The Lost Ones Book 2: Welcome Home

Chapter 54

What seemed like hours later, a voice called out to him. "Where are you going?"

Quentin froze, the mere sound of that voice sending chills down his spine. He stayed where he was, keeping his back turned.

"I asked you a question." Penelope repeated a bit agitated.

"And I refuse to answer." The mudkip bluntly replied, trying his best to not show any signs of fear.

Penelope frowned. "And why is that?"

"Because I don't have to."

"I am your queen. Must I command it from you?"

Quentin turned around and glared daggers at her but didn't say anything.

"You seemed much more talkative earlier. Something has obviously changed. Do I need to banish you to your room to learn some manners?"

"I'm not a little kid." He replied, clenching his teeth together.

"How old are you? Cause I doubt you are anywhere near my age. Therefore, a child."

"That's not how this works."

"Oh? Maybe not in your realm, but if I wanted to, I could turn you into a child in an instant. Perhaps I should be because you are certainly acting like one."

"I'm acting like an infant cause I want to be free? No way. You're the one acting like a psycho!"

"So that's what you're trying to do." She ignored the last comment. "You want to be free."

His eyes widened, not realizing what he'd just said until that very moment.

"And I see the ender has left you. He was wise about his choice." She looked disappointed. "You are just going to keep trying to get out, aren't you? Even though you know deep down, you will never escape."

"I will escape!" He yelled back.

"No. You won't."

Quentin took a few steps closer to her. "I'm getting out of here. Doesn't matter if I have to fight my way even through you to do it!"

"Bold of you to threaten me that way." She replied coldly. "And bold of you to assume you could."

"Bold of you to assume a can't." He retorted.

"Really? Try it. I dare you."

Quentin shrugged and turned around to walk away.

"Oh? Are you too cowardly to fight me?"

"I won't fight you until you make me. Right now you're just letting me walk away.

"Alright then." A wall appeared in front of him and the doors to the side vanished. "Fight me, child."

Quentin stumbled back and turned around. It was at this moment he realized he didn't have a weapon on him.

He also realized she was much taller than when he last looked at her.

Quentin grew nervous, but didn't let it show on his face.

"Well, go on then, come at me."

Quentin stared. He wasn't a huge fan of using his Pokémon powers unless he had to, and this was definitely one of those times. He took a step forward, holding his arms out to the side, he glared at Penelope and took a deep breath. His orange cheeks seemed to glow, And when he exhaled a large stream of water shot out of his mouth at the Queen.

Penelope jerked back in surprise but blocked her face with her arms. "Well! That's a surprise!" She grinned, seemingly mostly unbothered by the attack.

"What? Never seen a water type before?" Quentin teased, wiping the water off of his mouth with his sleeve. "I have more where that came from."

"I'll be honest, that's quite fascinating to me. I just wish you'd behave so I didn't have to hurt you. I'm giving you every chance to turn back but you don't seem to want to." she sighed. "I'm not sure you want to see what I do to people like you... but then again... You've seen ender."

"I know everything that you've done to people. The pods, the experiments, those... puppets, was it?"

"So you do know... then you should know if you keep at this you'll be joining them one way or another. I doubt ender explained how I do any of that. But I can assure you," she glared down at him. "It's very, very painful for those who misbehave."

"I was stabbed in the gut yesterday, I think I've experienced enough pain for the time being."

"Then stand down or you're going to suffer something worse than death."

"I'm not afraid of you."

She chuckled darkly. "You will be." She stepped towards him. "One last chance. Submit."

"NO!" Quentin took a stance again. Water drops began to form on the tips of his fingers, eventually growing in size until both of his arms were entirely covered with water. He clapped his hand together, and as he pulled them apart the water moved down his arms to form a sphere in the empty space which morphed into what resembled a whirlpool. Quentin spun around and thrusted his arms in front of him, launching the sphere at Penelope.

Penelope waved her hand and it simply dispersed into mist. "You seem to forget, this is my realm." She raised her hand and chains lunged out of the floor and grabbed onto Quentins wrists and his feet started to sink into the floor like quicksand.

He struggled and began to yank onto the chains, not even batting an eye when the began to cut into his skin and make him bleed. He took another deep breath and launched another wave of water out of his mouth.

Penelope held up her hand and it split to either side of it, missing her other than that. "What, do you need a muzzle too?" A wave of her hand and his mouth was clamped shut by a metal muzzle.

"That's better. Are you done trying to best me?"

A muffled cry was heard and Quentin continued to struggle. Tears were beginning to form in his eyes, which were now full of utter terror.

She looked down at him. "Are you done? Do you understand that you aren't going anywhere? That you will never leave this place?" She asked him, her eyes cold. "Cause I want you to understand. You turned down my offers of mercy. Even if you were to beg for it now, I have none left to offer you. You had your chance. But congratulations. You've proved your point," she lowered herself to be closer to eye level with him but maintained the over 10 foot form. "You are not a child." Her eyes became dangerous and malicious. "You are going to be a toy for me to play with however I see fit." A sickening smile spread across her lips. "It's been awhile since my last one... but you showed me that you don't break easily... let's see how long that'll last."

Quentin's eyes widened as tears began to stream down his face.

She grabbed the chains and lifted him out of the floor and into the air. "Let's get started, shall we?" And proceeded down the hall.