The Jade City

Chapter 33: Imprisoned Again

Harumi's POV

How I managed to fall asleep in a cold, hard, stone cell, I would never know. Maybe my lack of rest had kicked in.

When I woke up, I found myself sprawled out against the smooth but not completely flat floor. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and yawned. My wrists were tethered in chains that were connected to the floor. The square cell was about six feet in length, and its only exit was a barred metal door looking out into the bland, gray hallway. Other than that, the rest of the prison was made up of stone, and the only other source of light came from another barred up window on the wall opposite of the door.

In the corner was a bucket which I assumed would have to serve as my toilet. Just the thought of using it made my stomach feel queasy. The chains were long enough for me to walk somewhat freely around my cell, but the shackles around my wrists were incredibly uncomfortable nevertheless and scraped against my pisiform whenever I moved.

I stood up on my tiptoes to look at the window outside as if it could tell me what time it was. It couldn't. All I knew was that the sun was already up but other than that, nothing. I could only guess that it wasn't too late since my stomach wasn't growling yet.

The others were most likely in a similar situation, but I had no way of knowing. Unless...

"HELLO IS ANYONE THERE? THIS IS HARUMI SPEAKING!" I screamed into the window, only to hear nothing but my own voice echoing off the walls of my cubicle and the hallway.

Well, at least I tried.

I examined the metal cuffs binding my wrists, wondering if there was a way to escape them. According to Lloyd's story, Ruby had beaten up several guards when they came to feed her? Then I guess I had to wait for an opportunity to come to me. Since Cole seemed to have had trouble breaking out of his chains earlier, I could only assume they were made of vengestone, meaning the Ninja couldn't use their powers against it. What bothered me more, though, was that it looked like we were all separated in different cages which were far away from one another.

What did the Shadow Knight want? After having talked to Morro, I figured that he wanted our blood, but what else? Why was he keeping us shut in cages for the time being? What was the purpose of all this?

Endless questions to which I did not know the answers continued to swarm around in my head, making me really want to punch or throw something. How could I let myself end up in this position? The feeling of helplessness crushed me from all directions, and never had I ever found myself in a more hopeless situation. What was I even supposed to do now? It wasn't like I could rip these manacles out from the ground and burst through the door the way people did in cartoons.

Even back when I thought I had failed the resurrection ritual I didn't feel so terrible. Yet if I couldn't escape this place, Ninjago would fall. Though the citizens of the realm did not know it, they depended on me to save their home. And what was I doing? Rotting in a prison cell.

And not to mention they probably took the Crystal Blade, too. I paced my cell, trying to take deep breaths to calm myself. There had to be some way. Knowing the Shadow Knight, he'd no doubt gone and destroyed it now. But... we still had a magical weapon we could work with and if we could figure out what he needed to do to go to Ninjago we could stop him... or defeat him even before that happened.

I leaned back against a wall, slouching, as the events of the day before came flooding back. So much had happened within the last twenty-four hours that my memory was a blur.

Now I was trapped in a prison cell, my stringy hair falling down in dirty wisps from my head since I hadn't washed it for so long. I ran a hand through the tangled mess, pulling out several loose strands, then rubbed my fingers against each other. They were greasy as expected, and I wiped my hand on my shirt to try to get it off.