In Reach?
Culprit or victim?

Mira’s POV

It’s dark and I’m lying on something very hard and cold. I try to slowly open my eyes, but it is too dark, pitch black. I blink a few times, and it helps. It’s like my eyes are adjusting to their environment, I don’t know how, but it’s almost like I have night vision.

I sit up and I see…….bars? Wait, am I in a cell? Those assholes. So they actually caught me and had the nerve to lock me up in a cell. Well, by the smell and looks of things, I would say this is more like a dungeon. I really need to stop waking up in strange places. Who still has dungeons? Did they seriously lock me up because I tried to run away? What is wrong with these people? But apparently they’re still trying to keep me alive, as I feel the bandage on my right hand. That’s when I give myself a look over and realize just how sore my body actually is, and damn, my head hurts.

I should probably have a look around. But just as I try to get up, aahh!!, a sharp pain shoots up my foot. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. Just great, I’m practically maimed, an yet they still see the need to lock me up like some animal. Hmph. How ironic. If this is the state of my body after day one, I don’t think I’ll be able to last long enough to get out of here. I’m tired, hungry, dirty and hurt all over. This body is my money maker, and they dared to do this. Lady Bronte would be so disappointed if she saw me now. I can feel my cranky side slowly setting in.

Enough of this. I crawl to the bars to get a scope of the place. I put all my wait on my hands grabbing the bars, so I can pull myself up. Something’s weird. These bars are warm. I can feel it through the palm of my left hand, but just through my uncovered fingers on my bandaged right hand. And slowly but surely, it’s starting to sting. And that’s when I start to smell it. It’s like the skin on my palms are burning, and the sensation is growing by the second. Aaahhh! I shout as I quickly try to retract my hands. What is this? Did they put acid on the bars or what?

That’s when I hear a loud clank and with the sudden light passing through, I know someone just opened a door. I can hear footsteps, and it sounds like more than one set. A small but dim light is switched one somewhere in front of me, just outside my cell. I see them, their feet standing right in front of me, outside the cells. I look up to see my captors, but I already know who they are. I can smell them. And that one distinct smell of pine with a hint of toffee, that potent smell belongs to none other than that jackass who tried to kill me, more than once, - Dimples. Dammit! I’m so annoyed with the name I gave him. It’s too difficult to make it sound mean. And that other smell, one of musk, it reminds me of the shirt I’m still wearing, and I know it belongs to Bro.

I try to blink a few more times to adjust my eyes to the new light and see them standing there staring at me. What? Are they waiting for something, -like an introduction? I just sit there and stare back at them and rest my gaze on Dimples’ eyes. I stare directly at him, giving him a challenging look, so he can get this started and over with. He raises his eyebrows at this, and challenges back. It’s like a bloody stare-off. I can feel that strong aura of authority around him, that he’s trying to enforce on me, but my cranky side is really pissed off with what they put my body through, I’m practically radiating anger off of me right now. That’s when I hear a sound which broke whatever trance we were in.

I see Bro setting down two chairs in front of my cell, probably for them to start their ‘interrogation’. For a split second I actually forgot he was still here. I can see some redness to his skin on his arms and a bit on his face. Hmph. I guess they heal quickly too. But he looks serious now, and I’m a bit worried that he’s still pissed at me and probably one to hold grudges. Will he use that against me to torture me now? Shit.

Dimples then clears his throat, as if trying to pull my attention away from his buddy. Someone clearly wants all the attention to be on him.

“Why are you here?” Dimples starts off.

My face is one of shock and amusement right now, that I can’t help but snicker. Did he seriously just ask me why I’m in a dungeon at their house? They both just stare at my reaction, and Dimples looks like he’s about to lose it. I prefer to answer that stupid question with silence.

Bro gives a questioning look as if pondering on something and then says, “Are you mute or something?”. He turns to Dimples who’s looking at him now, and says to him, “none of us here have actually heard her speak.”

But Dimples gives me a smirk as if he caught me in the act. Of what? I swear, he looks at me like I’m constantly guilty of something. “She’s no mute. That voice of hers works just fine”. What’s the smirk for? Is he smiling remembering how I screamed when he kept on hurting me? Sadist!

I throw a disgusted look his way, and he literally looks surprised and almost hurt by it. “Speak!” He commands me, looking agitated now. “There are some things we need to sort out and you aren’t going anywhere until you answer us.”

Okay, if it’s answers you want, then I’ll give them. I wait a few seconds for him to calm down and soften his breathing. My throat is dry and I don’t feel like raising my voice right now. So if he wants to hear me, I require quiet, and his full attention. “I’m here because of you”. I think that about sums it up. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

But why does it look like his anger is just growing with that statement?

