Katie stared in horror when Keith fell. She called out his name and tried to get up but it was useless and her being injured didn't help.

"Now it would be wrong to leave a little boy by himself in the forest.." The man said looking down at Katie with amused eyes. As he got closer, she drew back from him.

"Leave us alone!" She said fiercely and the man tsked to himself.

"That's quite some scary eyes you got there. You'll prove worthy." He said and she didn't understand what he was saying but she backed away more.

She forced herself to get up and grabbed a fallen sharp bloody marked arrow that the man used. She stood herself in front of Keith's unconscious body and pointed the sharp edge of the arrow at the man.

"That's no use." The man said sighing and checked his watch on the other wrist, "You're just wasting time."

The man pulled the arrow out of her hands violently, causing her palm to cut open and start bleeding, and then hit a nerve on her neck. Katie felt pain from multiple places at the same time and quickly hit the ground.

She heard the man thinking out loud to himself before her mind went blank.

"How am I supposed to bring two bodies back with me...?" 

She smelled blood. She scrunched her nose with her eyes still closed. Her chest hurt as if something was pressing against it and her wrists felt trapped together. Mostly her left palm stung as the air went through her raw cut skin. Slowly she started to come back with her memories bit by bit. She opened an eye sleepily and saw that she was being carried on the shoulder of the man. She tried to move but then realized that both her wrists and chest was blinded by a tight rope and her legs were the only ones free of rope.

She looked up at the man without getting noticed and saw that he was facing and walking the opposite way from what she was positioned in on his shoulder. She assumed that she was facing the way they came from. 

That's when she remembered Keith. She looked around frantically with wide eyes and when she looked down, she saw an unconscious human Keith being dragged. He also had a rope binding his chest and wrist but his legs were free like hers. The man seemed to be dragging him around with a leash attached to his neck. She sighed in relief silently seeing that he seemed to still be breathing despite the tight rope and leash that covered his neck. She was angry to see him in that state though.

"Keith!" She whispered as quiet as she could, hoping the man wouldn't hear. "Wake up Keith!"

That was no use. He was knocked out good and he was already tired enough from all the running and fighting he had to do.

She frowned as she thought to herself, 'This is my fault, if I hadn't gotten injured I could've helped him..'

Katie tried to wake him up again but she was caught this time.

"Oh?" The man said turning his head to look at her. "Awake already?"

"Let me go!" She shouted, moving around but his grip on her was hard enough to hurt her. "Let me down, you swine!"

"Ouch, that hurts." The man said wincing at the words, "I would like to knock you out again but seems like we're already here."

Katie was forced to look up and see the place if she wanted to escape it. It didn't seem like much but there were other people there, ones dressed like the man who was still carrying her. All she knew was that it was in the forest.

"Let me down! I can walk myself." She shouted again, squirming her body around and this time he didn't hesitate to just drop her.

"You asked for it." He said looking down at her with mocking eyes and continued dragging Keith around.

"Can you not drag him?" She said with a glare and he just continued going ahead.

"Sorry not sorry. He's dangerous." He responded shortly and went ahead, not even waiting for her to get up.

Katie winced from the pain of being dropped from a 6 foot man's shoulder and tried to get up with her tied body. She heard laughter around her from the other people dressed like the man but she ignored them with flaming cheeks and continued trying to get up on her feet.

She was able to get on her feet after a while and turned to leave from instinct but then remembered Keith. She groaned in frustration and turned her direction back to the man who was still dragging Keith and now was a few distance away. As she followed, the people around her laughed and even snickered when they saw her. She just simply sneered at them but the most annoying thing was that the man turned back to her with smug eyes. 

She ignored the eyes on her and instead looked around the place. It seemed like a hangout place for....thieves. They exchanged things that didn't look like it was theirs and drank booze in the bar room together. She turned back from the sights and caught up to the man.

"Nice to see you came back to your senses." He said and she answered with a glare. There was nothing she could do so it was obvious she would follow him. She was scared for what would happen to Keith and herself if she didn't do what he wanted. She saw the way his red marked arrows drove themselves into the chest of the Empress's men.

"Why so hostile? This could become your home, if the boss accepts you." He said with a light shrug and she growled unintentionally.

"I already have a home and it is and will definitely not be here." She hissed but she felt the man smile. "And don't ask about my hostility when it was you who knocked me out and tied me all up in the first place."

"We're here." He said with a smile in his voice, ignoring her last statement, and knocked on the wooden door.

"Come in." A mumbled voice came from inside the room and the man opened the door. He dragged Keith inside and when Katie didn't move, he pushed her inside the room and closed the door behind them.

There was an intimidating looking woman sitting crossed legged behind a desk and when she looked around she could see many different types of weapons, especially daggers, behind glass cases on the wall like some type of art display.

"Why have you brought me a man and a..child.?" The woman said, a brow raised up and looked up at the man with piercing icy blue eyes. 

