Fellow Prisoners

Verno hauled me away from Lilith before the chills had even left my system, the only relief I felt was that I was moving away from that inhuman monster. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that she didn't have a single bit of mercy in her entire body. I needed to stay as far away from her as possible, which seemed unlikely in my current predicament.

So much information was swirling through my head at the moment that I didn't even bother looking at my surroundings or resisting Verno. What was the Undeniable Prophecy and how did I fit into it? How did the Upholders fit into this whole prophecy deal? Why was I called an Outlander? Lilith had also mentioned someone called the Truthspeaker, Lady Zavaris, yet another unknown to me. Finally, Lilith also said she was one of Lady Zavaris's Sixteen Hands, which sounded like some kind of elite group to me.

Maybe it was a ranking system of Lady Zavaris's most loyal followers or servants or something, Lilith did say she was basically an extension of what Zavaris wanted. In all likelihood, Lilith worked under someone who was even stronger than her, along with fifteen other prophetesses who were of equal or relative strength to her. The thought of fifteen more monsters like her existing genuinely terrified me, how much damage could they do if even just half of them joined together?

Before I could put any more thought into the matter, I was suddenly thrown from Verno's grasp onto the hard ground. I quickly looked around to find that I had been thrown in a small cell that was one of many others, this looked to be some sort of dungeon or jail room of sorts. It was dimly lit by only a handful of torches, leaving me unable to see much more.

"Eat this Outlander," growled Verno as he tossed something at me. I shakily caught it to find that it was a loaf of hard bread, not exactly very appetizing to look at but still food. My stomach growled as I looked at it, making me realize that I was absolutely starving. Never before had I ever felt so hungry in my entire life, I began to tear into the rough bread as if my life depended on it.

"Here's more for when you finish that," grumbled Verno as he threw another loaf of bread and what looked like some kind of meat onto the floor next to me. He also dropped a small bucket of water into the cell before slamming the door and sulking out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

I didn't really care if my presence annoyed the lizard man, all I cared about was that I had food and water to eat. For a passing moment, my worries and concerns vanished as I hurriedly finished the other loaf of bread and the strip of meat I had been tossed, neither of which was very tasty. I didn't care though, I just needed food to ease my stabbing hunger and thirst. The bucket of water didn't last but a few moments due to my thirst, it was drained after just a couple of gulps.

"I don't think you should eat so quickly, you might end up getting sick," a female voice to my right suddenly said. I jumped, scrambling away from the voice until my back hit the bars of the cell.

In the next cell over sat a girl, roughly my age, looking straight at me with an unimpressed look. She had blonde hair that went just past her shoulders, hazel eyes, lightly tanned skin, and seemed relatively athletic from what I could see. She was currently kneeling with her legs curled under her but I roughly estimated that she was about five foot nine inches tall. Her outfit consisted of black athletic shorts and a red shirt that said "Hornets" on it, which was accompanied by an image of a goofy-looking hornet.

"You can stop staring any time you like, I'm not an illusion," the girl said dryly. My face turned red and I took a sudden interest in staring at the stone floor.

"Don't mind her, both of us were a mess after getting brought here too. She gobbled down her bread even faster than you did," remarked a voice from behind the girl. I looked up and leaned over to see a boy sitting in the cell past the one the girl occupied.

He had black hair that only covered a part of his forehead, with the rest of his hair neatly trimmed short enough to where it didn't go past his ears. His skin tone was paler than that of the girl but still lightly tan. He had freckles on his cheeks, brown eyes, and stood about the same height as the girl, maybe a little shorter than her. He wore jeans and a black shirt that had some kind of rock band on it, one that I didn't recognize. His overall appearance was kind of chubby, he definitely didn't seem too athletic but he also wasn't overweight.

"Oh shut your mouth Ollie," snapped the girl.

"My name is Oliver, I've told you this a million times. We didn't even know each other before we got thrown into these cells, why are you calling me Ollie?" complained the boy in an exasperated tone. How long had these two been here and why were they acting like being locked in a dusty prison by lizard men was merely an annoyance?

"Who are you two? Did you also get brought here by that freaky prophetess?" I asked them.

"The name is Amelia Smith, but you can call me Amy or Lia. I got snatched on my way home from track practice and brought to this hellish place," replied the girl.

"Oliver Hayes, I got thrown through a portal by a man in a metal space suit while playing games on my computer," Oliver said with a sigh. Both of them suddenly looked grim, they obviously had gone through the same trauma that I had.

