Chapter Two

Don't believe the stories, kids.

Wait. No. Don't believe the other books. This book is true and don't you forget that, okay?

What I mean, is people always describe coming back to consciousness as an easy process, and the (normally female) character will throw a hand to their head and gasp, "What happened? Where am I?"

Yeah…it don't work like that.

Things were coming into focus, and I could tell some things, but my eyesight was still swimming and I sounds were muffled. Dimly, I attempted to conjure some fire, but I was unsuccessful and I didn't know why.

"Get up," someone hissed at me. I was pretty sure it was a girl's voice. "C'mon! Hurry!"

My eyes blinked and focused slowly. I was in the back of a…a truck. That might not seem weird to you, but in the Slums, nobody had trucks or vehicles of any kind. They were only in Elysium. Did that mean…? It was pretty dark, but there must've been a window somewhere, because I could still see who was trapped with me.

About five other girls were in the back with me. Their wrists were all tied together, and their feet were chained to the person next to them, so we all formed a long line. The girl next to me was trying to prod me awake with her elbow. Her bright blonde hair was falling in my face and her sparkling blue eyes stared at me. I raised my head and stared back.

"What?" I grumbled. I felt the chains tying my hands rub into my skin, and I tried to pull my feet together, but they were firmly tied to the girls next to me.

"The men are going to be back," she hissed.

"And if they see that you're out, well," another girl chuckled, "Then they're not going to be happy."

I nodded slightly, remembering the men who had knocked me out. "So," I mumbled, "Anyone know where we're going?"

The girl who had last spoken nodded. "Slave trading."

"That's a hell of a way to bring it up, Night," someone else snorted.

I shrugged. "Do you know where I come from?"

They all laughed at that, and I felt kinda pleased with myself.

"Anyways," the girl, Night, continued, "Yeah, I think it's slave trading."

"We're gonna be slaves?" I groaned, and momentarily my thoughts were of Amber. She'd be okay, she had to be, but I still didn't want to leave her without a goodbye.

But, I guess you just get used to that at one point.

"Yeah," another girl said, shrugging. "Figures. There's a business for it. My name's Lore, by the way."

"Faith," I replied.

I already knew Night; the girl who'd woken me shyly introduced herself as Mia, another girl told me her name was Thorn, and the last was called Silk.

No last name's were exchanged.

Chances were that none of us had one.

"Wait a minute," I said suddenly, realization occurring, "We're in a truck, yeah?"

"Good observation," Thorn said plainly, her black hair falling neatly around her shoulders. Honestly. If she was from the Slums, how was her hair so perfect?

"Thanks," I scoffed. "I mean, trucks are only in Elysium…there's slavery there? Don't they have, like, laws and stuff?"

"They do…I think," Night said. "At least, that's what I've been told…"

"Aren't there a lot of things like that in Elysium, though?" Lore asked, scanning us with her dark brown eyes. "Like, 'businesses' that aren't legal but everyone knows about anyways?"

"Can we change the name, then?" Silk piped up, her voice sounding heavily accented with what I like to call "grunge" talk. The particularlyterrible parts of the Slums all had residents speaking that way. Luckily, I stayed out of there. "To, like, Land Ya Can Do Anythin' In?"

We all chuckled half heartedly. The drive was continued in silence for a while, until I tried to light a fire on my palm again…and failed, again. I sighed in frustration.

"That won't work," Lore spoke up. "I'm an Elemental, too. None of us have had any Life Source, so we can't use our Abilities."

"Well, are they going to give us Life Source, or do they want us to Change?" I muttered under my breath, but I was heard.

"Did you Change in your sleep?" Night asked me, leaning her head against the wall of the truck.

I nodded once.

Without warning, the truck lurched and stopped in its tracks. We all fell on top of each other, desperately raising our hands to avoid tangling the chain. There was another lurch and my head slammed into Mia's shoulder. She looked over and gave me a weak smile. She was obviously afraid,too afraid for someone who had grown up in the Slums. I looked closer to her hands, and I saw that they were shaking. Her teeth were slightly chattering even though it wasn't cold.

In my eyes, that was a sign of weakness, and I knew that I wasn't going to like her.

