Chapter 28: 27. Confined

I drifted awake and took a deep breath, then groaned softly. I hadn't had a hangover, or even a headache since I became a fae girl. Why'd I feel like crap now?

After a few minutes I remembered that I hadn't had anything to drink last night, which made me even more confused. Finally I opened my eyes to see where I was.

It took me another ten or fifteen seconds to figure out what I was looking at. It was the canopy of a huge poster-bed. I sat up and looked around again, now that I had a better view.

I was both relieved to see Kelly was next to me and she appeared to be ok, and also saddened to realize whoever had grabbed me had taken her too. On the one hand we were together, on the other hand we were both kidnapped.

Oddly, we'd both been changed into different clothes. I was wearing an aqua-blue dress that I'd swear was tailor made to fit me. It hugged my curves perfectly, the sleeves were the right length, and the end of the skirt was right around ankle-level. I was also wearing a silver necklace with a little silver pendant hanging from it.

Kelly was in a similarly-styled dress and had a matching necklace. Her dress was dark green, and wasn't as perfect a fit as mine, but it was pretty close.

She was still asleep, breathing slowly and deeply. I decided to let her sleep for now. I hoped she'd skip the hangover if she had a little more time to sleep it off.

I slipped off the bed to have a closer look around the huge bedroom we were in. This one room was about the same size as our entire condo, and the ceiling was quite high. The bed itself was massive too. Like, whatever was two sizes up from a king-size? Then there were the four tall posts, the canopy on top, and curtains or whatever that could be closed for extra privacy.

I figured the room was about ten meters square, and the ceiling about four meters high. A modest fire was burning in a huge fireplace in the middle of the wall across from the bed. In the wall to the right of the bed there was a large sturdy-looking wood door. To the left there were two tall narrow windows. They were how you'd picture stained glass windows, except without the stain. Basically small clear rectangles of glass, held together with dark metal framing.

The walls seemed to be made of large cut stones, but most of that was hidden behind rich fancy-looking tapestries. On the left, in between the two windows there was a table with two chairs. The floor was probably more stone, but it was hidden beneath thick furs and carpets.

It was kind of weird, but from the impression I got just standing there next to the bed I had a feeling we were in some kind of fancy castle somewhere.

My feet were bare, but the fur and carpets looked comfortable to walk on. I made my way over to the nearest window. As I walked away from the bed I spotted a large wooden trunk at the foot of the bed, with a couple pairs of leather sandals on top of it.

As I neared the windows, I saw they had hinges and little latches. The glass was kind of warped or something that made it hard to see through clearly, so I turned the latch then pulled the window open and looked outside.

My breath caught in my throat for a moment. We were almost as high up off the ground here as we were in our condo, about five or six stories up I figured. The view was completely different though.

Looking down from the window revealed at least some of the building we were in. There was a lot of smooth white stonework, and it seriously looked like some kind of huge castle.

We seemed to be in a tower, and there was more of the castle below us. The lower parts of the building had roofs covered in blue tiles. I saw what I guessed was probably a grand hall, and there were some other smaller structures I couldn't identify. The castle's outer walls looked thick and sturdy. There were even some people walking around ontop of the walls, dressed up like old-timey guards or soldiers or something.

Dotted around those outer walls were some flags or pennants, flying in a gentle breeze. I couldn't make out the design on them from here, only that they were pale blue with something black and purple on them. The old-timey guards had similar colours on their outfits.

The whole place sat atop a hill which made it seem even taller. To the left there was a large spread of flat land, a patchwork landscape of farmed fields. There were some smaller structures scattered around, farmhouses I assumed. The land was all green, but in different shades and heights, suggesting different crops. In the distance beyond the farmland appeared to be forest. And to the right, it looked like nothing but thick forest as far as I could see. All the green made it feel more like summer here, but I figured they just got their autumn later than ours.

The air outside smelled fresh and clean. It was actually kind of welcoming. The sky was a clear deep blue, with just a few clouds in the distance. Going off the light and angle of shadows below, I figured it was late afternoon. So we'd been out almost a whole day.

Finally I turned away from the window and walked across to the other side of the room, to have a look at the door.

As best I could tell, it was made of thick, heavy, solid wood. It looked old, there were spots that were well-worn, where you'd grab it or push at it. It sort of suggested centuries of use. The wood was dark, and the door was held together with what looked to my untrained eyes like wrought-iron. There was a large iron handle, and one of those old-fashioned locks set in the door, with the big funky-looking keyhole.

I grabbed the handle and pulled, pushed, twisted, and turned. The door wouldn't budge. I wasn't surprised, but I had to try. I mean, I'd feel stupid if it wasn't locked and I didn't even test it.

Finally I went back to the other side of the room and sat in one of the chairs by the table.

I had no idea where we were, but I figured it was somewhere in Europe. What I saw of the castle from the window reminded me of something I'd seen on tv once, some big fancy castle built by a crazy king in the eighteen-hundreds or something like that.