"My name is Grayson Monroe, I was taken from my home while getting a snack," I told them. It sounded so awkward to say, it was as if we were at an AA meeting or something.

"Where you from Gray?" asked Amelia curiously. Did she have a thing for messing with people's names or what? I really hoped I wouldn't be referred to as Gray for the rest of our time in these cells.

"Greenville, it's a small town in Illinois. What about you?" I asked.

"I'm from Fort Wayne, Indiana," Amelia said.

"Madison, Wisconsin," interjected Oliver.

I sighed, there was basically no correlation between where we were from besides the fact that we were relatively close in terms of distance. All of us looked to be about seventeen years old, what did they need a bunch of teenagers for? What was so special about us three? I could only assume more kids were being taken like us by Lilith's associates. It seemed that they had planned to take more but now their protective suit was melted to a pile of scrap. At least no other kids had to endure what we had.

"Hey Gray, you look like you are thinking awfully hard over there, why don't you share with the group?" demanded Amelia. Why did she have to act so irritated?

"How are you so calm? You're acting like this is a minor inconvenience to you," I said to her. Amelia abruptly changed to a deadly serious expression, the complete opposite of her previously annoyed and goofy manner.

"Ollie and I have been rotting in these cells for roughly an hour give or take. We've had time to calm down and realized we are pretty screwed," she replied softly.

"We obviously aren't on Earth anymore, everything we've seen so far should be impossible. Lizard men, swirling portals, and a creepy prophetess all point to the obvious fact that we are in a different world. There is no way that Lilith lady or whoever is her boss will send us home, they brought us here for some reason," added Oliver grimly.

"Wow, you two are taking this a lot better than what I feel like most people would, in books and movies the characters always don't believe what's happening to them until they get told it about five times," I said to them.

Oliver let out a thin laugh and a smile briefly flickered across Amelia's face, breaking her somber look. Behind my lighthearted joke though, I was still kinda freaking out. Magic was real, we were in a different world, and scariest of all we were imprisoned by some kind of cult it seemed. Still, it was nice to know I wasn't alone in this predicament.

"Do you think there are others like us? More kids that have been taken?" I asked them curiously. Maybe one of them had overheard something about how widespread this was.

"That witch lady mentioned it to me, I was the first one that she took so she made some big deal about how that damn prophecy of hers was going to start with me and all the others who were being taken at that very moment. It was creepy as hell," said Amelia with a shudder as she finished talking. I nodded my head, we weren't alone then. Who knew how many more kids had been taken outside of the three of us, it could be hundreds.

"She didn't say much to me, I got here pretty quickly after Amelia and got thrown in a cell by that green lizard guy Verno. Didn't have much to say to me," said Oliver.

"It's odd, Ollie and I got here within five minutes of each other but it took them an hour to bring you here," observed Amelia. Both of them turned and looked at me, curious to see if I had an answer.

"My arrival here wasn't exactly like you two. The lizard guy in the suit got killed bringing me through the portal, destroying the suit in the process too. Verno wasn't too happy with that and started tossing me around but Lilith twisted his arm until it was basically nothing before turning it back," I explained to them. Amelia made a vomiting motion and Oliver's face twisted in curiosity.

"What do you mean she twisted his arm into nothing and then turned it back? What exactly did you see," he asked.

"She put his hand on his shoulder, her whole arm glowed purple and his arm then began to fold and twist as if it was a piece of paper being crumpled into a ball. Once it was entirely crushed, she did it in reverse and fixed it. To be honest, I'm pretty sure it was magic," I told him, the bloody images flashing across my mind as I explained it.

"Magic? Like that stuff in movies?" asked Amelia in confusion.

"Yeah, it was something that seemed straight out of a fantasy book," I said to her.

"I haven't read a book since I was twelve Gray, and it certainly wasn't a fantasy book, so I'm going to assume you're talking about the stuff in movies that lets the villain shoot fire or lightning out of their hands," she replied with a shrug. She was really taking blunt and crude to a whole new level, I hadn't even thought it was possible for someone like this to exist.

"Do you think that we can do magic? Our bodies did change when we got here, that could've been magic," exclaimed Oliver excitedly. I frowned, what did he mean by our bodies had changed when we got here? I hadn't noticed anything strange about myself, Amelia and Oliver didn't exactly look extraordinary either.

