Who Are All Of You?

I am warm, comfortable. Sleepy. A dull and comfortable feeling resides in my brain; no complete thoughts or questions. It's a lovely feeling.

I turn over, falling over onto my stomach. For a moment, I open my eyes, Lucas was still there, asleep as well. Sleep is still in my eyes, and forces my eyes back shut. 

Just a while more, and then I'll wake up.

Out of nowhere, something grabs at my ankle. My eyes dart open, I'm prepared to yell, but a hand clamps down on my mouth much too quickly before I'm even able to slip out a word. Scratchy fabric runs over my mouth, and I try to fight against it, but fail. 

My mind's alert and active, but not a single thought produces.

I glance over at Lucas, he's sound asleep, from what it look like. Are there other people here as well? Or is it the Reaper? I squint my eyes shut, hoping that it's not him.

Instead, a hand grabs at mine. A fleshy, warm hand. It's not him. But there isn't any relief knowing that it not.

"You're going to be our bait, girlie." A husky voice whispers to me.  Their breath puffs hotly against my ear, and it feels tepid and dank. I want to cry, but nothing comes out. 

Bait? For what exactly? The Reaper? No, that isn't going to happen. But I still can't move; my mouth is gagged shut, my wrists are held together by clammy hands, My feet are only able to move back and forth.

An intense pain runs through my head. Tears start streaming down my face. He pulls my hair so that I was eye to eye with him. My vision is blurry and my eyes meet brown ones. Now I feel heat rush down my face, and it's not the strange heat. It's  because now I'm horrified for what comes next. "Aw, you look so pitiful," there was a smile in his eyes. 

I get lifted up and propped over a shoulder, Lucas starts to stir in his sleep, but he doesn't notice. I try to cry to him, for Lucas, but the fabric refuses to let me do so.

He walks in, the stranger, and Lucas is out of sight. I can tell that he's jumping steps, because every time he lifts his leg, I would rise a foot into the air and smack my ribcage into a solid shoulder bone. 

What on Earth is happening? What ideological plan is this? It's a ridiculous one really. Not even common courtesy was given. But I'm bait through his eyes, you don't need to ask if you want to control me.

My back meets cold wall. A throbbing sensation comes to my head. It is much more dark compared to the other building I was in. Then, three figures appear out of the shadows. Two of them are female figures, the other one, male. The male had to be the one who brought me here. I give him a disgusted look, for acting so harsh.

The man, his eyes are sharp with an intense pain that I can't figure out; they were the one's that smile at me. A hatred that bloomed like sharp flames. His hair is a honey brown, and sways to one side, almost framing his face. One of the girls, a blonde one, looks like she has no interest in me, or at least, isn't up for this. Which I guess seems good. And the one with dark hair, she has bright blue eyes that look like they're brimming with sorrow. She sighs, like someone's being incompetent or this idea is stupid beyond any limit.

"I'm sorry about all of this," she sighs to me, but directs it to the man. Her voice is quiet and delicate, but it has a sense of strength in it. Not control, but a sense of reason. "I told him not to, but he doesn't seem to listen." 

"Yeah," The blonde kneels down next to me to look at my face, "This guy's got a wee bit of a fetish with S&M." She squeezes her fingers together.

I tilt my head. I blink it out of my head, ignoring that sort of idea and continue to focus on what's happening.

"That's not the case, it's the fact that she seemed to be struggling so I tied her up." He leans against a crumbly looking wall.

I was sleeping.

"Of all things, this" the dark haired one directs to the gag around my mouth, isn't necessary." She looks me in the eyes, "I'm Leslie, and this is Cammy," she points to the girl in front of me, "and that thing over there who tied you up is Liam." She gets down to my level, and removes the gag that's in my mouth. Saliva webs off of the rag and flows off my lip.

"Thank you." I murmur. She has a quiet smile, that hides behind what seems like a melancholy look. "Um, what exactly is going on?" I look around. For a moment, I almost forget what my voice sounds like right when I say my words.

Cammy speaks, arms crossed, "I don't really know. From what I can tell, that idiot over there want's to use you for some sort of experiment of his." 

Liam sighed, stating that that wasn't the case. " It's just a little test that I'm going to use her for." 

"That' still isn't necessary, though." Leslie looked at him. She has a determined look, but she remains calm, she gives off a relaxing aura, one that lets me know that I can trust her. "He was going to go and give you up to the Reaper, so he could see how it would react to offerings." 

"Offerings." I repeat. 

They seem like a jumbled-up sort of group. You have you pacifist, or so it seems, your jokester one, and there was the agitated one. And it looked like they were working everything out fine together. 

I didn't think that there were other people here.

"What's your name?" Cammy asks me.

A strange volt runs down me. It's not anxiety, but, something else. "Uh..."

