I felt myself awaken from the darkness, but my eyes wouldn't open. There was a heavy feeling on my eyes that prevented me from opening them.

I opened up my eyes with great struggle. Everything was blurry. I couldn't differentiate anything from the other. All I saw was a fuzzy haze and a mixture of grey and brown.

Where was I? What happened to me?

Clutching my head tightly, I felt overwhelming fatigue envelop me like a blanket from the coldness that surrounded me.

I moved my hands across the cold floor. The coldness and roughness of its surface washed over my hands. Was I in some sort of basement? How did I end up here?

I pushed my exhausted, trembling hands against the ground so as I could be in a sitting position. It took a great effort to remain sitting, and I waited till my eyesight became clearer. I was able to gradually distinguish my setting. The first thing that caught my eye was the concrete stairs leading up to a closed door. Yup, I was in a basement.

My eyes shot left and right. The basement was of a pale cream colour, though a bit dusty around. There were boxes and sacks stacked over each other everywhere. Looking down at my clothes. I realised that I was still in my office clothes, but they were soiled and a bit wet. I sniffed at my skirt and quickly put it down. I felt nauseous.

I tried to remember the last thing that happened to me. I remembered being in another smaller room. It smelled disgusting and I was constantly moving. Or was it because I felt dizzy and weak?

As I sat, pondering over what happened to me, I heard heavy footsteps from above, echoing in the basement. The noise was getting louder and I heard the jingling of keys.

I instantly flopped back down, on the hard, concrete floor, sending another wave of nauseating feeling rising up. I repressed the feeling and closed my eyes, pretending to be still unconscious. Pfft, the least they could have done was to give me a bed.

With my ears pressed against the floor, I could hear the footsteps even louder and felt the vibrations of each step. I sensed two men approaching me. I tried my best not to move-

Ouch!

I felt something hit against my side, sending a sharp pain throbbing through my body.

D-did that asshole just KICK me?!

I was sure that my eyes were wide open in shock. But they couldn't have seen my reaction since I was facing the other side. I was quite ready to stand up and make them regret messing with me.

"Hmm, she's not waking up. It must have taken a toll on her. I checked on her six hours ago. She hasn't awakened at all."

Instead of standing up as I thought, I stayed still. It? What is it? What did they do to me? And six hours? How long have I been gone for?

"The higher the amount, the longer the effect. Lower the dose now, or just stop giving her. She needs to wake up now," the other man said, but his accent sounded strange. He was definitely a foreigner.

"Why? Will the Boss come to see her? What will Boss do with her?"

"Don't ask too many questions, stupido. Your Boss does not tolerate that," replied the other man in a mocking way. He didn't seem to like that Boss.

I heard one of them move. I made sure I kept a blank sleeping face. I felt the knees of whoever moved, touching my side. He must have crouched down beside me. I held my breath.

My eyes almost opened, when I felt a tug at my hair. The man turned my body around, grabbing my face with his rough hands. I tried not to flinch or twitch in his grasp while biting the insides of my cheek to concentrate in my pretence. He was probably analysing my condition.

"Tsk, she's so ugly. The drugs must have affected her badly," the man snorted, and let go of my face as I hit the floor once again.

Oh God, grant me patience! He did not just call me ugly! I did not see him, but he seemed like a shit produced by a deformed cabbage that was rinsed in vinegar, soaked in cow dung, trampled by a llama, ran over by a tractor and finally digested by the BigFoot.

But wait! Did he utter the 'd' word? Did he say that I was 'drugged'?

I heard the footsteps now fading away, cut off by the sound of a door slamming shut.

I needed a rest, a long rest to regain my senses. I peacefully closed my eyes again, sending me into a temporary black void.

☆☆☆

I felt a tight grip on my hand.

I instantly rolled over, flapping my hands widely. I heard a quiet 'ouch' beside me.

Was it another man attempting to drug me for the hundredth time?

I pushed myself up, in a sitting position. With great efforts, I opened my eyes, which felt like they were glued together.

"I'll bite you if you take another step," I warned at the blurry image of a tiny form.

As the image became clearer, I looked at the girl seated beside me.

I scrutinised her, eyeing her from up to down. She looked younger than me and smaller. She wore a blue dress; the blue colour almost invisible with brown and black, dirtying the dress. Her face did not look any better. Red eyes, showing lack of sleep, stared back at me.

"Phew! I'm not the only one ugly," I croaked, relieved.

"Hey! You don't look any better," the girl retorted, "I mean, look at your clothes, they are torn, muddy, oh, and is that vomit on it? Your hair looks like a birds nest. Your face looks like a raccoon-"

"Okay, Panda, that's what I meant. You can stop," I said, putting my hand up to halt her praises.

She stopped at once, pursing her lips. I stared at her again. "Who are you?" I finally demanded.

"Leah. You?" she asked, in turn.

"Haelyn," I muttered as I crawled on both legs and hands till I reached the wall, and leaned back.

"You're British?" she asked, with hesitation.

"Duh, what else would I be? And why are you here?"

"Because of my brother."

"You're brother is part of this...group, gang or whatever it is?"

"Was part of it for a while. He tried leaving but they wouldn't let him, so he had escaped. As a result, I was captured, as blackmail. They just transferred me here from another house," she mumbled, looking down at her shaking hands, which she clenched together.

"Oh...what will they do with us now?" I asked, with apprehension.

Leah shrugged weakly, her eyes getting teary.

"How old are you? You look young," I commented.

"Twenty," she replied. I nodded and we sat in silence for a few minutes.

I let out a big sigh, attracting her attention back to me.

"Don't just stare. Come here and help me stand up. We need to get out of here," I said, with determination.

