“Where is he?” Lauren asks impatiently as she paces back and forth with her arms crossed. Waiting for god knows how long, the teenager cannot seem to sit still for even a minute ever since Harold had gone off to rescue Paul. “I thought he said it wouldn’t take long. Hasn’t it been more than an hour by now?” Anxiously biting her lower lip, she periodically checks the direction that the black knight had gone off in hopes that he would return any second with her little brother in tow. “The anticipation is killing me…”

Watching Lauren talk to herself, Nightingale can be seen grazing on grass and foliage nearby. The raven familiar is there as well as it is perching upon a tree branch. The teenager stops for a moment and looks towards each of the animals and wonders aloud, “I wish you guys could talk to me or something.” Feeling tired from her non-stop pacing, she gives an exaggerated sigh and flops down on a rock large enough to sit on. “At least I wouldn’t be bored waiting for that asshole.”

Staring at the shadows that lurk beyond the glow of the moon, Lauren's thoughts grow incessantly louder as she thinks more and more about Paul. How his face was purple and black from the bruises. Seeing his small body so weak and sick. And that look in his eyes. That look of utter hopelessness. Remembering her little brother’s beaten state makes her heart ache. The teenager cannot even imagine the kind of pain that her younger sibling is going through right now as she gnaws at her lip like a dog with a bone.

Shaking her leg uncontrollably, Lauren immediately gets up after she had just sat down. “Aaghh!! Where is he?! I-I can’t take this any longer!! I feel like I am going crazy here!!” the disgruntled teenager shouts as she reiterates her thoughts aloud again. As if going through a loop, Lauren starts to pace back and forth once more as she eagerly waits for Paul’s return.

Tens of dozens of minutes pass like this as the trio patiently idle at Harold’s command. Though, the longer that the black knight has been gone; the more anxious the teenager becomes. And the more anxious Lauren becomes; the more her thoughts begin to twist and turn. “That’s it. I’m going to get Paul myself. That asshole is taking too long.” With eyes filled with unwavering determination, she goes into the direction where Harold had left. This immediately alarms the two beasts keeping an eye on here. 

Moving towards the woods, the teenager becomes surprised as Nightingale suddenly trots over and blocks her way. Slightly confused, she tries to walk around the sickly horse, but the steed just repositions itself to barricade her way. Now feeling frustrated, Lauren could not help but voice her displeasure aloud. “Can you not get in my way?!” The steed, as if it understood her rhetorical question, responds by shaking its head in disapproval. It chuffs and then uses its nose to point to something behind the girl. 

With a curious expression, the teenager looks and sees the large rock that she had been using as a chair. Inferring what this gesture meant; Lauren asks as she looks back, “Are you telling me to sit down?” The mount answers back with a reaffirming nod. “I-I cannot believe this…” she exasperates. Being kept here against her will by a literal animal no less makes the girl upset to no end. She tries again to maneuver around Nightingale, but the horse refuses to let the girl go past it. “Why are you stopping me?!” 

The horse this time only gives an unblinking stare as its response. Lauren shakes her head. “Why do I even bother asking?” she states as she turns around and walks away. Seeing that the teenager has given up, the mount momentarily relaxes its guard in relief. Unfortunately for all those around, Lauren was only pretending. Not missing this lapse of attention, the teenager quickly turns her heels. Sprinting, the girl finally manages to pass the sickly steed as she runs into the dark forest with no supervision. Disappearing from their sight, Nightingale looks towards the raven familiar. Watching what had just transpired from a branch; the corvid hurriedly flaps its wings and chases after Lauren.

Leaving the site, the teenage girl hastily runs for a while as she tries to make as much distance between her and the black knight’s animal companions. Though, she quickly gets into a small predicament: Lauren doesn’t know where she is going exactly. With the scenery turning darker and darker by the second, a sudden thought pops into her head. Did I bite off more than I can chew? She stops and looks behind her. The girl cannot see the campsite within her vision or anyone following her. All she can see around her is trees, bushes, and branches that are illuminated by the dim moonlight. Unsure where to go, she chooses a direction that she believes might lead her to where her little brother is. 

