She woke suddenly, a low groan escaping from her lips as she felt the pain traveling throughout her body, the concentration seeming to be in the back of her head. After blinking a few times in an attempt to let her eyesight adjust to the poorly lit room, she grit her teeth in order to avoid crying out as she pushed herself into a sitting position.
The room was small, damp, and truthfully more of a prison cell than a room. The floor was bare, the walls dark, the only light came from a crack in the door. Someone had been nice enough to throw in a crumpled blanket, but apart from that the room was empty. Clearly whoever had brought her there had never heard about treating their prisoners with a shred of respect.
But it could’ve been worse, she could’ve been chained to a rock like Prometheus- forced to spend his days waiting for an eagle to come and eat his liver or banished to the underworld like Tantalus. So in that sense, it wasn’t the worst.
But Zoe knew that her situation was far from being good, and that the longer she was there- the worse off she’d be. Her memories of how she’d come to be there were still fuzzy, but knowing she couldn’t afford to wait around for them to come back she made a decision. She needed to get out of the room, perhaps then she’d be able to find her way out, or at the very least she’d find out what the hell was going on.
Biting down on her lip, she slowly rose to her feet- bracing herself against the wall as she struggled to regain her balance. But after a few minutes, she slowly crept towards the door. And twisting the knob, she quickly slipped into the hallway. Normally the fact that her door was left open would’ve set off some sort of alarm bells, but she wasn’t thinking straight as she slowly crept down the hallway.
The sound of another door opening behind her- sent Zoe into a sort of panic, and unsure what else to do she took off running. Fortunately for her, someone had taken off her shoes meaning her footsteps were fairly silent. Unfortunately, she was too focused on not getting caught that she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going.
After running into the other person she stumbled backwards, her eyes wide as she looked for a possible way out of the situation, or at the very least an excuse as for why she was out of her room. Though- she figured her captors wouldn’t care for excuses. Ultimately she decided to just talk her way out of it, but that’s when she noticed the finger they held to their lips.
The realization that she wasn’t the only captive, although slightly reassuring led to a lot of questions. Mainly- what was going on? But she could figure that out later, because her companion was right- they needed to get out of there. “No,” she spoke quietly, her voice hoarse from lack of use. “My door was open- so I ran,” she explained, her eyes narrowing as she found herself studying the other.
She recognized them, but she didn’t know their name or anything about them. And that meant, he was more of an enemy than an ally. But, still they were her only option so she made the decision to trust them.
an auradon kid in this situation was if you asked soren, a bit like a ball of lead that you had to drag around. and while that might not be the kindest comparison, that didn’t mean it was untrue especially given the complete lack of information they had. soren knew what these kids wanted - or at least they had a fairly good guess: they wanted bait - people that they could use as leverage in negotiations. and unfortunately for soren, as a villain kid there wasn’t many people they figured would care about their life.
the upside to that was that the villain kids might recognize that and let them out - or at very least not lock them away. but an auradon kid getting out? that would be hard to maneouver, but she looked hurt and soren wasn’t entirely sure that they could live with themselves if they didn’t try. especially on the off chance that they had only managed to capture one hostage, why not at least try to undermine their plans?
so they paused for a minute, listening to the background noises as they fell silent as they searched for the words. “we don’t have time to look,” they whispered, feeling guilty for admitting that they would have to move so quickly that they might be leaving behind their classmates. but looking was risky - especially when they could still hear voices from down the hall and it was only a matter of time until someone went out to check on those who were trapped.
“are you familiar with the building?” they asked, eyes turning to her curiously. maybe that could be a plus side to having an auradon kid by their side - she might know how to get around while they more understood who they were up against. but then again, maybe not.
“i saw them, the people who i’m assuming are keeping us here - i know them, well enough,” they continued, trying to stay honest without overstating the relationship they had with the other. and honestly, it was a struggle given that they were still feeling a little woozy. digging the palm of their hand into their wound, they swallowed while gritting their jaw in an effort to be able to move forward. leaning slightly into the hallway, they glanced around luckily not seeing anything.
“we should make a move though,” they offered, knowing that she didn’t have a reason to trust them. not when they were an isle kid among the riots that for all they knew were still going on beyond and she was so obviously frightened. and they had a pretty good idea of who forgot to lock the door, but there was a part of them that didn’t want to throw the other isle kids the bus - a part of them that saw that as betraying their roots. and so they waited, allowing the other to choose the path that they would take.
but they didn’t have long, so soren hoped that the other would make the decision quickly.