74 The Slavers- Part 2

Without so much as a word, both of the girls quickly hid behind the nearby wall, as quietly as they could.

The sound of creaking was soon replaced by the sound of footsteps against wooden flooring. There was a short delay between each step and it sounded like it was getting louder with each one, meaning who ever was in this house was getting closer to them.

Sylvia looked out into the room, poking her head out only enough that she could see. But with a scan of the room, she turned back and shook her head.

That meant it was up to Octavia. So, following the same discreate peering that Sylvia did, she scanned the place.

Dark blue was all that she saw from her vantage point, showing that there was no life in the adjacent room. Looking around further, she saw an area that looked like it was a little brighter than the rest.

It was hard to see, and she couldn't tell what it was, so she quickly whispered to Sylvia, asking her to tell her what she was looking at.

With both heads poking out now, Sylvia relayed that it looked like some stairs. It all of a sudden made sense to her about the short delay in the footsteps. While being this time of night, surely anyone walking around was going to be tired, meaning they would have heavy slow steps. It could also be due to the stairs, someone was practically plodding down them.

The hue that she was seeing slowly started to get brighter as the footsteps got louder, but as soon as they did, they got quieter again, and her vision went back to a dull blue.

"What happened?" she thought to herself.

It sounded like they were coming down the stairs towards them, but all of a sudden, they had just disappeared.

Now unable to hear anything, Octavia slid out, and started making her way over to the stairs.

She glanced around the room, but really just found it to be barren. It pretty much looked like the building had been abandoned. But, if that was the case, why was someone living here?

She got halfway into the room, when the sound of footsteps cropped up again, this time getting louder and louder than before.

Sylvia was still in the same position as before, but Octavia was now just stuck in the middle of the room.

Looking around, she was faced with just darkness. She needed some place to hide. She was too far into the room to head back, so she quickly continued in the direction she was heading, and made it to the nearby wall.

Keeping it on her side, she followed it, moving away from where the stairs were. She felt around, trying to find someplace she could cram herself into or hide behind.

Where eventually, she found a door.

A quick silent jangle of the doorknob told her it was unlocked, so without further ado, she slowly pushed the door open and headed through.

What greeted her was a cold wind hitting her in the face, finding herself outside of the house.

"Crap."

The footsteps were even louder than before, so she couldn't turn back.

A quick scan of the place told her it was empty, and actually empty, as far as she could see. With the moonlight, she could see it was a small square plot of land, and no one was in this area.

She very quickly figured that she was safe. But then in the edge of her vision, she could see light peering from behind her, slipping through the edges of the door.

Whoever was in the house was heading outside as well.

Dashing to the side, she slid along the ground and headed to the first obstacle that she had seen when she scanned the place. A pile of boxes.

There was nothing special about it, aside from it being, thankfully large enough that she could hide her whole body there. So, quickly grabbing her tail, she pressed herself up against the boxes and waited.

…

"Stupid idiots, leaving the lanterns on the floor below. Can't get to the damn privy without heading down the stairs in darkness. Idiots."

Octavia waited in silence, keeping her breathing steady as she heard what sounded like a man, open the door to this outside area, all the while cussing out, what was probably his fellow slavers.

Looking around the boxes, she saw her vision light up with the heat signature of the man. It wasn't helpful, but it did tell her that it was still working correctly, given the failings that it had recently had.

The man quickly moved across the area, holding a lantern as he did. She watched him go and finally saw his destination. He had mentioned it before, but with all the hiding, she hadn't paid attention to it. But, on the far end of the outdoor area was a small hut.

The privy.

The man continued to cuss out the people he was with, even as he shut the door to the privy.

This now left Octavia with an opportunity…but first, she had to check on Sylvia.

Heading back into the house, she couldn't hear any more footsteps. Hopefully, that meant he was the only person in the house, but given what he talked about, that was unlikely.

She headed back the way she came to the best of her abilities and found Sylvia still in the same place.

"Are you okay?"

"Am I okay? He went the same way you did. Are you okay?"

There was a bit of a whispered back and forth after that, but they were able to discern that neither of them were hurt. Then with that out of the way, Octavia told and then enacted her plan.

…

"Woah. Need to lay of the Golash meat…something must have been wrong with the ones that had been hunted."

Octavia had hoped the man would shut up. Standing next to the privy, the smell was bad enough, but she also had to listen to this man complain about everything, and then talk about what had caused him to end up in his current predicament.

