by Amanda Boone
The short answer to this was just that she had told him to. Ezra took nearly everything she said as truth. She knew the natives and their legends a billion times better than he did, and he had always regarded her as much more worldly than him. “I was afraid of what would happen, so I made a decision. Now I’m here asking you for help, because that is the only way I know how to help her now.”
Demba crossed her arms. “Now, the natives, the villages, the land is a very delicate thing. I have no interest in invading a village because you claim to have seen a dragon.”
Ezra jumped to his feet. “But she’s missing! How can you question my story when that fact is proof?”
Demba gave a slow nod. “Then, if she’s missing, we will launch a search.”
“What does that even mean?” Ezra asked.
“You need to take me to your lodgings.”
He scoffed. This was a complete waste of time, but if this was what she required in order to provide her aide, then what choice did he have?
***
“Here we are.” Ezra pushed open the flimsy wooden front door of the two room house he had shared with Margot since they’d built it together in their first weeks as volunteers. As he led Demba through their small front hallway, through the cluttered front room and into the back room that housed the two twin beds they slept in, he heard the sound of someone sloshing around in water.
“Do you have a third roommate?’ Demba asked.
Ezra shook his head, but as he stepped through the opening that led to their bedroom he saw what was undeniably Margot herself, sitting in the bathtub, running a soapy sponge over her naked body.
“Oh!” Demba exclaimed. “Apologies!”
“Hello?” Margot called, dropping the sponge into the tub.
Demba and Ezra stepped back through the opening, leaning against the wall of the first room. “I thought you said you last saw her caught up in a net.”
Ezra pursed his lips. “I did.” He shook his head. None of this made any sense.
“Ezra?” Margot called as she stepped out into the front room, her wet body wrapped in the sheet she had pulled off of her bed.
Ezra cocked his head to one side. Why wouldn’t she get a towel?
Demba leaned into her. “Sorry, he just reported you missing and…” She stopped, peering into her eyes.
Ezra followed her gaze. Odd. The woman he remembered had brown, almond-colored eyes, not the deep, ruby red ones he was staring into.
“Do you wear contacts?” Demba asked.
Ezra shook his head hastily. “No—”
“Yes!” Margot replied with an eerily bright smile.
Ezra gazed at her, his eyes searching her body for an answer to the question that burned through his mind. How did she get free? Why didn’t she tell him the minute it happened? Why did she look so unscathed? He gulped. “Demba, can I speak to you?”
Demba looked at him, but just as she was about to shake her head, he pulled her back into the bedroom. “That isn’t her,” he said, before Margot could follow.
Demba laughed. “All right. I have entertained you for long enough. I need to get back to my desk.”
“But didn’t you see her eyes?”
Demba shrugged, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You’re making something out of absolutely nothing. Now, I have to go.”
And with that, she bade “Margot” goodbye and went outside of the house to call herself a car.
Chapter Four
The pain came first. It was a burning sensation that started at the heart of Margot’s body and travelled the full extent of her extremities. Her muscles cried out for mercy, while her blood, running thin and hot in her veins failed to provide them any kind of nutrients. She felt like a pile of disconnected body parts.
When her eyes snapped open, nothing but darkness greeted her. She slammed her hands against the ground around her, but when she felt nothing but wet stone, she sat up. Her abdomen, burned in protest right before her head knocked against what she now realized was an incredibly low roof. “Fuck,” she hissed as she sat there immobilized by the ache in her head. With a deep breath, she rolled over onto her stomach, knowing that wherever it was they had put her, it must have had an entrance somewhere.
So she began to army crawl all around her, her movements lacking direction. She slammed against wall after wall, the ache in her bones growing to an unbearable degree as panic bubbled in the pit of her stomach and tugged at the back of her mind. Her muscles shook and her gut seemed to be slipping farther and farther between her legs with every passing moment she spent hitting hard damp walls. “No,” she said, slapping the wall in front of her. She twisted herself until her back pressed against it and wrapped her legs in her arms, her chin resting on her knees.
A lump lodged itself in her throat as hot, silent tears streamed down her face. Her breath came in shallow wisps, and she repeatedly slammed her chin against her knees because she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out a way out of this. Her tears grew stronger until her legs had collapsed in front of her and she heaved sob after sob, her entire body lurching forward. Her mind wandered wildly to the small beach house in Cape Town where she spent her childhood. She remembered the ocean waves caressing her ankles, the warm, salty wind kissing her face…
She remembered her mother’s tired smile; her voice calling her inside for piano lessons. The smell of Sorghum pap and beef stew filled her nose as if she were a sixteen-year old studying at her mother’s kitchen counter and not in the literal middle of nowhere as an adult. She could feel the heavy rock of an expensive engagement ring on her left hand… then that light feeling you could only feel when you part with something that was supposed to be your better half.
Margot cried even hard at all of these memories, the thought of Ezra only making her more frustrated with herself. Why had she ignored him all of this time? What, exactly, was she waiting for?
