Captive

I had lost all sense of where I ended and the world began. There was darkness like I had never known before; pure and deep. It was menacing. Around me I could hear the cries of the others. They were scared too. With the dark embracing me in its dangerous grasp, I thought of my family.

The men had come while we were eating dinner. Dressed in black, they stormed into the house; none of them speaking a word. My father stood up from the table, trying to understand why these strange men had barged into our house. The largest of them knocked my father away, yelling something at him.

An arm snaked around my waist and before I could react, I was being thrown over someone’s shoulder. My mother, sister, and I began to scream as my father tried to fight back. Before he could even land a single blow, I was taken out of the house. I was tossed into the back of a van with several other crying girls. I could tell by their frantic screams that they too had been taken against their will. As the doors closed, the darkness consumed us, casting us into the unknown. I wasn't sure how long we had been in the van. It had seems like hours, maybe even days.

Suddenly, a flood of light spilled into the van, eroding the darkness. I closed my eyes as tight as I could to keep my eyes from burning in the sudden burst of light. Someone pulled me roughly from the back of the van. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I noticed that our captors had lined me and the others up according to height.

There were seven girls including me. You could feel the fear radiating from us. The shortest girl, couldn’t be more then thirteen; my sister’s age. She was small with bright blue eyes and light brown hair that looked like it hadn’t been combed in a while. The girl beside her appeared to be fifteen. Her brown hair was up in a ponytail. Tears flowed like a river from her brown eyes. You could tell she had been sleeping when she was taken. She looked tired and was wearing a night gown.

Next to her was a girl with a fiery red head. She held pure hatred in her blue eyes as she stared the men down. I stood next to her, only a few inches separated us. My long, light brown hair as pulled into a braid. My light blue sun dress was wrinkled from the confined space and siting so long. Beside me stood a brunette haired girl. She was looking at her shoes, but glanced at me before looking down again.

The last two girls were the tallest. The first was a blond; her hair was curled, tears sparkled in her green eyes. Her purple dress was also wrinkled, dark spots from her tears splattered on her purple dress. The tallest girl had dark brown hair, her red lipstick smeared across her face. She only wore a man's white button up shirt. Mascara ran down her face from her brown eyes.

One of the men stood before us. I recognized him as the one that attacked my father. He glared at us, no doubt to spark more fear. His posture alone looked frightening as he stood over us. He nodded approvingly, before finally speaking with a thick accent.

"You will tell me your name, First only, and age; that is it," he barked. He pointed with a big beefy finger at the shortest girl "You!”

She flinched and looked down before quietly saying, “Maya, Thirteen.”

"Next!" he ordered.

"Aimee, Fifteen," Aimee said, wiping away her tears. The next girl jumped in without being ordered.

"Nadine, Sixteen," she said glaring him down. Nadine nudged me, giving me a look that said to not show fear. I looked him in the eye, and stood up straighter before saying my name.

"Blair, Seventeen," I said.

The girl next to me continued to stare down at her shoes. She mumbled out her name and age just loud enough for the man in front of us to hear it. Her name was Nora and she was eighteen. The blond next to her was name Clara and she was twenty, and the final girl was Emma and she was also eighteen. Another guy standing on the side was writing all our information in a little black notebook. He nodded to the man in front of us, signaling that he got it all.

"You will all stay here. Don't even try to run we will catch you," the big man said before walking over to where the others stood.

None of us spoke, and none of us dared to move. We knew the men were watching us, waiting to see if we would react, yet none of us knew why. What did these men want? Were they going to kill us? Was this some sick game they were playing? Were they going to sell us as slaves? What was going on? It was no mystery that the world had changed. Unknown people were taking over powerful positions. For awhile it was rumored that they were in secret societies or they had some sort of connection. However later we found out these accusations were not true.

These people were not human; they were demons. Demons who decided they were sick of hiding in the shadows, and that they deserved power and respect. Most of them were not forceful about it. It almost seemed as they were an activist group, trying to raise awareness of their species. However not all tried to achieve it through reason. Weird things started happening after they had made themselves known. People started going missing while others appeared to be under mind control. Humans started working for the demons out of fear, hoping they wouldn't be the next to lose their minds.

At first no one was sure what to think of these demons. The activist, who went by the name "The White Flag", tried explaining that not everyone in the demon world was happy about being exposed. They had a different government system and a different set of rules then we had. Then The White Flag started revealing special talents that they had, to prove that not all of them were horrible beings. Some clans were completely psychic, others had super enhanced abilities. Abilities like that were quickly accepted when they proved useful in the community.

Those who didn't want to be accepted into the community were who the human race needed to worry about. They continued to follow their own rules with their dangerous talents. Those were the demons, we were supposed to fear. Ones who controlled pheromones, and minds. Ones who could manipulate you into doing horrible things and hurting yourself or other people. They were the demons who hired slavers, who would kidnap people and sell them as playthings for the demons.

Deep down in my gut, I knew who these men where. but despite what my mind was screaming, I couldn't bring myself to believe it. They were slavers. The very word sent chills down my spine and I knew I would never see my family again.

A limo rolled up toward us. The men each stood more erect and puffed their chests out with pride. Whoever was inside that limo was important to the slavers some how. It dawned on me that it was probably the one who had commissioned these men to take all of us. Whoever they were had broken up may family and the family of these other girls. Whoever it was destroyed my life and I wanted to see who they were.