A/N: I know it's been forever since my last update, but I finally finished with my school year - at the end of JUNE!! Yeah, it sucked just as much as you think it would. And then, last week, my lap top broke. Yay. Anywho, here's chapter ten, and pretty please review!!!
Chapter 10
Fear
Twenty minutes later, Lily's apartment was full of Aurors, nearly all of them members of the Order. James sat at the kitchen table with Moody, going over everything that had happened since he arrived there for what seemed like the hundreth time.
"...and when I found the picture, I called you guys,": James said.
Moody, who was looking at the picture that James had found, sighed. "I hate to tell you this, but I'm going to be honest with you. It sounds like she could have been taken to where ever the rest of the Muggle and Muggle-born women have disappeared to."
James ran his hand through his mop of black hair. "I was afraid of that."
"How long had you been getting the other letters and pictures?"
"I got the first one over a year ago. It said that if I didn't end it with Lily, they'd kill her. That was when Lily moved to New York. When she came back, I got another one. So when we started seeing each other again, we didn't tell anyone for a while. And now she's gone." James let out a frustrated sigh and hung his head in his hands.
"We've got a good team working on this. And most of them are in the Order so you'll get full updates. We'll find her." Moody said, trying to reassure him.
"I don't doubt that you'll find her." James said. "But the real question is if you'll find her alive."
000
Lily's head was throbbing. She tried to move her arms, but they were tied. She opened her eyes but where ever she was, it was pitch black. Lily could feel her heart drumming in her chest as panic began to over take her.
Just then, she heard footsteps somewhere in the distance, growing louder. She was temporarily blinded by a bright light as two masked men drew nearer. They lifted her off of the ground, but she tried to get away. As she struggled against her captors, one of them drew his wand and said, "Crucio!"
It felt as though she were being stabbed by thousands of white hot knives. Tears were streaming down her face, her throat was raw from her screams. She didn't realize she was on the ground again until the curse was lifted.
"Now," said one of the Death Eaters, "don't make me do that again, Mudblood."
The lifted Lily to her feet and led her out of the room. As they headed down the dark corridor, lit only with a few torches, Lily saw other rooms and could hear faint screams.
They took her to another room. Its walls and floor were made from rough stone, and from the ceiling hung a solitary hook. Lily was sure that the dark red marks on the wall were blood.
She wanted to fight. She wanted to scream. She wanted to run away.
But she couldn't. She was completely paralysed with fear.
One of the Death Eaters pulled her wrists above her head, hanging the rope that bound them together on the rusting hook. She was now, quite literally, dangling from the ceiling, her toes barely making contact with the floor, her red hair falling in front of her eyes.
Behind her, she could hear the Death Eaters unraveling something. Lily heard the sharp crack of a whip as the thin leather strap hit her back, tearing her robes. Tears poured from her emerald eyes as she screamed into the darkness, pain raking throught her body. She felt the rope cutting into her wrists as the weight of her body pulled against it.
She could have been there for a few minutes.
She could have been there for a few years.
But she did know that when the Death Eaters finally dragged her back to where ever she was when they found her, her back was raw with pain, and she was fairly certain she was bleeding.
Her captors cut the ropes that bound her wrists and tossed her back into the pitch black room like the piece of trash they so obviously thought she was. Once she could no longer hear their footsteps, Lily curled herself in a ball and sobbed until she fell asleep many hours later.
000
Lily awoke sometime later to the sound of an alarm. It reminded her of a fire drill from when she had been in Muggle primary school.
The door flew open. As light flooded into the corner - waiting for the hooded men to take her away once again.
But they never came. Instead, Lily saw women - some of them still girls - walking past her cell. They all had a frightened, yet beaten look on their faces. Their clothes - some robes, some Muggle clothing - were in taters. Cautiously, Lily stood up and walked into the hall.
The crowd moved down the cooridor. Near the walls, Lily saw Death Eaters pointing there wands at various women, but never striking. They were they crowd control.
It suddenly struck Lily how easy it would be to rebel. There must have been a hundred or more prisoners, and there were only...seven Death Eaters. But as she passed one, he pointed her wand directly at her. Her heart began to race as she averted her eyes to the ground.
As the crowd moved on, and Lily's heart reate returned to normal, she realized that it wasn't the Death Eaters or their wands that kept her - and the rest of these women - here. It was fear. The fear that the Death Eaters would torture or kill them.
The corridor turned and the crowd entered a large room with numerous tables. If Lily didn't know better, it looked like a deranged sort of cafeteria. The women who must have been here longer automatically sat down. The 'new' ones followed suit. None of them looked at each other, not directly anyway. At the next table, Lily saw a woman who could only be a few years older than herself was holding a young girl very close to her. The girl couldn't have been more than four or five. She turned her head toward Lily, who saw she had numerous cuts and black eye.
Lily quickly looked down at the table.
Food suddenly appeared in front of the prisoners. Lily sat, feeling very confused. But others were hungrily eating. She couldn't help but think of what Moody would say if he knew she was going to eat food given to her by Death Eaters. Cautiously, she began to eat. Ironically enough, the food was actually good; though it could have been because she was so hungry.
About half an hour later, the plates cleared and the prisoners began to stand. But a Death Eater shot sparks into the air. Everyone froze. He began to divide the groups of table up, saying they would now have room moates, like it was a privilage. Lily's table and the next - the table with the mother and daughter - would be in the same cell. The Death Eater pointed at Lily's table and the next. They stood and followed him as two more Death Eaters followed.
They were led to a different cell; this one was larger than the one that Lily had been in, but there were now eight people.
Lily sat in a corner, her knees drawn up to her chest. She looked at the other women, and although none of them were crying, they all had a very empty, hopeless look in their eyes.
Lily would have preferred tears.