And so she sat there for minutes, or hours or days or years regretting every single decision she had ever made. It seemed that this would go on for an eternity that she would wither and die in that very position, when she saw a movement to her far right. She turned, her heart skipping a beat. It looked like there was a small hole, barely large enough for her to fit through. It was the only opening of her entire “cage”, and the warm, candlelight spilling through it told her that who or whatever had been previously guarding it had just stepped away for whatever reason.
Fueled with a new hope, she crawled towards it as fast as she could, but as soon as she stuck her right leg through the opening, something like a hand gripped her ankle. She wriggled her foot back and forth, trying to get it off, when she could feel it growing warmer and warmer. Her jaw swung open, a scream leaping out of it as the hand seared her skin. White hot pain shot up her entire leg as whatever it was finally let her go.
She pressed herself against the wall as far away from that opening as she could get, her one and only attempt at escape completely thwarted.
Chapter Five
Ezra had tossed and turned the entire night. Every time he looked over at the Margot’s bed, he saw that woman lying there still… Far too still. She didn’t sniffle in her sleep the way that Margot always did, nor did her delicate chest rise and fall with her every breath. Every doubt Ezra had had about her in the waking hours under the burn of the sun, they had all been amplified by the sight of this fake human pretending to be her. As the sun rose, he found that he couldn't stand it anymore. His insides ate at him at the thought that the real Margot could still be out there somewhere, suffering. He wondered if she so much as had a bed to sleep on while he lounged around, tossing and turning in his.
As the sun rose, he couldn’t wait anymore. Although it made absolutely no real sense how this woman could look and sound like Marge and, at the same time, not be her, he knew that he was right. He also knew that he had to find her. So he got out of bed, tiptoed into the front room, and began to pack his hiking pack. He figured, since he had no idea where she c
ould be, he would start back at that cave. It was only as he threw his backpack on and bent over to hook in the front straps that he heard a noise behind him.
“Ezra?” It was Margot’s sleepy voice.
Ezra bit his lip as he stood up straight and turned to face her. His heart skipped a beat when, as she stood there before him, leaning on the edge of the opening that led to their room and rubbing her eyes, she actually looked like the real Margot. He nearly opened his mouth to say something he might say to her… but then she moved her hands away, exposing her brilliantly red eyes. He narrowed his eyes at the way her skin glistened in the sunlight.
“I’m going to find my friend,” he said, turning and making his way to the door. He had reached out to grab the door handle when he heard a hollow, scratching sound coming from behind him. He turned to find the woman with her head bent impossibly far back, her mouth stretched so wide that the skin that made up her lips were a dull, gray color.
“Wha—”
But before he could even finish that question, she snapped her head back into place, while, in the same motion, a breath of fire blazed through the archway.
Ezra darted to the right, narrowly escaping it. He shoved his hand into the pocket of his cargo pants for the knife he would never forget again and didn’t hesitate to throw it at her. She lifted her hand, catching it right out of the air. Her skin broke in contact of the blade, but she turned it around and threw it at him anyway.
Ezra turned, ducking out of the way and diving through the front door, but just as he made it over the threshold, the knife contacted with the back of his right shin. His jaw swung open, a grunt of pain slipping from between his lips and filling the morning air. He took in shallow breath after shallow breath, squeezing his thigh and trying to ignore the sharp pain that shot up his leg. He looked up to find Margot standing in the doorway with what looked like fangs peeking through her lips.
Ezra puffed his chest, readying himself for another attack, when he heard the sound of their next-door neighbor opening his door. There were far too many people around. Margot glowered at him, her sharp stare piercing a hole in him, but she could not go after him, not in this populated village.
As soon as Ezra realized this, he turned, running as fast as he could.
***
“She has been informed of the plan,” Anya explained as she watched their servants prepare the throne room for the ceremony.
The king gave a curt nod.
Anya approached him from behind, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m so happy you agreed to this,” she whispered.
King Orion did not immediately respond, but instead turned his attention to the people working diligently in his throne room, laying down fur mat after fur matt, placing the velvet blankets just so, and lining the whole thing with feather-filled pillows. “I am glad that someone is happy about this.”
Anya laughed. “Don’t pretend you aren’t excited,” she said, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Sex with a human?”
He shrugged. “I’ll try not to break her in half.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t break her in half.” Anya replied, smiling at him and massive make-shift bed that had just come into existence in the throne room.
“She has been cleaned, yes?”
Anya let out a sharp sigh. “Yes dear. You can be assured that she will be as clean as a newborn when you finally see her.”
Orion cleared his throat. “And when will that be?”
Anyone who hadn’t known the king as long as Anya had would have missed the way his voice shook. “Soon, my love. Soon,” she replied as she rested her head on his shoulder.
