Falling in love is great. Unless it's with a demon.

(15)Making friends

You laid in bed, huddled in your blankets, wondering what was going on. All through the night there had been terrible screams coming into your room, even through the thick door. You covered your ears to block it out, but it just kept coming. You huddled in your blankets until sometime in the early morning it suddenly stopped. You peeked from underneath your blanket and looked fearfully at the door, hearing heavy footsteps on the other side. But after a moment of them stopping at your door, they moved on and away down the hallway. You breathed in relief and threw the blankets off of you, sitting up in the bed. You didn't know who it was that had been screaming, but something truly awful must have been going on. Images of the guys being tortured suddenly flitted through your mind and a few lonely tears made their way from your eyes down your face. You closed your eyes tight and shook your head, as if to shake the images away. A big part of you wanted them to come and rescue you, but another part was hoping that they wouldn't. *They told me that he was weaker than them and by killing them he could gain their power,* you thought shivering. *And I bet I'll play a big part in that... he'll more than likely threaten to kill me and I have no doubt in my mind that they'd give their own lives for mine...* You leaned against the headboard of your bed and stared at the door, wondering how you might escape. That was the only choice you had of course... To escape and save the guys the trouble of having to save you. And maybe, you could even find a way to beat Sato once and for all, if only you could get out of that room. Running into Sato last night had been unlucky, but surely it wouldn't happen again. Maybe you could even get some information from the mute girl somehow or the small dragon and find out if he ever left. They might even be willing to help you if you could get through their fear. It was a small hope, but a hope none the less and something you could hold onto, for now to keep you from going crazy in this place.
As if on cue the mute girl walked into the room and came up to stand beside your bed. You looked up at her and smiled, as sweetly as you could and she looked down away from your eyes and gently pushed back the hair away from your face to look at the bruise. It was still slightly swollen and very bright purple, but your eye wasn't swollen anymore and you weren't bleeding.
"Hi..." you said softly, as she got another cold rag and touched it to your cheek.
She merely nodded in response.
"Will Sato be back to see me today?" You asked, hoping for her to shake her head.
She looked frightened at the mention of his name and dropped a dish of cold water that she had been using. It shattered on the floor and panicked she got to her knees, cutting her hands on the broken shards as she quickly tried to pick them up.
You got off of the bed and onto your knees, picking up a piece. "Let me help you," you said, feeling as if it had been your fault. You picked up a few pieces before knicking yourself on a small sharp one. You looked down as blood oozed from one of your fingers and dripped down onto the floor. The girl took the rag and put it against your finger, stopping the bleeding.
You smiled at her and stood up, "Thanks."
She nodded and smiled weakly back.
"I wish I knew what your name was..." you said sadly as plopped back down on your bed and stared at the floor.
The girl bit her lip for a second as if considering what she should do. Then she tapped your shoulder making you look up at her as she took a deep breath in. You had to try hard not grimace as it exposed where her tongue had been cut out and focus on what she was trying to tell you.
"Umm..." you watched as she took another deep breath in and pointed to her mouth. "Breath? Breathing? Choking?"
She shook her head an began to move her hands up to her mouth as if bringing something into it.
"You're breathing... you're bring oxygen into your mouth," you stopped and thought about what she was doing and finally said, "Air?" You asked and she nodded excitedly motioning for you to keep going. *She's trying to tell me her name... so what name sounds like air... then it hit you, "Ariel? Your name is Ariel?"
She smiled and hugged you lightly, nodding, but then backed away, blushing at her loss of self control.
"Thank you for telling me," you giggled, but then a loud sound on the other side of the door made you both freeze. She pushed you down into the bed and covered you up. The lock on the other side snapped and the door open with a small squeak and you peeked out from under the blankets expecting to see Sato.
But instead the little dragon creature walked in, bringing food. It stopped and looked at the two of you, before bringing the tray and setting it down in it's normal spot.
Ariel rubbed the creature on the head, and it rubbed affectionately back.
You giggled again, which made the dragon look over to you at first in dear, then it jumped up into your bed and looked you over, as if wondering whether it should trust you or not. It looked up to Ariel, who gave it a small smile back and then it turned to you and hopped up into your lap.
You jumped a bit having it suddenly on top of you, then laughed as it rubbed against you. Not the beast feeling to have, since it was scaly and kinda slimy, but right then you didn't really care. Maybe these two weren't ideal to keep your loneliness away, but they were your best hope for escape, but it was better than nothing and you only hoped you could get all three of you out instead of just yourself. You could tell by looking at them, that they weren't happy, and lived in fear every day of their lives. That was your mission then... to get all of you out.

Kyo, Chase, and Lunehtiel walked home after not finding you in the forest that surrounded the house. They all looked weary and worried, but were willing to go on forever if that's what it took to find you.
They filed inside, finding Noki sitting in the living room, looking even more exhausted and very pale. The others sat down around him and looked at him anxiously, waiting for him to tell them where you were. He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, "He's taken her to Hell..."
Kyo stared at him, unbelieving, Lunehtiel looked down at the ground and Chase turned away from them completely, not wanting them to see the emotion on his face.
"He couldn't have..." Kyo whispered, choking on his own words. "he just... couldn't have..."
Noki sighed and looked his brother in the eyes. "He has..."
Everyone went silent for a long time until Lunehtiel finally spoke up, "Then we'll have to go and get her."
Noki laughed and Kyo looked over to him hopefully. Chase stood behind them still, leaning against the couch, his face turned away from them. He didn't want them to see what this was doing to him... he didn't want them to see how much he cared. And he did care a lot because a few tears had come to his eyes and made their way down his face.
"Do you realize what going there means?" Noki asked, knowing that they knew, but he wanted them to understand it.
"Risking our lives..." Kyo answered first.
"Confronting our father..." Lunehtiel said angrily.
"But we'd have a chance to save her," Chase said now, speaking for the first time. He turned to them, his tears gone. "And I'm willing to risk anything to do it. I'm going... whether the three of you come or not."
Kyo stood up and went beside him nodding his head. "I'll go with you, brother."
"So will I," Lunehtiel said next going to their side and without hesitation Noki joined them. No matter what happened, no matter how far they'd have to go or what dangers they would have to face they would save you or die trying.

Ariel and the dragon stayed with you now as you ate your food. You once again avoided the glass with the bloody substance, but ate everything else that had been given. You chatted with them between bites about where you had come from and what had happened with the guys and what was expected of you, to marry one of them. They listened with interest, Ariel nodding and looking sad as you told worse parts of your story like your mother dieing and such. After you had finished eating and telling them everything you could remember, you sat back and looked down at your legs, thinking about everything that had happened. It had all gone so fast, and now you here in this place wondering what was going to happen next. A loud boom shook your bed and Ariel and the dragon scurried out the door leaving you alone until you heard the heavy footsteps from that morning come to your door again. You stood up from your bed and waited as the door opened and Sato walked in. You weren't going to let him scare you, no matter what he did.
He smiled down at you, as he got close and looked you up and down. "So... did you sleep well? I hope nothing kept you up."
You glared at him and walked away to the other side of the door. "I slept fine, thank you. I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course," he laughed sitting on your bed. He waved you over to go and sit by him, and you turned disgustedly away. "So you still choose to reject me?"
You didn't look at him as you answered, "I will never change my mind, so why don't you just give me back?"
You looked over now and saw that Sato had disappeared from the bed and gasped feeling his icy hands on your shoulders. "I have my ways to make you give in... I'll give you a couple more days to do it willingly..." He put a cold kiss on the back of your beck, as you struggled against him and then disappeared again, leaving the echo of his laughter in the room.