She was very tempted to just use her strength to just topple the thing to shut him up, but who knew how much screaming and shouting that could lead to.

So, all she could do was wait for this man to finish his business.

"Finally. Wow, what a mess. I'd hate to be the first one to walk into that in the morning. Ha Ha"

Octavia cringed. This man had to go. Just for the sake of humanity.

Once he had finished…relieving himself, the door opened. The waft that accompanied it nearly made her throw up, but she stayed firm and resolute.

The man stepped out, and next thing he knew, a hand was placed over his mouth and teeth penetrated his neck. He could barely cry out before his body stopped responding, freezing all over.

Then, with an unceremonious push, the man hit the ground, and Sylvia came over.

"You got him, great, now we…oh, oh no. What is that smell?" Sylvia said as she pinched her nose.

Olivia just gave Sylvia a look that said 'Are you kidding me', causing Sylvia to realise there was an obvious answer to that, given where they are.

"What should we do with him?"

"Well, he should stay paralysed for a few hours, given how it affected Roderick. We could just leave him in the privy. I got to him quick enough that he didn't see me, and if anyone comes looking, they will just find him asleep while he was relieving himself."

It was possible he would remember the man handling and the bite, but it should heal up soon and if they left without a trace, then his story would be just that, a story.

With him sorted, they headed into the house, and this time up the stairs. Once on the next floor, things defiantly changed with how the house looked.

They saw clothes strewn about, food in storage, gear and weapons in a few spots. It looked like they left the first floor empty, so anyone looking inside would think it was abandoned and actually lived on the upper floors.

Looking around, they found another staircase up, which is where the man must have come from. In their search, they also found some proof that the people in this house were part of the slaver group.

It wasn't in doubt mind you, but they still needed to prove things. Unfortunately, the evidence they found wasn't enough, that being a box filled with slave collars, as it was possible they had them but didn't use them, or that they were mercenaries or someone similar that had to collar criminals. Either way, they still needed more.

So, before heading off to find the rest, Octavia decided to take a picture of the collars. The only question was, how.

"Is there an on button to this thing?"

"Button, it's a crystal with a metal ring Octavia. Maybe you just hold it and look at the thing you want to capture for others to see."

Taking the crystal in her hand, she stared at the box of collars.

And nothing happened.

"It's broken."

"No, it's-. Maybe it's your…intent. Think about wanting to capture what you are seeing."

This time, she looked back to the collars and thought about keeping record of what she was seeing. She wanted to save the image, relive it…but still nothing happened.

And then she blinked.

And gasped.

It was as if a memory shot the front of her mind. All the focus was on that. It wasn't painful, it just happened so suddenly that it shocked. But as soon as it happened, her eyes opened and things were back to normal.

"Are you okay? What happened."

"I think…I think I did it. Now… how do you see the image again."

Still holding the crystal, it seemed like Sylvia was right and it was the intent that had done it before. Coupled with the blink to actually… take the picture, she guessed. So, with the intent to see what was on the crystal, she blinked again.

And the picture reappeared.

Doing it again, she kept her eyes closed for longer, and the image stayed there for as long as her eyes were shut.

Wanting to make sure it didn't just work for her, she handed it over to Sylvia and gave her the same instruction to will the images on the crystal in to bring, so she could see it. Then, like what happened to her, when Sylvia shut her eyes, she gasped at the sight and almost fell over.

Octavia, had thankfully readied herself in case that happened, and so was able to catch her on time.

"Wow, that's just. Wow."

Sylvia was mighty impressed, but for Octavia, growing up with a camera on her phone. It didn't grab her the same way. But, the good news that came from this was that it worked as intended. Now they just needed more evidence.

…

On the move again, they headed upstairs to see where the man had come from. Given he had come from there, they were extra careful with how they moved. It's possible the rest of the slavers had been on the top floor with him.

Things were fine as the made there way up. But once they reached the top, they found an open plan area filled with people.

It would have been great if these were the slaves. But no…it was the slavers.

Eight of them to be exact.

All sleeping in small beds.

Neither said anything, but they both needed to get out of there. Now.

So, with a quick snap of the camera crystal at all the slavers, they turned around and very slowly made an exit.

*creak*

Only for the two of them to freeze yet again as a creak was heard.

Only this time, the creak had been caused by Sylvia's foot stepping on one of the wooden floorboards.