So there are going to be time jumps in my book. In one chapter you will be in present and then suddenly in another you are in past. This is to help you understand my characters and their story better. To show you what really happened to them that made them turn into these people they are today. So please DO NOT IGNORE THE BOLD-ITALICS AT THE START OF THE CHAPTER. Thank you!
•••

10 years ago

"Help! Somebody please help me! Please. Let me out. I didn't do anything wrong. Please let me go." I sobbed to myself or to anyone who could hear.

I have been doing this since past whole hour. No one heard a single cry. Not until now.

I heard someone's footsteps coming closer to the room I was locked in.

The heavy metal door opened up with loud, annoying voices that sounded like a huge piece of metal being dragged along a rough ground, which was exactly what was happening.

It made my headache worse. I was in no position to complain though.

Heavy footsteps rushed towards me and I could see a silhouette of a man kneeling down in front of me.

There was no light in this room and the only thing making things a bit visible was the light pooling in from the corridor through the doorway.

The guy had his back to the door so I could not see his face.

"Shit! What are they doing to you? Why are you locked in a cage two sizes too small for you." He grumbled more to himself than me. He had a heavy accent. Definitely not English. Maybe Spanish? Italian?

What he said would explain my situation in the shortest way possible.

I was locked up in a cage like box that was so small that I had my knees pressed hard against my chest and was hunched over them, my toes were all bent and I had my head rested on my knees but turned to right side, towards the door, while my hands were tied to my feet. Not a single limb could be moved.

My whole body ached from sitting like this for so long. I knew I would not be able to turn my head to left side for a week, after I get out.

They treat us like animals. Worse than animals.

"Please, let me out. I can't breath. Please!" I sobbed again.

Another thing was that I was suffocating now. I already had my knees pressed against my chest tightly and my neck bent over and on top of that I started crying, none of which helped my case.

"Shit. Fuck. Mierda! Hey, stop crying. Shhh, don't cry. It will make things worse. Listen, I am new here and I am just a guard so I don't have the key of your cage. But my friend can get them for us. He is smart. He knows what to do. He always does. While I get help you calm yourself down, okay?" He rambled on while moving back towards the door.

"No. No! Don't go! Don't leave me! Please, don't go." I started crying all over again because I was scared. I was scared of being alone in this dark, cold room any longer. I was scared because I couldn't breathe. I was scared that he would go out and never come back. It happened once. Not taking my chances twice.

"Wait. No, no, no, dammit. You're crying again. Shhh, what did I tell you? Don't cry! It will make things worse. Alright, fine! I am not going anywhere just stop crying." He came rushing back trying to shush me.

I obeyed and quiet down.

The guy turned a little, letting some light fall on his face which allowed me to see him a bit.

He looked really young. Maybe nineteen or twenty. Must be another one of those soldiers who were tricked into this place just like us.

After thinking for a moment he finally picked up his radio and turned it on.

"Hey Caleb? Do you hear me? Caleb! Do you copy?" He whisper-yelled in it.

At first there was that radio static sound and then, "Luciano? Where are you man? I've been looking for you."

"Caleb, listen. I need your help. You remember the weird animal cages we saw in the basement? Yeah, they are not for animals. But I can tell you about that later. For now I want you to go down in the basement and sneak out the keys for one of them. Wait." Pausing for a moment, he leant over the right side to see something.

"Okay, bring me the keys of cage 161808. I am on second floor, seventh room down the hall, on left side. Hurry!" With that said he turned the radio off and put it back in its place.

For a while I sat there waiting, trying to breath as much as I could. But then I felt something.

I felt myself getting dizzier. I really couldn't breath in here.

I started heaving and gasping, trying to get some air in my lungs, but I couldn't. I tried moving but that ended up in me hitting my elbow on the cage bars really hard. An electrical feeling passed through my hand making me gasp again.

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no! Stop! Stop moving! Hey, listen to me! Listen, you need to stop and take deep breaths. Caleb will be here soon. You just need to breathe. Fucking breath!" Luciano panicked beside me.

Bitch, I am trying!

I wanted to say that. I really did. But right now all I could do was cry and sob because I didn't want this. I was full on heaving now, trying to get some air but it didn't really seem to work.

Just as I felt my vision blurring , loud footsteps echoed down the hall before I heard the sound of someone rushing into the room, followed by faded voices.

I heard a lock click after that and then I was falling out of the cage, but before my head could hit the ground, someone pulled me to the side, by my shoulders, making my head fall in their lap.

After that I coughed, gasped and took in huge deep breaths to finally let some air in.

When I finally stabilized after some time, I opened my eyes just to stare right into a stormy grey ones. Roaming my eyes over his face I realised that he was really beautiful. He had black hair and his skin looked tanned. His features were strong and my guess would be that he was spanish. His accent suggested that too.

I would have stared more if it wasn't for his lips that suddenly started moving, "Wow. You almost pass out from suffocation but the first thing you do after stabilizing is stare at my face. You flatter me, bella. But now is not the time for that we need to go."

I blushed at his words but he just laughed it off. He helped me up but after an hour of sitting in a cage with bended knees, I could not straighten them out.

Just as I lost my balance, someone grabbed my other arm and pulled me up.