"I am not a child." Katie said calmly but her voice was hard and loud. Unfortunately the woman only smirked.

"I like this one." She said turning her attention to Katie and then back to the man who brought them in, "Where is the beast I was promised?

"This man is the beast." The man responded looking down at Keith who was still unconscious. "He turned back as soon as I didn't look at him."

"That statement has a few holes. Can you prove it, Red Arrow?" She said, her cold gaze on the man called Red Arrow. 

His arrows had red feathers and had some type of blood markings on the wooden part so she wasn't surprised at the name. That was also the blood smell she was smelling when she was on his shoulder. She shivered. She didn't want to be on the other end of those arrows when he was shooting them.

"I will boss. I just need time to provoke him." Red Arrow responded and she nodded. Then she turned to Katie.

"What about the boy?" The woman asked looking down at her and Katie glared at her.

"The man was set on protecting this child. This child also seems strong willed and I haven't seen him fight but I don't doubt his skills. He could prove useful to you." Red Arrow said and the woman smirked, crossing her arms.

"That's all for today Red Arrow, you are dismissed. I look forward to see you prove your statements on both the man and child." The woman said, "Send Brute and Fury here to pick our guest prisoners up."

"Yes boss." Red Arrow said, glancing at Keith and Katie one last time before he left the room.

Katie bit her dry lip and turned to the woman who seemed to be the boss with a glare. She returned the glare with a smile and squatted down to Katie's sitting level and grabbed her chin, inspecting her.

"Now that I'm looking at you closer, you have the same spark in your eyes like our past two prisoners." She said, her ice blue eyes looking over Katie's dirty face. 

Katie froze.

'Could she possibly mean Matt and father?' She thought and then looked fiercely into the eyes of the woman, wondering how to ask who. She just decided to be straightforward.

"Who?" She blurted out. Her eyes were still fierce but her voice sounded so desperate, she hated it.

"Interesting..Why do you want to know?" The woman asked with the same smirk and Katie wanted to just wipe it off her face.

"If I were to tell you, I would be exposing myself. And to a person like you, I don't want to." She responded strongly, raising her walls up again and the woman took her hand off Katie and went back to her seat behind the desk.

"Then I guess I won't answer you either." The woman replied with curious eyes directed at Katie.

Katie didn't care about what the woman thought of her so she just turned to Keith to try waking him up again instead.

'I'll find out myself even if you don't tell me.' She thought to herself as she tried to shake him awake.

After multiple times of failing every time, Katie relaxed against the wall in exhaustion. She didn't even bother to shake him softly and instead used all her strength so why wasn't he awake yet? He was also dragged on the hard ground for a couple of hours maybe so it was surprising that he was still unconscious.

'He must've been really tired..this is definitely my fault.' She thought with a small frown as there were knocks on the door.

"Come in." The woman said and the door opened to a bulky man with a full body suit and a lean woman who wore covering clothes but didn't cover her stomach to show her abs.

"You called, boss?" The woman said crossing her arms and the boss got up.

"We have prisoners here. Please accompany them to their cells." She said motioning to Katie and Keith.

"Boss, didn't we have two prisoners that looked like him a few months ago?" The bulky man blurted, pointing down at Katie and Katie silently smiled to herself.

There was still hope on where to get information. Maybe she could trick the man to telling her..

"That's enough Brute. Don't speak of it." The boss said with impatient eyes, "Take them now."

"Yes boss." They both said in unison and the brute one picked up Keith and put him on his shoulder while the woman took Katie by the shoulders.

Katie tried to fight against the woman's sharp grip but she gave up resisting because she was far too tired now. The woman took a bandanna from her pocket and wrapped it around Katie's eyes. At this point, she didn't even try to fight although she tried to remember which way she walked. 

'Left..........Right..........Another right...Straight the whole way..?'

The woman guided Katie on where to go by her shoulders. She felt goosebumps when she entered a room and she knew that they arrived in the cell area. They pushed her in after they undid her blindfold and she hit the cold hard ground. They threw Keith in too and shut the cell door with a key. 

Katie couldn't even look around because it was so dark but she could see the bulky man holding up the key in front of her to taunt her. She clenched her jaw, holding in her anger. It would do no good if she was only angry now. She could also see the lean woman smirking at her.

"Get comfortable. You might be staying in here for a while." The woman said before they both left Katie alone with the still surprisingly, unconscious Keith.

'How do I escape this place?' She thought as she leaned against the cold wall and sighed.

———————————————————————————-

A/N

Anddd the 3rd (83rd) chapter is out!

Katie and Keith have gotten themselves into trouble again (Like always)

What do you think this group that captured them is? Also do you think Matt and Sam Holt were also captured here like Katie? 

How will they escape? 

Will they escape?

The answers will be coming up in the upcoming chapters so make sure to watch out for them 😉 

Anyway I've gone back to school (boo) but I will be updating the chapters regularly every two weeks.

Thank you for your support and I hope you have a good weekend. 🥰❤️

-Silver