop what? This man should be killed, he is cleaning up a blood stain that he probably made." As he said that, the woman walked forward in her cell and gripped the bars that were the closest to Darien and then she launched into an argument, though she wasn't yelling or angry.
" You shouldn't kill anyone around here, they are all human, or they used to be. We have to look out for each other or we will never make it out of here alive. So I'm taking a wild guess, but you should already know that the people other than us in this room…"
She stopped talking for a moment and pointed a finger at the dark corner of the room which held another door. "And that room are not human. You see, that man in your arms right now, well he was, or still is, my cousin. He was given the blood of one of the men that own this place." She lifted her dirt covered arms up and in a wide arch, gestured around the room with her hands.
Darien couldn't lie to himself, he was very grateful that he had found another human in this place and she also seemed to at least be remotely sane.
Setting the now knocked out or sleeping man to the ground gently, Darien asked the woman a few questions that she might be able to answer. " You said that they gave him their blood? I thought that they could just make copies of the same person, so why take one and give them their blood? Are they vampires or some type of creature like that? Though that does sound far fetched, but who knows?"
The woman laughed and ran a hand through her dirty hair saying, " No not vampires, but they are something else. From what I know, they can make copies of the same person, as many as they want. The only thing wrong with that is that they use their strength and energy creating and maintaining those clones, I guess it depends on which guy it is and what his strength is." She suddenly stopped talking and started to pace around in her medium sized cell.
"Giving humans their blood means we will turn into a zombie type creature and we will only do their bidding without having to use their energy and power."
She stopped talking and halted her movements, then she looked at Darien with an intense gaze. She seemed to stare at him for a few minutes, which made Darien feel uncomfortable, then she shrugged and started to walk around her cell again and continued talking.
" I can already see it on your face, you want to know, why don't they just give us their blood? Well they are working on that, they can't just slit open their wrist, from what I have seen, it is a long process Their blood is different, it is a complicated process for them to draw blood, or that is what I hear. And then there is the task of getting one of us to drink their blood and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't willingly drink anyone's blood. So do you see why they just don't give us their blood, right?"
Darien nodded his head in agreement, he trusted everything that she said because she seemed to have lasted a considerable amount of time in this dark and dirty prison. He also wondered how long it has been since she had seen daylight, but by the look of her pasty complexion, it had been awhile.
" Hm, it has been about two or so months since I have seen it, but I lose count easily." Darien looked at her, she seemed to be talking to herself out loud. He hoped she wasn't because he was counting on her to help him get out of here and he just didn't need to deal with a crazy woman right now.
"I'm not crazy, or at least not yet." She smirked slightly at him, waiting to see what his response would be.
It dawned on Darien what she was hinting at, she could read minds. Soon everything started to come together as to why certain people might have been captured and some were not.
" Yes Darien, nearly everyone here has a special gift, but not everyone, some people were just not lucky. As you now know, my gift is mind reading, though I can only read fairly strong thoughts, which is what most thoughts are."
Darien had so many questions to ask her and she seemed to have a lot of wisdom for her age and she didn't look old at all.
" Well thanks for that compliment, by the way, simply call me Meg. I know your name, if you haven't noticed already."
"Yeah." Darien said offhandedly.
" So, your not thinking anything particularly right now, but why don't I help you with that. We should get out of here and I mean now and quickly. They will be back soon and I happen to be the next person to have the great opportunity to drink their blood and become a mindless servant to them, oh joy." Darien knew what she meant, he went up to her cage and felt how strong the bars were. Just as he thought, they were impossibly strong.
"Darien, I sense that you are frustrated, let me help you. Why don't you walk over to my dear old cousin and get the key out of his pocket, I should have told you that before."
Darien did as she said and sure enough, it was there. He walked over to the keyhole in the cell that was holding Meg and put the key inside and turned it. An uncomfortably loud clicking noise was heard and the heavy door on the cell creaked open.
Basically running out of the cell, Meg went over to Darien and gave him a tight hug and said her thanks. " Thank you for saving me, I would have been toast if you wouldn't have come into this room and helped me. Could we do one more thing? We need to release everyone else and perhaps put my cousin somewhere, I don't know if he will ever get better now. We got captured by these men because we were walking towards our cars to go home after eating at a restaurant. The guys who brought us here are pretty brave to grab us when we were out in the open."
