Chapter 7: Tenth Circle of Hell

Each day I awoke with the same expectation that I was safely tucked in my bed and each day I found myself sorely disappointed when I awoke only to see the three padded walls of my cell. The fourth wall was made from some sort of glass that was impossible to break; I knew from experience. There was a metal doggy door at the bottom of the glass wall which could only be opened by a remote possessed by the G.S. soldiers. They used it to safely deliver my food without having to actually touch me. I suppose the entire glass wall was a door in itself but it had been locked since I arrived. The cell could have been smaller, it gave me room to pace and I appreciated that. Pacing saved me from many potential breakdowns. I had everything I technically needed, a cot, a toilet, and I even had a sink that ran hot water every other day.

The first week was the hardest. Not physically but mentally it was draining to be confined in one space with only my thoughts left to entertain me. I knew that was the point. I wasn't on vacation, it wasn't supposed to be fun. I was a danger to society and I needed to be treated as such. At least, that's what they wanted me to believe. But, I didn't feel very dangerous. Standing a few inches taller than five foot, I had the literal body of a stick and I was practically destabilized by a pack of peanuts.

With that said, I no longer questioned my "Other" status. Eileen was right- when you're different you just know. I could argue with the doctors, the scientists and the politicians but ultimately, I couldn't argue with myself. I wasn't dangerous just different but I guess those two always were treated as the same.

I thought by accepting my life sentence as an Other, somehow that would stop my midnight pity parties. I tried my best not to cry, if only to avoid judgement from my neighbor. Her cell was placed directly in front of mine. The cells were a mirror image of one another with three padded walls lacking all personality, one glass door, a cot, a sink and a toilet. I imagined all the cells were the same but I could only see hers and my own, the others were kept out of my field of vision. I never spoke to my neighbor but I assumed she had been at Garrenbuck for a while. Her tanned skin had turned dry and leathery, dark bags hung beneath her eyes and her hands were always bandaged in bloody gauze- even her white jumpsuit looked soiled and ratty.

She was a shell of a human. There was this permanent look of absence on her face, as if she wasn't really 'all there'. Sometimes, I sat on my cot and with nothing else to do and I'd just stare at her. It was awkward at first, as if I were encroaching on her privacy. Then, I remembered the cameras hidden in the corners of our cells.

I liked to think we had an understanding. Like, we weren't friends, we didn't talk but we served as a form of entertainment to one another.

On my fourth day at Garrenbuck, I decided to sit in the middle of my cell and contort my face into strange expressions. That caught the attention of my neighbor who I swore almost smiled. Maybe it was just a facial spasm but I saw her cheek twitch upwards. And then, on my sixth day at Garrenbuck, I caught her trying to twist her fingers in and out of knots. Truly, entertainment at its finest.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about my neighbor was that she was able to leave. Everyday like clockwork two soldiers stopped at her cell, unlocked the door and dragged her out of the complex. She would be gone for hours at a time and I was left to wonder whether or not they finally killed her. But, she always returned by the end of the day accompanied by two different guardians from the time before.

I wanted to know where they took her.

—————-

My wish was granted on the eve of my second week at Garrenbuck.

Per usual, two soldiers arrived early in the morning to procure my neighbor from her cell. She rose from her cot with an effortless grace, and bared her wrists to our captors. A pair of cuffs were attached to her hands and she was yanked out of the cell. This transaction transpired wordlessly, they pulled her like a dog on a leash and she followed without any hesitation. I expected them to cart her away to wherever they disappeared to during the day but once they were back in the corridor the soldiers stopped and turned to my cell.

One G.S. soldier grabbed my neighbor by her arm as the other one stepped forward, fumbling with a small black remote in his hand. The glass door to my cell slid open and the soldier jumped on me, slapping the cuffs around my wrists as if I had planned to escape as soon as he opened the door.

"What's going on," I asked once in the corridor. Glancing behind me, I noticed the long procession of G.S. soldiers and prisoners, each lining up to leave to the containment unit.

"Where are you taking me?" We began to near the exit. The harsh fluorescent lighting was replaced by the by golden rays of sun.

"Testing," One Guardian grunted, his hand tightened around my arm.

I was prepared to ask another round of questions when my neighbor elbowed me in the ribs. That was a cue I understood well enough. Shut up.

I found myself sweating profusely as the line slowly trudged into the light of day. It had been so long since I had actually breathed fresh air and I found myself inhaling heavily, like I was snorting nature. The courtyard was crowded with people of all statuses. The Others wore their white jumpsuits, the soldiers clad in their gray polyester uniforms, and even a few doctors milled about, typing furiously away on their tablets.

Far on the horizon, past the chain link fence, I could see an outline of a bustling city. Glass towers reached for the sky as tendrils of black smoke escaped from the factories and if I were to strain my ears I would have heard the horn of several cars trudging through traffic. It was a magnificent sight, so wondrous and important compared to my mundane hometown. But it felt a bit like a mirage as if my mind were teasing me with glimpses of society.

