Chapter 458: Awaken in a strange place
Belle groaned awake at the sound of rumbling thunder that rang as though it came from inside her head. She felt like her body was weighed down by the heaviest of weights as she opened her eyes to darkness. She was cold, so cold her body felt like it did not belong to her. Not just cold; she was feeling slightly hot at the same time, shivering violently.
At first, she didn’t even realize she wasn’t in her room but someplace else entirely until she tried to move her hands to hug herself. It was then she felt the hard, unforgiving ground beneath her, wet because rain was spraying in from a window above her head.
Belle groaned again and forced her heavy body to turn so she was lying on her back. That position made everything even worse as the rainwater now sprayed directly on her face. Where was she? she wondered as she tried to look around, but the pain in her body wouldn’t even allow her to move freely. Her pregnant stomach felt all the more heavy than it actually was.
Every thought stilled for a moment in her cloudy brain as she pressed her trembling hands to her stomach to make sure the life inside her was all right. She held her breath, forcing her shivering body and chattering teeth to be still, until she felt the faintest movement, then she released her breath in relief.
Belle managed to push herself into a sitting position with so much difficulty and rested her back against a hard, rough wall, panting and heaving, as it was exhausting to move even a little. The last thing Belle remembered was being in her room, trying to take off her coat because she was hot, while her son ran to call Rav. The next thing she knew, a woman who had her face and looked exactly like her had appeared in front of her.
Belle had known immediately that something wasn’t right and demanded to know who she was, as that form certainly wasn’t hers. Before she even knew what was coming, everything had gone dark, and now that she was awake... she found herself in a place where she couldn’t see anything, as it was night. The only sounds were that of the loud rain hitting the roof and splashing into the place, drenching her already cold body.
Belle tried desperately to think and to keep her heavy eyes open long enough to figure things out, to understand what had happened and find a way out, but her head and body hurt far too much for any clear thought. It was while she moved her trembling hands to hug her arms that she felt the smooth texture of Rohan’s coat still clutched in her grasp. Her fingers tightened weakly around it before her body slumped sideways in exhaustion.
She didn’t fight the sleep as it came over her, but before she could close her eyes, lightning flashed through the window and reflected against the opposite side of where she lay. She didn’t know if she had imagined it or if what she’d seen were indeed thick bars, but exhaustion didn’t let her analyze anything further as her eyes closed of their own accord.
When she opened her eyes again, light fell straight on her face, and she reflexively shut them with a moan of pain that stabbed through her skull. Belle felt like unconsciousness would be better than the unbearable pain in her body.
Bearing the pain, she reopened her eyes, this time letting them adjust to the brightness that came from the high window over her head. When they did adjust, she noticed that the window was too small and too high for one made in a house. The thick bars on it were too close together, leaving only a tiny space for air, and even the morning air was unwelcome because it made her shiver all the more.
She felt slightly better than she had the night before, and so Belle turned to her side, flattened her palms on the damp ground, and pushed her body up to sit. But when she sat up and finally took in her surroundings, every drop of blood drained from her face, and she went still for a full ten seconds, trying to digest what she was seeing.
A dungeon. That was the first thing that came to her mind as she saw the bars, the damp walls, and the darkened corners of the place. Had that person brought her into a dungeon after taking her place in her family’s life? Belle’s heart knotted with panic, for that was the only possibility she could think of that explained why she was locked in a dungeon.
Despite the pain and cold, she pushed herself to her feet with the support of the wall behind her. Dizziness and dark spots flashed across her vision, but she didn’t let them force her back down. She clutched her head until her body adjusted to standing. When the dizziness finally subsided, Belle placed her hands below her stomach to support it as she tried to move toward the bars. But a clanging sound made her look down, her ankles were chained.
Heavy, rusted chains locked around each of her ankles and extended far into the darker part of the dungeon where her eyes couldn’t reach.
The cell itself was built in a strange angle, half of it was short and close to the barred gate and high window, while the other side stretched into a far corner where everything was swallowed by shadow. The chains came from that dark end.
