Shaken:

Holly felt her eyes drift up to the flickering light, then forcefully pressed her palms into them. Amateur psychological torture technique. And the worst thing was – it was working.

Holly shuffled around so she could face the wall. The concrete, icy and solid, made her shift about, leaning first on her hands, then her elbows, then sitting crossed-legged … It made no use. Every inch of the cell was this uncomfortable.

Whoever had taken her knew what they were doing. And they had absolutely no regard for her, even less than Artemis had when he took her hostage. The cell was bare concrete, unfurnished. Sometimes it would black out for hours at a time, a black hole. The door was solid metal with a slot that they occasionally tossed food and bottles of water through.

The only real remarkable thing about it was a large concrete cube – about a metre in height, width, length – in the back left corner of the room. Holly had no idea what it was for. She had scaled it once, with tremendous difficulty, but there was nothing on top of it. The only thing that had happened was they'd video taped her again.

It kept happening. They had done it half a dozen times already. Holly had even managed to break it once.

Suddenly, the slot opened, and a tanned hand dropped something onto the floor of the cell. Holly approached it carefully, hoping it would not explode. It didn't. Holly picked it up. It was a small, thin black box. She turned it over and found a screen and series of buttons on the other side. As she pressed the biggest of them, the screen shone with colour.

'—exclusive film of the creature, shown here. The mass in the corner of the room is a metre tall, and the figure is around that height.'

The footage was of Holly when she had first been brought in. She was unconscious – they'd darted her, like Artemis had, while she was doing the ritual. Déjà vu, Holly thought acidly. They stripped her of all her Section Eight gear, leaving her with only her midriff under-top and calf length tights. It cut jarringly to footage of her attacking the door of her cell in a rage, and then, finally, curled up in the corner. Now, the camera zoomed to her ears and her breasts. Holly realised she'd stopped listening to the commentary and focussed. The voice had changed.

'The ears are pointed in a traditional manner of folklore and she had the proportions of a full grown woman. There is no scar tissue around the ear, nor has the video been digitally altered. Although---'

A remote disappeared from the hatch.

Holly got to her feet and threw the miniature television at the slot, which could not be opened from her side, as it swung shut, sitting flush with the back of the door. Holly banged on it with her fist, but it didn't give. She called out as she attempted to dig her nails under it.

'What have you done? What are you--'

The slot swung open again, and Holly stumbled back in shock. Weak from lack of sustenance, her ankles gave and she ended up in a heap on the floor. A newspaper land at her feet.

Holly picked it up and unfurled it. On the cover was a picture of her curled up against the cube and the headline 'Fairytale find'. The article was all opinions on the legitimacy of her existence. The last line read: 'The discoverers are rumoured to be discharging the creature to the highest bidder.' Holly scanned the next page – an article about animal cruelty with relation to the current situation.

'I'm not an animal!' Holly screamed at the door, and threw the TV at it again, this time cracking the casing. Angrily, she tore the newspaper into pieces, flinging them at the unforgiving light.

That's what this is all about, Holly thought. They're auctioning me off. A thought occurred to her. The Lower Elements has to know about this … Why haven't they come?

But then Holly remembered. The return of the demons had spawned a new defence policy. In the event of a critical evacuation, the People were to displace themselves in time, using the core-force. They had left her. All of them.

Holly slumped against the door, feeling hot tears fall onto her cheeks. Shivering, Holly cracked her head backwards onto the door. Thump. Thump. Thump. It hurt, but not as much as her stomach did, cramping up in despair

Thump. 'D'arvit.'

Thump. 'D'arvit.'

Thump, thump, thump. 'D'arvit, d'arvit, d---'

'Holly!'

Holly moaned, as if in agony. For the past two hours, she'd been having aural hallucinations. She'd through they had ceased after she had finally forced herself to sleep, but they seemed to have returned.

'Holly, are you in there?'

'Shut up!' She screamed, clamping her hands over her ears. 'Leave me alone!'

'That's no way to talk to your knight in shining armour.' That voice.

Holly froze, pushing her hands back through her hair. 'Artemis? Why… how…'

'I thought this would make us even.' She could hear the smirk in his voice, although it was tinged with exhaustion and darkness. 'I would have you know I payed a considerable amount of money to outbid some American networks.'

'What are you doing?' Holly pressed her ear up against the door. There was a series of soft soprano beeps and then a lower one.

'Deactivating the alarm so I can open the door. Why?'

Holly drew a difficult breath. 'Can you … I want to look at …'

She heard a barely audible 'oh' through the door, and Artemis pushed open the hatch, leaning down so Holly could see his eyes. One blue and one hazel. Very involuntarily, Holly began to cry again. She twined her fingers with Artemis's, her knuckles hitting the sharp edge of the hatch, but she didn't care. He'd come to save her.

There was a triple beep and the sound of a lock opening. 'About time,' Artemis muttered. 'The LEP only gave me 56 hours before they shunted the People out of time…'

Holly frowned as Artemis withdrew his hand, the scrambled backwards once more as the door swung inwards. Artemis stepped through the opening into the cell and looked around.

'Nice place you have here.'

Holly just punched him in the shoulder – probably harder than she meant to. He arranged his expression into one of mock offence.

'I rescue you and that is all the gratitude I get?' he asked, raising one eyebrow. 'Next time I might not bother.'

Holly closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him. He knelt down to match their heights a little better. Artemis brushed his thumb across her cheek to wipe away a rogue tear, and rested it there for a moment before moving it down to catch her chin between that and the crook of his forefinger, making her look up at him.

Holly wasn't sure if she moved to him or he moved to her, but suddenly they were kissing – slow and light and very, very cautious. When finally they leant back again, Holly was beginning to become aware of the turmoil of emotion inside her.

'Are you okay?' he asked. Holly glanced pained look at him. 'Are you hurt, I mean?'

'Just shaken,' she replied.

Artemis smiled at her, and to her surprise, Holly found herself smiling back.

'Time for you to come home, then,' he said, softly.

Holly clung to him, and he picked her up and carried her through the doorway.