It didn't make sense of course, why someone would knock us out and fly us partway around the world then stuff us in a fancy room in a castle. I couldn't see a phone or anything like that in the room, no way to call for help. And no sign of our own clothes, so for now it looked like me and Kelly would be stuck in the dresses.

Having lots of questions and no answers, there wasn't much else to do so I just sat there and waited for Kelly to wake up.

As I waited, there was one other weird thing I noticed. It was something odd, something different in the air. Something I couldn't quite identify, like a feeling I couldn't quite pin down.

The closest thing I could think of to describe it was that feeling in the air right before an electrical storm. It was like there was a kind of charge in the air, that made me feel just a little bit more alert, a little more alive.

I stood up and had another look out the window, but the sky was clear and blue. There were a few little white clouds in the distance, but nothing to suggest an imminent thunderstorm. It was weird, but then so was everything else right now and 'something intangible in the air' was probably the least of my worries.

There was a soft groan from the bed, and Kelly started to stir. I walked back over and sat on the edge of the bed and watched as she drifted awake.

"Ugh," she groaned again. "What happened? What did I drink last night?"

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I gave her a sympathetic smile, "I don't think it was the hard lemonade. You might want to brace yourself, but I think we've been kidnapped."

Her eyes shot wide open and she sat up, looking around in shock.

"No idea where we are," I said with a shrug. "I'm guessing we're somewhere in Europe? It's like some kind of fancy castle. Nice view though."

Kelly got out of bed and hurried over to the window and looked outside.

"Oh fuck," she whispered. "Fuck fuck fuck. We are so fucked..."

I followed, and stood next to her by the window. "Why? What's wrong? Do you know this place? Have you been here before?"

She turned and looked at me, her face was white as a sheet and her eyes wide. "No, I've never been here before! Tegan we aren't on Earth! This is Otherworld!"

"Huh," I went sort of quiet as that sank in.

Kelly started to pace, she looked like she was on the verge of panic. "We're fucked, a hundred times over. What are we going to do? We can't even call for help!"

"Why not?" I asked, watching her.

She stopped and stared, "We're on another world! They don't have cellphones here! They don't even have phones! No internet! There's literally no way we can call for help! I don't know anyone here! Neither of us have ever been here before!"

She stumbled to the bed and sat down, and I moved to her side and put an arm around her as she continued to panic.

I tried to comfort her, "It'll be ok. Keira will realize you're missing. She'll talk to your mom and grandfather. They'll come find us."

Kelly shook her head, "We're in a tower, in a castle, on another fucking planet Tegan! Even if my family figures out we've been brought here, there's still a whole fucking world for them to search!"

I shrugged, "I'm sure they'll narrow it down soon enough. I mean, odds are we're either at Maeve whats-her-name's place, or we're with someone who's Maeve's enemy. And the fact that we're in a big fancy bedroom instead of a dungeon seems like a good sign, right?"

She sighed, "Don't you remember anything I've been teaching you for the past two months? Fae are dangerous, treacherous, tricky. Even when they seem nice. Especially when they seem nice!"

"Yeah, I remember." I shrugged. "Panicking isn't going to help us though. So let's think of what we can do that will help. If we got here, we can get home again right? Your grandfather moves back and forth from home to here, how's he do it?"

Kelly frowned, "It takes very special magic, and I don't know it. I probably couldn't do it even if I did know it. I know it can only be done in certain places, where the walls that separate the worlds are thinnest. And I know it's easier at certain times of day, certain times of year..."

She cursed, "It was Samhain when we were nabbed. Even if everything else goes perfectly and somehow we survive and are allowed to leave, we might have to wait till Imbolc to get home. Or Beltane..."

I sighed, "That's going to mess us both up for college. And my mom's going to be freaking out."

She shook her head, "Tegan, right now you should be worried about whether or not we're going to live or die. College can wait."

"Ok." I didn't want to argue, but I didn't see the point in worrying about the big stuff we couldn't do anything about. If we lived, I'd have to deal with college and that was something I could at least visualize and comprehend.

I asked, "So what's our next step? Maybe we should try and get the attention of whoever else is here? Let them know we're awake?"

Kelly sighed once more then looked around again. She pointed at the wall just to the right of the bed. "That's a bell-cord. Give it a pull, it should ring a bell somewhere. Like, servants quarters or something. It'll at least tell people we're awake."

I stood up and moved to it. The cord was sort of a thick red rope with a soft velvety feel to it. I gave it a few tugs then let go again.

I moved around to the foot of the bed and said, "There's some sandals here. I don't want to meet our hosts barefoot."

One pair was obviously my size and the other Kelly's. I brought both pairs over and handed the larger ones to her, then I sat next to her again and we both put them on.

After we both had our new shoes on, we just waited quietly. Kelly was looking sad and scared. I just felt kind of bored and frustrated.

After about five minutes, the silence was broken by the clunking sound of a key turning in lock on the door.

Kelly and I glanced at each other then we both turned to stare at the door.

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