Agreeing with her, Darien thought about saving the people who were in the other room. He wanted to save them, but right now he just didn't have the means to accomplish a task like that. But he would rescue them when he had more weapons and backup, that would only happen if he found a way out of the building, which was practically an endless maze.
Knowing that Meg had read his thoughts already, he started walking forward to the door that he had came in through. He stopped once he noticed that Meg wasn't with him, she was dragging her cousin over to a cage and then she shut the door behind her. Just incase she didn't hear his thoughts, Darien decided to just tell her what he planned to do.
" Now we need to find a way out of here and not get caught because I think my luck of escaping everything might be running out. And we will come back for the others, I haven't forgotten about them."
" I figured that and there is about ten or so people in there, maybe more or less because I have been in that cage for quite some time."
As they proceeded down the tangle of halls and doors, they managed to evade being seen by anyone, but they weren't any closer than they were before to finding an exit.
"Maybe we should dig our way o…" Meg's joke was cut short when Darien clamped a hand over her mouth, silencing her. Jerking his neck to the left and with a finger to his mouth to signal her to be quiet, he started to walk briskly towards a door that had just started to close.
When they reached the door it had shut, but it didn't lock. Darien had heard people talking and he had also seen them walk towards a door together, Meg wasn't paying attention so she hadn't seen them. "Out" Meg finished the sentence she didn't get to finish when Darien silenced her, Darien only lifted an eyebrow at her antics.
" Should we wait a few minutes until we open the door? I don't know whether we will end up outside or in the middle of a meeting.
Meg responded with, "Yeah, we should wait a few minutes, but you have to admit that waltzing into a meeting that they are conducting would be pretty comical."
Darien responded halfheartedly to another one of her jokes, " It would be comical."
While they were waiting, Darien thought about his mission, the first one he was assigned. He was to look after his dead friends small family and he ended up failing them. Then he was transported to a weird building where he thought his enemies resided. Darien didn't know what was going to happen next and by the way things were going he wasn't too excited as to what was going to happen next.
Leaning against one of the driest dirt walls that he could find, Darien gazed down to the floor. When he saw nothing interesting he looked at his jeans and shoes, which were filthy. As he thought of his jeans, Darien got an idea that he didn't know if it would work or not.
Putting his hand in his pocket, he pulled out his forgotten cell phone that had full battery, but not one signal bar. Not caring about the signal he tried calling Serena, he desperately wanted to know if she was okay and if she was with everyone else.
Dialing her number he held his arm up and tried to get even a little signal, but nothing happened. Sighing Darien only had one more option, which he was going to try. He started typing a message to Serena and he could only wish that it arrived in a reasonable amount of time, but when he pushed the send button it seemed to take forever to load.
After a lengthy wait, the failed sign on his phone flashed, but it did say that if the phone found reception at anytime, it would send. So all in all, the message would never get to Serena and the others in time, he was just too far below ground to send anything to them.
Pocketing his phone he walked over to the door that both himself and Meg waited at and he pushed it open. On the other side of the door, bright light spilled onto Meg and Darien as they both hesitantly opened the door together. They were caught off guard and the light was so bright that they both shielded their eyes and felt temporary pain with their vision adjusting, but it was a futile attempt. They ended up being temporarily blinded because they had been underground with minimum light for a good amount of time.
As Darien stood beside Meg, he wondered if anyone could see them or if they were about to be attacked. The only thing that Darien could tell was that the horrible damp smell was gone and replaced with a scent that he couldn't place, though it was pleasant. The ground beneath his feet didn't seem like dirt or grass at all, maybe it was wood, that was the only thing that Darien could come up with at the moment.
" Well Darien, how does it feel? I mean, how does it feel to be blind, because right now I don't feel too good at all." Darien agreed with her.
As Darien's vision started to adjust, he could see some of the room that he was in. With awkward vision he realized that they were in a place that was much more than just a room and it was much more than what he would have expected based on what he had seen of the other rooms.
With Serena
--
After watching a movie, the girls sat around and talked. Their daily schedule was the same and very predictable. Most of the passing days were filled with eating, talking, watching movies and anything similar to that.