I continued to stare at the tempting image until the G.S. soldiers pushed me into a new building. All the buildings looked the same, it was another way for them to impose uniformity on us. And it worked. Not at first, but as time wore on I would become used to the bleak and bland, not able to remember a world of color. The inside of the building held some minor differences. Unlike the containment units, this new building possessed no holding cells and there were three floors rather six. The first floor contained a stage at the front of the room equipped with a podium and a microphone.

A man in a black polyester uniform stood behind the podium, his fingers were curled around the microphone. It was the Commander. I hadn't seen him once during my first week at Garrenbuck and I considered that a blessing. He was a terrifying specimen with two coals substituted for eyes, his lips were pressed into pale line. The uniform seemed to stretch over his mountainous build as if it were actually a size too small.

Peeking at my neighbor from the corner of my eye, I tried to gauge a glimpse of what might await for me in the upcoming moment. But her face remained a blank slate. A chill ran down my spine. Would I become like that, I wondered. Would it reach a point where nothing mattered anymore? A sick, twisted part of me secretly hoped for that. At least the painful tug at my heart would finally go away and those pesky, burning memories would fade. I'd no longer care to question about my family or imagine the life of my friends.

Until that bleak moment came, I was forced to fidget and quiver in place as the rest of the hall began to fill with prisoners. We stood in horizontal rows, packed so closely our arms were not only touching but overlapping.

"Good Morning," said the Commander as the vault-like door slammed shut behind us.

The senior members of the group began to murmur a similar sentiment whereas the newbs, like me, watched dumbstruck. Even my neighbor, who I swore was mute, breathed a quick, morning. The Commander spoke in that same tone from my first night at Garrenbuck, the one that sounded like it could have been kind if he truly meant it. But, he didn't. Now, in the fluorescent lighting of the OSCF I could clearly see the hate glimmering in the two pits he called eyes.

"Today is the dawn of a new week and a new beginning for some of you who have just joined us. In less than two months, you will be released," A smile unfurled on his chapped lips, revealing a deep crack that ran down the center.

"You will be taken to the Otherworld, where you belong."

The Otherworld, my skin crawled. It was the place of all childhood nightmares, where monsters raged in eternal hours of night. My mother liked to use it as an excuse for me to do my chores. She threatened I would end up in the Otherworld with all the other uncivilized beasts, if I refused to clean my room. That threat worked like a charm. Even as small children we were taught about the Others and their 'home'. My mother and her church group liked to call it the Devil's summer home, a second hell of sorts. She didn't really know what it looked like or what happened there. None of us did because only a person with the 'Other' gene could enter the Otherworld. A toxin, unsuitable for human consumption, existed in the atmosphere.

"But before I can do that, I have a duty to uphold. A promise to your people," His throat constricted on that last word, as if it physically hurt to refer to them as anything other than monsters. "You will be tested and with our data, you will know who you were meant to be."

Four banners hung from the cement wall behind the Commander. The first was a deep shade of purple, with a violet circle entrapping a long pointed hat, representing the Wicked. Beside it hung a sapphire flag with embroidered claw marks contained in a light blue circle- the Vicious. The third and perhaps most menacing, a black flag with a red circle around two pearly white fangs- the Evil. The last flag was a vibrant shade of green, like freshly cut grass or antifreeze, but the beautiful color was destroyed by the wilted flower within the circle- the Deviant. The four flags symbolized the four races that shared the Other gene.

Witches, werewolves, vampires and fae.

In less than two months, I would find my true identity in one of those banners.

**I understand that this chapter was a little dense as a lot of it occurred within Ophelia's thoughts. I was gonna try to clump another chapter in with this one to give you guys more action but then the chapter would have been well over 4K words. In other news, I wanted to thank you all for reading this book. In less than two weeks this story has gathered 2K+ reads which is mind-boggling to me since it took the Dark Witch nearly 3 months to reach 3K reads. I would consider this chapter as the bridge between our background/setting up the plot chapters and the actual story as now we finally get to meet the rest of the characters listed on the character list and we get to see our first glimpses of magic in this world. For a paranormal/fantasy book I'm sure a lot of you are scratching your heads in the corner and thinking to yourself to, "so where's the magic?" It's coming, just gotta put a little in me ;).

If you took my Supernatural Personality Quiz please comment your results below and keep them in mind for upcoming chapters. Are you now part of the Wicked? The Viscous? The Evil? Or the Deviant?

Also try to see if you can guess Ophelia's results:

I'm also going on vacation next week so I will be doing some binge reading on the beach and I plan on releasing a book which will review all the stories I get my hands on. I will also be doing this because I know a lot of my readers from The Nox Haven series have previously remarked that they wish it was easier to find well-written yet interesting plot lines in the Paranormal/Fantasy genre on Wattpad. I know that those books do exist but it may take more elbow grease to find them because they are not always the most "popular" books on the Hot List. So by reviewing these books I am essentially curating a "Must Read" list for all of you.

XOXO,

Ro.**