CHAPTER – 6

THE BIRDS EAT THE WORM

 

“Why??? Why??... Why?” She screamed.

 

She cried.

 

Pushing her hands against the pit wall, burying them deep in the mud. The hard rocks grind against her knees.

 

Feet impaled with thorns. With several bruises aching all over her body, she falls again while climbing out of the pit for the eighth time.

 

⸺How did it get to be like this?

 

No matter how many times she repeats the question to herself, she can never find the answer.

 

“I will not give up. This was just a joke. Shae and Dia would surely come back for me.” Caige tries to catch her breath before she stands up again to climb out of the pit in which Shae had pushed her to escape by herself.

 

It was already raining hard; the soil weakens and the grip eventually loosens around the clay.

 

“⸺Wahhhaaaaaaa…”

 

Thump….

 

Caige in frustration beats her hands on the ground with another failed attempt. The tender smoothness of her palms had completely vanished in these three days when she had been kidnapped and trafficked across the sea and treated worse than animals.

 

She was not a commodity nor did she ever wanted to become someone’s slave.

 

So, she retaliated with all her might. Using her sharp mind, she won the death game. Also using it to her advantage, she escaped from the prison along with all others despite not having any special powers.

 

She thought she could regain her freedom once she grows out of her shell.

 

But betrayal once again had pushed her down to the bottom and she fell much harder this time.

 

 Just in case, she banks on the off chance that she’s wrong and decided to find out the truth by meeting up with Shae and Dia again and telling them that she would never betray their trust no matter what.

 

In an attempt to calm herself down, she wipes the tears slowly gathering in the corners of her eyes with her sleeves.

 

“Woohowooo…” The barking dogs were back on their trail and it wouldn’t be long before they would have found Caige tapped in the pit. She would be killed on sight for being the one to free all the abducted children.

 

Caige knew the men who captured her were inhumane and did not care about their value anymore.

 

But she was already strong-willed enough to look past all the problems and focus on the solution rather than fret over the hardships she had to suffer alone.

 

Having accepted her situation, she was now trying to find a method and avoid being tracked by the dogs.

 

She also wanted to know why Shae did this to her. And will she accept her back if she will accept her punishment for whatever she did if she returns to her this time?

.

After a few minutes passed, the wild dogs and some of the bandits pass through the place while the dogs keep sniffing around the pit. Unsuspectfully looking at the pit they turned their heads away and move forward.

.

Caige suddenly emerges from deep inside the ground which apparently was covered with a thick pool of mud now. She takes a deep breath while releasing the previous breath she held for so long.

 

Rubbing the murky mud away from her face she stands up to make sure that she was alone there.

 

With rain collected inside the pit, Caige decided to use this to her advantage and collected all the mud in the center to form a small swamp. On top of it she covered herself with thorny bushes having a strong bad fragrance which could be a sore in every dog’s nose.

 

Continuing to stand there alone, Caige suddenly feels a gaze on her and looks up.

 

There stood the ringmaster, the leader of the kidnappers, casting an evil eye upon her and a long grin.

 

His burly body and primitive clothes could have scared any child. He was the same man who threatened her and had been looking on chances to torture Caige after she had defeated him in his own devised death game.

 

Caige looked around and found herself trapped in the pit. Without wasting a second, the man jumped on Caige knocking her back into the mud pool.

 

Her back struck the ground heavily, and all the air in her lungs was forced out. Caige's thin and weak body could barely resist him.

 

From the corner of her eyes, she saw a vulgar smile on his face.

 

“Leave me…” Caige resists his hold.

 

Although Caige desperately struggled, twisting her body, her arms were bound by the man. Now she was being dragged by him.

 

To silence her he punches right into Caige’s face briskly but she holds out.

 

“Where I am striking would cause you enough pain to knock you out. But you are a real fighter. Did your friends leave you alone here…?” The kidnapper looks around and he could see no one to approach for help.

 

“I guess you were betrayed after all.” The man laughed as if he was already expecting such a thing to happen.

