Unseen Colors, Act One
Act One: Red!
I sighed as I watched the clouds float by peacefully. The warm summer breeze blew through my curly long brown hair, carrying it away as I leaned my head back to enjoy the sunlight. The birds sang happily and the tall grass flowed calmly. Nothing could be better! This was peace! I didn't know it would only last for such a short time.
I breathed in, taking in as many smells as I could, enjoying the sense of freedom from the world. It wasn't long before I opened my eyes and checked the time on my phone. 1:28 PM. My shoulders sagged and spirits dropped. I was going to be late for work if I didn't leave soon and my boss would surly let me have it if I was late again. So, I stood up, dusted myself off and started back towards my car. I almost reached it when something caught my eye; a bright flash from somewhere in the distance. I stopped and backed up. There it was again. What could it be?
No! No no no! You're going to be late, I told myself. But curiosity was strong and tempting and I just couldn't help myself. I wonder what it could be...?
Kat jumped as the sound of iron hitting stone flooded the room and a bright light followed soon after. Kat covered her eyes with her arm to shield herself from the light. She heard a dry cackle and bare feet padding on stone. She lowered her arm a little to see a hideous elderly women walk in wearing mostly worn rags and scarfs.
"Good evening!" She said loudly, practically yelling.
Kat scowled in response as the women's eyes fell upon her. She smiled, reviling several missing and broken teeth. The women then turned her head in another direction. Following her gaze, Kat saw a man covered completely in brown grey and white fur. His face was that of a wolfs and his feet were more like a feral paw. His hands also bared a striking resemblance to paws, only being slightly more human-like. A short tail curved around his waist and rested on his lap.
He was one of... them.
His arms were cuffed together in front of him and so were his legs. He had many scrapes and gashes all over his body. She was only able to tell because he wore nothing at all, covering himself only with his tail. For a moment, she felt pity for him...
Only for a moment.
"What do you want?" Kat asked coldly, turning to the old women. The elderly lady looked back at Kat and smiled.
"I'm not here for you!" she spat and turned her attention back to the wolf man.
Two emerald eyes looked up to the old women as she smiled down on him. Kat watched them stare at each other for a long moment before the old hag snapped her boney fingers and pointed to the wolf man. Two large human men entered the room, one carrying a large gun and the other held keys in one hand, and handcuffs in the other.
Before Kat could register it, the two men had uncuffed and cuffed the wolf man. Now that he was standing, Kat could see how tall and muscular he actually was. He towered over the old lady and stood a few inches taller than the two men. Kat only guessed that he would be at least a head taller than her.
The men hulled him off with the old lady following closely behind. The door slammed shut and darkness returned. Nothing but the dim green light of her strange bracelet could be seen...
I walked closer to the general area where the light was coming from. I soon found myself in the woods, trudging through tall grass. Is it really worth it? I thought as I nearly tripped from the grass tangling around my boot. Where could it be? To be honest, I didn't even know what I was looking for.
Another bright flash caught my eye as I walked. I turned to see a metallic, shiny bracelet lying in the grass. It was pretty bare except for an emerald colored gem on it. The gem appeared to glow, though it was still mid-day. Interesting...
Again, there was the blood curdling screech of iron scraping on stone. Kat's eyes popped open to a bright light and four silhouettes moving towards her. Two of the silhouettes carried another while the last one simply followed behind the rest. The two larger shadows threw the one they carried in the cage and slammed the metal door shut, then walked away with the third shadow following closely behind.
Kat was quiet, not knowing if she should say anything or not. He was one of them after all... but still.
"Are... are you okay?" Kat forced herself to ask. There was no response. She waited for a moment. Maybe he couldn't understand her? If that was so then there was really no point in repeating her question. She sighed and leaned her head back on the hard stone wall.
Putting it on, she found it to be much too large and heavy. She was able to barely fit both wrists within its ring and still have room to move. She sighed and was disappointed and frustrated at the waste of time... well, maybe not a complete waste of time, it might look nice on her wall or dresser?
She was about to take the bracelet off when it clamped down on her left wrist tightly. It happened before she could blink and made her heart jump. There was a dull pain in her wrist as her heart skipped a few more beats. She stumbled backwards from the shock and hit her head hard on a tree behind her. She didn't get up immediately, instead, she tried to pry the bracelet off her wrist with little success.
There was another dull pain in her wrist where the bracelet wound around her tightly. Her heart skipped another few beats then resumed its normal pattern. Why does this happen? A pain shoots through her wrist every other day! But why? Whatever, she thought. She guessed it didn't matter, it didn't appear to be doing any damage to her body, so there was no point in worrying about it.
She began to tap her fingers on her legs. She was getting bored and mad. How much longer was she going to stay like this? It's been two days since last she's seen the old hag and four days since they took him and brought him back injured.
Escape!
Who said that? She scolded herself, just her imagination. But not a bad idea...
"... So why not cut it off or something?" Selena said as she held my left wrist and examined the bracelet.
"I've tried," I argued. "But it just won't budge! It broke my scissors, dulled my knives, and killed my chainsaw!"
"You used a chainsaw? How?"
I shrugged. "I had my neighbor do it."
Selena dropped my wrist and shook her head. "Sorry, sis. I don't know what to tell you."
I sighed and looked back at my arm. Scrapes and gashes marked my arm and elbow. "That's alright. I'll think of something."
I didn't, really. I thought about it for the rest of the day, but all of my ideas ended in me losing either my wrist, or entire arm.
"Hey!" She yelled in the general direction of the iron door. "Old Hag!" She yelled louder and louder until the iron door screeched open and a tall man walked in. He walked right up to her cage where she was holding onto the bars and he grabbed her by the neck hard, making her choke and cough.
"Shut-up!" he yelled.
She couldn't help but smile.
She grabbed his arm through the bars and pulled hard until his face slammed into the bars. She twisted and moved to the right as he screamed in pain. She pulled harder until... SNAP
The man howled in pain as his arm fell limp. He screamed curse words at her as two other men came in to see what the commotion was. "What's going on here?" the old hag asked as she walked in behind the two other men. She looked down at the man Kat had just attacked and saw his arm. "How shameful," she shook her head. "Allowing yourself to fall before a human BEHIND BARS!!!" Her last few words were ear-piercingly loud. She snapped her fingers and pointed to the man crouched on the floor. "Get him to the infirmary, I'll have a word with him later." The men obeyed and hulled the man off. The old hag turned and followed, looking over her shoulder to Kat before the door slammed shut again.
Kat breathed a sigh of relief and smiled to herself. She opened her clenched hand to see a small key that barely fit in her palm. Snatching it off the guard's belt was easy when he grabbed her neck. The snapping of his arm was so that she had an excuse for yelling. Not a very good one, but she didn't plan on staying much longer to explain. Immediately, she unlocked the cuffs on her wrists and ankles, making sure they didn't drop so the guards outside could hear them crash against the stone floor. She padded over in the direction of the door to her cage and felt around for the keyhole. After a moment or two of searching, she found it and tried her best to fit the key in without making too much noise. It screeched a little when she turned and the iron barred door squeaked when she opened it only enough to fit through.
The room she was held in wasn't very big; only big enough to fit Kat and the other prisoner's cage and a few piles of wooden creates. One of the creates happened to be open and Kat found a loaded revolver with a sash bag half filled with ammunition. Perfect! She thought to herself. She stuffed the gun in her pants and threw the bag over her shoulder. Now, all she needed was a way out...