Shaking off her uneasiness, Lauren steadfastly marches onward as she blindly walks into darkness surrounding her. Keeping her head high, she hopes that she will stumble upon the bandit camp soon as she begins to formulate a plan to rescue Paul somehow. Luckily for her, she hears a commotion stirring off in the distance after a dozen minutes or so of walking. The sound is faint, but listening to it carefully the teenager could tell that it is men yelling at one another from a particular direction. Moving her feet, she heads towards the shouting in quiet haste. 

Being careful as to not step any twigs or branches, the girl tip-toes her way closer to a sizable base camp lit by torches. Lauren can see that there are many groups of men sitting around their respective campfires with tents and wagons all around. Each is eating or drinking alcohol as they pass the time telling crude and ill-humored jokes to one another. Though she has found the bandits, there is no sight of her friends, acquaintances, and, most importantly, her younger brother Paul in sight. Not seeing what she wanted, the teenager frowns as she maneuvers stealthily to spy some more elsewhere.

Knowing that she is in a very dangerous place, Lauren carefully moves through the shadows as she hides from view. The teenager soon finds that the bandits have made their base in front of a cave. That must be where everyone is being kept… she thinks to herself. Seeing that the cave entrance has only one bandit standing guard, an idea starts to form in the big sister's head. She soon decides to make the rash decision to enter the cave. Finding a sizable rock, she immediately sneaks towards her objective. Watching the guard yawn sleepily, the teenager stealthily moves into the bandit’s blindspot and throws the rock with all her might. Her aim hits its mark as the stone strikes the side of the bandit’s head causing the man to collapse to the floor as blood drips from where the rock had struck. Quickly walking up to the cave entrance, she enters before someone comes by and notices what had happened.

Dimly illuminated with distant torches in between fluorescent fungi, Lauren travels inward as she hears the mixed sounds of her thumping heart and the dripping of the stalactites above her. Wandering through this cave, the teenage girl is wondering where the captured villagers are. Hoping that everyone taken from Ryewood would be grouped together in the same room, the girl inches closer to her supposed goal as the hand of fate guides her. Up ahead, she sees a soft glow emanating from an open passageway alongside the right wall.

Going against her better judgment, she draws closer to this hallway and goes down it to find an occupied room. Fortunately for her, there were no bandits to be seen. Though, what is unfortunate is the state of the women that were kept in cages here. Clothes ripped apart showing purple and black splotches all over their bodies. Blood trickling down their thighs. And eyes that can only be described as empty and hollow. “E-Ellen?” Lauren quivers out as she barely recognizes one of them. The teenager draws nearer to the iron bars as she reaches out towards Ellen and quietly asks, “Ellen? I-is that you? Ellen? Can you hear me? A-are you alright?” The girl in the cage is unresponsive.

Seeing a friend practically comatose crushes Lauren’s heart. Wanting to do something to help Ellen’s situation, the girl looks around the area to search for a key to unlock the cages or something to break the latch. But alas, this is where her luck dries up. The teenager is unable to find anything of use as she frantically scrambles around for anything that could help. What happens next could only be described as tragic.

Not paying attention to who is coming up from behind her, Lauren is suddenly struck to the ground as she is caught off guard. “You fucking bitch… that hurt!!” yells her attacker. Disoriented, the teenager grabs her head as she crawls away on the ground. She looks back to see who had violently surprised her: it was the bandit that she had knocked out earlier. With an expression full of anger and spite, he takes out a dagger and brandishes the blade. “I don’t know where you came from or how you got here, but that doesn’t matter…” the bandit states as he slowly walks closer to Lauren. “You’re going to regret getting yourself into this!”

Struggling to get to her feet, the teenage girl’s eyes are filled with fear as she tries to get away from her apparent attacker… but where can she go? Trapped in a room with the only exit blocked by an armed man, Lauren does not know what she can do to change the situation into her favor. Her instincts kick in as she opens her mouth and screams, “H-help!! Someone!! Someone please!!”

“Why are you screaming, you dumb cunt?! No one is going to come and save you!” states the bandit as he draws nearer to her. Watching his every move in anticipation, Lauren cannot help but feel helpless in this situation as she backs up. Bumping into the iron bars, the teenage girl’s anxiety spikes as her attacker lunges at her. She dodges out of the way by rolling head first as the bandit swipes at empty air with his knife. “Slippery cunt!” the attacker curses as he quickly turns to face the young girl. Lauren desperately tries to escape the bandit, but the grown man is too fast for her. He grabs a hold of the young woman’s wrist and yanks it towards him causing her to stumble.

