Previously on Bottle of The Ocean #5: Kayla has just found out that the shadow named Alaina hidden in the vent is actually very kind. Alaina is a prisoner that works for the Order of Horror. Alaina gets called down to the Order of Horror and she goes back to Kayla with no arm. What happens next? Read below to see what happens next...

“ALAINA!” I ran to her aid, watching blood pour down her side, soaking her tattered cloak with red stains. “WHAT DID THEY- ARE YOU- OMG!” She collapsed on the floor, her breathing choppy. I stared at her side- Her entire arm had been chopped off carelessly, leaving a ragged piece of flesh behind. It looked as though it had been chopped right above her elbow. The sight terrified me.  “YOUR ARM!” I rested my hand on her back, watching tears splatter down Alaina’s cheeks.

“Run… Hurry… They’re coming….” Alaina breathed, her eyes full of worry. “I’ll be fine… Quick… Over there….” 

Her sad eyes were red and puffy from crying, and her scarred little face made my heart melt. How could they have done this? The thought filled me with rage. I wanted revenge! 

I slid under a thing hanging on old, rusted chains. A light-weight bed sheet lay on the bed. I could barely peek out from underneath the structure. It squished me down like a pancake, forcing the breath out of my body. All of my body parts tingled with fear as I awaited the dangerous creature. Hard footsteps and shouts told me that they had already arrived.

I sucked in my breath and peeked out the side of the bed. Huge human-like feet stepped into the cell. I imagined that he had to be at least 200 pounds, for his footsteps echoed loudly around the room. A muscled hand flew right up to Alaina’s cheek and smacked her as hard as I thought humanly-possible. I stifled a scream. More blood trickled down from her face as she fell still on the floor. The sound was heartbreaking. It echoed through the room as loud as a gunshot. Her ripped, torn-up body laid flat on the floor. Her breath slowed and her eyelids fluttered shut.

“No…” I whispered. “She can’t be…” I stuttered, tears forming at a massive rate in my eyes.

“NEXT TIME, DO AS WE ASK!” The same voice as earlier boomed. His ugly foot kicked Alaina on to her side. Dark laughter filled the room like a songbird’s enemy. The feet disappeared and the sound of laughter went with it. Rage boiled so hot in me, that I feared I would burst. 

He walked slowly around the room until his eyes fixed on the wall. 

“Trying to escape, huh?” He clicked his tongue. “Now that can’t happen now, can it?” I pursed my lips tight together and prayed for help.

“Randolph! Get over here!” He walked to the edge of her cell. “NOW!”

A plump man appeared in the doorway. Curiosity filled my brain. A human?

“Yes, sir?” He asked. 

“Get those bars I have been saving in the closet. Ashes here tried to escape.” He smirked. “Now that is unacceptable.”

“Ah yes. I told you it was coming! Waste cleaning for a month?” Randolph asked.

“Worse. We can talk later. Now where are those bars?” Randolph scurried out of the room and returned moments later with a pile of metal bars and a screwdriver in his hands.  I watched quietly as they screwed the metal bars into the hole. Just like that, our escape plan had disappeared.

“ALAINA! ALAINA, WAKE UP!” I cried, my voice choking as a lump grew. “ALAINA! I NEED YOU! YOU CAN’T GO! Wake up! Please…” My desperate cries echoed through the room. My heart was so broken that I didn’t care if the shadows and whoever that man was heard me. I didn’t care if they hurt me. I didn’t care what they did. Alaina had helped me, not given me in. She was a true friend. I couldn’t lose her.

For what seemed like hours, I sat with my head in my knees, soaking my torn leggings. She was dead.

I couldn’t sleep as much as I tried. After a few hours, I faced Alaina’s dead body, sorrow filling my soul. Fresh tears streamed down my crusty face.“Alaina. Don’t give up. Come back to me.” Her body lay as still as a meadow on a dark, still night. Peaceful and calm. 

I gazed at her body and stood up. I needed to save my mom. I couldn’t afford to lose my last loved one. I forced myself to climb up through the broken vent in the wall. As I lifted my foot to put it inside the hole, a voice broke the silence.

“Kayla…” I froze. Every sense of fear in my body exploded into action, tumbling over each other to be the first problem. The first reasonable thing to do arose in my brain. I know I could have chosen better, but I did the first thing that I thought of. I screamed. My voice echoed through the room as I turned. The sight lifted my heart and made me break into tears again. 

“ALAINA!” I ran to her side. Her eyelids had opened enough to gaze up at me. Sorrow and pain filled her face with a saddening expression. 

“Kayla…” She spoke again. “Arm….” She winced in pain as she tried to show me the damage.

 “Right!” I stood up immediately and searched the cell for something that I could wrap her arm in. The door was still locked and I was still stuck in a cold, dark, empty room. There was nothing. Nothing at all. The thin white mistake for a bedsheet caught my eye.