Chapter Six
Ezra stopped, elevating his bad leg on the rock that jutted out of the steep hill he struggled to ascend. He pulled his water bottle out of his backpack, taking the last sips of it before putting the empty bottle back into his bag. With another huff of breath, he bent over, trying in vain to ignore the pain in his leg. As soon as the village had become no more than a shadow behind him, he had gritted his teeth and pulled the knife out of his leg. Just thinking about it at that moment brought on ions of phantom pain. So much so that he wondered if the pain he felt at that moment was actually no more than a memory of what he had felt when that knife came out of him.
He was more than exhausted, but the thought of what Margot could be going through, the very real possibility of never seeing her again, drove him forward.
***
“Come.”
The command slipped through the small opening of the nook where they kept Margot. She gasped, peering at the light streaming through it. Was this a trick? Would they burn her again? The wound on her ankle still tingled. It was raw to the touch, hurting whenever she would try to move her legs around.
“Come!”
Something told her that she didn’t really have the option of disobeying. So, she leaned over and crawled to the mouth of her nook. When she finally stuck her legs out in front of her, she couldn’t deny the fact that she was a little surprised that nothing had tried to burn her again.
With her bare feet planted firmly on the cold stone, she found herself bent over. Her back burned, and she clutched her thighs with both of her hands just to brace herself against the pain. Just the thought of standing straight sent shocks of unease up her spine. She sucked in deep breath after deep breath, her hands extended to either side of her. Her head felt heavy, her mind full of troubling thoughts. She felt the burn of her wound in every part of her, and the ache in her back had full control of her. The candle-light, which she would have welcomed mere hours before, was grating and nearly impossible to endure.
Her head swam and her fingers tingled. “Oh,” she muttered, before she felt herself falling forward.
“Not so fast.” The sound of a gurgling male voice preceded the sensation of strong hands breaking her fall.
“What are you?” she croaked, her throat scratching.
He tilted her back upright, but she still couldn’t make herself stand on her own.
“Water…” she whispered.
The man grabbed something off of what looked like a small table beside the opening and handed it to her. She grabbed the wooden cup with both hands, pressing her lips against it and gulping down all of its contents. As the water sloshed around her insides, she could not deny the fact that she finally felt human again with the electrolytes inside of her.
“You have to come with me. There isn’t much time.” The man’s harsh voice filled the small area of cave where they stood.
Margot’s stomach flipped. Was she being led to her execution? “Much time for what?” she demanded.
But he did not respond to her, and instead lifted the torch off of its stand and led her through the narrow hallways of the cave. She found that with each step, her soreness started to fade. Her back seemed to have eased a little, and the little knots she felt in her muscles were slowly smoothing out until she felt almost strong enough for whatever they had to throw at her. They travelled through the darkness of that cave, making twists and turns she could not even hope to remember until, finally, they reached an opening that branched off into three different corridors.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, looking up at the man.
She saw his beard shift a little with the movement of his jaw, before he just shook his head and led her down the corridor at the far right.
Margot huffed out a deep breath, swiping her frizzy locks out of her eyes before following him. “Okay,” she thought. “You can take these guys,” It was a lie, of course. “Whatever they throw out at you, you will be able to deal with it.” She continued to bounce deluded words around her mind until he led her through a small archway and into what looked like a bedroom.
She raised an eyebrow. This didn’t exactly look like what would happen to a person right before they were executed. When she stepped inside, she noticed a woman standing in front of a tub. “Get in,” she ordered.
Margot’s eyes went wide. “I can bathe my—”
But the woman sneered at her, fangs dropping down.
Margot gulped. “Okay,” she whispered.
The man who had led her down there disappeared.
The woman waved the sponge over her head, gesturing at the water.
Margot pursed her lips as she shrugged out of her clothes, ignoring the ache of her muscles and the growling of her stomach. The water, which looked much hotter than it actually was, caressed her skin, engulfing her as she sank deeper and deeper into it. Her ankle burned, seeming to cry out in protest, but the rest of her found the bath soothing.
The woman lathered soap all over her body, scrubbing all of the dirt and debris off her. Margot couldn’t deny the fact that she actually enjoyed this. Maybe they weren’t going to kill her…
Maybe this would be nothing more than a unique cultural experience.
Chapter Seven
Margot found herself standing at the threshold of what looked like a massive throne room. A long night gown had been draped over her now clean body, her skin, which smelled of coal and rose, practically glowed in the candle-light. In front of her sat a massive bed of fur and velvet, with plump pillows lining the entire perimeter. Surrounding the pillows were poles with flames at the end of them, the fire casting dancing shadows on the cave walls.
Margot’s chest rose as she sucked in a deep breath, glancing at everything around her. Men lined the back walls, their tall bodies dressed in armor. The thrones themselves were the focal point of the room. There was one massive silver-plated chair, adorned in jewels and a fur drape. Next to it sat a significantly smaller one with less jewels. It looked somehow feminine with its white fur blanket. Her eyes followed the thrones to the steps in front of them, at the foot of which sat two women. They looked unremarkable in comparison to the men that filled the room, their dull skin falling flat under the warm candle-light. In their laps sat two large, black ceramic bowls. Their heads hung back, their eyes shut and their chins tilted up.