A loud crack startled Nieka from her half-sleep. It was nearly impossible to sleep while hanging from the ceiling by her wrists but exhaustion would claim her anyways and she didn't bother looking for the source of the noise. The piercing screech and clank of a long claw dragging across the bars make sure every prisoner was awake to witness whatever atrocity was about to take place. "Time to make yourself useful." the grating voice was like sandpaper to her ears, but that was nothing compared to the vileness of its owner. Hatred burned hot in the pit of her empty stomach as she looked upon the monster as he unlocked her cell. Two weeks ago, she never would have believed such a creature to exist; now she just wished they didn't.
The creatures were large and scaled usually in shades of gray and green. Some had wings and two tails, like the one opening her cell door, whereas others had just the one tail and slightly more human characteristics most prominent in the face. The less humanoid ones had more elongated jaws with pointed teeth spilling out from their scowling lips and large twisting horns on their heads. Though in her opinion, their most disconcerting feature was their soleless eyes that swept over her hungrily. The other prisoners called them demons, and the name seemed fitting as they were far more dreadful than they looked.
The demon that startled her awake entered, closing and locking the cell door behind him. Turning with a depraved grin it grabbed the long chain that hung her from the ceiling and slipped it off the hook on the back wall; the only one made of rock instead of metal bars. The demon grinned at her while violently yanking her chain, lifting her clear off the stone floor as she hung from the cave ceiling. Pain flared in her wrists and shoulders, and blood dripped down her arms from reopened scabs beneath her shackles. With a sickening laugh, the monster let go and she fell to the ground in a heap; her manacles making a loud clatter that rang through the cave.
"Nieka" her sister, Cinna shouted in concern from two cells down.
"Quiet" the monster hissed at Cinna then kicked Nieka in the ribs to get her attention. She ignored it, lying completely still on the hot rocky floor. Her nostrils burned this close to the smell of baked piss and shit tinged with the scent of rotten blood and rats, but she wouldn't let her nose so much as twitch. "Feeling more obedient yet?" the voice grated from above but she kept her eyes shut trying to gather her strength and her will to resist. Half of her just wanted to give up and die where she lay but she knew she wouldn't die. No, death would be a mercy in this godless place. "That's more like it" the demon sounded almost pleased… and closer. It sickened her.
A claw trailed up her leg drawing blood and she was rolled over; keeping her eyes clamped shut she slowly spread her legs anger filling her with energy screaming at her to move, to fight but she forced herself to stay still. She could hear its clawed hands scrape the rock floor on either side of her head. The monster's weight pressed down on her. She took deep and steadying breaths until she inhaled the demon's foul breath. Her eyes snapped open and her hands flew forward grabbing hold of its horns and with all her strength, and some she imagined she must have borrowed from the Earth god herself, she twisted its head violently around.
There was a muffled snap that she could feel through her hands. The scaly monster slumped on top of her; limp dead weight. She pushed and squirmed her way out from under the large beast but it was no easy task. The thing probably weighed close to four hundred pounds. When she tugged her final foot free, she hastily pulled the key chain off the cord on the demon's belt, which was just a rope that held up its loincloth. One of the three keys unlocked the manacles around her wrists and she tossed them to the floor with an echoing clang of metal against rock. Looking franticly around and listening for any signs that more demons may be coming, she stumbled to her sister's cage.
She stuffed key after key in the lock, her shaky hands betraying her need for haste, but none would work. None would open her sister's cell door. The whole time her sister valiantly tried to calm her down.
"You need to get out of here while you can."
"I'm going to get you out" she promised.
"I'll be ok. If anyone can get out it's you. Not me."
Fear and the desperate urge to flee wrestled against her determination to save her sister. "No." she insisted "I won't leave you. By then she must have tried each key three times to no avail.
"Don't let them catch you, who knows what they'll do to you." She sounded weak and scared.
"Or you!" Nieka fought with her sister's cell door, frustrated beyond sanity that the keys that freed her didn't fit in her sister's locks. All the other prisoners were watching, mostly in silence, some were murmuring, a few shouting, but the sounds were just a din to her ears.
"It's no use, just go. Save yourself. I will be safe." Cinna begged
"I can't leave without you."
"Yes, you can. They won't hurt me, I'm a queen now," she said with revulsion holding her flat belly. "I've known for a few days, I can feel its energy, but I didn't want to leave you. They will move me any day now."
"No," she shouted shaking the bars. This couldn't be happening; her mind just couldn't comprehend it.
"Go, get help. If anyone can do it, you can. I believe in you. Go! Run for help!" this last part she half begged half yelled and Nieka could hear the screeching from down the darkened end of the cave. Her heart almost stopped and her legs froze with fear. "Go!" her sister screamed and shoved her through the bars of her cell.
She didn't think twice, she bolted; calling over her shoulder "I will, I'll save you". It was a promise she prayed she'd live to keep. Running faster than she ever thought her legs could carry her, she could hear the blood pounding in her ears, but she felt nothing but the cool rushing ice of her blood fueling her mussels with adrenaline, so much stronger than blood alone. All the aches and pains throughout her weak and broken body were temporarily forgotten. She ran, up the sloping hall walled on either side by cells. She ran, past the occasional torch dimly lighting the cave walls and casting flickering shadows from the bars over dirty broken people. She ran, towards the guards at the end of the prison, her feet surprisingly steady on the slick cave floor.
The first guard sat bored and unconcerned but the second one had gotten up at the sound of the screeches from behind her. He was ugly and arrogant like most of the demons she'd seen and had a horrifying smile of sharp teeth and greedy yellow eyes. She kept on running not knowing what she'd do when she reached him, how would she get past him when he could clearly see her coming. She pushed on desperately, knowing beyond him was the only sure exit and behind her, more demons roaring their displeasure and pounding the ground with their heavy feet. She didn't look back, but it defiantly sounded like more than two. Her best chance of escape was to keep running forward.