Retribution

XVII - i'm not a girl!

Chapter Seventeen - I'm not a girl!

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~Ezra~

Having your hands tied behind your back and your eyes covered wasn't a very pleasant experience. Nor was it pleasent to be lead deeper into the woods with your sense of direction shattered. It also wasn't pleasant to have a quiet captor. Overall, this sucked. I should be more frightened than I'm currently feeling but, I've already died once... death isn't so scary once you repeat it. Soon enough my captor stopped and a new set of foot steps approached.

"I was gettin' tired of waiting." The new captor huffed, his voice just slightly annoying. The one holding onto me didn't say a thing, just pushed me forward. I stumbled but was caught by the 2nd kidnapper. "Now~ Let's see what this little girly has under her clothes~" This is where I got scared. On reflex I squeezed my eyes shut and tensed my body while the man in front of me began to feel up and down my arms. I clenched my jaw when the man moved his hands to my shoulders and down my chest. This was disgusting. I felt disgusting. Some guys grimy hands on my body... I wanted to run, I wanted to find Tilly and- the man stopped and pulled away... something was wrong.

"I thought you said it was a girl?!" The man's voice was like an old foghorn, loud and piercing. Then another man spoke up, keeping his tone low and quiet, it almost felt as if he would disappear because of his quiet voice.

"H-he looked li-li-like a girl." I winced and stood awkwardly still between the two arguing men. I could tell the one who blinded me had a stutter that seemed to worsen due to his partner...

"Well he's not! You dingbat!" The other man growled. I heard a the shuffling of feet, a few muffled slaps, and then a soft 'ow'.

As the men scuffled around me I shifted my eyes around anxiously... Though searching through the miniscule holes in the blind fold was like trying to look at the stars in a light polluted city. When one of the captors grabbed my arm and thrusted me forward, I let out a yelp of surprise. It seemed I had focused so closely on my thoughts that I had forgotten the two men were bickering... but, it seemed they now had decided on a plan of action.

"A-are you s-s-sure this will wo-work?" I tilted my head to the right, away from the man with a stutter, who was also the one that had a tight hold on my arm. It was unnerving knowing these men had my life in the palm of their hands, yet, I still felt calm. I mean, I am an anomaly in this world, Ezra Kingston was dead, but here I am. My soul in his body. I held back a sigh, this may not be the last time someone would have control over my life.

"Yes! Now shut up! We're already late." The man on my left was highly irritated by his partner. "We failed to bring in the last girl, so this," I felt the man push my head forward, causing me to lose my step count. "Will work."

First of all, rude. Second of all, the 'last girl'? What exactly did they mean by the 'last girl'? Suddenly I remembered my first night in this town. I had wandered around and ended up being circled by a group of crusty men. Luckily I was saved by my future murderers: Keon, Isaiah, and Alexander. Apparently the men that had mistaken me for a girl were a part of an organization that kidnapped young girls. Why? No one really knows. But, right now, the goal of this organization didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that I'm being kidnapped by this group. I'm not sure if our dear reader knows this, but I am in fact a man. I have a dic-

There were more than three sets of footsteps now.

In total, there were five? Maybe six. Minus my captors and myself, three more people were following us. Whatever their purpose, they kept their distance. The scattered twings and old leaves crumbled loudly underneath the two kidnappers feet, they weren't too concerned about hiding their presence, but the other three were quiet, careful. I tried to focus on the other sets of steps, but it seemed that concentrating on the sound had caused me to slow down.

"Oi! Keep up you freak!" The man on the left snapped, pushing me roughly. Someone was in a mood. I clenched my jaw shut, forcing myself to stay quiet and focus on my own steps. This wouldn't have happened if I had just gone to class and been a good little student. It would've made life just that much easier... at least I'm not being insulted by hormonal teenagers.

Suddenly we stopped moving and the man to my left yelped and reared back, away from me. The air grew tense and my body screamed at me to run... but I couldn't- I couldn't see! Against my instincts, I stayed still, listening intently to the area around me. There were more bodies around than before and based off of the atmosphere it seems the added people weren't welcome. Regardless of how unwelcome the were, words were bound to be exchanged... so why were things so quiet? In my world of darkness, I could only trust my hearing, and right now it wasn't helping. Nothing was happening!

I needed to calm down. Things were happening. That much I could feel, people were moving... but not the stuttering man holding onto my arm. He still had a tight hold on me and wasn't moving, at least not by much. Okay, so, there was one consistent thing, the man gripping onto me. Although I didn't enjoy the fact that he was taking me to be sold somewhere, It was a comfort to know he still existed. Before I knew it my body was jerked back and I felt the cold surface of a blade against my neck. My body tensed but, again, I couldn't move. The silence around me wasn't helping either. Someone had blocked my hearing... which was honestly a terrible idea. Being blind and deaf in a situation such as this wasn't good for the mind or body.

"AAAAAHHH!"

The sudden scream ripped through my body and I finally moved. I wanted to run forward but I tripped over what felt like a log and fell face first into the forest floor, dirt filling my mouth. The scream was blood-curdling and continued right behind me, tearing at my ear drums. The smell of blood quickly attacked my nose and I hurriedly crawled away, the sounds of my whimpers mere whispers against the screaming. I crawled until my body was forced onto its feet. Someone pulled the blindfold off... they were talking to me but the screams... the screams were so loud.

"EZRA!" My shoulders were grabbed and someone started to shake me. "Ezra! Look at me!"

I felt my body gasp in fresh air and my eyes focused on whoever called my name. When I processed the figure in front of me I nearly passed out. Red hair... yellow eyes... Isaiah. Out of the pan and into the fire.

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