"Oh yeah, you probably haven't noticed yet. Here you go," said Amelia as she handed what looked like a dirty mirror through the cell bars.

"You also might wanna take a close look at the rest of yourself, Grayson," Oliver said with an odd smile.

I snatched the mirror from Amelia's grasp and hurriedly looked to see what they meant. What I saw made my jaw almost hit the floor. By no means had I been ugly before, I had a perfectly average face with pale skin, scraggly brown hair, and hazel eyes. My looks had previously been something that would make me blend into a crowd easily, my features too dull to make me stand out.

Replacing my once-average seventeen-year-old face was something that could only be described as handsome and eye-catching. My messy hair which had once been quite ratty and unwashed now looked like it was straight out of a magazine. Instead of ratty, it was sleek and somehow looked untamed yet stylish. Thankfully it was still roughly the same hairstyle I had before, one that covered my forehead but didn't go past my ears. Strangest of all though was the fact it was no longer entirely brown, more than three-quarters of it was a mix between dirty gray and silver, with the remaining quarter being brown streaks that ran through the gray.

My facial features had also changed, my jawline was slightly more prominent and my nose wasn't as crooked as it was before. The chubbiness and flushed expression I had in my cheeks that I had also once possessed was now gone, and my eyes were now blue in color instead of hazel.

"Pretty crazy right? I used to be about one hundred pounds heavier and now look at me," said Oliver as he shamelessly checked himself out.

His comment then brought my attention to the rest of my body. My skin tone was now slightly darker than it had been, it was no longer an unhealthy pale color. A quick peek at my stomach revealed it was more toned than it had previously been, as were my arms. I had also definitely grown, I had to be just an inch shy of six feet tall now.

"I take it you weren't that attractive before? I guess it's nice to have some sort of benefit to getting dragged to a new world by lizards and a crazy witch," said Amelia with a shrug. As double-sided as that compliment had been, I grudgingly had to agree with her, I truly did like my new look.

"Reminds me of building your character at the start of a video game. You especially Grayson, your hair looks unreal now. I take it that gray isn't your natural color," asked Oliver with a goofy smile.

"Not even close, It's supposed to be all light brown," I told him as I looked once again in the mirror to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

"Well, it goes perfectly with your name Gray. Just think about it, everyone will link your hair color with your name. You'll be famous in no time with how much your looks stand out," joked Amelia dummly. All three of us chuckled at the stupidity of her joke but quickly grew silent, thinking about the unintentional gravity of what she had included in the sentence.

"You think we are going to get out of this place?" asked Oliver softly. I gave a half-hearted shrug while Amelia nodded firmly. Seeing Amelia's answer, Oliver began to shake his head in disagreement.

"Doesn't hurt to be a little hopeful, we can always try escaping," Amelia said when she saw Oliver's reaction to her response.

"Escape lizard men that could eat us for breakfast and an evil witch that can crush us into a ball of flesh and bone? Our odds don't sound too good," scoffed Oliver.

*CLANG

Both Oliver and I jumped from the sudden noise, both of us looking to find that Amelia had slammed her first into the metal bars in front of her. Blood was already dripping down her knuckles and hand but the expression on her face wasn't one of pain. It was one of rage, anger, and utter determination.

"Quit acting so hopeless, better to give it a shot than to rot in a cell or get used in whatever sick plans they have for us. We all know that something called the Undeniable Prophecy isn't gonna mean cotton candy and rainbows. They kidnapped us and threw us in cells, you two need to both wake-up," spat Amelia.

Oliver and I said nothing, I had no idea how to respond to her rallying speech to try and escape. As right as she was, Oliver was too. What kind of chance did we stand against Lilith and Verno alone? There was no way to know how many more lizard men or other monsters were around here. On top of that, we didn't even know how to get out of this place or where we were. I guess we could maybe try and escape when they came to get us from these cells but we would need a plan.

As if the world had suddenly read my thoughts and decided to spit in my face, three dark brown lizard men suddenly threw the door open and walked towards our cells. So much for making an escape plan. All three of the lizard men looked just like Verno but they only wore ragged loincloths and had no weapons. They then stood at what seemed like attention in front of our cells, waiting for whoever would come in the door after them.

A woman in flowing white robes and a plain white mask entered through the doorway. Her arms were crossed across her chest and concealed underneath her flowing sleeves. Her plain white mask had only two small slits for eye holes, and I could see small bits of white hair that had managed to escape the concealment of her hood.

