Love Arrow

Love Arrow

Nicole Fazekas

Love Arrow

By Nicole Fazekas

Copyright 2011 Nicole Fazekas

Smashwords Edition

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Dedication

To my parents.

Without your love and support this never would have been possible. Thank you for always encouraging me to follow my dreams. I love you!

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Prologue

There was only one way to describe my life: torturous. Every morning I was being trucked off to a new location, and not by my will. It wasn’t only me though. I shared a wagon with a lot of other people as well. There were twelve of us total. Lilly was the girl next to me. She was one of the few people there I didn’t despise. She had a kind heart if you looked past the fear she had. Of course, we all had fear, especially then.

But all this wasn’t the reason my life was torturous. My life contained pain, fear, and worry. Pain from the whippings I got daily and from the cuffs on my hands and feet, fear of the pain I would receive, and worry of what would happen next. This was my life.

My life shouldn’t have been like that. It never was until a month before. I remembered it clearly. My schoolmates and I were out running in the field we played in.

Laurie, pass! Teri said.

I passed to her and she caught the ball perfectly. She ran down the field, dodging everyone who lunged at her. Our friends cheered at the sidelines. She leaped into the air and scored! The fans went wild.

Great job Teri! I said.

Thanks! she replied.

Just then the whistle blew. With that blow I knew what I didn’t want to know… break was over.

As everyone ran back to the school I stood there, taking in the sunlight. Then I thought of something. What if I just ran into the woods and hid? That’d be fun and they’d come looking for me. Then we’d lose class time. At that I ran as fast as I could into the woods.

The trees loomed around me, daring me to hide. So, I did. I hid until dark. Didn’t they know I was gone? I kept waiting. Soon I began to get curious. Why hadn’t they come? Did they forget me? Oh well. I usually walked home and my parents would wonder where I was, so I got up from my hiding place.

Then I remembered a secret path I used to take through the woods, it was twice as fast. I couldn’t remember why I stopped taking the path and decided to take it again. I started off and soon found myself surrounded by silence. I was in the woods, yet it was silent? Normally in the woods you'd hear birds singing their hearts out, but there were no birds singing.

I ignored the silence and kept walking until I came to a sign I’d never seen before.

It read: END OF LINE

What did that mean? I figured it was a joke, and not something to be taken seriously so I ignored it and continued walking. I walked for about a minute until I heard footsteps. I turned around suddenly but saw nothing. I examined every tree, bush and leaf. When I convinced myself nothing was weird I turned back around. Then everything went black.

I woke up in a wagon, the same wagon I'd be in for a long time, and I wasn’t alone. With me were the other prisoners and the nasty drivers. Luckily we could talk without them listening in because there was a sound proof window separating us. Oh, did I mention the wagon was made with a door on the back so we couldn't escape? Yeah, they didn't trust us.

I looked around and asked the others what was going on and why I was there. No one answered.

How, and why, did I get here? Where is here? I asked.

No response.

Then a teenage boy, around fifteen I guessed, answered, You’re here because you crossed the line.

I was puzzled. What? I asked.

Look, you ignored the sign and got caught. We all did. We didn’t and still don’t understand exactly, but we know that we crossed the border into their, he motioned to the drivers land and they’ve taken us prisoner.

Oh. So that was what the sign meant. Oops.

So, are they returning us soon? I asked hopefully.

At that everyone chuckled, but not out of happiness.

Honey, we’re never going home. a woman to my right sighed. We’re now considered their property, their prisoners.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. That was bad, really bad. So bad I started to hyperventilate. Prisoner? No!

No one moved to help me, they just settled back into their uncomfortable seats. At that moment I realized what they looked like; messy hair, bruises, old, torn clothes, and dirty.

Are you… slaves? I asked weakly.

The same woman from before spoke up, Oh no, not really. We’re prisoners, and we don’t get treated well, but as far as slaves? No, we don’t do anything. Just sit around, getting ready for our whipping.

WHIPPING! There had to be a mistake, I must’ve heard wrong.

"I’m sorry, did you say whipping?" I squeaked.

The teenager from before replied, Yeah, we get one daily, and more are added if we talk when they don’t want us to, or if they’re in a bad mood.

After that I just looked out the window in shock. And that settled that. That’s how the rest of my life began.

Chapter One

As always no one spoke until about an hour after the wagon left the last camp. Everyone was usually very quiet, and when we did have conversation, it was about how many whippings we’d received. That was always really boring, but I talked to the others anyways. It's not like there was anything else to do. But that day was different, Trisha looked like she was longing to talk to someone, anyone.

Trisha? Are you okay? I asked.

Huh? Oh! Yeah, fine. she said uncertainly.

Oh, okay, I kind of just wanted someone to talk to.

Really? You want to talk?

Yeah! Think of anything to talk about?

Trisha thought for a moment, probably deciding if she was going to tell me or not because after a few seconds she said, Actually yeah. It’s also kind of interesting.

Once she said that everyone looked away from their windows and listened curiously.

So I was down at tent number, she thought a moment three I think, and I heard some soldiers talking. They were saying things like, ‘Those prisoners look really weak!’ and rude things like that. She paused for a minute to make sure people were listening. "And then one said, ‘How many girls are there now?’ and I heard them pause for a minute, probably counting in their heads.

Finally one said, ‘Five I think.’ And another said, ‘Yeah, more men than women. Wonder what the Prince is gonna do to ’em.’ That got me interested. I didn’t know what they meant, so I kept listening. Then someone said, ‘We’re heading there now, we’ll know soon.’

She let this sink into our heads for a minute before speaking again.

