Chapter 9

Maria woke up with a start, feeling as if she’d been tossed into a vat of cold water. She cried out, her voice echoing into the uncertain darkness that surrounded her. Cold sweat ran down her brow and her eyes darted around, trying to make sense of her surroundings. She could see nothing, nothing but the uncertain darkness.
Maria tried to move, but her arms were bound behind her back, her ankles bound together and tied stiffly to the floor. She tried to roll over onto her other side, her left cheek cold and wet from the stone floor she’d slept upon. Pushing with as much effort as could muster, she managed to shift herself onto her right side. "Diego..." she rasped, straining to see the outlined form of her brother. "Diego, are you there?"
There was a shifting sound, and Maria began to hear Diego’s heavy breathing. "Yeah," he answered back weakly. "I’m here, sis."
"Diego, where are we? Why can’t I move?" Maria asked, panic rising in her throat.
"I dunno," he said, his own voice straining with anxiety. "I woke up a few minutes ago, I can’t..." there was a pause and the sound of chains shaking. "He put us in chains, Maria. God... I’m sorry. You were right. We should never have trusted him."
"You’re damn right we should have never trusted him!" Maria half shouted. "I knew from the get go this was going to be a snow-job, but this-"
Neither of them spoke for a few minutes, a cold sense of dread spreading through them both. "We need to get out of here." Maria said simply, turning over onto her left side again. "Try to scoot over to me." Diego began to shuffle backward across the floor, until his bound hands were touching his sister’s. Maria strained to bend her hands back, fumbling as she tried to grasp the chains that bound him.
"It’s no use, Maria, they’re locked." Diego told her, but Maria kept picking at the chains regardless. They heard steps, and they both froze, their heart rates increasing. There was the sound of a rusted lock shifting, and bright light came streaming into their room, nearly blinding them.
Maria squinted, attempting to discern a form of some kind between the blinding light. All she could make out was a dark silhouette, a form stooped over as it had a hunch. Between it’s legs, Maria swore she saw a third limb swinging about, and she realized with a start of fright that it was some sort of tail.
"Were these the best you could do?" a voice echoed, as it was speaking through a helmet.
"They are in excellent health," a voice Maria recognized answered. "And are completely unattached. The authorities may have a fleeting interest in their disappearance, but only fleeting."
The two children heard what sounded like the clopping of hooves against the floor as the hunched form came closer to them. Maria felt a wet, scaley pair of fingers pinch her cheek, and she shuddered without control. "Well... beggars can’t be choosers... can they sweety?"
In that moment, Maria found herself almost longing for a cold night on the streets.