But, I will admit, even her scared smile was kinda adorable.

The doors to the truck were flung open, flooding the area with light. Four men were standing there, postures slightly relaxed and bored expressions on their faces. I tried to squint through the light to make out individual faces, but I was unsuccessful.

"Get out," one of them barked roughly, and we were all forced to work an in sync as possible in order to get out while chained together.

We stepped out into a completely different world.

We were in the middle of a well-paved, concrete road, completely surrounded by houses. Actual houses. Not the shacks we were all used to, but three story buildings, with functioning roofs and gardens, with real grass.

I'd only walked on real grass once.

The house the bright blue truck was parked in front of looked identical to the other ones, but it was massive. A pool was situated out front, along with a small vegetable garden and hedges cut into strange patterns. There was even a fountain. A freaking, goddamn fountain with cupids carved into the side.

The door to the mansion opened without a sound and I turned to see a woman standing there, hands on her hips and lips pursed. Clearly she was unimpressed as she scanned each and every one of us top to bottom. "This is all?" she shouted from the doorway. "That's all you can bring me? They look so…weak."

"Sorry, miss," one of the men said. "It's the Slums, do you expect body builders?"

She sighed, running a clean hand through even cleaner hair. "They'll have to do. Bring them in."

Just like that, without another explanation, the men grabbed Night (who was in the lead of our chain line) and pulled her towards the house, making the rest of us stumble over ourselves to keep up.

The whole time, Mia whimpered in my ear, her ragged breathing on my neck. I rolled my eyes as we all staggered forwards, praying that she would just wise up a little. Was she even from the Slums?

Yeah, that was rude of me to think, but honestly, how did she survive all her life? She must've had someone looking out for her, as I did Amber, that cared about her a lot. She must've been lucky.

Not lucky enough.

I gulped one more breath of fresh air into my lungs before I was shoved inside the threshold of the door. Spiraling stairs led upwards and more stairs led down, along with a hallway leading straight ahead. Before I could analyze any longer we were being pushed down the stairs going to the basement.

We finally arrived in a gray room where about ten other girls were huddled in the corner, their faces streaked with dirt, their clothes a pile of rags. Suddenly one of the men that had been in the truck was undoing our chains and as soon as my hands were free I desperately tried to summon fire, water, earth or air but none of them would come. I turned my arm to look at my veins and saw them to be a dark grey colour. Trying not to groan in frustration, I knew I barely had enough Life Source in me to make it through the night; certainly not enough for my Ability.

However, once the man had moved away from me I attempted a swift kick to his side, but suddenly two other men were behind me and pulling me backwards, and even though I desperately tried to break free, I knew that I wouldn't succeed.

The woman who had opened the door earlier walked over to me and I saw she was holding a small needle and syringe filled with some sort of strange liquid. "Now, honey," she whispered quietly, and I shrunk back slightly as she came even closer, touching the needle point to my neck. "This should help."

As soon as the needle was pressed into my neck I gave a little gasp and I could see the other girls staring at me with tight expressions like they knew what was going on but I didn't…

My thoughts clouded over and I felt myself crashing to the floor before I could even reply.

Just like last time, I woke up to somebody nudging my shoulder. "Honestly," someone whispered. "Why are you always the one who's unconscious?"

"Because I'm special," I grunted as I opened my eyes and sat up slowly. The first thing I did was look at my veins, and surprisingly, they were back to being a normal colour.

I looked up to see about fifteen girls around me. The only ones here that had rode in with me was Silk and Mia (of course. Something about her just made me so angry) and the rest were here before. "Did that injection have Life Source…?" I asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah," one girl replied. She didn't even look at me while she was speaking, but I couldn't find myself caring. "Just enough for a couple days, then they inject you again."

"What, do they mix sedative in with it?" I groaned, rubbing the back of my neck to feel the injection point.

Another girl chuckled slightly. "Nah. We don't know what it is. But it does stop you from using your Ability. And you can't hurt our captors."

"What do you mean?" I exclaimed. "Of course we can hurt them!"

"No," the same girl replied, locking her dull blue eyes with mine. "If you try, you get an electric shock. Somehow."