 

Caige could not understand by what he meant, and she stares back at him with bold eyes. She had still not given up hope and after succeeding in her escape she desired freedom more than ever.

 

“Little princesses like you will never understand the pain of those unprivileged ones. She must hate you that much to leave you here alone like this.”

 

“They would never do such a thing?” Caige said adamantly.

 

“Haven’t you still figured out why she betrayed you?”

 

Caige was now confused thinking was there something she didn’t know about Shae and Dia?

 

“The reason she pushed you away was because she cannot trusts anyone. Your use was over and she discarded you, that was all there to it.”

“No, that’s a lie.”

Caige screamed. She remembered her family doing the exact same thing to her not long ago and once again she was alleged of outliving her usage.

 

“We never abducted her like you. Her parents sold her off to us because they didn’t want too many mouths to feed. Her family was so happy to get rid of their own. It makes my belly feel funny.”

 

Caige froze up. She didn’t realize she was that oblivious to Shae’s pain. She only thought of the wrongs that had been done to her and also risked their lives to achieve her own goals.

 

Wiping away her tears with the palm of her hand, Caige was now more determined to get out of that place and find her first two companions she made.

 

“I can’t wait now to hear your screams when you die by my hands and keep begging for your life. HAHAAA…” The man now brandished a knife from a scabbard attached to his back and points its edge at Caige’s slim neck.

 

A single thrust or slash would have been enough to end her little wholesome life she had barely started to live on her own and for her own sake.

 

“Do you remember this knife now?”

 

Tightening the grip around the handle, he lifted his hand.

 

In a happenstance, a situation where life flashes in front of Caige’s eyes, she remembers the knife from the hunger game.

 

Caige also remembers her home, her lost mother, a library filled with books, and an unfamiliar family that betrayed her. She felt incurably homesick and lonely again.

 

What she really wanted to do was smile again and have fun but that would happen no more if she gives up at this point. So, when near to escaping from her family’s shadow and bounds, Caige made a final choice that she would never be on the losing end.

 

Changing her strategy in an instant, Caige acts on an impulse.

 

Storing all power in her legs, she sprung up at full force. With her legs, she kicked the man in his abdomen. The shock ended with him producing a surprised squeal and at the same time he also ended up dropping the knife from his hand.

 

Slipping from his grip it fell somewhere inside the mud.

 

The man quickly extends his hands and gets Caige’s head by grabbing a fistful of her hair and slams it against the ground.

 

“You think you can escape from here brat.”

 

“I sure do,” Caige said with utmost certainty flashing a cheap grin.

 

“⸺Wh…?” The bandit’s leader smile froze in place as the same knife which he dropped pierced his temple.

 

“Hwuh?” An inhuman voice leaked from his lips, so strange it was almost comical.

 

The rustic blade shattered the thinnest part of his skull, drilling into his brain. The leader of the kidnappers saw one last sight of Caige’s satisfied expression before he crumpled to the floor.

 

“Ho...w...?”

 

It was Caige, holding the dagger to his head.

 

He would be dead in moments so Caige thought it was a waste of time to give the details to him. It was a miracle he didn’t die instantly.

 

All she knew was that when she was flooded with despair at this betrayal, power violently welled up within her. Fearing she would lose her last chance at life she still wanted to survive and the thirst for it had grown even deeper.

 

Just recalling the warm, hospitable air of her home was enough to bring tears to her eyes. Because despite being a prison it was the only home she knew.

 

Rubbing her eyes with her arm, she shakes her head clear of her sentimentality. Clutching her fists and shifting her thoughts to the task at hand. She gave a moment’s gaze at the dead body and now it did not bother her anymore.

 

The only problem was that the rustic blade deeply bonded with the crimson color of blood, was now tightly clutched in between her hands. No matter how much strength she put on or focused, she could not open her hands or let go of the knife.

 

Her hands shook for a moment and Caige knew that she was now blood sickened.

 

***

 

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