ALL NOVEL Prison of War
Nova’s body was stiff and practically immovable. Every time she moved, her muscles screamed in agony, making tears well up in her eyes. They never fell though, every time the tears were close to falling, that invasive, dark feeling would possess her again, making her practically swallow the tears back.
She couldn’t even moan in pain or whimper, the feeling preventing her every time. She had woken open in this same small box, curled up in a half-fetal position inside of it. Her kidnappers seemed to be a large group of strangely dressed men. Occasionally, they’d take her out of the box, throwing her inside the forest so she could relieve herself, there, she made a horrifying discovery. They had assigned her a tree within view of her assigned watcher, so she shifted slightly behind the tree to get some semblance of privacy.
She squatted down and fumbled through the clothes to receive the worst shock of her life. When she finally undressed herself, there stood, a bald avenger. She instantaneously tried to scream in horror, but the dark feeling choked up her throat, leaving her silent. She ended up going back to the small box without ever peeing.
After much contemplation and many tears that didn’t fall, she concluded that her kidnappers must have done some sort of surgery on her. Maybe they were planning on selling her with her added “Enhancement”, the thought leading to more unshed tears.
Her captors threw some hard bread inside the cage box for her food, leaving her to shuffle awkwardly around to grab and eat it. They only gave her water at night, in the form of a cloth wrapped around a stick, and she had to squeeze the water out of it with her teeth and hands to drink it.
The past three days had been a hell like no other. She didn’t know why they had targeted or what the ultimate plan was. Whenever she opened her mouth to plead or ask them why they were doing this, the dark feeling would stop her. After some time, she stopped trying to fight the feeling, just letting it do whatever it pleased. Maybe it was some sort of drug the kidnappers had given her, she didn’t know
What she did know, however, was that she was going to escape, in any way possible. On the morning of the 4th day, everything changed. They snatched her out of the cage and put a bag over her head. There was a large commotion around her as they dragged her around. She could hear voices whispering and people rushing around as she was carried seemingly downwards.
Before long, she was thrown against a wall. The bag of her head was snatched off of her head, making her automatically shut her eyes, thinking there would be light. Hesitantly, opening her eyes, she realized immediately she was in a prison. But before she could even look around her attention was brought to a brown-haired woman standing in front of her, with two men flanking her sides.
The woman glared down at her with such disdain, that it made Nova’s skin crawl. Nova tried to beg, but per usual, the insidious thing inside of her prevented her, this time, Nova fought back much harder. She gritted her teeth and tried to put her head to the ground, fighting the feeling tooth and nail.
‘I’m not going to die just because you don’t want me to beg!’ Nova screamed in her mind. Suddenly the feeling vanished. But before she could do anything, the woman spoke.
“Xin Yi of the Federation of Xugrana. You have trespassed on disputed territory and as such have been imprisoned by the Colony. As stated by the Lin Act, we have informed the Federation of your capture. They have 7 days before no other country can contest us holding you indefinitely. You will be brought before Empress Jia Li when she sees fit. Do you have anything to add?”
Nova’s brain couldn’t process the sudden influx of information and names. Trespassing? Imprisonment? A new idea formed in her head. She had been captured by China as a political statement of some sort. That would explain the names…but not much else. She couldn’t understand why she of all people would have been taken. Maybe it was retaliation for the US taking some important Chinese person from inside of China and they decided to do the very same thing.
That would mean she was just some random choice in a crowd. She had no real leverage in the situation, but perhaps China was going to exchange her with whoever the US had taken…But why was the woman saying she was ‘Trespassing’? There was no point in begging, and with how this woman was looking at her like the dirt underneath her shoe, begging might even annoy her. Then something strange happened. The insidious feeling inside came again, but instead of practically taking control of her body, it gently nudged her to stand up.
It felt like air on her muscles softly moving upwards, the feeling merely suggesting she should stand up. For the first time since she had opened her eyes in that strange room, she followed the feelings instructions. She stood up, fighting her own wobbly, numb legs to stand to her full height, shocking her as she was towering over the brown-haired woman. Nova was around 5’6, how short was the woman in front of her? She was even taller than the two men flanking the brown-haired woman.
“Well? I have other duties to attend to.” This startled Nova out of her confusion. She had to say something to appease this woman who seemed in charge of her fate at the moment.
“Please listen, I was drugged. I’m not supposed to be here. I didn’t mean to trespass, but the woman I was talking to said that I was coming here to die? That I was supposed to sacrifice myself for the ‘Federation’ and get some sort…momentum?” With every word I said the woman’s face got worse and worse. By the end, her face was a full-on scowl.
“Those accursed, fatherless, motherless, born of mud and shit Federites! Their plans will fail” She started chewing on a nail, then turned to me. Her expression was mildly softer than before but still harsh.
“I won’t let them manipulate us! Come, Xin Yi, I shall take you to the Advisor, she will know what to do.” With that, she turned and stormed out of the small dungeon and up the stairs in front of the door. Nova was grabbed by the guards and dragged out to follow her. When they resurfaced, Nova’s eyes finally had reason to shut, as they were blasted with sunlight.
When her eyes finally adjusted, Nova opened them to find herself inside a huge courtyard.
