Arabella

My head throbbed excruciatingly as I started to regain consciousness and for some reason opening my eyes was nearly impossible. It felt as if my eyelids were glued together. I was also well aware of the fact that I was not in my own room, in my cosy bed, with my cat Silvester. My stomach turned and I tensed nervously. If I was not home, and this was no dream, then where was I? Fending off the sudden sense of panic threatening to hijack my mind, I took a few deep breaths to calm myself.

“Hello?” I asked in a croaky voice knowing it was a weak attempt at drawing attention. Just as expected, there was no answer. The silence that shrouded me was deafening, something was horribly wrong.

I managed to push myself off the hard slab I was laying on and then dropped to my knees. The cold concrete floor beneath me was rough and as I slowly crawled forward, I kept feeling ahead for anything of substance. Barely a few feet ahead of me was a wall and with trembling fingers I felt my way up against it, using it as leverage to stand on my own two feet. There had to be a door or a window, unless I was in some sort of a pit. A nauseated feeling clenched around my insides, but I forced myself to move.

“Hello!” I cried anxiously, hoping that someone would hear me, and although I had no idea where I was, or who would come to my aid I knew that just the mere presence of another living being would be comforting, in some strange way. But what if…no, no, no, I could not allow myself to panic. Just stay positive Arabella, I encouraged myself, because I knew the moment I lost heart, I might as well kiss my backside goodbye.

As time slowly ticked by I started to feel a sense of normality return. The hazy fog that wrapped around my mind and limbs started to subside slowly and soon enough I managed to open my eyes. Although things around me were still very blurry the room started taking shape. On the far left was a single bed, a basin to the right and a toilet, very similar to that of a prison cell. I kept hunting through the recesses of my mind to figure out what happened, but I came up blank. The locator spell, that’s what I was doing before I lost consciousness, I must have been trying to locate something of relevance, but what was it?

The sound of footsteps drew my attention as they got closer and closer, but my sense of relief was short lived. My good old friend panic reared its ugly head. Whoever locked me away in this cell was definitely not friend, but most likely foe, and I clearly had something they wanted.

The door glided open and my heartbeat drummed loudly in my ears. Immediately, I backed away from the door and stood with my palms turned upwards, ready to call on the four elements to ward myself against the impending threat.

Two larger than life men stepped into the cell, both wearing some sort of a uniform. And the deadpan look on their faces, made the hairs on my neck stand up. With my trembling heart I focused on the two men and willed the power of the elements to ward them off, but to my surprise the warm glow of magic dissipated like a candle lit in a drafty room. What the hell?!

“You’re magic won’t work here,” the taller one of the two said as if he could read my mind and reached for me, but I jumped back and flattened myself against the wall.

“Where am I and who are you?” I asked them raising my fists to shield myself, ready to strike if I had to, and by the look on their faces, I was not intimidating them at all. In fact, it looked like they found me more amusing than frightening.

The other, slightly shorter one, although not by much, chuckled and casually stepped forward, and as I punched towards his face, he gripped my wrist firmly in his hand.

“Come now, you don’t actually think you’ll be able to fight us, do you?” he said mockingly.

He was right. Damn! They were way taller than I was, and much bigger and without my magic I stood no chance, I was going to have to be crafty and play by their rules if I was going to see another sunrise. Feigning defeat I lowered my other hand and the tall one locked his big monstrous hand around my upper arm.

“If you don’t struggle you won’t get hurt,” he said as they lead me out of the cell into a long dim lit passage.

“Just tell me what’s going on.” I asked them, but neither bothered to answer me, they simply hustled me along.

As we walked along the corridor, there were other cells, similar to the one I woke up in, if only I had the ability to see beyond those walls now, maybe that would give me an indication of where I was and what I was doing here. But no matter what angle I tried, I was powerless.

We turned left and then right until we reached another set of doors, one of the men pressed his palm on the biometric scanner and the doors swished open. Half expecting them to chaperone me into the room, they remained outside, simply shoving me forward and then the doors closed.

The interior of this room was so much different than the corridors beyond the large doors. To my left was a large indoor terrarium that contained plants, which, to the best of my knowledge, became extinct long before the fall of man. I was very tempted to study them, but too scared to make any sudden moves. I simply stood in one spot and glanced around the room, feeling like a bird, trapped in a cage.

“Arabella Autumn, I wish we were meeting under different circumstances,” a deep timbered voice said from the far corner of the room.

“I am Major Edmund Bernhard.”

Startled, I looked in the direction of the disembodied voice, and even though my nerves were shot and my brain misfiring horribly, I managed to keep my composure.

“W-well, so do I, what do you want with me?” I asked bitingly, “and why does my magic not work in this place?”

“In due time all will be revealed, I just wanted to take this time to introduce myself to you.”

A broad shouldered man, dressed in uniform similar to the other two men, stepped out of the shadowed corner of the room. From the amount of medals pinned to his shirt’s breast pocket he must have been higher up in rank.

Although I felt intimidated, a strange, completely opposite sensation slowly unravelled in me. I tried not to stare, and instead looked at everything except the man before me, but even that failed since my eyes kept darting back to him. His chocolate brown hair was short with fine golden streaks on each side of his head. His eyes were large and slightly slanted and thick dark lashes framed his intense amber eyes. The colour of his eyes reminded me of an orange moon, ominous yet beautiful, and in all my life, I cannot recall seeing such eyes. Everything about him was a tad overwhelming, not only did he have near perfect facial features; the rest of him was also rather distracting. He stood tall and proud, with his shoulders drawn back and by his posture, and the way his arms angled away from his body, it was obvious that he had physical strength as much as an air of aristocracy.

“Focus Arabella!” I reprimanded myself, shaking my head mentally. I squared my shoulders and point blankly said, “Cut the crap, and tell me what’s going on.”