Serena had been missing Darien and she continually hoped that he would return home safely. She was comforted by her friends being there for her and telling her that everything will turn out right. Feeling discouraged at the moment because Darien wouldn't answer any of her calls, Serena kept her phone near her just incase Darien called again. She kept thinking back to a couple days ago when she had said she didn't want to talk to him, she wondered if he was angry at her for not talking to him, she was feeling very guilty.
Another thought crossed her mind, she thought about something happening to him and the family he was watching. The only reason Serena was worried about Darien was she had tried calling the house phone of the family a few times and they hadn't answered either, what she really wanted to do was go out to the house and look for herself if anything was going on.
She kept most of what she was feeling away from her friends, she didn't want them to hold her emotional baggage. Another part of her wanted to show everyone that she was strong and a little more grown up than what she used to be, so she held all of her feelings inside. She knew that if she did tell her friends about her fears they would end up saying things like, everything would be alright, but Serena knew better. She had the feeling that she was drifting away from her friends, she felt that she wasn't as close to them as before, but she still cared greatly for them.
Standing up Serena stretched and started to walk over to her friends to see what they were doing. Before she could reach them, the door bell rang and everyone looked towards the door. Shrugging her shoulders Serena said, "Don't worry guys, I'll get it."
While she was heading towards the door, she could feel everyone's eyes on her, she hoped that the only reason they were watching her was because she was going to answer the door. Before opening the door, Serena looked out of the window besides the door and saw that a older looking woman with a young boy were standing impatiently outside of the house. They seemed to be looking around nervously and in their hands they were clutching small suitcases stuffed with items that Serena thought were clothes.
Putting a friendly smile on her face, Serena opened the door.
" Hello, may I help you with anything?" Still smiling Serena watched the woman and the boy exchange uneasy glances and then the woman spoke.
" Yes, we really need to get inside, there is no time to talk outside the door, please hurry." The woman looked at her with such frightened eyes that Serena quickly stepped inside and motioned for them to follow her, they complied without any thought. Serena also watched the woman shut and lock the door with amazing swiftness.
The woman now seemed calm, but the boy's wide eyes still seemed scared. Serena was just really confused, was someone chasing these people? She didn't know, but she did want to help them.
" Now please tell me what is so urgent, is someone after both of you, should I call the police?" When Serena spoke police, the pair shook their heads vehemently.
Again the pair exchanged glances, like they had their own language and the woman replied in a shaky voice, " I don't know for sure if someone is chasing us, so I wouldn't advise calling the police, but I want to know one thing before I continue. Is your name Serena and is your husbands name Darien?"
Cold fear crept its way through Serena's heart, she felt frozen and she didn't seem to comprehend the woman's question.
In her head, Serena repeated a mantra. Please let Darien be okay, please.
Feeling like a fool, she quickly gathering herself together, Serena wanted to know about Darien before she broke down in tears. The first thing that she needed to know, was who these two people were " Who are you two?"
Hearing the woman audibly sigh, Serena wondered if they knew any information. " I really need to know if your Serena and if your husband is Darien before I say anything more."
Serena simply nodded her head saying, " Yes I' am Serena and Darien is my husband, now who are you two?"
The woman seemed content with what Serena said and then she visibly relaxed." Okay, my name is Katherine and this is Robert. We are the family that your husband Darien was looking after, I'm Laura's mother and Robert is her son. And we have some grave news to tell y…"
Serena basically jumped out of her seat as some of her fears were confirmed, Darien was fatally wounded or dead. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but is Darien at least alive?"
Katherine nervously wrung her hands together. " That's why I'm over here, we don't know what happened to Darien and Laura. The only one who knows the most about that right now is Robert, he witnessed most of what happened."
Serena didn't know what she felt, she felt hope that Darien could be alive, but then she felt sadness because he was missing and he could be dead.
" Robert, could you please tell me what happened in your own words? I really want to know what happened to my husband."
Serena had talked to the boy as nicely as she could and hoped that he would tell her anything that had happened.
Deciding that Robert and Katherine would probably feel better if they sat down, Serena guided them towards the nearest couch. She passed her friends sitting around a board game and made a hand motion that she hoped would keep them sitting down and encourage them to keep playing their game.