Belle didn’t like the feeling the place gave her. She didn’t know how long she had been here, but she couldn’t possibly wait until she rotted away in a cell without knowing how she had even gotten there. From the gray sky visible through the window, it was still early morning. Was it the next day after she had been kidnapped from her room?
Rohan wouldn’t even know that she was missing, not with an imposter who looked and carried her aura in her place. That realization sent cold chills through her already frozen body.
Steadying her trembling hands, Belle began to limp toward the bare gates of the dungeon, the chains dragging behind her and making sharp, echoing noises. Thankfully, they were long enough for her to reach the gate without pulling her backward. She wrapped her hands around the rusted iron bars and tried to fit her head through the narrow space as she called out, "Anybody out there? Hello!" Her voice echoed back to her.
There was another sound that echoed along with her voice, something that made her believe there was indeed someone in charge of the dungeon who had heard her. It sounded like a door opening, and Belle called out again, "Hello! Is someone there?" Her voice was hoarse from thirst and cold, but she didn’t care. She called out again and again. She needed to know who had put her here and why.
Who had she offended that had the power to take her form and bring her to this place? How had they even taken her out of the castle without being caught by the servants, or her son, who had gone to call Rav? It was almost impossible for an intruder to walk in and easily take her without being caught unless some powers had been involved to manipulate things.
"Hello!!" Belle screamed again, this time from sheer frustration toward whoever had done this. She was parting her lips to scream once more when she suddenly felt a tug on the chains around her ankles. She froze and turned swiftly, her breath catching as she saw a shadow move in the far, darkened corner of the cell. Startled, she pressed her back against the cold bars.
"Who’s there?" She called out warily.
"Why are you screaming for trouble, woman? Keep it down before you put yourself in big trouble you wouldn’t be able to get out of," warned a voice from the shadowed side, making Belle narrow her eyes in that direction.
She hadn’t even known there was another person on the other side of the dungeon, and hearing the annoyed voice of the person, who was a woman, didn’t calm her heart or mind in the slightest.
"Who are you? How come you’re here with me?" Belle asked. Dungeons were places where prisoners and criminals were kept and locked away, and she was no criminal to be put here without a trial.
Belle heard the person sigh. "Newbie, of course. My new cellmate is a newbie." The words were followed by a dry chuckle that made Belle furrow her brows, hugging her arms tightly around herself from the cold.
"What do you mean?" Belle questioned, fighting to stop her teeth from chattering. "I’m not a criminal. I was kidnapped from my home... Where are we?"
"So are the thousands of other people in here," the woman replied flatly. "We were also kidnapped and brought here, lady. None of us are criminals."
There was a clinking sound of chains as the woman in the shadows moved and walked out into the faint light coming from the window, giving Belle a full view of the other person in the dungeon with her. She was petite, with ginger hair that was tangled and roughly cut short, stopping just below her ears. Dirt smeared her face, and the thin shift she wore was stained with mud and torn in several places, as though she had been severely whipped, long scars ran across her bare arms.
Belle’s breath caught in her throat when she noticed the roundness of the woman’s stomach that clearly showed she was also pregnant.
"Hm. You were brought in pregnant. Lucky you, cellmate," remarked the woman, her tone laced with bitter amusement as her eyes roamed over Belle, taking in her expensive dress, her gloves, and the black coat she clutched protectively over her stomach. "Normally, rich noblewomen aren’t brought to the establishment. How did you fall into their hands, my lady?" inquired the young woman, her words making Belle’s stomach turn as realization slowly began to dawn on her.
Establishment?!
"Is... is this the slave establishment?" Belle asked, clutching tightly to Rohan’s coat for moral support. Even before the woman nodded, Belle already knew she had fallen into a slave house somehow.
She had heard whispers about such places before, about them breeding human females like animals. She had heard of it, but had never witnessed it, and never in her darkest fears thought she would end up in one herself.
"Welcome to the establishment," the woman said, spreading her arms in grim irony. "Once you’re inside, and pregnant, there’s no way out."