1. ANGEL

I stared at my friends in uncertainty. They were always up for new adventures, and usually it was fun, but this was different. It had nothing to do with the thunder sounding in the distance or the dark clouds gathering in the sky. This had everything to do with the door that had appeared on the wall out of thin air while we were using an alley as a shortcut. “Come one, Angel!” Nolan urged. “Don’t be a chicken!” Swallowing, I studied each of my friends. They were watching me expectantly, waiting for me to refuse the dare they had given me. I always chickened out because I wasn’t like them. “Just touch it,” Marcy urged. It sounded simple enough, but doors didn’t just appear out of thin air. We shouldn’t be here; we shouldn’t be touching stuff we knew nothing about. “We don’t have all night!” I took another step towards the door and reached out with a trembling hand. The sooner I did what they wanted, the sooner we could leave. It felt like wood instead of brick. A gasp fell from my lips when the door swung open. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but it sure wasn’t darkness. Despite the darkness, there was a slight breeze blowing that ruffled the loose strands of the hair framing my face. “I wonder where it leads,” Nolan muttered as he took a step closer. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” I told them, but they didn’t pay any attention to me. I stood to the side and watched them as they took turns pushing a hand into the pitch blackness. Nothing chopped off their hands, but they complained about it being freezing. I breathed a sigh of relieve when they stepped away from the door. They had their fun and nothing interesting was happening so we would be leaving. Only that wasn’t what happened. Marcy gripped my arm and pulled me closer to the door. “You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?’ Nolan questioned. “W-what are you doing?” They paid me no attention. Marcy continued to push me closer to the door and when I started fighting, Nolan was there to help. “Let me go!” “We’re going on an adventure, Angel,” someone called. With one last push, I stumbled through the mysterious door. I instantly spun around only for them to push me back as the followed. We jumped when the door slammed shut behind us. “Now what?” Marcy questioned. “We see where this thing leads.” He took the first step and after some hesitation the others started to follow. I turned around but the door we just came through was no longer there. “It’s…” My words trailed off when I turned around and found none of my friends in front of me. Panic hit. I hurried forward, arms held out in front of me, so I didn’t bump into anything. It was so dark that I could even see my hands in front of my face, but I could hear them. They were somewhere far in front of me. “Wait for me!” I called. I blinked and was suddenly greeted by a blinding light a few feet in front of me. My steps faltered as I hesitated. But then I hurried forward when the thought of my friends leaving me alone hit. For a moment I was floating, and then I was suddenly falling. I screamed. It was cut off abruptly when I hit the ground, and the air was knocked from my lungs. I had no idea for how long I lay on the hard ground, trying to catch my breath, but eventually voices started to penetrate my mind. “Looks like another one.” “These fucking humans just keep piling up, man.” “King Lucas really needs to do something about this before one of the crazy fuckers wanders out into the human world.” I whimpered, suddenly aware of the pain filling my body. The first thing that registered was the pounding headache. “She’s still alive.” “No use sending her back, by the look of things, she’s going to die anyway. Let’s take her to the club, I’m sure they could find use for her.” A hand gripped my arm and without sympathy, pulled me to my feet. Blood dripped from the cut on my temple. One of my arms was twisted awkwardly in a strange angle. Every part of my body was hurting which made it difficult for me to figure out which part of my body was hurt the worst. Dark eyes caught mine briefly before dropping down my body. “Such a shame she has to go to waste. Would have loved to buy her,” he muttered. “She smells good,” another man said from behind me. I jerked when I felt warm breath against the side of my neck. Cold hands closed around my arms and pulled me away from the man in front of me. My lips parted, ready to let out a scream, but no sound escaped. Sharp teeth broke skin. Fear paralyzed me. My eyes fluttered closed, on the brink of fading into darkness. I faintly heard a man call out. The teeth were ripped out of my skin, making a small cry fall from my lips. Warmth coated my skin and shirt. “We need girls, don’t kill her!” The man grumbled under his breath as another man approached. I was feeling too lightheaded to get a clear look at him. At the moment, I didn’t really care, because all I wanted to do was go to sleep. My eyelids grew heavy, my body going numb. I tripped and hit the ground once again. Pain shot through my skull, and everything faded into darkness again. *** I spent two weeks in bed being cared for by an elderly woman. When I first woke up in the strange room, I had been scared shitless. The woman who came in every day to tend to my wounds, and fed me, didn’t speak. She glared at me whenever I asked questions. It was a few days later when I felt good enough to risk a walk around the room, that I got a visitor. I was standing by the window and staring at the endless view of snow-tipped mountains, when there was a brief knock on the door. The visitor didn’t wait for a reply. He pushed the door open and stepped into the small room. For a few seconds I was left speechless as the man came into full view. He was tall and dressed formally in a dark suit. A dark blue tie hung loosely around his neck. Blond– almost silver– hair hung down to his waist. His skin was almost as pale as his hair. Shocking green eyes caught me. “I’ve been told that you have been making a good recovery,” he said softly. I nodded, swallowing to get some moisture back into my suddenly dry throat. “The doctor was skeptical. He assured me that you would not make it, but I know a fighter when I see one.” Walking over to the bed, he slowly sank down onto the edge. “If I could, I would have allowed you to stay here. Unfortunately, I do not have room or a job for you.” “W-what does that mean?” “It means that I have to send you away.” Surely, he wasn’t the man the elderly woman feared? He didn’t look scary. “P-please don’t send me away,” I begged, even though I didn’t understand where I was or where he was going to send me, but one thing was certain. “I don’t want to go back to those men.” I remembered them. The feel of his teeth slipping into my neck was something I would never be able to forget. It wasn’t normal. Nothing about this place seemed normal to me. I would rather stay here with a man who took me in and nursed me back to health than go out there and meet one of those... monsters. I tensed when the stranger suddenly stood. He took three steps to close the space between us and reached out to brush my cheek with his knuckles. “You are a beauty,” he whispered. “You have something inside you that is rare. You are a fighter, and would have been perfect here in my castle, but I cannot keep you.” “Can I go back home?” “No.” My lips parted, but before I could ask him why, he abruptly spun around and headed for the door. Opening it, he paused and glanced back at me. “After lunch, my men will escort you to your new home. Please don’t fight them, I’d hate for you to get hurt.” He was gone in the next second, leaving me alone once again without any answers. I frowned as I turned back to the window. Where am I? Why wasn’t anybody telling me anything? What happened to my friends? As soon as that question flashed through my mind a terrible thought hit me. Were they dead?