Nocte Yin: Anti-Villain, Anti-Hero and Anti-Everything Else

Chapter Seven

She bolted upright, her joints cracking from sleeping on the floor for too long and her skin garnering Goosebumps when the covers fell. She felt light-headed and dehydrated. Several thoughts ran through her head – Earth – the subway – Burghard – but the most pressing matter was that she was breathing. She was breathing in an environment she wasn’t made for.

She lifted her hand to her face, touching the plastic mask over her mouth and nose. She looked down to see that it was connected to a machine, feeding oxygen into her system – oxygen Earth couldn’t provide for her.

Gingerly picking up her glasses placed ever-so-patiently beside the machine, Nocte righted her eyesight and immediately registered her position. She was alone, sitting on a futon, on a hardwood floor, in the middle of a room, in a basement (it was always a basement) with a television at one corner and a window – barred to keep her in. But then again, nothing could keep Nocte in if she wanted to escape. The problem would be dragging the machine with her because, without it, she would probably fall into a dead faint again. Plus, the machine needed an outlet to keep it running.

Frowning, she closed her eyes and breathed in the unnatural cool air. It was September and, basement or not, it couldn’t be that cold, could it? Blinking, she could hear a machine rumble nearby and remembered the rumbling of the subway trains. She knew she had fainted, and she knew that that man – Burghard! – had been nearby.

He had taken her in then. That much was (unfortunately) obvious.

Butwhat did they want from her?

More importantly, how long had she been asleep?

Perhaps it was time to return to Erisire.

She rummaged through her pockets, glad that her kidnappers hadn’t (she shuddered) stripped her of her clothes or changed her, and came up with… lint? Going through her other pocket, she got the same result.

“They have my Keys and cellphone,” she surmised aloud, a little lost.

It made sense, of course. A mysterious girl found in the subway, able to hide in the in the darkness, run as fast as the wind and faint at the slightest of “fresh” air… Nocte appeared rather suspicious, but she was also rather suspicious of her “captives”. How had they known where she’d arrive on Earth? Or when? Why was the woman in the subway to begin with?

What did they want with her?

She had to get her Keys back. The cellphone was not as important.

The hairs on her arm stood and she quickly clutched an icicle, sharp as a knife, beneath the covers. Regardless of her aching body – regardless of her being on a foreign planet – Nocte was always alert of her surroundings. After trudging through the demanding, numbing Winter of Xon, harsh in all His winds and cries, Nocte had learned that one disoriented moment, one moment scrambling for twigs in hopes of a fire, could bring upon a werewolf alpha ready to gut her and a crown princess without batting an eyelash.

She watched, her muscles tense, as the door opened, letting more of the cold basement air into the room. In all honesty, she expected Burghard or, worst case scenario, a large, brutish thug. She did not expect, however, the woman – Marie – pausing at the threshold when she saw her awake and conscious, a blue pot full of white mayflowers in her hands.

Nocte blinked rapidly.

“Not much of a guard,” she thought suspiciously.

“Oh!” Marie sounded, pleasantly surprised. “Good afternoon. I’ll just go and get the tape then.”