They Don't Own Me

Chapter 1

The sound of metal scraping against metal caused the girl to wake up with a start. She shook her head to get rid of her growing headache and sat up. She glanced around to see that there were crates stacked around her. She raised an eyebrow when she saw that there were a few animals in pens as well.

Where the heck am I? she wondered, she tried to recall how she had gotten there, but found that her mind was completely blank. Why can't I remember anything? I can't- I can't even remember my name. What is my name?

Panic filled the girl's chest as she tried to rack her brain to get any kind of information out of it. The more she struggled to produce any information, the more scared she became. Sitting on the floor, she wrapped her arms around her legs, trying to calm herself but her lack of knowledge prevented her from doing that. She was so freaked out that she barely noticed that the metal cage had stopped moving and the top had opened.

"Is that a girl?" she faintly heard someone ask.

"I think so," a second voice said. "But why is she here? It was a full month after I got here that you came up. What do you think happened?"

"No clue. But by the looks of it, she's freaking out because she doesn't remember anything. We've got to do something to help her."

The girl's head shot up when she heard one of the owners of the two voices jump down into the box with her. She stared at him, a little more fear entering her body. The dark skinned boy apparently noticed and held up his hands to show he meant no harm.

"Hey, it's okay," he said gently. "I'm not here to hurt you. We just want to get you out of here, but in order to do that, you've got to calm down. We'll try and explain as much as we can."

The girl watched him closely for a moment before glancing above him. Standing at the edge of the box was another teenage boy with dark hair. He had a small kind smile on his face. Closing her eyes, the girl took a deep breath and took the boy's hand. He gently pulled her off the floor and guided her to the edge of the box. The second boy reached his hand down to her and helped pull her out, then moved to help the other boy as well.

The girl looked around her, her eyes wide in shock. She was standing on lush green grass and there was a small forest to her right. To her left was a clear area, appearing as if it were purposely cleared for something to be built later on. What surprised her the most were the giant stone walls surrounding the place. They seemed to reach the sky, though there was an opening in one of the walls. She looked at it curiously, wondering slightly as to what was on the other side.

"You okay now?" The girl looked back at the two boys. She nodded slightly, realizing that her heartbeat had slowed a lot from the pace it had been at just moments before.

"Where are we?" she asked, looking around again.

"Before we begin explaining everything," the dark skinned boy said, "we should introduce ourselves. My name is Alby and this is George."

The girl nodded and looked down at the ground.

"I don't know my name," she muttered.

George put his hand on her shoulder.

"That's fine," he said. "Believe me. I had the same thing happen to me. It'll take a while, but you'll get your name back."

"But what about my memories? I don't remember anything besides waking up in that box."

"From what we can tell, that's normal too," Alby said. "Why don't we sit down so we can explain what we know."

For the rest of the afternoon, the three sat in the middle of the clearing and talked. George and Alby tried to explain as much as they could to the girl, telling her all they knew.