It begins Who: Anne Marie and Clementine Where: Anne Marie’s house When: Just before dawn
Anne Marie had fallen asleep on the floor next to the fire, waiting for her other guests to arrive. She knew her other captors wanted to have a little fun with the girls before delivering them, but she didn’t know how long that would take. So she waited, the basement door open just in case Clementine woke up. She’d been kind enough to leave a candle burning down there, but otherwise it was dark, the windows painted black to keep anyone from looking in.
Clementine hadn't been expecting to wake up with such pain, but damn her head hurt something fierce. And her throat. Her face felt swollen around her left eye and it took her a long moment to realize that she couldn't fully open it. Her throat felt tight and painful, stingingly so, and she couldn’t quite figure out why. And when she reached up to try and investigate why, she found that her hands were bound. And very slowly she was coming back to her senses to realize that she was inside a cage. A cage with a mat and a blanket and a pillow and nothing else. In a room completely dark, completely cold, with one tiny frame. And she was scared and she was pissed and all of it boiled into her blood as she took breath and yelled. "Let me out!"
Anne Marie jumped at the sound of the voice, forgetting for a second why anyone else would be in her house. Then she remembered. She rose to her feet, slipped on her slippers, and started towards the basement. In the process, she noticed that the electricity had returned, so she turned on the light. From the top of the stairs she could see Clementine, curled up in her cage. “You’re awake!” she smiled, hurrying down the steps. The girl wasn’t in the best of shape-- Jericho had definitely gotten a good hit in-- but she didn’t appear to be seriously injured. “Can I get you some water?”
Clementine shut her good eye against the onslaught of light but it didn't stop the pain from blowing up heavier in her head. Jesus.. What the hell happened? How was she even here? Where was she? She couldn't open her eyes yet, not to have that light back in them and hurting her again, but she had so many questions. "Who the hell are you and why am I in this thing? Let me out..."
“I’m Anne Marie,” she said as she came forward, picking up a pitcher from the table in the center of the room and pouring water into a paper cup. Reaching through the bars, she handed it to Clementine. “You’re here because you’re going to help me cast a spell, and you’re in there because I can’t risk you running away.” Plus, there was the need to trigger her magic, which would definitely send her running if she knew what that entailed.
A spell? Who was this nut job? Clementine just stared at the water for a long moment before she scooted closer to the bars to reach out and take the cup. She didn't sip at it though. Yeah, she was thirsty, but some bitch had her in a cage and she was busted up in the face and on her throat. She wasn't drinking that water. At least not yet. "I don't know spells. I think…you have to have the wrong person. I don't know what you're talking about."
“You don’t know now, but you will,” Anne Marie said, squatting down beside the cage. “I just need to flip the switch that brings your magic to the surface. And you are definitely the right person. Even now, I can see your glow. It surrounds you like a ray of sunshine in the darkness.” And it was beautiful. She envied that power, would have taken it for herself, but she had other plans. Being a vampire was ten times better than being a witch.
Clementine felt sick. No one should have to squat down to look at someone through a cage. No one should have to be in a cage. What the fuck was going on here? Everything was swirling and she could feel her heart kick up, could feel her breathing starting to quicken. She shut her eye again and tried hard to calm herself down, but it wasn't working. A glow. around her? "I really don't know what you're talking about. I just want to go home. Please…just let me out of here."
“That’s cause you can’t see it. That’s my power, to see the unseen.” It didn’t feel like a very useful power, but she was using it to get a better one. And these girls would thank her later, even if they might wish her dead before the end. She’d give them so much. Right now she was feeling generous, thinking she might let them go in the end. Even if she didn’t, she knew it was better to say she would. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you go eventually, but for now I need you in there. And when the others get here, the fun begins.”
Fun? Others? She felt even sicker. Scooting back from where she'd been, further away from Anne Marie, Clementine shook her head. "My friend is hurt. I need to make sure she's ok…" It wasn't going to work. She was in a fucking cage. Anne Marie hadn't taken off these stupid bounds. And she wasn't helping with the injuries she had. Not to mention she was talking crazy talk. But Clementine didn't even know what happened to Zania other than that she wasn't in the cages next to her, and that she'd been fighting a monster the last she remembered.
“I believe your friend is dead,” Anne said, head tilting slightly to the side. She looked a bit sad, though it was hard to say if she was sad for her friend’s death or sad that she hadn’t been there to help kill her. Having heard what a handful she was, Anne Marie knew she couldn’t have taken the girl down on her own. “Now, come close so I can cut your ties, and then I’ll go get you some soup.” The cage would hold her just fine. If it could hold a werewolf, it could hold a girl.
Everything zoned in on her when Anne Marie said that. She was dead? Zania was dead? She couldn't be. Not unless they dragged her outside and tied her up to wait for the sun…or staked her or something. She couldn't be dead. Could she? Could that sicko have killed her friend? The fear left her shaking, unable to hear anything else Anne Marie said. No, no, no Zania wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead.
“Aw, don’t be sad. She fought bravely,” she said, reaching in to grab Clementine’s bound hands and pull them through the bars. As soon as she’d cut through the ropes, she released her, rising back to her feet. “I’ll be back in a few with water, soup, and maybe some painkillers for your eye. Scream if you need anything,” she grinned, heading back towards the stairs. For now, she would be nice. They’d see the other side of her in the days to come.