I turned my head a bit to find another beautiful guy supporting me up. This one had brown hair and brown eyes. He had that mischievous, high school playboy look. He must be Caleb.

The two of them took me out of the room and brought me into another one just three doors down.

Although this one was small but thankfully this one had a bulb and a window in it. It was dimly lit but at least it was something. Other than that there was a wooden bench in the left corner. The bench looked like it could fit two people with a little gap between them. The window was right above it.

The guys sat me down on the bench and took a seat on either side of me but that ended up in all three of us squished together so both of them moved down on to the floor.

"You okay now?" Caleb asked me.

"Better." I replied.

"Okay so, I am Caleb. And I am assuming you know Luciano by now. We both just got here last week and we don't have a single clue about what the hell is going on. That is why I need you both to explain everything right now!" He demanded.

Luciano rolled his eyes and told Caleb about everything that happened before he was called for help. There wasn't really much to tell. After that Luciano turned to me with an inquisitive gaze.

"I know you don't really feel good right now but I want you to tell me everything about why and how did you end up in there. I want you to tell us so we can come up with a proper excuse about why you're here and not back in that cage." He inquired.

He was right. When they come in to check up on me tomorrow, they will definitely question the night guard about my change of places.

Letting out a sigh, I dived into what happened that got me here.

"They took me up in the lab to try their new formula on me. But when they injected me with it everything went wrong. It felt like someone set me on fire. Everything burned inside and out. The skin all over my body started turning into this mixture of yellow and purple. It looked and felt like someone had peeled a layer of my skin off of my body." I stopped speaking and lift my shirt up a bit to who them the marks on my back.

"Shit. It hurts me to look at them, I can't imagine what you felt. I just hope I never get to feel it." Caleb shuddered.

Luciano and I ignored him . Then I continued with my story again.

"Obviously I screamed in pain. And that is what alerted them that their experiment went wrong. They tried to stop the burning sensation by literally drowning me in a bath of ice cold water. It didn't help at that time and I passed out in the water. After that when I woke up, I still felt a little burning sensation in some places but it was better than before. I heard the doctors talking to the facility manager, outside my room. Turned out he heard the comotion and came to ask about it. The doctors didn't want to take the blame of their failure so they turned it on me. They said that I was one who failed. That I failed a test and they were trying to punish me. And this is how I landed up in that cage. As a punishment for my failure." I finished sarcastically.

A few seconds passed in silence after that. Then came a low whistle from Caleb.

"Fuck, these people are messed up. If I had known what goes on here, I would not even be close to this city, let alone this hellhole. They told us we were special soldiers protecting a special secret facility. I didn't know it was this special." He told me.

"Me neither. But we are stuck in here now. Especially me. We signed a dangerous contract. Plus, if we stay here then maybe we can keep helping the kids in here. Don't you worry, Bella. We will keep you safe."

"Alice. My name is Alice Phoenix." I told him with a small tired smile.

"Right, Alice. We will take care of you as much as we can while still following the rules. It will be wrong to break them, especially since we signed a contract. Also, I don't want to upset him."

His last sentence left me confused but before I could I ask him about it, I was interrupted by Caleb.

"Fuck the contract man! And fuck him! I say we take her and run away. Leave this country. Move to the other side of the world or something." Caleb looked like he was seriously suggesting this but Luciano shot him down immediately.

"No we can not. They will kill us and everyone we love. It was written in the contract. They made us believe we were good soldiers who were being allowed to work at their secret facility which works for the betterment of our country. They told us they don't want other countries to know their secrets so we must sign a contract. Any breakage of rules ends up with the death of us and the ones we care about. Plus it's wrong. Breaking rules is wrong." Luciano explained to us.

"Breaking rules is wrong." Caleb mocked him in a funny voice. "Rules be damned. What they are doing is what's wrong. And all that tricking us into this shit doesn't apply to you. I mean sure they fed you with the lies too but that is not exactly why you are here, isn't it?" He finished with a role of his eyes. Then he looked at me and spoke again,

"Luciano and I will take you back to your previous room, fifteen minutes before they send someone to get you. Don't worry about the cage though. We will break it. We will tell the guards that you were dying in there and we did not have the keys so we broke it to let you out. We obviously can not let them know the truth about the keys. Anyway, you don't need to worry about anything. We will handle this." Caleb told me.

I nodded and thanked them for everything they did and will do.

After that we decided to get as comfortable as we can get on a small bench and rough hard ground. Although before I could do that, a cold breeze came in through the window. We could not close it. It was like a square hole in the wall with bars to stop someone from escaping.

It was too cold for me. I was only wearing a thin hospital gown and nothing else.

Luciano must have noticed me shivering because the next thing I know, he took off his jacket and put it on me.

"Oh no. It's okay. I am fine, you keep it. You will get cold otherwise." I tried to give it back but he denied.

"I am pretty sure my thick full sleeved army uniform shirt would be a better protection against cold as compared to that hospital gown." He joked with a smile.

I gave my own grateful smile to him and settled back with the jacket.

After that, the three of us just talked and Caleb made us laugh every two seconds for the rest of the night.

Even though, like Caleb said, we were in a hellhole but these two angels made it better.

At least I wasn't alone now.