Once seated, Serena kept her gaze on Robert, he held the most information and Serena set out on a mission to know everything he knew.
" Robert, could you please tell me what happened to my husband and your mother?"
The boy looked at her like he wanted to be doing something else than relive what happened to his mother and Darien, but he surprised Serena when he cleared his throat and started speaking.
" My mommy and I went out to meet this guy, she said that he would help us get out of trouble and that's all she told me about him. Later when we walked outside in the middle of the night, she made sure Darien was asleep before we did anything. I was surprised when we actually met the man, it was my father!"
Serena stared at Katherine to see her reaction, she didn't react, she acted like she had heard this before. Serena had thought that Bryant was dead and not alive, so this came as a shock to her.
"I thought my father was dead and I was so shocked to see him that I ran up to him and hugged him. I knew something was wrong when he didn't return the hug, but he pushed me away, he never did that before."
Robert held Katherine close to him as he retold what happened, she gave him an encouraging smile so he would continue.
" My father started talking angrily to my mommy and I was scared for her, but I knew that I couldn't do anything if he did something to her. I couldn't recognize my father at all, my mommy told me that he had been alive even though we had a funeral for him, she said that he was in trouble. When my father started getting angry with her, she started pushing me so that I could run, I heard him say that he was going to kill me."
Turning again towards his grandmother, Robert brushed tears from his eyes as she gently patted his head.
" That's when I saw Darien, as I was running away I slowly started running to where Darien was sitting. When I reached him, he told me to run inside and get Grandma and then leave to the safe place that we had talked about, which was here. The last thing I saw was my mommy being smacked by my father, he had never done that before. And then Darien ran towards them, when he reached them there was a bright light and a few minutes later everyone was gone. I was so scared that I ran and got Grandma and we left to come here, I don't know if anyone is following us, I hope not."
When he finished speaking, Robert burst into tears and hugged his grandmother, Serena wanted to burst into tears also, but she knew now was not the time. As Katherine and Robert had a family bonding moment, Serena turned to look for her friends and as she had suspected, they heard the whole entire conversation.
Getting up, Serena told everyone that she was going to set up the other guest bedroom. As she was in the bedroom, she set the bed with new sheets and opened up the drapes. She now let herself think about Darien, she missed him so much already and the thought of him being dead made her sick to her stomach. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Serena felt a few tears roll down her face. She now resented the fact that she hadn't talked to Darien the other night, she wanted to turn back time, but she knew she couldn't.
After giving herself a few minutes to grieve about what could have happened to Darien, she walked back downstairs. She heard talking as she walked into the kitchen, Katherine and Robert had gotten acquainted with everyone while she was upstairs.
"I'm done setting up the other guest bedroom, so anytime you two want to go to sleep just tell me and I will take you upstairs."
Katherine and Robert looked thankfully at Serena. " Thank you, Serena. You have been more than kind to us. I will tell you some more information when I get up tomorrow, I think I need to go to sleep soon or I will literally fall over."
"Okay, why don't I take you upstairs now so you can go to bed."
Nodding, both Katherine and Robert followed her upstairs, once they were settled in the bedroom, Serena said goodnight to the tired pair and closed the door.
Once outside of the bedroom, Serena wanted to go to bed also, but knew that the others would probably stay up later. Before she could reach the stairs to go back down, Lita was in front of her.
"Hey, Serena. I thought I should tell you something. I don't want to be mean, but you look like your going to fall over with exhaustion, the girls and I think that maybe you should get some sleep."
"Yes, I really do need sleep, I feel like I'm going to fall over. Could you tell everyone that I will see them in the morning."
" I will do that, but one more thing before you go to sleep. We heard about Darien, everyone doesn't know what to say, I don't either. The only thing that I can say is hope for the best, we all are and we are with you no matter what."
Lita went over to Serena and hugged her, she then smiled and started walking back down the stairs.
As Lita disappeared Serena basically ran towards her room and she barely had enough energy to change and get into bed. Once she was in bed and dreaming, Serena's thoughts were plagued with Darien.
A/N- This chapter took soooo long to type for some reason. There will be about three more chapters, I figured everything out. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who read and reviewed, everything is appreciated. The next chapter will be out sooner than this one and this story will have a happy ending ;D