Lauren cannot break away from the bandit as she shrieks, “Let me go!!” but her cries fall on deaf ears. Due to the teenage girl’s struggling, she somehow manages to trip her attacker on pure coincidence causing them both to crash towards the ground as the man loses his hold on her and his dagger.  They tumble and fall as the violence and danger continues to escalate. Both rolling all over on the ground, the bandit reaches for his dropped dagger as Lauren tries to drag herself away from him. The girl’s attacker grabs his weapon as he quickly takes a hold of his victim’s ankle to keep her from escaping him. This action causes a jerk reaction as Lauren turns around onto her back and kicks her assailant in the face as hard as she can. “No!! S-stop!!”

“Fuck!! My fucking nose!! You broke my fucking nose!! You dumb bitch!!” the attacker shouts as he lets go of Lauren’s ankle to hold his face as blood drips from his nostrils and through his fingers. Taking this opportunity, the girl scuttles backwards as she tries to make any sort of distance between her and her attacker. Though, she does not get very far. Recovering from the swift blow to his nose, the bandit quickly latches onto her once more as the teenager could see the sheer amount of indignant anger in his eyes. Her heartbeat quickens as she watches him get on top of her with a dagger in hand. With her back against the ground, Lauren tries to persuade her assailant from hurting her any further.

“P-please!! I-I’m sorry!! I didn’t mean to kick you!! Just… just let me go please!! Please stop!! I’m so sorry!!” she apologizes and begs as tears start to stream down her face. 

“You’re pretty fucking stupid aren’t you?” retorts her assailant. “I’m not going to stop because you asked me nicely! You should have stayed home where it was safe, little girl!!” Reversing the grip on his knife, Lauren’s attacker makes a downward stab at the girl as he aims for the teenager’s face. Reacting to the strike, she manages to block the attack by grabbing onto the man’s wrist before the motion is complete as she tries to push back the blade. Though she was able to do this, there is only so much a teenage girl can do against a grown man as Lauren struggles to stop this attack. Seeing that his victim is desperately fighting back against him, the bandit puts his free hand onto the pommel of his dagger and starts leaning into it to add his body weight. “You’re one tenacious cunt!! I’ll give you that!!”

Lauren can feel the blood building up behind her eyes as she grits her teeth in an effort to push this man off of her. Copious amounts of adrenaline is pumping through the girl’s veins as she puts all of her strength into stopping this dagger in its tracks, but… it isn’t enough.  Unable to put any more resistance, she is forced to watch the blade inches closer and closer to her face as she feels her arms are meeting their physical limits. With the tip of the knife becoming bigger and larger with every second that passes, the teenager can feel the blade enter her right eye as a sneer forms across the bandit’s face. Though the dagger doesn’t stop there as it digs deeper and deeper into her orifice. At least two inches of the knife finds itself embedded into her eye socket before Lauren takes action.

I don’t want to die!! I don’t want to die!! I don’t want to die!! is the only thought echoing in Lauren’s mind as she feels the dagger sink further into her eye. Taking a deep breath in, the teenager screams at the top of her lungs as she then knees the bandit between his legs as hard as she can. This causes her assailant to yelp in excruciating pain as he lets go of the knife in hand to instinctively hold his crotch. Rolling off onto his back next to his victim, Lauren quickly takes a hold of the dagger stuck into her eye and rips it out. Blood gushes out from her wound as she quickly straddles the bandit to make sure that he doesn’t get up.

With everything turning red, Lauren takes the knife into both of her hands and stabs the bandit in the chest. The teenage girl then furiously stabs him again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again…

Author's note: Hey, thank you for reading this chapter today! I want to give a shoutout to the person who has sent me $5 through PayPal!! I didn't expect that at all and I feel truly honored that you liked my writing enough to warrant giving me money!! Thank you!! Now I can say that I am a "paid author" because of you! Also, sorry for the not uploading another chapter in so long. I could blame my internet since it prevented me from uploading this chapter the last couple of days, but it doesn't really excuse the laziness... Well, anyways. I hope you look forward to the next one!