Quest of the Bounty Hunter: Kidnapped

Grace

Grace hadn't wanted to leave the mysterious woman when there was still so much to be learned. In the pit of her stomach, Grace knew that the lady was the missing piece of the puzzle to solving the secrets of this prison. But she'd promised she'd go back the next day.

Even before the sun rose, Grace was scampering down the stairs and into the chill of the cellar. She rounded the corners but only found empty cells upon empty cells. She could've sworn the women had been in this row at the end by the wall, but still, every cell was desolate. Grace backtracked and searched, her breath becoming a mist. It was growing colder.

After many more minutes of pacing, Grace decided to go back upstairs and talk to Emerald. She leapt up the stone steps and felt warmth seep back into her bones.

She found Emerald asleep in a corner but the moment she transformed back into a human, he snapped awake.

Emerald's sparkling eyes lit up and he smiled sleepily, "Hey. Long time no see."

"It's been two days, Em," Grace replied with a laugh.

"Man, time stretches when there's nothing to do."

"Yeah, speaking of that, I've been using my time to explore the prison. I went down to the cellars yesterday."

Emerald arched his eyebrow.

"I found this frail woman who told me a story."

"About what?"

"I don't remember. Something about her kid, I think? But get this, I checked again today and she wasn't there. She told me she's been there for ten years. Someone like that doesn't just disappear the next day."

"Unless she's dead."

Grace gasped, "Emerald!"

"What? I'm just providing a logical explanation," He shrugged.

"And the evidence?"

"The two men who carried a body out on a stretcher with a white cloth covering it." Emerald deadpanned.

There was silence.

"What?!"

Emerald broke his straight face with a smirk.

"You're joking." Grace said with an exasperated sigh.

"No actually, I'm being serious for once. It was your expression that amused me."

"Emerald. Did you actually see someone being carried out?"

"Yes. I swear. Right down the hall and probably out the front gate." Emerald gestured to the right.

"You have got to be kidding me. I was finally onto something. She knew more than she let on. She has secrets, I'm telling you."

"I believe it. But you lost her. She's dead."

Grace sunk to the floor. "She had a child."

"And they probably didn't even know she existed."

"I guess that's true."

"Time for a riddle?" Emerald asked.

"I don't know. I'm not really feeling well." Grace said with a shrug.

"Cmon, Grace... I know you have nothing better to do."

"Maybe later. Sorry, Em." Grace said as she transformed into a beetle and skittered down the hall towards the front gate.

Grace transformed into an imitation of the guard who brought her her meals. She turned the corner with confidence and leaned against the wall next to a guard on his break.

"So, I heard the pile of rags downstairs finally died?"

"Yep," he replied, with an exhaled breath from his cigar. "Hadn't eaten her meals for the past three days."

"What happened with her?"

"I don't know. They just took her out and carted her away. Probably won't even bury her. I'd toss her by the road and hope the wolves stay away," the man shook with a wheezing laugh.

Grace blanched but recovered quick enough to chuckle at the morbid joke.

"What's so funny?" A voice asked from the hall. It took Grace about ten seconds to realize that the man who had just walked into the room was the guard she was impersonating at that very moment.

With a squeak, she dipped around the corner and sprinted down the hall towards her cell.

"Hey! Come back here!"

Grace didn't waste time turning to look at the guards chasing her.

Unfortunately, even with the body of an adult man, she couldn't outrun the other guards.

The one she'd been conversing with grabbed her arm and without thinking she transformed into a snake.

With an unmanly scream, the guard dropped her and she hit the ground slithering.

Grace shot down the hall and into her cell in record time. Within seconds, she transformed back into her normal self and pretended she was asleep.

The guards finally caught up, heaving and breathing heavily. They banged against her bars with their fists.

"We know it was you, freak!"

"Get up!" 

Grace refused to move from her tightly curled position. Her heart was pounding so fast she was sure the guards could hear it.

"Well, I see how it's gonna be." One guard sneered with a final slap on the bars. "We'll make sure to have a guard stationed outside your cell at all times. No more sneaking around."

Then other guard laughed, "And no more shape shifting. Not even inside your cell."

Grace waited until they walked away, chuckling to themselves, probably off to find a lower ranked guard to perform the boring task of watching her, then she sat up and huffed. She brushed the dust off her clothes and mentally prepared herself for many very long and very boring days ahead of her.

Footsteps echoed down the empty hall and stopped outside her cell.

Grace looked up to see the smirking face of a young man who leaned against the wall and peered inside through the bars. He had a likeable face, but she could practically feel the arrogance radiating off him. And the stench of his cologne.

This was a prison. Smelling good didn't make much of a difference. And she didn't have a clue who he was trying to impress. Everyone here but her was a criminal.

Finally, when the silence became unbearable, the man spoke up with the smirk still plastered on his face.

"Looks like it's going to be just you and me. For a long time."

Grace just glared.

"Okay then. Let's start with introductions. The name's Zander and I'm gonna make your life miserable."