I guess we’re heading over to see the Prince…

Silence. I guess nobody could believe it, I definitely couldn’t! We were seeing the Prince! The person in charge of this army that took us, who controlled the people who whipped us each day, that’s who we’d see. I sat there letting it sink in. A Prince! Once we got there, our fate would be determined. We’d know how our lives would be… forever.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking about that because no one had talked for a while.

I decided to break the silence.

So… tomorrow we’ll know what our fate is…?

An older woman, Bonnie, replied, Not tomorrow. It’ll take a few days before we reach the kingdom. We’ll probably be traveling over night.

We all sat there thinking. What would become of us? Was the Prince going to be merciful to us? We didn’t know it was their border. Was he going to be mean and unforgiving? Would we be his slaves?

All these questions haunted me for the rest of the night. All the others were falling asleep and I was the only one worrying. I guess everyone thinks it can’t get worse.

I thought entirely different. Right now we just had to wait for our whippings, but what if we ended up having to work on top of that? Like slaves? What if he said we would become slaves and that would solve everything? He of course wouldn’t know how bad it was to be whipped because he’d probably never been whipped, and never would be. He was probably sitting in a palace, being served by people, as he got ready for bed. His life is probably perfect. The way my life used to be… Before I was stupid enough to hide in the woods.

Every day I always thought that exact same thing. Why did I hide? I told myself everything would be okay, but I knew it wasn’t true. I knew what I did was wrong, and I was being punished for it, but why did it have to be so bad? Would it ever end?

Those were the last words I thought before shifting into unconsciousness. They kept repeating themselves over and over, like a broken record.

Would it ever end?

Chapter Two

The next morning I woke with a start. I looked around, baffled. I didn't remember having a bad dream, so why did everything feel so unusual? Then I noticed the wagon had stopped moving. The question all children asked on a long car ride came into my mind, are we there yet?

No one else seemed to be startled from anything so I examined outside my window. There were many trees, just like where I’d crossed the border, but it wasn’t the same place. This place had tons of open field, like the school field I used to play on. The grass was replaced by dirt, and little green plants sprouted from the ground. Then it hit me, we were on a farm, just like the one I used to go to when I was younger and got to help plant vegetables.

Why would we go to a farm? What use was that? Had we slept there?

I decided the only way I’d know was to ask the very evil themselves, the soldiers. I went to stand up only to realize my cuffs had been chained to all the other prisoners. They probably did this so that we wouldn’t escape overnight. What else had they done to ensure our presence with them? Well, other than that locked door.

I looked to the right of me. There sat Trisha, Bonnie, and James, across from me was Mike, Jacob, and Peter, and to the left of me was Lilly, Ryan, Jonathan, John, Scarlette and Matthew. Should I wake them up? If I do, some of them will be cranky and might be loud and get us all a whipping. But if I don’t I can’t find out why we're here. Was it worth a possible whipping? Maybe I should wake up Scarlette, I thought. She started being my best friend the minute I got there, that’s why she’s so far away; the soldiers didn’t want us to be happy.

I sat there for a few minutes. I think I should wake them up. But I don’t want an extra whipping. It’s not worth it. But I want to know the answer…

I finally figured out I couldn’t make the decision on my own and had to wake up Scarlette. I stood up and quietly tiptoed over to her, but someone moved their foot in my path. I quickly re-adjusted so that I wouldn’t step on it, but when I put my foot down on the floor I lost my balance and went flying backwards. I'd tried to turn as I fell and I ended up lying sprawled across Jonathan. I quickly jumped up off him and got back on balance. I hoped he wouldn’t wake up. He began to stir, twisting and turning and I held my breath. After a few seconds he stopped and I released my breath.

I had no problem getting the rest of the distance to Scarlette. As soon as I got to her I whispered in her ear, Scarlette?

She moved slightly but didn’t appear to be awake. I shook her lightly and whispered, Scarlette? It’s Laurie. Are you awake?

She moved again and opened her eyes. When her gaze shifted to me she closed her eyes again and said, Laurie? What are you doing?

I let my breath out, satisfied that I didn’t have to be any louder than I'd already been.

Scarlette, look out the window.

Her gaze drifted to the window and she stared for a long time. After she was done she turned to me, puzzled.

Yeah? So?

Did you really look?

She turned again and looked for a few seconds then rolled her eyes at me.

We’re on a farm. So?

I sat there, wondering why she wasn’t curious. We sat in silence, both trying to figure each other out.

Finally she said, What’s wrong with a farm?

Nothing… it’s just… I wonder why we’re here.

She laughed and said, "Well the soldiers aren’t going to travel all night. What did you think they would do? Drive every hour until we got there? Please! They don’t have the energy and strength to do that! Plus they aren’t that nice."

Nice? Getting there sooner would be nice?

What, Laurie? You’re looking at me like I’m crazy.

Well, it’s just what you said. You said it’d be nice to get there sooner. Why would that be a good thing?

She laughed again and then said, Laurie, don’t you want to know you’re fate? Don’t you want to know how you’ll live the rest of your life?

I thought about that for a moment and then said, Well, kind of. I want to know, but I’m afraid it could be worse than it already is.

Laurie, nothing is much worse than this. We get whipped, beaten, and tortured every day. And it’s all because we ‘trespassed’.

I thought about that, she had a point. It couldn’t get much worse. Well, not much worse. There was one thing worse.

Scarlette, what if he says we have to be slaves?

At this Scarlette had fits of hilarious laughter. When she finally regained her breath she said, Laurie, that would be a good thing.

What? A good thing? Are you crazy?

"Don’t you know that slaves don’t get tortured like us? They only get whipped. Well at least that’s what I’ve heard. I’ve heard that