"Her name is Ruth." I hear that familiar voice say. Lucas stands at the top of the stairs, looking around at everyone. Alleviation surges through me. "Now what exactly are you all doing with her tied up?" I can see the sleepiness in his eyes, he must have heard me resisting, but I was too quiet. Maybe he just woke up, and then realized that I left.

Liam's about to object something, but then, he's interrupted by a loud, screeching noise. It's the ear piercing type, and I squint at the noise. It's metal on concrete. Unfortunately, my hands were tied up behind my back, so I couldn't cover my eyes.

Cammy puts her head out the window and shouts, "Reaper's here! Obviously..." 

Everyone turns to look at her. "D****t!" Liam yells. Then he gives me a quick look, a smile grew on his face. "Come on!" 

He lifts me up underneath the arm and hauls me over his shoulder. Next thing I know, he jumps out of the window. 

"Ruth!" Lucas calls to me as he reaches his hand out of the window. 

My heart falls to the pit of my stomach. Another pull from gravity, adrenaline fills my bloodstream. My chest pounds into his shoulder, like it was a sharp dagger like rock.

"Just cooperate for just a bit, to see if my plan works." He says it with a brutal smile. 

"No!" I scream and struggle against him. He stops for a second, looking around for where the Reaper.  I squirm like a fish out of water, but his hand pushes down against the hollow of my back. My hands were still tucked behind me.

I try to turn onto my side, but I'm stuck in the gap between his arm and shoulder. The pressure builds in my stomach, becoming compact against him. I stretch my neck out and bite down on his arm until I taste something metallic and a salty-- blood.

He halts in his footsteps, and starts yelling at me. "Stop! God D****t!" I spit , my stomach begins to churn at the sour flavor.

As for a bit of revenge for the recent hair pulling, I turned to my side and grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked at his head.

He releases me due to the pain, and I dropped heavily onto the ground. My air is depressed out of me, and it takes me a few seconds to regain my breath. I can't go anywhere, my ankles are still tied. Liam stands where he is for a second, trying to ease the pain that throbbed in his head, then drops to his knees. From the tips of his fingers, crimson streamed down. I pulled some hair. 

I can feel a warm and runny liquid on my hands. The grass tries to wipe away what it can, but I still feel it's stickiness.

I don't know what to do now. Liam is going to leave me here, and have me fend for myself while being tied up. Or maybe Lucas would come for me. I honestly don't want him to only for the sake of looking cowardly.

In finds of us, turning the corner, was that dark shadow, holding it's scythe with one hand. Smokey, dank darkness pulled around the corner, slithering towards me. It turns it's head to the left, a clanking noise of bone against bone, then to the right, and spots both of us on the ground. The Reaper slowly starts in our direction, staring at us with hollow eyes.

Now's not the time to prove strength or to care about how others see me right now. 

Reviews

[theladygraceling]

"A few buildings away, where the tree's stump is out of sight, he walks in." When being read, this sentence seems kind of awkward. The phrases just seem out of order. A better way to phrase the sentence would be "Once the tree stump is out of sight, he walks into a building" or something along that line.

"He pulls my hair so that I was eye to eye with him. I could only see blurred dark brown eyes". In this sentence, the tense is a bit confusing. I think it should be "He pulls my hair so that I am eye to eye with him. I can only see blurred dark brown eyes".

"Lucas starts to rummage in his sleep, but he doesn't realize." The word "rummage" doesn't really work here. Rummage usually means to look through or sort through something. Maybe say "Lucas begins to stir in his sleep". Also the sentence ends rather abruptly (this is totally opinionated so don't feel like you have to change this part). Maybe add a little phrase "but he doesn't realize what's happening" something like that.

"I get shoved into the corner of the room, my head thumps frantically." This is a run on sentence. Separate the two phrases into two sentences.

"I give him a disgusted look, being so harsh and inhumane to me." Is Ruth describing her kidnapper as being harsh and inhumane? If she is then maybe say "for being so harsh..."

"her eyes look like they are filled with sorrow, a ocean blue." if you choose to describe her eyes as an ocean blue color, make sure to put "an" and not "a" but that might just be a typo. The order of this phrase is awkward. The description is good but the ocean blue at the end seems out of place. Maybe try "her ocean blue eyes look like they are filled with sorrow" or "her eyes are blue like the ocean and look as though they are filled with sorrow" (these are just suggestions. Don't feel obligated to use them or even change the sentence at all).

Sorry if it seems like I'm nitpicking. You really are an excellent writer. These are just a few suggestions and things that stood out to me. Nice chapter though, as always.

[Forgotten14]

Don't worry about being so strict about the reviews, I always like them, it helps me discover those small errors as well as things that I need to improve upon.