The One after my Heart

Kyra found herself stir from a deep sleep as she felt something prodding her right cheek now and then.

"You damn cat, let me sleep for a while longer", grumbled Kyra without opening her eyes and moved her hand, trying to shoo Lucy away.

She felt a throbbing headache, probably from last night's events and tried to touch the back of her head, trying to feel the wound.

'Mitch must've gotten her back home safely was what she thought with a small sigh.

Surprisingly, she couldn't reach the back of the head with just her right arm since her left arm moved with the right one. Plus, when she moved them, they made loud clanking sounds.

Confused at the loud sounds, with a jerk, she forced herself to wake up as her eyes stung with tears from the abruptness. She was stunned to see her surroundings.

This wasn't her room!

It seemed more like a musty old dark cell with stone walls. The cell seemed to be situated somewhere underground. Her both hands and feet were shackled with some weird ornamented stone. There was a short iron-like chain that connected the shackles to the wall behind Kyra.

Kyra's face immediately paled in terror.

Maybe Mitch couldn't fend away those three guys, and she was now captured? The thought of her fate and situation had her head reeling, and she felt her world trying to spin again from the shock. She tried to feel for any wounds behind her head with the back of her thumbs, and oddly she didn't find any.

Probably the only comfort she felt was that she found she wasn't alone in here as she found out what had woken her up. It wasn't the cat Lucy but rather a little blonde-haired girl who was probably around seven-eight years old. She wore a white frilled top and purple skirt that was covered in dust now.

The girl stared at Kyra with her innocent black eyes with a bright smile full of curiosity. She held onto the sleeves of Kyra's red jacket on her right. Her hands and feet were bound in shackles too. But compared to Kyra, she wasn't chained to the wall and had the freedom to move around in the cell.

There were two other girls besides Kyra and the small one next to her in here. One of them was a blonde teenager dressed in a long white skirt that was now muddy. She looked very much like the young girl holding onto Kyra, so it was evident she was the older sister. She looked helpless, with worry deep in her eyes as she looked at the younger girl.

The last person amongst them, who was on the other end looked older and seemed to be around Kyra's age as she wore some sort of dark grey leather robes. Her complexion was a delicious brown, figure athletic and she had short-cropped hair. Her face seemed to be bruised and injured, though it seemed like she didn't care about it. She was no different from those broadway models and currently had her eyes fixed towards the exit like a hawk, staring towards the cell's caged bars and was deep in thought.

Both the blonde haired teenager and cropped hair woman were chained to the walls like Kyra. The dark-skinned woman even had severe bruises on her arms and face showing the resistance she put up or torture she must've gone through.

It was a small holding cell, and each person was chained at the wrist and ankles and was separated two feet apart from one another.

Kyra was on the extreme right with the teenage girl next to her in the middle, and the cropped hair dark-skinned woman on the far left huddled in the corner.

"Maya", called out the teen girl to her sister and shook her head with a glare warning her not to disturb the others. The young girl looked at her older sister with a pout in resistance. She ignored her sister and looked back at Kyra with a cheeky smile as she reached out to play with Kyra's clothes as she looked at them in fascination and curiosity.

Kyra was amused at Maya's actions as she looked at her with a gentle smile. "It's alright, don't worry about it", she said, waving at the teenager with a friendly smile.

The teenager was taken aback by Kyra's response and looked at her confusedly. Even the dark-skinned black-robed female now looked at Kyra when she spoke too in a bizarre way. Kyra didn't notice their reactions since she was busily occupied in her own thoughts, with Maya sitting playfully on her lap now.

Kyra was scared, confused and muddled. She deduced that she was probably kidnapped by human traffickers or a bunch of sick maniacs. Her present situation seemed bleak. She decided she had to find a way out to escape from the heinous culprits who put her in here.

Simultaneously, she felt bitter and guilty that something terrible might have happened to Mitch since she had involved him. She prayed fervently in her heart that Mitchell would be okay, or she would never be able to forgive herself. As she went through her chaotic emotions, she started tearing up and felt herself weeping silently.

Maya, who was playing on Kyra's lap, panicked, thinking she had done something wrong and tried to move away silently with a sad face looking guilty.

"No, sweetheart, it's not your fault. Don't worry about it, "consoled Kyra as she controlled her emotions and gave a small smile at Maya as she beckoned to the latter with her shackled hands, trying to call her back. Maya was uncertain and looked at her sister for permission, to which the latter nodded. The older teenage sister seemed to say a few encouraging words to Maya in a language that Kyra didn't understand.

The uncertain Maya looked up at the teary now red-eye Kyra as she cautiously went back into Kyra's open arms. Soon, in a few minutes, the former was found giggling as she was tickled plafully by Kyra, letting her guard down once again as though the previous incident never happened. Kyra knew her way around comforting young children since she grew up in an orphanage with other little brothers and sisters.

The teenage sister relaxed upon seeing the two and then gestured towards Kyra and spoke to her.

"I'm sorry I don't understand what you're saying ", said Kyra with a bitter smile and shook her head and gestured back.

The teenage girl felt helpless and was taken back, looking confused about how to speak to Kyra further.

Suddenly the green-robed dark skin woman, who was quiet all this time with her eyes on Kyra, turned towards the teenager and spoke a few sentences.

The teenage brown skirted girl didn't expect her to talk, so she conversed a few sentences with the former as they kept on pointing towards Kyra now and then nodding and shaking their heads. All Kyra could guess was they were talking about her. There was nothing she could interpret, so she gave up after a while and went back to entertaining Maya with funny faces.

"Ya-!", the teenage girl called out once again, waving her shackled hands, trying to get Kyra's attention. When Kyra looked over, she pointed at her younger sibling and said," Maya".

She then pointed at herself with a small bow of her head," Nisa".

After which, she pointed towards the dark-skinned woman and said," Bree". To which the dark-brown skinned gorgeous woman wearing green robes nodded.

The two of them looked questioningly at Kyra, who had by now realised they were introducing themselves.

"I'm Kyra", Kyra introduced herself with a friendly smile.

"Kyra", mumbled Bree silently with a confused expression as though wondering if she had heard of this name.

Nisa gave a smile as she nodded back. And then she spoke a few sentences in a rush to Kyra with a questioning look eagerly. She immediately realised the latter didn't understand and felt exasperated at their language barrier.

After trying out a few more sentences and words to which Kyra had no clue what she was talking about, Nisa gave up with a rueful smile. She once again wore the helpless look she did from before.

She felt Bree's intense gaze on her and felt like ants were crawling over her skin.

Bree, who was the calmest and collected amongst them, now turned into a spluttering mess mumbling incoherent words as she looked at Kyra incredulously.

Even Nisa was surprised at Bree's reaction, and so when she asked her, Bree didn't reply.

For a while, Kyra and Nisa tried communicating with each other but apart from pointing and facial gestures they couldn't make out anything from each other and gave up.

Bree spoke a few sentences to Kyra excitedly with questioning looks, which she didn't understand as usual and gave her an apologetic look.

Nisa turned towards the frustrated Bree, who was annoyed that her words weren't getting across. The two spoke to each other, and soon they were arguing back and forth in fierce hushed voices with the confused Kyra looking at them on the sidelines. After a short while, the two seemed to have come to a decision as their gaze kept shifting between Kyra and the cell's exit again and again.

It was then that the realization dawned on Kyra's face and a thought occurred to her. 'Are they planning to break out from here?!'