Page 1 of Locked
CHAPTERONE
Zelle
long-hair-dont-care
About the blogger:
I'm twenty-two years young, just about the greenest witch you could ever meet… if youcouldmeet me, that is. I'm locked in a high-rise in the city by the witch who raised me. My parents owed her something or whatever, you know the story, right? She owns me, and while most witches set their wards free when they come of age, Mother must just really like having me around, because here I still am!
I blog about plants. About my cat, Basil. About anything, really.
I'm really nothing special. But I'd like to think all of you are! Let's talk!
Low connectivity, my tablet read, the screen glowing in the darkness of my living room.
"No shit," I muttered, Basil stirring beside me with a soft feline grumble. He rubbed the top of his head against my hip, his yellow eyes opening to gaze up at me.
"Language…" he chastised, before yawning and stretching his legs.
"Wasn't talking to you," I said softly, trying for the billionth time to search for a wi-fi signal that wasn't going to show up.
Narrowing my eyes, I glared at the tablet screen. It wasn't going to work. Mother had it turned off. And I wasn't exactly skilled in network magic, so here I was. All alone, in the dark.
Well, the darkness reallywasof my own choosing. Icouldturn on the light, but the unnatural glare from these bulbs did more harm than good when I couldn't get access to regular sunshine and fresh air. The windows that lined each and every wall of the entire apartment were no help either, all of them were fakes, just mirrors enchanted to give the appearance of outside. And since Mother had turned all of those off too, it was either sit in the dark, or sit in a room and stare at myself.
And judging by the way my hair felt when I ran my fingers through it, I didn'twantto stare at myself. I'd kind of given up on hygiene for the past couple of days. And with hair as long as mine, skipping an opportunity to brush wasn't exactly a possibility.
I inhaled audibly, scratching Basil behind his ears and feeling a warmth flood over me when he started to purr. He was the only one who saw me, anyway. Otherwise I was completely alone up here.
'Here' was the tower. I didn't even know whereabouts in the city I was. The enchanted mirrors changed every week or so, shuffling through random landscapes. It was easy to forget that I was even in a city if I never went out to my sunroom.
And I hadn't gone out there atallfor nearly two weeks.
It was horrible.
I supposed that the entire unfortunate ordeal was technically my fault. Ihadbeen the one to bad-mouth Mother on my blog.
It was stupid of me, really. I knew Mother read through my blog posts in the evenings. Read through the comments, read throughallof it. And I had written nasty things about her before. But I'd always deleted them immediately. It was a kind of catharsis. A release.
I could unleash my venom to the world and then take it back. Unfortunately, this most recent time, I'd fallen asleep soon after unleashing my venom and had forgotten to take it back, leaving the scathing post for Mother and everyone to see.
And she had most definitely seen it.
I wasn't sure of much, but I knew for a fact I would never cross Mother again. Not when she held my very life in her hands.
Well… 'life' was probably too dramatic a term. 'Powers' was a better one. Or maybe even 'energy'. The long and short of it was, I wouldn't die without exposure to the outside, but my powers wouldn't work.
I'd been grounded from both my sunroom and the internet for my little dissension.
I knew which oneshouldhave hurt worse, but I also knew which oneactuallyhurt worse.
I glared at the inactive tablet in my hands, trying to will it to connect tosomething. Even if it was just for a moment. Just long enough for me to tap out three messages.
It was like torture, knowing that Kinden, Rifyr, and Sorrel were probably trying to message me. To ask me where I was. Probably worrying about me.
And there was nothing I could do to let them know I was okay.
I wanted to cry. But that was nearly all I'd done for the past fortnight, and quite frankly, I was tired of it.
