She couldn’t remember how long she’d been down there. Without sunlight, days and night blurred together into a hazy scramble of nightmare-laced sleep, brief questioning, and useless attempts to find a way out. She’d tried screaming for help, logical reasoning, tearful pleas — nothing worked. She might have had more luck if she’d been able to pick locks, or wasn’t closed up in a cage slightly smaller than her height.
And that was all setting aside the occasional dose of electricity they jolted her with, and whatever was in the food that managed to suppress her power.
So far she’d seen two, both male. They had a family resemblance, though one was dark and rugged-looking and the other more clean-cut and lighter. Honestly, it was the lighter man she was more afraid of — in the brief times she wasn’t drugged, she could sense a terrifying edge of cunning. The dark one was just scared, mostly, and hiding it.
She curled up small in the cage and rocked quietly, trying to keep her thoughts together. Her stomach growled.
Erica hated this. Keeping prisoners was what hunters did, not them. And surely if this girl was a nogitsune then she would’ve tried to break out already. Peter and Derek both disagreed with her and wanted to keep her locked up and make sure they could keep an eye on her. Leaving her down there made Erica sick to her stomach. She could hear her crying at night and that killed Erica. No one deserved to be that scared.
For the first time since they’d captured her, both Derek and Peter had left, trusting that Erica wouldn’t do anything that they didn’t want her to. Damn the bond between alphas because she didn’t want to listen to Derek but still felt like she had to. She could hear the girl’s stomach rumble and quickly set about, making her food and getting water. She wasn’t allowed to release her but that didn’t mean she was going to let her starve.
She made her way down the steps and into the basement where the cage was. She walked over and turned off the electricity before pushing the food through the slot and turning it back on. The girl looked the same age as Erica and completely terrified as she rocked in a ball.
“Hi…what’s your name? I’m Erica.”
Summer lifted her head from her knees at the sound of footsteps, and blinked in confusion at the sight of someone new. Usually the sly one brought her food, what little she was given, but this person was a blonde girl, close to her own age. She uncurled, as much as she could, and reached for the food, slowly.
“I’m Summer,” she whispered. “Are you — are you a prisoner too?” Her hands shook as she held the cup of water.