"Well," I said, trying to keep calm and figure out other ways of escape, "Where did the others go?"

I was met with sixteen grim expressions. "They're dead," someone said bluntly. "Or a male worker took them to be used. And then killed."

I didn't have to ask what "used" meant. "So why are we still alive…?"

"To be sold!" someone said. "Why else? We're considered 'good candidates' or something, and the rest didn't measure up."

I let myself feel a small pang of sadness and grief for the others, and then I pushed them aside because I knew they would already be dead and there was nothing I could do.

But I knew that could've easily been me.

And, for some reason, it wasn't Mia.

"So we just stay here?" I asked. "And do what? Sit around all day?"

"Yes," someone answered. "Yes, until we're bought. Because that's what they make us do. And once we're bought, we'll have to stay with those people. And we don't get a choice in the matter."

I nodded grimly.

Like I said.

We look at the silver linings, or we don't have any to find.

That night, as the rest of the girls were sleeping, sudden whimpers broke through the calm and silence.

I turned my head to the right, able to see Mia shaking and sobbing with the electric light on the ceiling that didn't seem to be able to turn off.

I had half a mind to go comfort her. She looked so small, so fragile, so easy to break. Maybe she was already broken. She'd probably lived through hell in her life already, and I had no right to judge.

But then the other part of me knew she had to be stronger than that. It ticked me off. She was still alive, the mess that she was, and the other girls - Night, Lore, Thorn, probably Amber at this point, everyone else who had ever died in the Slums before their time - were gone.

So I stared at her and whispered, careful not to wake anybody, "Could you just shut up, for god's sake!"

The whimpers stopped and I saw her eyes slide over to stare at me but her head didn't turn. Rage consuming me, I continued, "Nobody cares, okay? We've all been through a lot worse than this. So just stop. I'm sick and tired of you being a weak mess. Wise up and shut up, got it?"

A stiff nod came from Mia and then she turned over, not looking at me any longer.

Yeah, it was harsh.

No, I didn't care.

The day we were bought was an interesting one.

It was exactly three weeks after we'd all first been brought to the slavery, and I hadn't left the basement once. We'd all been trying to stay active the best we could so when we got out of there we'd actually be able to function, but still, leaving that room felt like a strange concept.

The woman I'd first seen when I'd arrived (the same one who always gave us injections. I had indeed learned that you do in fact get shocked if you try to fight) marched into the room, followed by two ordinary looking people. They were obviously married, and they carried themselves with grace and elegance I'd seldom seen.

"We're looking for two young girls," the man was explaining. He had chestnut eyes and sandy hair. The girl's eyes were an olive green, but her hair was bleached blonde with pink streaks, a combination I really didn't like. "Girls that could go to high school, perhaps?"

The woman nodded. I had yet to learn her name, and I was puzzling over what it could be - Suzie? Joan? Buffy? - when she grabbed my wrist and hauled me to my feet, scanning me over, much like she did on the first day. "She's a good match," the woman concluded.

The man nodded, clearly satisfied, when his wife pointed at…Mia. "She looks good, too."

God no. My life would just be so ironic if Mia was bought with me. "You're right, Mrs. Perkins," the woman said. "She is good. Is that all?"

I looked at Mia, my mouth open in shock. She refused to look at me and allowed herself to be limply pulled to her feet by the woman.

The man - what, Mr. Perkins? What kind of name was that? - nodded and handed her some paper that seemed to have no meaning whatsoever and then before I could even say a word I was hauled out of the room.

I cast one look backwards, and I found my eyes catching Silk's. She and I had become good friends over the time we'd been captured, and I would hate to say goodbye to her, but I didn't have a choice. She was just like everyone else that had left. I was so used to people leaving it was just second nature to me.

She gave me a quick nod of farewell before I was pushed up the stairs and she was lost from my sight.

I stopped paying attention as I was taken outside. The light almost blinded me and I squinted and felt myself being pushed inside some kind of vehicle and then the door was shut and locked and I was trapped.

With wimpy, terrified, scared, silly, stupid, idiotic Mia.

As the vehicle - some kind of large car, but it wasn't large enough to be a truck - revved up and drove away from the mansion house, all I could think was,

When will it end?