“So what do we have here?” a soldier asked as he rode up beside me, gazing down in both fascination and disgust. I knew I wasn’t clean, and my tattered clothes reeked of filth, built up over days of no access to fresh water. I had long ago given up looking into a mirror because the ghastly woman who always stared back at me haunted my dreams.
“My name is Eden Rose. I am twenty-four years old and want to surrender myself to the Pike army. I come from Hollow Valley and am the only woman of age. Rather than wasting the time of your men to come find me, I decided it best to come and meet you instead.” I desperately hoped that my attempt to ward the army off with my practiced speech would save my home from any destruction from these brutes.
The man laughed and called out over his shoulder to his men, “This little rat is by far the most foolish woman I have ever encountered. She is here to willingly give herself over to Pike.”
The men laughed and mumbled their agreements in response, but I stood proud, refusing to let them take away the courage I was just given as a farewell gift by three women I had come to love.
The leader of the army focused his attention back on me as I willed my body not to shake before him. His stare bored into my skin and seemed to sear my frail bones. He licked his lips slowly as he clearly was considering all his options. “Very well. Since you have decided to make it easier on yourself by not putting up a fight, the least we can do is spare you the pain of one.” He motioned for the man driving the mobile prison to dismount and take care of me. “Put this beauty to sleep, and let’s get her back to join the others. We still have a few more villages to hit on our way before nightfall.”
The man rushed to me and reached for my hand. He grabbed my index finger and flipped it over. He then reached into his pocket, pulled out a small metal syringe, and pricked my finger with the needle before I even had the chance to pull away. A small drop of blood remained. I studied the tiny droplet, confused, trying to figure out why he would have done such a thing. He glared up into my face with a wicked smile as my eyelids grew heavy and my vision blurred. I tried to blink away the menacing fog, but the wave of defenselessness grew in intensity.
The prick of the finger…
Every muscle in my body weakened as the last words I heard faintly in the far off distance were, “Sleep baby sleep.”
9
Eden
My mind woke before my eyes could open. Whatever the man had pricked my finger with had put me in a deep slumber, and my eyelids still suffered the effect. Testing to see if I could move any other part of my body, I was grateful to see that I could, although my muscles screamed with fatigue as the simple motion of lifting my arm seemed to take every last ounce of strength I had left. Shifting my weight some, I could feel something warm on both sides of me.
Skin? Bodies? Were there people lying beside me? Were they alive? Dead?
I didn’t have enough strength to sit up or move much more than what I had just managed with my arm. I could hear the wheels of the wagon crunching on the gravel of the road as my body gently rocked and jolted with the motion of the carriage. I was being transported—this much I could figure out without the aid of my vision.
It seemed like hours had passed, although I dozed in and out of sleep, so judging time was almost impossible. But with the passing of time, I was eventually able to open my eyes and glance around the dark space. The warmth I had felt earlier was indeed from people, who appeared to at least be breathing. There had to be at least twenty or so women sleeping in all different awkward positions, as if their lifeless bodies had just been flung inside the moving cell with no regard for comfort. Each woman was completely nude, and with a quick glance down, I noticed I was no different than they were. Someone had removed all my clothes and my shoes.
“Don’t let them know you are awake,” a voice whispered from a shadowed corner.
I tried to make out the silhouette of the figure who loomed in the dark, but couldn’t clearly see. It had to be one of the captured women, though.
“Lie down, close your eyes, and when everyone starts to wake up, do exactly what the men order you to do. Fighting them will be useless, and all it will do is make them prick your finger again, but this time they will give you a serum that you will not wake up from, and they will toss you over Moher cliff.”