Thank you for the reviews, favs and alerts :) Answer to the guest question, yes, she'll meet Stefan too and she'll meet Damon again in the present time.

Empty the stare, innocent and unaware, dragged out from my home, my lair
Earmarked me, hurt me, burned me

Sonata Arctica – The Cage

Chapter 47

Caged

I trembled, like I would have been cold. The feeling was very strange; my whole body was sore and aching, I couldn't understand why. What had happened? Very slowly I managed to open my eyes, I had probably passed out. Where was I? It was dark, but there was something strange about this darkness. I was lying on something hard and that something was moving. After a moment of struggle, I realized that I was in a small cage that was covered with a dark cloth. Despite of the pain I felt anger, who had dared to do this?

Then I remembered. Kol. Someone had attacked us. My panic was rising when I remembered seeing Kol falling down, he had been hurt. I needed to help him. I growled and grabbed the bars, but that made me to cry out in pain. More vervain. My eyes were watering up, my hands were burning. The healing mechanism worked very slowly since I was surrounded by vervain, I needed to stay away from the bars. The cage was so small that I couldn't stand, but I could get into a sitting position.

"She's awake," I heard a male voice saying.

Then I heard horses nickering and suddenly the cage stopped moving. I was obviously in a carriage or a wagon. The sound of someone unlocking a door sharpened my senses, but when the cloth was yanked off the cage, the light hurt my eyes so much that I had to close them.

"The merchandise is fine," another male voice stated carelessly. "Should I feed her?"

"Yeah, why not," the first male voice replied, his voice was coming from outside. "She needs to stay alive."

I forced my eyes open and saw a tall man who had greasy dark brown hair and dark eyes; he was standing next to the cage. I was in some kind of windowless carriage; all I saw outside was a road.

"Who are you?" I asked hoarsely. "What do you want?"

He ignored my questions and bent down to pick up a much smaller cage. It was full of rats. I stared at him disbelievingly when he grabbed a squirming rat and cut its throat.

"Bon appétit," he huffed and dropped the rat inside my cage. I didn't have time to say anything when he covered the cage with the cloth again. I was shocked and appalled; I had never eaten a rat in my life. Unfortunately I didn't have much choice; the vervain had made me weak and starving, I really needed to feed. Loathingly I picked the bleeding rat up and fed. I could see why the man had cut the rat's throat; I was too weak to get my fangs out. The rat's blood certainly wasn't a delicacy, but I was so hungry that I drank every drop of it. It didn't regain my strength, not when I was so close to vervain, but it gave me my voice back.

"Let me out!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Let me out!"

The carriage was moving again, but I knew that these men could hear me.

"You are going to regret this! Let me out right now!"

I shouted and shouted, as useless as it was, apparently the men couldn't have cared less. I was scared, no matter how hard I tried to deny it. The memory of being tortured was suddenly very clear in my head, it made me to wrap my arms around me and let out a silent sob. This couldn't be happening. I was worried about Kol and Damon, but most of all I was terrified for myself. Maybe that was selfish, but I couldn't help it, I didn't know how I could take being tortured. For some reason the men, who were probably hunters, hadn't killed me yet. Where were they taking me and what did they want?

"Finally," the first man snorted after I stopped shouting. "No blood for her for the next few days."

Few days?

"Are you sure?" the second man questioned. "Our orders…"

"Our orders were to take her to the buyer, alive and without permanent damage. That's exactly what we're going to do. That little doll is going to make us rich."

Buyer? I swallowed, this didn't sound good at all. Apparently these men weren't the kind of hunters I had thought; they were bounty hunters. I wasn't sure if that was the better option, but at least it seemed that they weren't planning to torture me. No, they were simply planning to sell me to someone. The thought was humiliating and it infuriated me. This buyer would hope that he would have never been born if he would try to touch me.

Darkness. There were no days or nights, the darkness was all that was left. I had lost the sense of time and place, I had no idea how long I had been in the darkness. After few days I had cried, but now there were no tears left, I was just fading away. I was too weak to move, I simply lied still curled into a fetal position. One of the men checked on me once a day and sometimes he gave me a rat to eat, but he never spoke to me. At first I had tried to negotiate with him, offer him more money than the buyer, but he had ignored me.

Then I had tried to ask him questions, where we were going and who this buyer was, but he hadn't given me any answers, I didn't even know the names of any of these men. As far as I could tell, there were three of them; none of them was very talkative. I had heard them talking about this buyer few times; they had wondered what he was planning to do to me. The obvious answer had amused them a lot, but someone as powerful as this man was allowed to have twisted desires.

Hearing that had made me feel fear I had never felt before, I was too weak to defend myself against anyone, I could barely lift my head in order to feed. I had prayed that someone, anyone would help me, but I was on my own. Most of the time I couldn't tell if I was awake or asleep. All of it looked the same to me. I let out a weak whimper then the cloth was once again yanked off, the light was very painful.

"Good news, sweetheart," the man said. "We're here."

I blinked my eyes, but I had trouble to keep them open. Was he carrying a bucket…? I cried out when he suddenly poured water on me, it was cold.

"You want to smell nice for your master, don't you?" he chuckled.

Despite of my helplessness and humiliation, I glared at him.

"You'll wear this," he stated and dropped some piece of clothing in the cage. "A special package should have a nice wrapping."

"No."

I had to struggle in order to get that one word out; he snorted and opened the cage.

"Fine, suit yourself."

I flinched when he grabbed me and pulled me out, his grip hurt so much that my eyes were watering up. My body was so sore that even a gentle touch would have hurt. I closed my eyes when he ripped my filthy gown off and dressed me like a doll.

"There, aren't you cute," he said and lifted me over his shoulder. I would have wanted nothing more than to bite him, but I couldn't even lift my hand. The shock of suddenly being outside was too much for my weakened body, I lost consciousness when the man stepped out of the carriage. I heard voices coming from somewhere far away and someone took me into his arms.

"Flea?"

The voice sounded familiar, but I had no strength to think who it belonged to. I was being carried somewhere and finally I felt something soft under my back. I was in a bed. The thought made me panic, I needed to fight. Despite of my struggling, all I managed to do was open my eyes. My vision was blurred, but I was pretty sure that I was alone. I needed to get up… The door flew open before I managed to properly formulate my thought. It was too late.