“Who brought you here?”

“You”, I say matter-of-factly.

He is clenching his jaw now. Is he annoyed by my answer or because it’s just a one-word answer? Is it just me or does it seem he doesn’t really know what to ask?

“What is your purpose for showing up here out of the blue?”

What does he mean ‘out of the blue’? Oh wait, this has me thinking back, about the dream I had waking up in the woods, and hearing the howls of…….wolves. So that wasn’t a dream. So the wolves found me, they found me. But I-myself don’t know how I got there.

They see the hesitancy in me to answer and give me a pointed look. So, I say the only truth I can say.

“I don’t know”.

Dimples looks pissed, and he shoots up standing with such force that the chairs falls back behind him. “Listen up rogue. I don’t have time for your games. Tell us now why we found you on our property, in the middle of a massacre. Someone out there is killing off members from my pack, and yet you were there.”

Okay, so this is a lot of information to process from a ten second rant. Massacre? I was there? In the woods? Was that the iron smell I got, -blood? I can see now how this may look. But I don’t know either. And what’s with the nickname, -Rogue? It sounds like an insult.

“I don’t know how I got onto your property. I can’t even remember how I got here. But I do know that I’m not a killer. All I want, ever since I woke up here, was to try and get away from here, to get back home.” I say as I look him straight in the eyes.

“You expect us to believe you just like that? To just let you go?” He looks at me like he’s waiting for an answer, when we both know he said that with a rhetorical tone.

“We need more than that to work with, rogue”. Bro chips in.

I’m really starting to get annoyed with this nickname. But do I really need to give them my name? “Well I’ll be happy to help if we can have a decent conversation about this to try and sort this out.”

“We are not negotiating with a rogue.” Dimples says to Bro. “Rogues can’t be trusted. They’ll do anything to get their way.”

Gosh, I hate it when people talk about me like I’m not even here. “What’s a rogue?”

They both stare at me like I asked a stupid question. But you can’t blame me, as I am clearly lost in this entire situation.

“What game are you playing at?” And Dimples keeps looking at me like I’m up to something.

“You said I’m a rogue. I don’t know what that is.” They continue to look at me, deep into my eyes actually. Like they’re trying to look for something. “Look, there is a lot of stuff happening right now that I don’t understand, and you guys look like you may have some answers to them. But you keep looking at me like I’m the orchestrator of this entire situation, when in fact, you’re clearly the one’s in control here.” I wave my hands around my cell. “So I think it is time you stop asking me stupid questions and start asking the right ones. For one, if you haven’t realized it, I’m here because you locked me up in here. I don’t know how I got here, I definitely don’t want to be here and I’m certainly not trying to kill anyone. If anything, you,” I say pointing directly at Dimples with my bandaged hand, “are the one that keeps trying to kill me.” I’m starting to breathe heavily now, like I’m out of breath.

I can see both of them zoning out as if they’re trying to solve a hard math problem. They then look at each other, like they’re having a private conversation with their eyes. What kind of bond do these two have? They really look in tuned with each other. Dimples walks out like a man on a mission, and Bro finally gets up from his chair and looks at me saying, “we’ll bring something down for you to eat soon. We’ll be back later to continue this”. He too walks off. I hear the door close, and lock. Hmph. At least they left the light on.

A few minutes later I hear someone coming again. It’s Bro and he’s holding a small plate in his hands. He lays it down and walks out, without saying a thing. I investigate it, and see a peanut butter sandwich, I can smell it all the way over here. Well, I’m not going to eat that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not picky when it comes to food, I am a foody after all. But I had a bad experience as a kid when a classmate threw up their peanut butter-sandwich all over my front, it even got in my hair. Ever since then, just the thought of peanut butter reminds me of that vomit ‘smell’. I cringe just thinking of it. I turn away from it and just lie on the cold hard floor to try and gather my thoughts.

I lie there and try to focus, trying to remember the last thing I saw before I ended up here. I was going through my grandma’s old books again; I always found the stories in them so intriguing. I know I had a busy day prepping for the upcoming show, and I went home late that night. But then I get glimpses of me in water. That doesn’t make sense. My head is starting to ache again, in fact my whole body feels heavy and uncomfortable, if that even makes sense. My body feels warm, but I can feel the cold air touching my skin. I think I should just sleep, that should distract me from everything else, the hunger, the pain, the cold. I picture my dance recital, hoping I’ll dream of it.

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