The Awkward and Terrifying Explosive Adventures of the Recreaze-Vallia Family

Chapter Five

Ariah 

My skull felt like there was a giant crack running down the middle. Apart from the pain that wracked my sore body, there was also the blistering heat. I opened my eyes to an unbearably bright light. I barely remembered the battle, much less how I had come to be...here.

Speaking of which, where was here?

I turned slowly in a full circle, shielding my eyes against the slowly diminishing light. I didn't know where the heat was coming from, but it was like I was standing in an oven.

The light had faded to a pinpoint of almost nothing, sending a thin beam of illumination across the cavern. It did appear to be a cavern; I could make out jagged rocks on the walls and ceiling, but I couldn't get a distinct layout of the place.

The light extinguished at that moment, leaving me in total darkness. There went that plan. I knelt to touch the floor, hoping for some kind of walking stick to prevent me from twisting my ankles. Oddly, the floor felt smooth and polished, almost like linoleum, like the floor back at the headquarters as opposed to rocky, like one would think a cavern floor felt like.

I was blind now. If I was going to find my way out of here, it would have to be with the rest of my senses and quick thinking. My training was second nature to me; flipping out wasn't even an option.

I felt around in my pockets. My silverstick was gone; the sheath on my back was empty. I had a knife in my ankle sheath, and I could feel random bits and bobs in my jacket pocket—crumpled pieces of money, receipts from the convenience store. Phone was gone, though—shame.

I went slowly, feeling the air around me, and testing the ground before I took a step. I was headed for what I thought was the far cavern wall. Before long I realized the ground under my feet was no longer smooth, it was uneven and felt rocky. The heat was getting stronger and I didn't know if this meant I was heading in the right direction or about to fall down the center of a volcano.

My answer came a few minutes later when my fingertips brushed rough, jagged, rock. Once I found the wall, I could follow it until I came to an exit. I leaned in, resting the palms of my hands against its surface—and jumped back with a shriek. The wall was scalding hot, and I meant scalding as in the hottest surface you've ever touched and multiply it by ten. The walls, they were the sources of heat.

As I straightened, my ankle screamed. I had come close to twisting it when I had jumped backwards upon the floor, which had steadily grown more uneven and rocky with every step. In fact...

The ground was littered with stones of different sixes. No wonder why I had almost snapped my ankle in half. I picked one up at random and threw it as far as I could directly in front of me.

Thook.

It hit wall.

Another rock left my hands, this time going a little to the left.

Thook.

More wall.

I repeated the process as many times as I needed to, moving around to find more stones when I ran out. Carefully, I went in a wide circle.

I was almost back in the direction I was facing when I had started. If I was wrong, if there wasn't an et...

Thook.

I threw another stone.

Thook. 

Aiming blindly in the complete darkness, I threw another stone.

A moment later, I heard something skittering across the floor. But the familiar thook—I didn't hear it.

"Finally," I whispered to myself. I gathered as many stones as I could find, using my jacket as a makeshift bag. The darkness and heat were suffocating me. I needed out...now.

I stumbled in what I hoped was the right direction. The closer I got to the walls, the stronger the heat was, and it was pretty unbearable right now. The gap between the walls should have been just ahead. I should be out, I should be out of here, I should—

Bright, blinding light. Cool floor pressed against the small of my back.

Tightening grip around my throat.

I shut my eyes and opened a few times, not used to the sudden light. When my vision cleared, I saw the woman whose hand was currently clamped around my source of air. She leaned forward, peering into my eyes, her long, straight dark hair tickling my face.

"We have an intruder," she said, smiling with perfectly straight teeth. I spotted a thin wire stretching from behind her ear down her shirt. She was talking to someone.

"Okay," the woman said. "Yeah, I will." She bared her teeth in a smile again.

"So, sweetie," the woman all but purred, dragging me into a sitting position by the throat. "Why don't we start with how you got in?"

"I don't know," I rasped, running out of breath.

She fake-pouted, mouth splitting into a grin a second later. The light glinted off her eyes as her fingernails dug into my skin.

"Wrong answer," she sang, sounding delighted. "You know what, sweetie? The family will kill you."

I gagged.

***

When I came to, I was shackled against a wall, restraints holding my upper body in place. I blinked a few times; the room swimming in and out of focus. I managed to narrow my gaze on the same woman that had been choking me. She turned her head and gave me a brief but smug smile when she heard me shift my feet.

"You have to let me go..." I croaked, struggling to break free from my bonds. "There's been a mistake, I'm not who you think!"

She examined each black-painted, perfectly sharpened fingernail before giving me any attention. 

"I know exactly who you are, Ariah. Recreaze-Vallia traitor? Liaison to the Halyix?" She spat out the words, calmly walking over to where I was trussed up. 

"What?! No!" I screamed, frightened, everything I had been trained to do like keeping my head and assessing the situation flying out the window.

The woman yanked a handgun off a table as she walked past, heading toward me with a scarily calm expression on her face. "Listen. Listen! Listen to me!" I screamed. "I'm not who you think!" 

She looked at me pityingly.

"Sweetie, I'd save your last words for something important. Loving words for family members, perhaps? Oh—that's right, I forgot you didn't have any. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can pardon a traitor. The moment you stepped foot here, you were already dead." She pressed her lips against my ear, whispering those last two words. Then she sat back on her heels and smiled.

"But, I thought I'd save the honour for someone else. How do you feel about that, Ariah? You'll be a key piece in the training of a future agent. Paving the path to a brighter future of the family. Remember? The Recreaze-Vallia family will kill you. Aww, don't look so sad. At least you died for the greater cause."

The woman glanced at something out of my field of vision, that my restraints prevented me from seeing. I heard another pair of footsteps, and then the woman gave the gun to someone I still couldn't see.

She brushed a piece of hair out of my face, still grinning. "Ariah? Meet Myra."

~ wolfdreamer