Prisoner

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

"We need Joxeia," Hades said immediately. Lucifer nodded and scrambled to get his phone out. I watched him, watched all of them as I held myself back against the wall, breathing hard as panic started to consume me.

I couldn't escape. There was no exit. I couldn't get past any of these people. And they were calling someone else to deal with me? Panicked, I looked around the room frantically for somewhere to escape, but there wasn't even an air vent in the room that I could see. I looked over at the guy named Cerberus again, who was still standing in front of the door. He was a huge guy. He probably couldn't move too fast. He'd stumble if I ducked down low.

Deciding that was the plan, I went running at Cerberus, who looked surprised and went to grab me, but I ducked low and slid across the floor between his legs and slammed into the front door, which I reached up and threw open.

"Shit! Cerberus, grab him!" Lucifer's shout rang out. I ducked as Cerberus lunged for me again and I rolled outside into the sunlight, briefly blinded by how bright it was before I scrambled down the front steps and started running into what looked like a forest with ridiculously huge trees that towered high into the sky, even above the clouds. I ignored the rocks and twigs cutting into my feet and bolted into the trees, trees that were bigger around than a fucking building. I ran as fast as I could, breathing hard as my arms pumped at my sides. My legs were starting to feel like mush, though, so I couldn't go on forever. I needed to find a place to hide.

So I ducked to the side and ran off in another direction, looking for a place to hide. I looked around, but the bushes didn't provide much cover. I looked up at the trees, but there was no fucking way I'd be able to hide in those. I couldn't reach any of the branches, which were bigger around than I was, not that that was much of a feat anyway.

I finally found a tree that looked like it had been hollowed out at the bottom by something. Sure enough, I ran up to it and there was some kind of huge rodent inside, which screamed at the sight of me and took off into the woods. I ducked down and crammed myself into the tiny space, drawing my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. I reached out after a second, grabbing some leaves and piling them up outside the little hole to provide some coverage.

I held my breath for a moment, listening to the sounds of the forest outside. I could hear birds twittering and chattering above in the trees, the rodent I'd scared away was still on the run.

I waited and listened for it, and sure enough after a few minutes, I heard someone crunching through the woods. I reached up and covered my mouth with both hands to hide my panting breath. I heard two sets of footsteps now.

"Jesus, he runs fast," a male voice said, "He took off like a bat out of hell."

"I would too if I woke up in a scary place alone," another male voice said dryly, "He's obviously terrified and I don't think we're helping."

"We're trying to," a third male voice said, "He's just not letting us."

"Trauma will do that to a person," a female voice said, "You of all people would know that."

"I think we'd all understand that a little bit," one of the males said.

"Raven probably understands him more than any of us," another male murmured, "If what Hadrian said is true anyway, and judging by the kid's reaction, yeah. It's true."

"Shit," another male cursed, "When I get my hands on the asshole that did that to him, I'm going to rip his innards out."

"Ditto."

Their voices got closer and closer to where I was hiding. I didn't move, didn't breathe, just watched as a pair of huge boots came to stand in front of the hole I was in.