After the women came the demon herself, Lilith, smiling just as she had been when I last saw her. The mere sight of her made my body tense up and a quick glance revealed that both Oliver and Amelia were just as petrified as I was right now. Lilith and the women walked surely but slowly toward us until they stood directly in front of our cells. Escape definitely wasn't an option in my mind now.

"Open it and restrain him," said Lilith to one of the lizard men, gesturing towards Oliver's cell. The middle lizard man grunted and then hurriedly moved to open the cell with a ring of keys he had in his right hand. When the door swung open, the other two lizard men rushed in to grab Oliver. Oliver futilely attempted to avoid them but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to escape. They quickly grabbed him by his arms and forced him to his knees, holding him in that position.

"Let him go," yelled Amelia fiercely. Lilith's smile twitched for a brief moment, signaling the graveness of the mistake that Amelia had just made by speaking out of turn.

Lilith's arm lit up purple just as it had when she had destroyed and rebuilt Verno's arm. She flicked her glowing purple hand and Amelia was suddenly sent flying through the air, slamming horribly into the wall at the back of her cell. She crumpled to the ground and lay there unmoving and groaning in pain.

"Hold your tongue," warned Lilith menacingly before turning her attention back to Oliver.

"You may gauge his ability now," Lilith said to the masked woman. The woman merely nodded her head and walked to stand directly in front of Oliver. She then crouched down and uncrossed her arms, revealing that she was wearing white gloves that extended up her arm so that no skin was visible.

The masked woman then delicately removed the glove on her right arm, revealing skin that was incredibly pale, more pale than I had ever seen in my life. She then gently reached her uncovered hand toward Oliver's terrified face. She placed the palm of her hand directly on Oliver's forehead, with her fingers splayed over the top of the rest of his head.

The hand then began to dimly glow but instead of the dark purple that Lilith glowed when she used her magic, the masked woman's hand glowed a dark blue. Oliver showed no real sign of discomfort or pain, he simply looked very worried. The masked woman then abruptly removed her hand and hurriedly put her glove back on.

"He has vast reserves of raw mana stored within him, far more than I have ever seen in any untrained mage and most trained ones as well. He does not seem to have an Abnormality, at least not yet," said the masked woman softly. Lilith gleefully clapped her hands, her smile even seemed authentic for a brief moment.

"Excellent, he is exactly what our forces in the southern region have been looking for. Lord Tyrath will be pleased," declared Lilith. She then snapped her fingers twice and the two lizard men began to haul Oliver out of the room. He attempted to resist by thrashing and dragging his feet but against the lizard men's iron grasp he stood no chance.

"Grayson! Grayson don't let them take me," he cried out. A shock ran damn my entire body at his words, causing me to lurch from my feet. Oliver was almost to the door, with the masked lady and the third lizard man behind him and Liith bringing up the rear.

I tried shaking the bars to see if the door would magically open but of course, it didn't, as old as everything in here was it could still hold strong against whatever I threw at it. I looked around my cell to find nothing but the bucket I had been given and the mirror that was in my hand. Amelia was still in a crumpled pile on the ground, leaving just me to try and stop them. There was only one thing I could think of doing, which was absolute suicide and would be meaningless in the long term.

But if I didn't do anything, I would be a coward. I would be turning my back on Oliver.

So, with that in mind, I reached my arms through the bars, cocked back my right arm, and threw the handheld mirror as hard as I could. I spun through the air far faster than I thought it would, almost as if it had been shot from a cannon. Mere seconds after I had thrown it, it slammed right into the back of Lilith's head. She stumbled in pain and fell to her knees, the mirror shattering while its metal frame fell to the ground with the fragments.

Everyone in the room froze and turned their heads back to look at me. The izard men had looks of utter terror on their faces, they backed quickly away from Lilith and dragged Oliver with them. The masked woman quickly fell to her knees and bowed in front of Lilith.

A literal chill went down my spine as the temperature of the room plummeted, causing my breath to suddenly be visible. Lilith's headcover had been knocked off when the mirror hit her, revealing her full head of dark purple hair. She reached her hand back and touched where the mirror had hit, quickly pulling back her fingers to reveal blood now coated them.

Oh no.

I was screwed seven ways to Sunday, that was for sure.

"You made me bleed," Lilith said in a demonic voice. "For that, I shall make you bleed."