“Yes!” I smiled, letting out a big blast of air that had been stuck in my lungs. I ran over to the sheet. With my luck, I was surprised that the sheet wasn’t chained to the bed. The sheet pulled easily off the bed with a loud swish. It flew behind me as if I was in a superhero in a movie. I slid onto my knees at Alaina’s side. 

“Just lift your arm for me.” I whispered soothingly.

“GAAAAAA!” She winced in pain as she attempted to lift her injured arm. 

“Okay, Okay!” I let her lay her arm flat and washed as fresh tears streamed down her face and created a puddle on the floor. Her pain-filled eyes gazed at her reflection in the puddle. The sight created another fresh stream of tears flood down her cheeks, so she turned away. “Let me just lay this… Okay… Now one more….” I worked on her arm as slowly as I could, for fear of hurting her. 

Looking at the soft, red lump that used to be her arm filled me with sadness. It created a lump of fear in my throat as I thought about what they were doing to my mom.

“Hurry.” Alaina said through gritted teeth. “We need to get going.” Her eyes were still red and wet, but a layer of seriousness appeared on her face.

“But we can’t go with you like this!” I explained incredulously. Alaina rolled her eyes.

“That’s why you need to hurry.” I sped up the process reluctantly. After a couple minutes, her arm was bandaged.

“Let’s go.” Alaina muttered. She stumbled to her feet. As soon as she stood up, her body gave way and she collapsed right into my arms.

“We are not leaving until you have rested!” I urged, just as my mother would have. Tears filled my eyes, but I pushed them away to help my friend.

“But…”

“NO.” I laid her down on the bed, although she seemed very uncomfortable without the once white sheet. Within a minute, she had fallen asleep. I sat on the floor and stared at the cold hard wall, sorrow climbing into my throat. I thought of the wall as my heart. I hadn’t gone to save my mother. I hadn’t given myself in. Regret burned in my veins. Eventually, I cried myself to sleep. 

“Kayla! KAYLA!” Alaina pounded on my chest with her good arm. 

“What? WHAT?” I asked, moving myself out of her reach. A new bruise would surely remind me of this moment in years to come.

“We need to leave! It’s night! They won’t come to check on me until morning. We only have a couple hours to get out of here unless you want to be caught!” She looked up at me urgingly. 

“Can’t we just wait a little longer?” I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I sat up. 

“No! They are going to come in an hour! It’s almost four in the morning!”

“Only four? How do you even know what time it is?” Panic arose on Alaina’s face when I asked the question.

“Ummmm. Well…. I have weird senses. It’s a thing that shadows have…” Alaina explained.

“Okay.” I looked at her in confusion, but I stood up and stretched. 

“Where do we need to go?” I asked her. “They barred the vent. There is no way that we can escape here!” I moved a rock across the floor with the toe of my shoe. 

“That’s what I need your help with.” She looked at me inquisitively. “Any ideas?”

“No.” I answered truthfully as I looked around the room. “Is your arm feeling better?”

“Yeah. It’s fine… Anyways, can you break the vent again?”

“No. It is way too escape-proof.” I sighed. “And what about the cell door? Is there any chance that he forgot to lock it?” 

“I doubt it.” Alaina walked over to the door. I watched her move around on her feet. The other shadows didn’t walk.

“Can you fly?” I asked, quickly slapping my hand over my mouth. Alaina looked startled.

“No. It’s okay. I just... when I was little, I had always dreamed of flying. My parents always told me that I would fly higher than any shadow, despite my challenges. I was diagnosed with Chioraflongan Heispeth.”

“Chiora-what-now?” I asked.

“It’s a disease for shadows that makes it hard for us to fly. Anyways, it makes it really hard for us to fly with any slight damage, let alone none. I tried to escape when I first got captured to find my freedom. I was a lot younger then. I was small enough to fly through a little bend in the top bars. I got caught and well...” She kicked her cloak and showed me all of the blood stains and holes.

“You fly with that?” I asked incredulously. She glared at me and I held up my hands to protect myself.

“We don’t have time to sit around and chat.” Alaina said, changing the subject. I nodded.

After searching the room for an escape for almost half an hour, we slumped down on Alaina’s bed in despair.

“Now what?” Alaina asked, her hands folded in her lap. 

“We have to do something. How long until the mean people come?” 

“The mean people?” She smirked. “Only a couple minutes.” She started picking at the warts on her fingers.

“What if I hide again under the bed? What if we wait until they put you to work. Then you can help me get out and we can get my mom. Ta-da!” I smiled.

“Stupid.” She said. “They will TOTALLY see us! They would not leave her unguarded in the day time.” I frowned. 

“What better options do you have?” I asked.

“None. That’s why were going to do it.”

That is how we got captured.