To the Land of Green

Chapter Ten

"You probably won't see them anymore," a lady behind me says.
I quickly turn around. A girl around five feet tall with straight black hair and tan skin leans

against a wall.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"They didn't explain it to you? You're going to be a slave like the rest of us treated worse than their own dogs," the girl says.
"No, you're mistaken. I am not supposed to be here. I am supposed to be out there with Nando and Manoy. I can't stay here."
"Young lady, once you are taken, you can never go back to your family. You see, this right here," she says pointing at herself, a young woman, and a young man. "This is your new family. So I would shut up and just go back to sleep if I were you because we all have a lot of things to do tomorrow."
"Patricia, stop saying that to everyone," a girl with similar features to the girl I presume is Patricia.
"What? We have to wake up early tomorrow, Davina. People are not like you. We don't have a Spaniard boyfriend that we can always rely on. You should be ashamed to be even hanging out with a man like him," Patricia says.
"I don't care what people think of us, Patricia. I love Oscar and he is not the same as the rest of his people. He was forced, just like the rest of us. He didn't have a choice or else his family will also be at risk," Davina says.

"If Oscar is not the same as everyone then why are you still here? You tell me he loves you but why isn't he fighting for you? Because if I were him, I would fight until death. At least that way I know I tried fighting for our love!" Patricia says.
Davina never replies to Patricia and remains silent.

"Lucas," a guy says beside me. "I go by Lucas. What is your name?"
"Marie. My name is Marie," I reply.
"Marie, I never heard that name before but it sounds familiar. Did your parents name you after Virgin Mary?" Lucas asks.
"No, it's just short for Marina," I say.
"Marina, a beautiful name."
"Thank you."
Looking around the cell, it is not too tight as what it looked like in our now so-called prisons. I got a chance to look at what it looked like inside our prison system during our senior trip before in my world. The government wanted to scare us and make us see where we might end up with if we make bad decisions.
In our jail system, every prison cell only contains one person. Each district would have a big jail building. The first floor would be the entrance and everything that they have to do to a prisoner before they are sent to their cell will be done on the first floor. Then, the second floor would be where the prisoners where their verdicts are still being decided. Then, from then on the prisoners are divided into different levels based on their crimes. The higher you go up, the fewer people you'll see because the last floor on top is where the most dangerous prisoners reside.
I look beside myself and see a flattened box. Looking at Patricia, Davina, and Lucas, I see that they also have rectangular cartons. I assume that they gave us this as a "bed," since all three of them

are sitting on it. I look further and see a small square window on top of this cell. From what I can see it has bars that divide the window into four sections.
"By the way, That is your bed and space," Lucas says pointing at the carton next to me.
"I figured."

I go to my area of privacy and sit down on the carton leaning against the cold wall. How did I go from escaping Sebastian with my siblings to getting taken by some dude I don't even know? Why is life so unfair? Just a few years ago, I was with my family inside one of our residents in Ilocos Norte, enjoying the sun and the beach view while eating empanadas and mikis. I miss those. I miss being free and never feeling like I have to look back every time I go somewhere. I hope everything will end soon.

I know that right now I have to be patient and get familiar with this place. Then, I have to plan my escape and figure out how Ractro, the wardrobe, the remote control, or whatever that is and the Lobo are connected. However, before I can do these, I need to know where Nando, Eman, José, and Andres are. They know more information about the Lobo than I do, and since they want to find their sister, I can make an agreement with them. I can tell them about Ractro and how I ended up here and they can tell me information they know about the Lobo and the remote control. Then, we will figure out how I can get back to my world and if they could come with me in order to find their sister. We have to do this because if this Alvarez man is the same as the Alvarez that Nando mentioned while we were traveling together then we are screwed because he might know about the Lobo more than José and Andres. He might find out about Ractro and that is not good because he seems like he will do anything in order to destroy José and Andres and Ractro might be related to their sister's disappearance.