Leah quickly stood up, rushing to my side with wide eyes. She grunted and huffed as she dragged me up on my feet. I leaned against the wall; I was too weak right now but I couldn't wait any longer.

"We can't get out of here, though. The door is locked," Leah muttered, resigned.

"When you were brought here, did you see how the house or building was?" I asked as I rummaged through the boxes.

"Yes, but it's confusing. It resembled a house from outside, but it is like a complicated labyrinth inside," Leah replied, wearily following my movements.

I hummed in thoughts as I looked down the trash in the boxes.

"Did you see any maids around?" I asked, again.

"Yeah, some four or five...," Leah drawled and stopped as I took out our new outfits from the box. I threw the clothes at her.

"We need better clothes. Ours are too dirty and I can't handle the smell anymore," I said, grinning. The clothes were covered with dust, but with some slaps this side and the other side, the problem is solved.

"Maid clothes though...?" Leah asked, with uncertainty.

"Yup! That's the one we need," I nodded.

We quickly changed and got rid of our clothes, throwing them in the boxed.

"Now, what?" Leah asked as she fixed the loose outfit, tucking the sides carefully.

I snapped my fingers to the wall on the right side.

"You see that mountain of boxes? We need to move them aside," I said, dragging her by the hand, to the boxes.

I tried pushing them, pressing both palms against the boxes. They didn't even move a millimetre. I felt too weak at the moment. There was no strength left in me.

"Let me try," Leah said, pulling up her sleeves, as I stepped aside.

I was shaking my head, about to say it was not worth it, when I felt a rumble beneath my feet. I looked at that tiny creature in astonishment, as she pushed the boxes aside slowly.

"Don't judge by my size," she said smugly. When she finished, she dusted off her hands. Then, she looked at the door next to her, puzzled.

"How did you know there was a door here?" she gasped.

"There seem to be two storerooms linked here. I would sometimes hear loud voices and noises from there so I took a wild guess," I said, opening the door, walking into the other storeroom.

Leah followed, looking around with wonder. I closed the door behind us. This storeroom was quite different. It was filled with antiquities. Seemed like stolen ones to me.

I spotted the other door. I tried opening it but it was locked.

"What do we do now?" Leah whispered, walking around, admiring the weird, brown objects.

I took the vase that was on the table beside me. I almost staggered back, due to its heavyweight.

I held it steady in my hands and launched at the door.

A clattering sound was heard as the door handle broke, falling down. The door made a screeching sound as it opened a bit.

"What did you do?" Leah hissed at me. Ignoring her horrified look, I grabbed her hand and dashed out.

I ran through the corridors, doing zigzags, hitting walls here and there. The dizziness was catching up on me. But I did not care about finding the right way, as long as we got away from what I just did. I was sure the noise attracted someone's attention.

As I made another turn, I froze in place in front of the mammoth.

"Che cosa era quel suono?" the man grunted, his black eyes eyeing both Leah and I, with intensity.

Wait, what? Another foreigner?

"Una scatola cadde."

I glanced at Leah in surprise, my eyes asking her, 'You speak Italian too?'.

The man grumbled something and walked away.

"Hey, you can sp-"

Before I could continue, Leah pushed me against a wall, her finger over her mouth, asking me to keep quiet. I nodded and waited as I heard some voices approaching. We waited till the voices faded away.

"One of the men that passed by was the one who brought me here. We need to hurry. I feel like they'll find out about our escape real soon," Leah whispered, throwing an anxious look around.

"Let's walk in the direction from where they came from, the main door must be there," I said, as we crept against the wall, silently but hastily.

We arrived in a spacious room, where Leah halted my steps. "This is where I entered earlier," she mumbled.

"Let's get out then," I said. Glancing left and right for any sign of people, we ran to the door. Thankfully, that one was not locked.

I staggered in my footsteps after I closed the door. I raised my hands in the air, whispering freedom to myself.

A shout from inside cut my happiness. I exchanged worried looks with Leah.

I looked here and spotted a large plant pot. "Hey, superwoman! Help me push this to block the door. It can help distract them for a few seconds at least," I said.

With Leah's help, I managed to drag the pot and pushed it against the door.

"Let's go!" I said, running down the stairs.

"Stanno scappando!" I heard a shout from inside. They must have seen us from the windows. 

I heard a gunshot. It weirdly gave me a flashback of a similar incident of some weeks ago.

Then I heard another gunshot. And another.

Leah grasped my hands, encouraging me to run faster. But another fatigue was catching up on me. I was so high, I couldn't even understand anything that was happening. It felt like everything was fading in the background.

I felt something grazed my arm as it left a burning sensation. I gathered all the strength left in me as I ran faster.

"Let's get in the car across the street and drive away!" I yelled, between heavy breaths, pointing to the black car.

"What if it's locked?" Leah yelled back.

"We stop a car, drag the driver out and escape!"

As I crossed the street, I slammed my hand against the door, scrambling around, reaching for the car handle. I pulled and the car door opened.

"Hey! It's unlocked! Jump in," I exclaimed in excitement.

I sat in, with a confused Leah jumping in the seat beside me. We needed to get away, no time to wear seatbelts.

I reached out for the steering wheel and the gear lever but got nothing. I looked down to see that there was no steering wheel. Was I so high that I was being delusional?

Before I could say anything, I heard a gun cocked and froze.

"Hands up!" I heard from behind.

I gulped and held my breath. Despite all my efforts, we got caught!

I hesitatingly looked around and a loud gasp escaped my mouth, as my eyes widened. And so was the reaction of the man behind.

"Raphael?!"

☆☆☆

A/N:
Translations below:

"Che cosa era quel suono?" = "What was that sound?"

"Una scatola cadde." = "A box fell."

"Stanno scappando!" =  "They are running away!"